When was Commander 2013 released?

Commander 2013 was released on November 1, 2013. It was announced at the Magic panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2013.

How many cards are in Commander 2013?

Commander 2013 contains 356 cards in total, spread across five preconstructed 100-card decks. The set includes both reprints and cards printed exclusively for the Commander format.

What are the five Commander 2013 decks?

The five decks are: Evasive Maneuvers (Green/White/Blue), Eternal Bargain (White/Blue/Black), Mind Seize (Blue/Black/Red), Power Hungry (Black/Red/Green), and Nature of the Beast (Red/Green/White).

What new mechanics were introduced in Commander 2013?

Commander 2013 introduced two notable mechanics: 'tempting offer', where opponents can opt into a bonus effect that scales the more players accept, and 'voting', where every player at the table votes on one of two outcomes. Both mechanics were designed specifically for the multiplayer Commander experience.

Which Commander 2013 deck was the most valuable?

Mind Seize (the Blue/Black/Red deck) became the most sought-after of the five decks shortly after release, due to the high value of cards included in the deck. This made it harder to find at retail price — a pattern that became common with future Commander precon releases.

Is Commander 2013 part of a block or a standalone product?

Commander 2013 is a standalone preconstructed product in the Commander series — not part of a traditional set block. It's not tied to any concurrent Standard-legal set or ongoing story arc, and the cards in it are not legal in Standard or Pioneer.

Commander 2013: The Complete Set Guide

Released on November 1, 2013, Commander 2013 (set code: C13) is Wizards of the Coast's second annual entry in the dedicated Commander preconstructed product line. Announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2013, C13 arrived a year after the original Commander product and continued the tradition of delivering ready-to-play 100-card Commander decks packed with reprints and new cards designed specifically for the format.

What is Commander 2013?

Commander 2013 Edition is a preconstructed product in the Commander series - not a traditional booster set, but a collection of five individually themed 100-card decks built and balanced for Commander (also called EDH). Each deck is headed by a legendary creature commander and comes with a mix of reprints from throughout Magic's history and cards printed exclusively for the Commander format.

The set contains 356 cards in total across all five decks, with a meaningful portion of those being cards you couldn't find anywhere else at the time of release.

The five decks

Commander 2013 shipped with five preconstructed decks, each built around a distinct colour combination and playstyle:

| Deck Name | Colours | Identity | |---|---|---| | Evasive Maneuvers | Green, White, Blue | Evasion and combat tricks | | Eternal Bargain | White, Blue, Black | Artifacts and value engines | | Mind Seize | Blue, Black, Red | Control and card advantage | | Power Hungry | Black, Red, Green | Sacrifice and graveyard recursion | | Nature of the Beast | Red, Green, White | Token generation and ramp |

Each deck represents a different three-colour (or "shard/wedge adjacent") combination, giving players a broad range of archetypes to jump into straight out of the box.

Themes and mechanics

Commander 2013 leaned heavily into mechanics that reward multiplayer politics and long, interactive games - which is exactly what Commander is built for.

Experience with the 'tempting offer' mechanic

One of the defining design innovations of C13 was the cycle of cards featuring the "tempting offer" mechanic. These cards offered every opponent at the table a chance to opt into a beneficial effect - but the more opponents who accepted, the more the original caster benefited too. It's a beautifully political mechanic: do you take the free land? Or do you deny your opponent the bonus that scales with acceptance?

This pushed Commander 2013 into genuinely multiplayer design territory in a way earlier sets hadn't fully committed to.

Voting

C13 also introduced a cycle of cards built around a voting mechanic, where each player at the table casts a vote for one of two outcomes, and the outcome with the most votes takes effect. It's another mechanic that only works - and only shines - at a multiplayer table. In a two-player game it's just a coin flip with extra steps; in a four-player Commander pod it becomes a miniature political arena.

Returning Commander staples

Beyond the new mechanics, C13 brought back a wide range of beloved Commander-relevant reprints - older cards with powerful multiplayer applications that had become harder to find. This was a core part of the product's value proposition at the time.

Lore and setting

Commander 2013, like the Commander product line broadly, isn't tied to a single plane or ongoing story arc. The five decks pull from a range of Magic's established planes and lore figures rather than telling one cohesive narrative. The legendary commanders heading each deck draw on characters from across the Multiverse, giving each deck a distinct flavour identity even if there's no overarching storyline connecting them.

Set legacy

Commander 2013 is remembered fondly as part of the era when Wizards was still finding its footing with the annual Commander product. The tempting offer and voting mechanics were genuine design successes - they remain some of the most flavourfully "multiplayer" mechanics the game has produced, capturing the social dynamics of a Commander pod in card form.

Mind Seize in particular gained significant attention shortly after release due to the commanders and singles included in the deck, making it the most sought-after of the five at launch - a pattern that would repeat in future Commander releases whenever one deck contained disproportionately high-value reprints.

For players who came into Commander during the 2013-2015 window, C13 was often the entry point. It helped cement the annual Commander precon as a genuine Magic tradition, one that continues to this day.