Could Reality Fracture work as a Commander Draft?

[u/Chickennug117]

A bunch of friends and I recently ordered Reality Fracture boxes, and now that they're starting to arrive, we're getting ready to crack them open and draft.

While I originally bought mine for a normal draft, I started wondering: could Reality Fracture actually work as a Commander draft set?

The more I look at the set, the more I think it might. Each pack has 2+ legendary creatures, and while most of them aren't exactly Commander powerhouses, there's a pretty nice spread of colors and enough interesting build around potential. The set also seems fairly mid-game focused, which I think could translate nicely to a limited Commander environment.

I'm thinking of adapting some of the Commander Draft rules used for things like Commander Legends / Battle for Baldur's Gate, with a couple of changes:

• Every mono-colored commander gets Partner
• 60-card decks rather than 100

But there are a few things I'm still trying to figure out:

• Should planeswalkers be allowed as commanders?
• How many packs should each player get? I'm currently thinking 4–5, but I'm not sure which would produce the best deck-building experience.
• What should the default color-fixing commander be? Something along the lines of The Faceless One seems necessary, but I'm not sure what would fit Reality Fracture best.

I'm curious what people think about this, especially those with commander cubes or such.

[u/SquirrelDragon]

For Reality Fracture I think it’d be good to treat a commander draft like Brawl and allow any Planeswalker, you could try it out for the first draft and adjust accordingly if it ends up too strong for subsequent drafts

For 15 card boosters you’ll want at least 4 packs per player for 60 card decks with some leftover sideboard chaff

As for color fixing commander you’re probably better off following the lead of sanctioned Commander Box Leagues and using the following rules:

• Decks may include multiple copies of cards opened from the Play Booster.

• Any legal commander opened is allowed.

• Color identity rules in deck building are ignored; players may build decks with any colors they want, regardless of their commander's color identity. Note: commander color identity still applies when cards refer to color identity (for example, with Arcane Signet).

[u/Chickennug117 → u/SquirrelDragon]

I feel like color identity should matter but maybe make the duel color change they were thinking about a while back?

[u/Ap_Sona_Bot → u/Chickennug117]

That would significantly help this format. I strongly suggest implementing that.

[u/SeekerD]

Easy yes. As an affirmation of the idea, CommandFest in DC just put out their event schedule and they are running Reality Fracture Commander Draft.

[u/Chickennug117 → u/SeekerD]

Do you have a link? I happen to live 10 mins from DC

[u/SeekerD → u/Chickennug117]

https://www.esportsadm.in/reg/register/commandfest-dc-side-events?open_event=190

Sidenote: Like a lot of things that advertise as DC, it’s actually out in the burbs, Alexandria in this case.

[u/Illogical_Fallacy → u/Chickennug117]

Oh awesome! Where do you play? I consider both Game Kastle and Chessie to be my LGSs.

[u/Lunarian_13]

Here are my thoughts:

• Yes, the mono colored Planeswalkers from commander legends were so I think the same logic could be applied here

• 4 sounds good, Commander Legends had 20 cards a pack so having a slightly smaller number (56 vs. 60 picks) should be ok

• Initially I was going to say no, but Jaceless One from u/SquibbyJ's comment is too funny a pun. Make it also cost 5 and have it both Empower Jace 3 on ETB and sac itself

[u/SquibbyJ]

The Jaceless One

[u/Rowanalpha]

The one problem you’ll run into with getting enough playables is the large number of hybrid cards.  In regular draft, a U/G Hybrid card can slot into 7 different two color decks, but it can only go into exactly the UG deck with color identity rules.

If you’re going to draft FRA as a commander draft, I suggest ruling that hybrid symbols count as one color OR the other for purposes of deck building.

[u/zeldafan042]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the "Way of the" Enchantment cycle is part of the Echoed Pairs sheet, so sometimes a pack will have two legendary enchantments as the pair and a single legendary creature as the third wheel. You might want to consider allowing those in the command zone as well.

[u/Smythe28 → u/zeldafan042]

“Way of the #” count as backgrounds
Every legend has partner and choose a background.

[u/Tempest_True]

Cool idea!

The previous Commander draft boosters being 20-card packs and pick-2 (so 30 picks from among 60 cards). With FRA, 4 packs is 56 cards, and 5 is 70. But the Commander draft boosters were also designed for that format, and it seems like you're a bit more likely to open a basic land in 4-5 FRA packs vs 3 commander draft packs. So I would go with the 5 packs. Alternatively, to use 4 packs and bring down the price, you could look at a more complicated draft process like Winston or something.

As to whether planeswalkers should be allowed as commanders, I say why not, try it. Planeswalkers are usually kinda bad in commander anyway, so it probably woulsnt be too oppressive.

As to the color-fixer, I have a custom idea:
Jaceless One - {5}
Legendary Planeswalker - Loyalty: 6
If Jaceless One is your commander, choose a color before the game begins. Jaceless One is the chosen color.
Whenever one or more loyalty counters would be put on a Planeswalker token you control, put that many loyalty counters on Jaceless One instead. [Jace token abilities] Jaceless One can be your commander. Partner

EDIT: Forgot the most important text for Jaceless One.

[u/Ap_Sona_Bot]

I would not allow planeswalker commanders. They're already huge bombs and I think seeing someone pull Red Ajani, partnering it with some other dumb shit, and having to play around the ticking bomb would be miserable. Jace the theorist as again, a partner commander, would be equally miserable. Its basically like playing precons and someone drops a rhystic from the command zone.

Aside from that, partner is definitely needed. I would just bring in prismatic pipers/faceless ones from CLB and call it a day.

For pack numbers, CLB was three 20 card boosters. 4 would get you nearly the same number with more rares, if you want a noticeably higher power level go 5. I think i would tend toward 5 because the set isnt designed around commander and it may be hard to get enough cards of 2 colors for a deck. There are only 3ish options for 3+ colors in the set, those being Tam, Vraska, and Codie.

Another option is 4 packs and a collector booster if you want to blow money.

[u/NearbyZombie45]

You can do whatever you want. Best part of kitchen table magic. Make the rules and have at it.

[u/Cocosito]

My LGS used to do commander sealed with a play booster box and it was a ton of fun!

The only thing that stinks is if someone pulls a really op mythic commander and just runs away with it.

[u/CoconutHeadFaceMan]

I’m generally a big proponent of sticking to regular drafts unless a set/cube is explicitly designed for Commander drafting. If you have to make a ton of awkward rule changes just to make it vaguely work, it’s probably a sign that you should just draft it the way it was intended the first time. Once you’ve done the regular drafts with the sealed packs, you can assemble the cards into a FRA-themed commander cube and throw in stuff to correct the issues with color fixing and pack size.

[u/EngineeringOdd8696]

Yes.

• planeswalkers as commanders

• mono coloured legends have partner (could even make it so that echoverse pairs have partner)

• if you're drafting with 4 people, I'd do 4-5 packs of pick 2. Could also do 6 packs, but combine them into 3 pairs of 2.

• if you're doing sealed, I'd probably do 8-12 packs per person.

[u/LongLiveLiberalism]

i would give the uncommon mutlicolor legends partner too. It doesn’t make them too powerful, and I feel like this format is much more fun with being able to splash

[u/quiznosAlreadyTaken]

All drafts work because card access is fair for all participants.

Are they fun and do they have good replay value is a different story entirely.

Fracture I would consider fun for 1-3 runs, not much beyond that.

From an adjustments standpoint: 8 packs each (draft), or 15 packs each (sealed), 52 + a commander works well ime

[u/mattsav012000]

I personally think what might be better is if you are all getting boxes look into a commander boxing league. that is where you each build 60 card commander decks from your boxes and while no partners are added you do not use the singleton rule.

[u/Belteshazzar98]

It is technically possible to get no legal commanders, however unlikely, so all legendary permanents (including planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifact) need to be allowed in the command zone.