Header Image: Palinchron, Illus. Matthew D. Wilson

Time to cast your vote!

Squirrel NestSquirrel Nest is not a Game Changer. Neither is EarthcraftEarthcraft.

But what happens when both these cards are present in a Commander deck?

One of the classic two-card infinite combos, Squirel Nest + Earthcraft is easy to assemble (outside of the financial cost of one of those two cards, of course), can be added to any green deck, and can almost instantly win any game. How do you assess your deck's bracket in this case?

That's for us to find out, with the Commander Bracket Combo Vote.

EDHREC is introducing today a way for the Commander community to work together to determine what effect two-card combos have on your deck's bracket placement.

Everyone's invited to head over here and start participating.

How does it work?

Utilizing combo data from EDHREC's sister site Commander Spellbook, voters are presented with a two-card combo and are asked three questions:

• Can this combo be reasonably executed in the first six or so turns?
• Are the prerequisites (ignoring mana) easy enough that you'd still call this a two-card combo?
• Is it easy to leverage this combo into a win?

Based on the data acquired through the vote, EDHREC will be able to display on the site which brackets the community thinks these individual combos might fit, as well as give a more accurate bracket estimate for decks on Archidekt.

Each question is designed to assess how impactful each of these combos are in an average game of Commander, as there currently is no "official list" related to brackets for two-card infinite (or near-infinite) combos.

The data generated by the voting also won't be "official," but it will be made available to members of the Commander Format Panel as they continue to tweak the Bracket System for widespread use in the community.

Ultimately, the voting will help identify in which bracket players might expect to find individual two-card combos, therefore allowing them to make more informed decisions when assessing their own deck's bracket.

On the voting page, each voter will be presented with a two-card combo as identified by Commander Spellbook.

They'll be asked to assess the combo using the above three questions with either a "yes," indicating that they agree with the question in relation to the combo, or "no," indicating that they do not agree.

Based on the voter's answers, they'll be presented with an opportunity to submit a vote for the lowest-powered bracket in which the combo is safe to play.

When can I vote?

Voting will be live from Wednesday, March 19 through Sunday, March 23.

How will it help?

For a quick refresher into the methodology of the Bracket System, this article from Wizards of the Coast's Gavin Verhey will get you up to speed. In short, however, every Commander deck will fit into one of five brackets based on a number of criteria related to that deck's power level, card inclusions and intent.

The "Exhibition" Bracket, or Bracket 1, contains decks that "just focus on fun" and are usually based on a theme — in other words, "ultra-casual." Next up is Core, or "the average current preconstructed deck," followed by "Upgraded" and "Optimized."

According to Verhey and other Commander Format Panel (CFP) members, most decks fall into those two latter categories. Lastly, there's the "cEDH" Bracket, which is exactly what it says on the tin.

Commander Spellbook is host to more than 40,000 combos, including dozens of clear two-card combos.

However, many of these combos fall into a bit of a "gray area" due to either the prerequisites required to initiate their effect, or the effect itself possibly not being game-ending on its own. That's covered in the latter two questions with which voters will be prompted.

As for the first question, Verhey defines in the above article "early game" as in the first six-or-so turns, which is why the question is worded in this way.

If a two-card combo can be reasonably executed in the early game, that has relevance when determining which bracket a deck might belong to.

This week's voting is just an initial run, followed by persistent voting of two-card combos continually present on the "Combos" tab on EDHREC.

While the Commander Bracket Combo Vote bears a lot of similarity to EDHREC's annual Salt Score voting, you won't have to wait for voting to open once a year to have your say.

Because of this, combos created by newly released cards can be assessed for their bracket placement much more quickly.

And if due to a two-card combo in your deck you've been placed in Bracket 4, for example, you'll be able to express your opinion via voting if you feel like that's not quite right.

Where will the data go?

The information generated from the Commander Bracket Combo Vote will be used in a variety of ways, but first and foremost it'll be available for public viewing on EDHREC in the weeks following the end of the initial voting period.

The primary goal behind the Commander Bracket Combo Vote is to provide players with more tools with which to assess their decks through the lens of the Bracket System.

To that end, deck-building site Archidekt will also be provided the data to allow the site to provide a more accurate estimate of a deck's bracket.

White the Commander Bracket Combo Vote is not conducted in association with Wizards of the Coast, the data generated by the voting, like everything else on EDHREC, is thanks purely to the community at-large.

And since it's community-generated data about Commander, it's possible that the two-card combo data may impact the Bracket System in an official capacity in the future.

What's next?

Nothing! Other than voting, that is. Let's get to it!

The Commander Bracket Combo Vote is now live, and the only thing left to do is lend your Commander expertise to it.

As always, thanks for reading, and happy voting!

Nick Wolf

Nick Wolf is a freelance writer, editor, and photographer based in Michigan. He has over a decade of newsmedia experience and has been a fan of Magic: The Gathering since Tempest.