What Bracket Is Your Commander Deck?
Paste your deck above. Every grader we can run scores it. You get one composite bracket and each grader's individual call.
How the composite verdict works
Most bracket checkers give you one engine's opinion. This page runs several. We scan your list once for the signals every rubric cares about: Game Changers, two-card combos, mass land denial, extra turns, and tutors. Each grader applies its own thresholds to that scan. The composite is the middle call of everyone who answered, and the official floors always hold. A deck with four or more Game Changers can never grade below Bracket 4, no matter how the vote splits.
You also see the spread. When graders disagree, that disagreement is information. It tells you where your deck sits on the argument, not just where one site puts it.
The five Commander brackets
| Bracket | Name | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Exhibition | Theme over function. A table agreement, not a card count. No checker can assign it. |
| 2 | Core | Precon neighborhood. No Game Changers, no mass land denial, no early two-card combos. |
| 3 | Upgraded | Tuned but friendly. Up to three Game Changers. Combos land late, not by turn four. |
| 4 | Optimized | No restrictions. Fast mana, early combos, mass land denial, whatever wins. |
| 5 | cEDH | Metagame-tuned competitive Commander. Built to win the pod, not entertain it. |
Brackets are the official five-level system from Wizards of the Coast and the Commander Format Panel, in beta since 2025. The Game Changers list they lean on is revised over time. We track the current one.
The graders behind the verdict
Spellstash. Our own rules engine. It reads combo speed, extra-turn chaining, and tutor density on top of the official floors, so a slow value deck and a turn-four combo deck stop grading the same.
DeckFlow rubric. The strict official bracket rubric from the open source DeckFlow grading system. Apache 2.0.
MTG-Analyzer rubric. A second open source grading system that also weighs tutor count. From MTG-Analyzer, MIT licensed.
We run both open source rule sets on our own servers, so those grades come back instantly. More graders answer live over their own APIs:
Commander Bracket. Hybrid rules and machine learning with an estimated win turn and a one-sentence reason for every call. Powered by Commander Bracket, and every result links to the full analysis on their site.
ArcMind. Bracket plus a power level score from the ArcMind deck analyzer, credited and linked on every result.
Moxfield. Paste a Moxfield deck link and Moxfield's own automatic bracket for that deck shows beside the rest, linked back to the deck on Moxfield.
Live grader verdicts render exactly as their sites return them, credited and linked. They sit beside the composite and never inside it: the composite is computed from the Spellstash, DeckFlow, and MTG-Analyzer rubrics only. More graders are coming, and each new one appears here the day its column goes live.
Bracket checker or power level calculator?
The old habit was rating decks 1 to 10 by feel. Brackets replaced that with five defined levels tied to specific card signals, and the bracket is now the shared language at the table. Some tools still show a numeric power score next to the bracket. Useful color, but when your pod asks what bracket you are, this page answers that question directly.
Frequently asked questions
What are Commander brackets?
Brackets are the official five-level system from Wizards of the Coast and the Commander Format Panel. Bracket 1 is Exhibition, Bracket 2 is Core, Bracket 3 is Upgraded, Bracket 4 is Optimized, and Bracket 5 is cEDH. They give your pod a shared language before the game starts.
How does the composite verdict work?
We scan your list once for the signals every grader cares about: Game Changers, two-card combos, mass land denial, extra turns, and tutors. Each grader applies its own rubric to those signals. The composite is the consensus call, and you see every individual verdict next to it.
Why do graders disagree about the same deck?
Their thresholds differ. One rubric floors any deck with a two-card combo at Bracket 4. Another lets a single combo sit at Bracket 3 unless Game Changers back it up. That disagreement is useful. One opinion can miss. A spread shows you where the argument is.
What counts as a Game Changer?
Wizards of the Coast keeps an official Game Changers list. Cards like Rhystic Study, The One Ring, and Fierce Guardianship are on it. We check your deck against the current list, so your result updates when the list does.
Can a checker put my deck in Bracket 1?
No. Bracket 1 is a table agreement, not a card count. Exhibition decks are about theme over function, and no scanner can read intent. Every grader here starts at Bracket 2 and moves up from there.
Which decklist formats can I paste?
Any standard text export works. Copy your list from Moxfield, Archidekt, ManaBox, or a plain text file, one card per line. Signed in to Spellstash? Pick one of your saved decks instead of pasting.
Is a bracket the same as a power level score?
Not quite. The old habit was rating decks 1 to 10 by feel. Brackets replaced that with five defined levels tied to specific card signals. Some graders still show a numeric power score, but the bracket is the official shared language.