In a recent post about an update to the Commander Brakcets System, Gavin Verhey revealed that WOTC is considering unifying the function of Hybrid Mana with the other Magic formats. In a usual Magic deck, you can play a card with a hybrid symbol in any deck capable of generating mana for one or more of it's colors. For example, you can play Kitchen Finks in both a Gruul deck or a Orzhov deck in addition to a Selesnya Deck. This flexibility makes hybrid a fascinating mechanic for deckbuilding, as it allows hybrid cards to be played in a wide variety of decks. In Commander, Hybrid mana does not work this way. Hybrid cards are treated as being both colors in Commander, meaning that a card like Kitchen Finks is locked into decks that contain both colors. The proposed rules change would allow Hybrid Mana to function the way it was orignally designed to in Commander, breaking a nearly 20 year streak of the mechanic not working properly in the format.
The response of the Commander community has been... interesting, to say the least.
Non-dramaticiszed footage of a large portion of the Commander community following the Hybrid Mana Rules Consideration announcement.
Commander players, in general, have seemed very opposed to this change. The backlash from a vocal segment of Commander players largely comes down to tradition, philosophy, and fear of homogenization. Some arguments include:
“Color identity is sacred.”
The Commander format is built around color restrictions — it’s one of its defining pillars. Many players see color identity as a kind of moral law of the format: you pick your commander, you live with the limitations. To them, hybrid mana loosening those boundaries undermines what makes Commander special. While the rules change is unlikely to more damage than the current rule has, some still fear it's consequnces.
“Hybrid cards are actually both colors.”
The current rule treats a card with a hybrid mana symbol as if it’s all of its colors when it's on the stack or the battlefield, and opponents of the change argue that this interpretation is both logically consistent and part of what gives the format structure. To them, changing it would rewrite the basic grammar of color in magic rather than making color identity consistent with normal deckbuilding.
“It’ll homogenize decks.”
A major concern is that letting hybrid cards slip into mono-color decks will blur the lines between color philosophies. Why build around white’s weaknesses if your mono-white deck can just jam a bunch of
lifegain cards? These players fear that flexibility equals sameness — the “everyone gets everything” problem.
“It’s confusing for new players.”
Some worry that having to explain why hybrid cards sometimes follow one rule and sometimes another will make the format harder to understand. Ironically, this is a case where they’re arguing against confusion while defending the more confusing version of the rule.
Why These Fears are Overblown and Why Unification Should Happen
But here’s the thing: all of those arguments miss the point. The current rule isn’t protecting the format’s identity — it’s misrepresenting how Magic’s own design language works. Hybrid mana was literally created to represent “either/or” costs. When you play Kitchen Finks, you’re able to pay either or in addition to both. Every other Magic format, from Standard to Modern to Limited, treats hybrid mana this way. Commander’s hybrid rule has never reflected how hybrid was actually designed to function. From a design perspective hybrid mana represents “either/or,” not “both/and,” a fact Mark Rosewater has been stating since Shadowmoor. The mechanic was intended to expand creative deckbuilding, not restrict it. Commander is the only format that redefines it as “and.” That inconsistency has caused confusion for years, especially for new players coming from other formats who suddenly have to unlearn what hybrid mana “means” just to build a deck.
And the confusion doesn’t stop in Commander. From a design standpoint, the Commander rule is a 20-year-old quirk, a band-aid from when the format was homebrewed and not deeply integrated with R&D. Now that Commander is the primary way most people play Magic, maintaining an inconsistent rule for one casual format actively harms clarity and accessibility across the game. Hybrid mana being treated differently in EDH versus every other format creates a bizarre ripple effect in Cube design. Hybrid cards are some of the most flexible tools for balancing archetypes and color pairs in Cube — except now, many designers and players perceive Hybrid cards as gold cards. Hybrid cards do not serve the same deckbuilding function gold cards, yet the Commander color identity rule has trained designers to think of the two as one in the same. As a result, many designers haven't unlocked the full potential of Hybrid cards in their Cubes. However, this issue doesn't just extend to Cube designers: it also extends to WOTC. Hybrid Mana, as a tool, has been underutilized for the past several years, in no small part because printing new Hybrids would essentially act as printing a bunch of gold cards for Commander. Given Design's focus on Commander in the 2020-2024 era, Cube designers have experienced a relative drought of Hybrid cards. Although some changes at lower rarities (mainly the introduction of common Hybrid cycles in sets like Bloomburrow), the exploration of Hybrid design space has been largely stunted, in no small part due to Commander.
Unifying hybrid mana across all formats would once again make the mechanic function as intended. It would make teaching Magic simpler, designing Cubes smoother, and deckbuilding more intuitive. Commander can still keep its color identity flavor — but that flavor shouldn’t come at the cost of consistency and clarity for other formats.
The response of the Commander community has been... interesting, to say the least.
Non-dramaticiszed footage of a large portion of the Commander community following the Hybrid Mana Rules Consideration announcement.
Commander players, in general, have seemed very opposed to this change. The backlash from a vocal segment of Commander players largely comes down to tradition, philosophy, and fear of homogenization. Some arguments include:
“Color identity is sacred.”
The Commander format is built around color restrictions — it’s one of its defining pillars. Many players see color identity as a kind of moral law of the format: you pick your commander, you live with the limitations. To them, hybrid mana loosening those boundaries undermines what makes Commander special. While the rules change is unlikely to more damage than the current rule has, some still fear it's consequnces.
“Hybrid cards are actually both colors.”
The current rule treats a card with a hybrid mana symbol as if it’s all of its colors when it's on the stack or the battlefield, and opponents of the change argue that this interpretation is both logically consistent and part of what gives the format structure. To them, changing it would rewrite the basic grammar of color in magic rather than making color identity consistent with normal deckbuilding.
“It’ll homogenize decks.”
A major concern is that letting hybrid cards slip into mono-color decks will blur the lines between color philosophies. Why build around white’s weaknesses if your mono-white deck can just jam a bunch of
lifegain cards? These players fear that flexibility equals sameness — the “everyone gets everything” problem.“It’s confusing for new players.”
Some worry that having to explain why hybrid cards sometimes follow one rule and sometimes another will make the format harder to understand. Ironically, this is a case where they’re arguing against confusion while defending the more confusing version of the rule.
Why These Fears are Overblown and Why Unification Should Happen
But here’s the thing: all of those arguments miss the point. The current rule isn’t protecting the format’s identity — it’s misrepresenting how Magic’s own design language works. Hybrid mana was literally created to represent “either/or” costs. When you play Kitchen Finks, you’re able to pay either
or in addition to both. Every other Magic format, from Standard to Modern to Limited, treats hybrid mana this way. Commander’s hybrid rule has never reflected how hybrid was actually designed to function. From a design perspective hybrid mana represents “either/or,” not “both/and,” a fact Mark Rosewater has been stating since Shadowmoor. The mechanic was intended to expand creative deckbuilding, not restrict it. Commander is the only format that redefines it as “and.” That inconsistency has caused confusion for years, especially for new players coming from other formats who suddenly have to unlearn what hybrid mana “means” just to build a deck.And the confusion doesn’t stop in Commander. From a design standpoint, the Commander rule is a 20-year-old quirk, a band-aid from when the format was homebrewed and not deeply integrated with R&D. Now that Commander is the primary way most people play Magic, maintaining an inconsistent rule for one casual format actively harms clarity and accessibility across the game. Hybrid mana being treated differently in EDH versus every other format creates a bizarre ripple effect in Cube design. Hybrid cards are some of the most flexible tools for balancing archetypes and color pairs in Cube — except now, many designers and players perceive Hybrid cards as gold cards. Hybrid cards do not serve the same deckbuilding function gold cards, yet the Commander color identity rule has trained designers to think of the two as one in the same. As a result, many designers haven't unlocked the full potential of Hybrid cards in their Cubes. However, this issue doesn't just extend to Cube designers: it also extends to WOTC. Hybrid Mana, as a tool, has been underutilized for the past several years, in no small part because printing new Hybrids would essentially act as printing a bunch of gold cards for Commander. Given Design's focus on Commander in the 2020-2024 era, Cube designers have experienced a relative drought of Hybrid cards. Although some changes at lower rarities (mainly the introduction of common Hybrid cycles in sets like Bloomburrow), the exploration of Hybrid design space has been largely stunted, in no small part due to Commander.
Unifying hybrid mana across all formats would once again make the mechanic function as intended. It would make teaching Magic simpler, designing Cubes smoother, and deckbuilding more intuitive. Commander can still keep its color identity flavor — but that flavor shouldn’t come at the cost of consistency and clarity for other formats.
