Brackets are Wizards of the Coast’s way of describing how strong a Commander deck is, so a table can agree what kind of game it wants before shuffling up. Icarian works out a bracket for each of your decks and shows it on the deck’s banner.
The five brackets
| Bracket | Name | In short |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exhibition | Theme over winning. Creative showcases and experimental builds. |
| 2 | Core | Unoptimized, precon-equivalent power level. Social and casual. |
| 3 | Upgraded | Strong synergy and focused strategies. The most common bracket. |
| 4 | Optimized | Fast, lethal, and competitive. Optimized for winning. |
| 5 | cEDH | Competitive EDH. Requires metagame knowledge beyond card composition. |
How Icarian works it out
Icarian looks at your commanders and the 99 for three things:
- Game Changers, the cards on Wizards’ Game Changers list
- Extra turns
- Mass land denial
Then:
- Four or more Game Changers, or any mass land denial: Bracket 4
- One to three Game Changers, or three or more extra-turn cards: Bracket 3
- No Game Changers and one or two extra-turn cards: Bracket 2
- No Game Changers and no extra turns: Bracket 1
A combo the deck holds raises it to that combo’s own bracket. Icarian checks your list against every Commander-legal combo on Commander Spellbook, so a fast two-card infinite makes it Bracket 4.
Icarian never calculates Bracket 5; competitive decks are about the metagame, not just the cards. Tutors aren’t counted, so if your deck has a lot of them, it may belong a bracket higher than Icarian shows. Use your judgment and talk to your table.
Combos
When a deck holds a combo, its page shows a combos chip beside the bracket; tap it to open Combos. The deck’s owner can also open it from Tools → Combos. In this deck lists the combos your deck holds, the same ones the bracket counts, each with what it produces and a link to its steps on Commander Spellbook. Combos that also need a card Icarian can’t check are listed under them but not counted.
You also see One card away: cards in your commander’s colors that would complete a combo with cards already in the deck. Each shows whether you own it, and Add to Considering puts it in your Considering list. Only you see these. Visitors to a published deck see the combos it holds.
A deck needs a commander before it gets a bracket. Until the deck has 100 cards, its bracket says provisional, since adding cards can change it.
The Bracket breakdown
Click the bracket chip on your deck’s banner (or Tools → Bracket breakdown) to see why the deck landed where it did:
- How confident the calculation is
- What sets it: the Game Changers, extra turns and mass land denial in the deck, with each card
- The deck’s card count, lands and average mana value
Only you see the breakdown. Visitors see the bracket chip as plain text.
Setting your own bracket
If your playgroup sees the deck differently, pick a bracket under Disagree? Your playgroup knows best. at the bottom of the breakdown. Your choice replaces the calculated one everywhere:
- On your deck, the chip says set by you
- Visitors see set manually, so they know it isn’t Icarian’s calculation
Choose Use the calculated bracket to go back.
Learn more
- Commander format and brackets on Wizards of the Coast’s site
- Wizards’ bracket updates: April 2025, October 2025, February 2026
- Commander Format