Magic: The Gathering Bracket Checker & Calculator
Paste any Commander decklist and get an instant, rigorous analysis — combos, tutors, fast mana, official WotC bracket, and a 1–10 power score.
Instant Analysis
Scryfall-powered card lookup with batch fetching.
WotC Bracket 1–5
Official Game Changer flags and fast mana detection.
Infinite Combo Detection
Automatically scans your list for two-card infinites and known game-ending combos.
Salt Score
Know how annoying your deck is before sitting down at the table.
Official WotC Precons
Precon Deck Lists
What's new
From Updates
What Is EDHcheck? The Free MTG Commander Bracket Checker & Deck Analyzer
EDHcheck is a free MTG Commander deck analyzer and bracket checker. Paste any EDH decklist to get your WotC bracket, a 1-10 power level, and every combo.
Deck Tester Is Live — Goldfish Your Deck on a Full Playtest Board
Draw opening hands, then play them out on a free-form playmat with drag & drop, right-click actions, tokens, counters, and keyboard shortcuts — no opponent needed.
Land Database Is Live — Every MTG Land Type, Filterable
Browse every Magic land archetype in one place — fetch lands, shock lands, original duals, check lands, and 20+ more — filtered by color, speed, format, and budget. Sourced live from Scryfall.
Mana Base Analysis Is Live — Cast Rates, Curve & Smart Upgrades
Paste or import a decklist and get cast-rate probabilities, a tipping-point turn, a full land-type breakdown, and budget-aware upgrade suggestions pulled from real cards in your colors.
Open MTG Boosters for Free — Pack Simulator Is Live
Crack any Magic: The Gathering booster pack right in your browser. Real card pools from Scryfall, live prices, holographic shimmer on foils, and full session stats. Marvel Super Heroes loads by default.
Commander Deck Bracket Calculator and Analysis
EDHcheck helps Magic: The Gathering Commander players benchmark decks before game night. Use it as a deck bracket calculator to compare your list against current bracket expectations, then review power score signals like combo density, tutor pressure, ramp speed, and salt impact.
Whether you are tuning a casual pod deck, upgrading a precon, or testing a high-power strategy, this MTG deck analysis workflow gives you a fast, consistent read on deck strength and game texture. Share results with your pod to align expectations — or run every deck at the table through the pod checker to see how they line up against each other.
Official WotC Commander Brackets (Beta)
What The Brackets Are For
Wizards of the Coast describes Commander Brackets as a matchmaking language for real tables, not a replacement for Rule Zero. The goal is to help players quickly align on expected game texture before turn one, especially in stores, events, and pick-up pods. Instead of vague "power 7" discussions, the bracket model anchors conversations around deck intent: pace, interaction, finish speed, and social expectations. This matters because decks with similar card quality can still produce very different game experiences. In practice, brackets work best when players use them honestly as a starting point and still make table-level adjustments when needed.
The Five Brackets In Plain Language
- Bracket 1: Exhibition - ultra-casual, theme-first decks where expression matters more than speed or optimization.
- Bracket 2: Core - close to average modern precon gameplay, with splashy turns but a generally social pace.
- Bracket 3: Upgraded - tuned beyond precon level, tighter construction, and selective access to stronger tools.
- Bracket 4: Optimized - high-power Commander where efficient tutors, explosive starts, and compact wins are expected.
- Bracket 5: cEDH - competitive, metagame-focused Commander with tournament-style deck building and play decisions.
Deckbuilding Guardrails In The Beta
The official beta guidance repeatedly calls out Game Changers, intentional two-card infinite combos, extra-turn chaining, tutor density, and mass land denial as key separators between social and high-power environments. Brackets 1-2 avoid Game Changers, while Bracket 3 allows a small number. Brackets 1-3 are also where restrictions are tightest around oppressive game patterns, with mass land denial explicitly discouraged for those levels. Brackets 4-5 remove these additional deckbuilding constraints beyond the banned list. The practical message is simple: these brackets are less about judging players and more about giving everyone cleaner pregame expectations.
How EDHcheck Uses Official Rules + Scryfall + Commander Spellbook
EDHcheck combines official Commander Brackets guidance, card-level data from Scryfall, and known combo patterns from Commander Spellbook to estimate both EDH power level and likely bracket. The workflow maps deck contents to bracket signals such as Game Changers presence, tutor pressure, fast mana checks, compact combo access, and interaction pacing, then converts those signals into readable recommendations for pod matching. That is why EDHcheck functions as an EDH bracket calculator, Commander bracket calculator, and MTG Commander analyzer in one place. It also supports the broader use cases highlighted in our homepage SEO language: Magic: The Gathering Deck Bracket Calculator & Analysis, instant bracket placement, power score insights, combo and tutor detection, salt rating context, practical optimization guidance, and Magic the Gathering Commander tools support through a fast Commander deck checker experience built for real pregame conversations and better pod alignment.
Game Changers List (Updated February 9, 2026)
The current official Game Changers list contains 53 cards, last updated in the February 9, 2026 beta update, which added Farewell and Biorhythm(the latter unbanned and added the same day). Earlier revisions expanded the list in April 2025 and then trimmed ten cards in October 2025 (including Deflecting Swat and Food Chain). EDHcheck tracks the exact current list, so detection always matches WotC's official roster. As always, WotC emphasizes intent of play: deck-check tools are useful estimates, but players should label decks honestly, bracket up when needed, and use pregame conversation as the final calibration step.
Banned And Restricted Context
The official Banned and Restricted page states that legality is format-specific and applies to Constructed formats. If a card is banned in your format, it cannot appear in your deck or sideboard. Restricted status means one copy total between main deck and sideboard, and the page notes that this is currently used by Vintage. For Commander players, the practical takeaway is to track the Commander banned list directly while using bracket and Game Changers guidance for matchmaking expectations.
How To Analyze a Magic: The Gathering Commander Deck
Analyzing a Magic: The Gathering (MTG) Commander deck with EDHcheck takes seconds. Paste a decklist from Moxfield, Archidekt, or plain text, and the analyzer reads every card, looks up its data, and scores your deck across the signals that actually decide games. You get a clear power level, a likely WotC bracket, and a breakdown of the cards driving your deck power up or down. Because the process is automatic, you can analyze a brand-new brew, an upgraded precon, or a finely tuned cEDH list and get a consistent read every time. The point of analyzing a deck before game night is alignment: two MTG Commander decks can share a commander and a color identity yet play at completely different speeds, so turning your list into a measurable power level and bracket gives your pod a shared language before turn one.
Understanding Deck Power Level
Deck power level in Commander is a rough 1-to-10 measure of how fast, consistent, and resilient a deck is. EDHcheck estimates power level from real signals: average mana value and ramp and mana base quality (how explosively the deck starts), card draw and tutor density (how reliably it finds its best cards), removal and interaction (how well it defends a lead), and win-condition compactness (how quickly it can close). The full scoring method is documented here. A higher deck power score means a faster, more focused deck, while a lower power level points to a slower, more social game. Reading power level alongside your bracket is the quickest way to understand where a Magic: The Gathering deck really sits, whether you are powering it up or tuning it down to match a casual table.
Infinite Combos and Two-Card Wins
Infinite combos are one of the biggest swings between casual and high-power Commander, so EDHcheck scans every analyzed deck for them automatically. Using combo data from Commander Spellbook — which you can also browse by colour identity here — the analyzer flags two-card infinites, game-ending loops, and the pieces that assemble them, then factors that combo access into your deck power and bracket. Knowing whether your deck packs infinite combos — and how easily it can find them — helps you bracket honestly and helps your pod set expectations. If you are tuning down, the infinite combo detection shows exactly which cards push your power level up; if you are building competitive cEDH, it confirms your MTG deck has the compact, reliable wins the top bracket expects.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I check what bracket my Commander deck is?+
Yes. Paste any Commander decklist into EDHcheck and it assigns a bracket from 1 to 5 using the official Wizards of the Coast criteria — Game Changers, two-card infinite combos, tutor density, extra-turn chains and mass land denial. The result names the specific cards that placed you in that bracket, so you can see exactly what to change if you want to move down.
What is Bracket 1 in Magic: The Gathering Commander?+
Bracket 1 is Exhibition — ultra-casual, theme-first decks where expression matters more than speed or optimisation. Bracket 1 decks use no Game Changers, no intentional two-card infinite combos, no mass land denial and no chained extra turns. Games are expected to go long.
What is Bracket 2 in Commander?+
Bracket 2 is Core, roughly the power level of a modern preconstructed deck. Games have splashy turns but a generally social pace. Like Bracket 1, Core decks use no Game Changers, no intentional two-card infinite combos and no mass land denial.
What is Bracket 3 in Commander?+
Bracket 3 is Upgraded — tuned beyond precon level, with tighter construction and selective access to stronger tools. Bracket 3 permits up to three Game Changers and allows only late-game combos, not early two-card infinites. Mass land denial is still off the table.
What is Bracket 4 in Commander?+
Bracket 4 is Optimized — high-power Commander where efficient tutors, explosive starts and compact wins are expected. Bracket 4 removes the additional deckbuilding restrictions beyond the banned list, so there is no limit on Game Changers, tutors or infinite combos.
What is Bracket 5 in Commander?+
Bracket 5 is cEDH — competitive, metagame-focused Commander with tournament-style deckbuilding and play decisions. It shares Bracket 4's lack of deckbuilding restrictions; the difference is intent, with decks built to win against the strongest known lists rather than to suit a table.
How many Game Changers can I play in Bracket 3?+
Up to three, and your commander counts toward that total if it is on the list. Brackets 1 and 2 allow none at all, so a single Game Changer moves a deck out of Core. Brackets 4 and 5 have no limit. EDHcheck flags every Game Changer in your list and shows the resulting bracket.
What are Game Changers in Commander?+
Game Changers are cards officially designated by Wizards of the Coast as having an outsized impact on Commander game texture — cards like Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Study, Thassa's Oracle and Dockside Extortionist. The list currently holds 53 cards and was last updated 9 February 2026. EDHcheck detects every one in your deck and factors it into your bracket.
Can I check my deck for infinite combos?+
Yes. EDHcheck scans your decklist against Commander Spellbook's combo database and lists every infinite combo it finds, including the pieces involved and what the combo produces. It also flags whether a combo is an early two-card infinite, since that is the specific criterion that pushes a deck into Bracket 4.
Are two-card infinite combos allowed in Brackets 1, 2 and 3?+
Intentional two-card infinite combos are not expected in Brackets 1 or 2. Bracket 3 permits combos that only come together late in the game, but not early two-card infinites — an early two-card infinite is one of the clearest signals that a deck belongs in Bracket 4. Brackets 4 and 5 have no restriction.
What counts as mass land denial in Commander?+
Wizards describes mass land denial as effects that repeatedly destroy, exile, bounce or tap down four or more lands per player, or change what mana those lands produce, without replacing them. Single-target land destruction does not count. Mass land denial is not expected anywhere in Brackets 1 to 3.
Do land tutors count as tutors for bracket purposes?+
No. Fetchlands and land-searching effects such as Crop Rotation or Cultivate are not counted as tutors under the bracket guidance, so lower-bracket decks can run them freely. The tutor density that matters is search for specific nonland cards, which is what makes a deck consistent enough to be Optimized.
What is the difference between power level and bracket?+
Power level (1–10) is a continuous measure of how fast, consistent and resilient a deck is, based on card data: ramp, draw, tutors, combo access, removal and interaction. Bracket (1–5) is the official WotC matchmaking tier, decided by deckbuilding criteria rather than by the score. A Bracket 3 deck can span a wide range of power scores, so reading both together gives the clearest picture.
How is Commander deck power level calculated?+
EDHcheck scores decks from 1 to 10 using measurable signals rather than opinion: average mana value, ramp density, card draw, removal and interaction, tutor count, detected infinite combos, Game Changers and card saltiness. The score is calibrated against the deck's bracket, so it describes how tuned a deck is within its bracket rather than replacing the bracket.
How accurate is the bracket and power level?+
EDHcheck gives a fast, consistent estimate grounded in card-level data and official WotC bracket guidance. It is a strong starting point for a pregame conversation, not a replacement for Rule Zero. Label your deck honestly, bracket up when the list calls for it, and treat the analysis as shared language rather than a verdict.
Which decklist formats and sites can I analyze?+
Paste a Moxfield or Archidekt link, or a plain text decklist in standard format (for example "1 Sol Ring"), and EDHcheck reads every card, looks up its data, and returns your bracket, power score, combos, tutors and fast mana. EDHREC links are not supported directly, but you can copy the decklist text.
Can I analyze a preconstructed Commander deck?+
Yes. The Decks page includes every official WotC Commander precon from 2009 onward, pre-analyzed and browsable by set. Click any precon to see its bracket, power score, combos and card breakdown without pasting a list. Community upgrades to precons appear in Explore.
Can I save and share my deck analysis?+
Yes. After analyzing a deck you can save it to your EDHcheck account, which generates a shareable link. Anyone with the link can view the full analysis without logging in, and you can embed a compact analysis card on Discord or Reddit using the embed URL.
Can I use EDHcheck for competitive EDH (cEDH)?+
Yes. cEDH decks typically land at Bracket 4–5 with high power scores, dense tutor and combo counts and multiple Game Changers. EDHcheck surfaces the signals that define cEDH — compact two-card wins, fast mana, low average mana value and high interaction density — so it works as a quick sanity check for competitive lists.
How often is the card data updated?+
Card data comes from Scryfall, which updates within hours of new set releases. The Game Changers list is updated manually to match each official WotC revision. Combo data is sourced from Commander Spellbook and refreshed as new combos are documented.
Is EDHcheck free?+
Yes. Bracket analysis, power level scoring, infinite combo detection, card rulings, the deck builder and the combo finder are all free with no account required. An optional Premium subscription adds AI-written deck primers, in-depth analysis, deck comparison, pod balance checking and an ad-free interface.
Use official brackets to set pod expectations, Game Changers to communicate deck pressure points, and format legality rules to keep lists compliant. EDHcheck ties those layers together into one readable report, helping groups avoid mismatched games and reach faster, fairer, more enjoyable Commander starts.
Sources: Brackets Beta Intro · Brackets Beta Update (Apr 22, 2025) · Banned & Restricted Lists
More answers on the full FAQ, or browse every Game Changer card and the Commander combo finder.
Free Magic: The Gathering Commander deck bracket calculator and analysis tool for faster, clearer power-level conversations.