The Circulation of the Elite (In ‘Magic: The Gathering’)

Oh no, not more nerd shit!

Yes, I am back with another article about nerd stuff. This time it’s not about Games Workshop and Warhammer 40,000, but the other malignant behemoth, Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of Hasbro) and their product Magic: The Gathering. September 30th marked a pivotal moment in the storied history of Magic, one that serves as a clear demonstration of the principles of elite theory in action.

The game of Magic has existed since 1993. Magic is the quintessential trading card game, and since its inception the game has accumulated a vast range of different play structures. These meta-structures are known as “formats” and primarily involve rules around the quantity of cards in a deck. As early as 1996, players created their own format, Elder Dragon Highlander, which differed substantially from the standard formats. Almost a decade later, the EDH format was more or less formalized by a Rules Committee (RC) of expert Magic tournament judges, who created a website with the rules published. EDH eventually became known as Commander, hence the name of the site: MTGCommander.net.

I say “more or less” because although the vast majority of players accept the version of Commander as outlined and controlled by the RC, the select few individuals controlling the format have always run it more like a set of guidelines rather than actual rules. For example, the website has long read: “The following is the official banned list for [C]ommander games. These cards are not legal without prior agreement from the other players in the game, and may steer your playgroup to avoid other, similar cards.” For the purposes of stable and sociable play, however, most people adhere strictly to the official rules; additionally, high-level judges such as those who formed the RC are highly respected for their incredible expertise in every single minute aspect of the game and the bespoke interactions known to result from some of its rules. Formally, these people on the RC were simply members of a “community” shepherding a “community” format that was not owned by the corporation who printed Magic: The Gathering cards, but was instead like a public intellectual good that belonged to everyone with no enforceable central authority.

Understanders of elite theory will likely at this point see where this is going. Power must coordinate, and organized minorities will always trump the unorganized majority. Wizards of the Coast in 2011 began printing directly into the Commander format with preconstructed decks (precons) of 100 cards that were tailored to Commander’s unique rules. Over the next several years, this play format exploded, going from a niche, casual format to one of Wizards’s biggest moneymakers. Commander is now a staple of the game at the same level as the ubiquitous Standard and Modern formats.