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It’s Over 9000 (But Also Completely Meaningless)

Why Commander Power Levels Are Just Dragon Ball Scouters for Magic Players

Tonight I played a deck that, on paper, was a bracket 3 — nothing fancy, supposedly mid-tier. But I was told it plays like a 1. And on the old-school 1–10 Commander scale? Apparently it’s a 5.

So which is it? A 3 that’s actually a 1 that’s secretly a 5?

That’s when it hit me: Commander power levels are the Dragon Ball Z scouters of Magic — they sound scientific, but the moment anyone attacks, they explode.

Remember how early DBZ made a big deal about power levels? “This one’s 4000, that one’s 9000!” And then five episodes later, Goku sneezes and the scouter fries itself. Toriyama’s point was simple: trying to measure chaos with a number is ridiculous.

Commander’s the same way.

You can label a deck “a 6 casual” or “a 9 tuned-but-fair,” but the second the game starts, variance, politics, and sheer nonsense take over. The “power 3” deck can rip a nut draw and go Super Saiyan. The “power 9” deck can miss land drops and die to a Goblin Bombardment.

And that’s the joke — power levels only matter until someone starts playing.

We all like to pretend there’s a consistent scale, but this format runs on chaos energy and table politics. It’s why the “weak” decks steal wins, and the “optimized” ones sometimes flail. Commander doesn’t care about your spreadsheet; it cares about your moment.

So sure, call your deck a 3, a 5, or even “over 9000.” Just know those numbers don’t mean anything once the cards hit the table.

Every Commander deck is over 9000... until it whiffs on its land drops.

 

T.A.

 

Oh here is the deck: 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
1 Alpha Brawl
1 Angelic Gift
1 Aqueous Form
1 Argentum Armor
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Azorius Signet
1 Beacon of Tomorrows
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Boros Signet
1 Caldera Lake
1 Cancel
1 Cascading Cataracts
1 Clone Legion
1 Coastal Tower
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Deploy to the Front
1 Dissipation Field
1 Divert
1 Dream Cache
1 Dreamstone Hedron
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Emergence Zone
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Evacuation
1 Farewell
1 Fated Retribution
1 Fire Diamond
1 Fool's Demise
1 Frantic Search
1 Gift of Immortality
1 Haunted Cloak
1 Indestructibility
1 Inundate
7 Island
1 Island Sanctuary
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Izzet Signet
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Marble Diamond
1 Mind's Desire
5 Mountain
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
6 Plains
1 Prairie Stream
1 Propaganda
1 Relentless Assault
1 Repeal
1 Reverse the Sands
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Scabland
1 Sejiri Refuge
1 Serum Visions
1 Shatterstorm
1 Shivan Reef
1 Sky Diamond
1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Smoke
1 Sol Ring
1 Spectra Ward
1 Spelltwine
1 Sphere of the Suns
1 Stasis Snare
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Storm Herd
1 Stranglehold
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Telepathy
1 Temple of the False God
1 Temporal Fissure
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Vance's Blasting Cannons
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
1 World at War

1 Narset, Enlightened Master 

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