I am primarily a casual Magic: The Gathering player. The great majority of my games are played with my sons at home. We do love our pre-releases but only play a few games a year at the LGS beyond those, especially since North of Exile closed. As I’ve noted in the past, our family Magic games have slowed down as the boys get older and start to establish their own lives.

We most frequently play Commander at home as you may have gathered from many past posts. It’s always been somewhat awkward playing with only three of us but it gets even more challenging when there are only two of us up for a game. Case in point: A recent family trip.

But it does appear that I may have discovered the solution; one that does not require us to move to a completely different format. Have you heard of Duel Commander? It’s a two-player version of EDH where you play with 100 cards, including your Commander and 99 different cards that share the same colour identity. Sounds like Commander, right? Well, there are some differences focused on improving the game for a two-player format. For example:

• The game has its own curated ban list managed by the format’s community
• You have two win two of three games for the match win
• You can swap your commander with another as long as it is already in your deck
• There are no sideboards.

About that ban list: A number of cards are banned as Commanders only. For example, you can have Arahbo, Roar of the World, Edgar Markov or Winota, Joiner of Forces in your deck but none can be your Commander (There goes my Arahbo deck unless I modify it for another cat).

As with other two-player Magic formats, Duel Commander does not rely on politics and negotiations for you to win the game. Much as in other two-player formats, your deck either has it or it does not – no amount of wheeling and dealing is going to save you here. Whether that’s a plus or a minus is up to you to decide.

Duel Commander has been around for some time. Early versions date back to the early 2000s and the Duel Commander Rules Committee (all volunteers) was established in 2007. It has since then overseen the format, providing regular updates, including the bans as needed. The format may not be somewhat obscure but it is actively supported with the last update coming as recently as January 2025 with regular updates being announced every two months or more frequently if needed.

As far as events, I did not find many but if you’re in France in May, you may want to check out the Team Duel Commander French Cup (Coupe De France Duel Commander en Equipe). It takes place in Saint Aunès, France (near Montpellier) from May 31st to June 1st.

I’ve shared details about Duel Commander with the boys and we are looking at trying it out. The main concern right now seems to be avoiding building more decks as this household is already over-run with regular Commander decks. Given that most of our decks should work as they are, I expect that this will be how our first games will go. If it works and we want to play more, I expect that our competitive spirits will push us to look at decks more optimized to this two-player format.

Lastly, if Two-Headed Giant is your jam, they have rules about how to play it as a non-sanctioned variant. And for those playing online, Duel Commander is officially supported on MTGO (Note: I don’t play MTGO at this time).

More information: Duel Commander official site