Bracket Compliance

Select a power level for your deck and get a detailed compliance report against the official Commander bracket rules.

Overview

Commander brackets define five power tiers from Exhibition (casual) to cEDH (competitive). The builder checks your finished deck against the rules for your selected bracket and surfaces a PASS / WARN / FAIL report per category.

Bracket selection lives in the New Deck modal. The compliance report appears in Step 5 and is exported to the compliance JSON sidecar (deck_files/*_compliance.json).

Bracket Tiers

Bracket Name Key restrictions
1 Exhibition No Game Changers; no two-card infinite combos; no mass land denial; extra turns discouraged; tutors sparse
2 Core No Game Changers; no two-card infinite combos; no mass land denial; extra turns not chained; tutors sparse
3 Upgraded Up to 3 Game Changers; no mass land denial; no early/cheap two-card combos; extra turns not chained
4 Optimized No bracket restrictions (banned list still applies)
5 cEDH No bracket restrictions (banned list still applies; competitive mindset)

Bracket rules follow the official Wizards of the Coast Commander bracket definitions. The card lists used for compliance checks are stored in config/card_lists/ and can be updated as WotC revises the lists.

Compliance Categories

For each build, the compliance report checks:

Category What is checked
Game Changers Cards on the official Game Changers list (config/card_lists/game_changers.json)
Extra turns Cards that grant extra turns (extra_turns.json)
Mass land denial Cards that destroy, exile, or bounce many lands (mass_land_denial.json)
Non-land tutors Cards that search the library for non-land cards
Two-card combos Known two-card infinite combos (combos.json), with a flag for early/cheap combos

Each category returns a PASS / WARN / FAIL verdict and lists the flagged cards with links.

If the commander itself is on the Game Changers list, it is surfaced separately at the top of the report.

Enforcement Mode

Set enforcement_mode in your JSON config to control how the builder handles bracket violations:

Mode Behavior
validate Build freely, then report violations. No cards are blocked. (default)
prefer During selection, avoid adding disallowed categories; cap Game Changers for Bracket 3.
strict Block additions that would violate the bracket. Build fails with a clear message if unavoidable. 
{
  "bracket": "core",
  "enforcement_mode": "prefer"
}

Enforcement Examples (Bracket 3 — Upgraded)

Scenario validate prefer strict
1–3 Game Changers in pool Proceeds; each flagged in report Proceeds; included within 3-card cap Proceeds; included within 3-card cap
4+ Game Changers in pool All flagged FAIL in report Caps selection at 3; extras skipped Build fails listing the violating cards
Mass land denial card Flagged WARN/FAIL in report Avoided if alternatives exist in pool Build fails if card cannot be excluded
Must Include card violates bracket Flagged in report; card stays Flagged in report; card stays Flagged in report; card stays (Must Include always wins)

Rule Zero Notes

The rule_zero_notes field in the JSON config lets you document table agreements that override standard bracket rules:

{
  "bracket": "upgraded",
  "rule_zero_notes": "Mass land denial allowed by table agreement. Two-card combos capped at 1."
}

Rule zero notes appear in the compliance report header and are exported to the compliance JSON.

Web UI

  • The bracket dropdown in the New Deck modal defaults to Core (Bracket 2) when no bracket is set.
  • The compliance banner in Step 5 shows a color-coded overall verdict (green=PASS, yellow=WARN, red=FAIL) and expandable per-category details.
  • WEB_AUTO_ENFORCE=1 re-runs compliance export automatically after each completed build.

Maintaining the Card Lists

The Game Changers list and companion lists are static JSON files in config/card_lists/. Each file includes source_url and generated_at metadata. Update them manually when WotC publishes revisions. Unknown cards in lookups are skipped with a note in the compliance report — they do not cause a hard failure.

Environment Variables

Variable Default Purpose
WEB_AUTO_ENFORCE 0 Auto-run compliance export after every build.

JSON Config Keys

Key Values Purpose
bracket exhibition | core | upgraded | optimized | cedh Bracket selection. Defaults to core if unset.
enforcement_mode validate | prefer | strict How violations are handled during building.
rule_zero_notes string Optional table agreement notes included in the compliance report.

FAQ

My deck passed Bracket 2 but the table says it feels more like Bracket 3 — why?
The compliance check runs against the official card lists (Game Changers, extra turns, tutors, combos). Cards not on those lists are not flagged even if they're powerful in context. Use the compliance report as a starting point, then discuss with your table.

I set enforcement_mode: strict but my Must Include card still violates the bracket.
Must Include cards always bypass enforcement filtering — they are inserted directly before pool selection runs. The compliance report will still flag the violation. Adjust the Must Include list or the bracket to resolve it.

Why does the compliance check flag a two-card combo I didn't intend?
Combo detection runs against a known list of two-card infinite combinations. If your synergies happen to match a known combo pattern, they'll be flagged. The report is informational — no cards are removed automatically.

Can I update the Game Changers list when WotC publishes new cards?
Yes. Edit the JSON files in config/card_lists/ (e.g., game_changers.json). Each file has a source_url field pointing to the canonical source. Restart the server after editing.

See Also