Commander is already Magic: The Gathering’s most social format, but The Command Zone just found a way to make it even more festive just in time for the holidays — and in a fun way just about anybody can recreate with their friends.
In a special holiday episode of Extra Turns released on Dec. 16, hosts Josh Lee Kwai and Jimmy Wong played a four-player match of Commander called “Countdown to XT-Mas.” This seasonal variant layers a simple “naughty or nice” decision on top of a normal match. The result isn’t just a cute gimmick for an episode on their popoular YouTube channel, it’s a surprisingly elegant rules tweak that complicates the dynamics of the players at the table in a joyous way — and gets particularly silly when Santa Claus himself shows up.
At a glance, Countdown to XT-Mas looks elaborate, complete with custom tokens and a big display board. In practice, it’s actually pretty straightforward. One rotating token moves around the table. When it reaches the active player’s upkeep, the game briefly pauses and every player secretly chooses whether they’re being Naughty or Nice using two cards. Everyone flips their card over at the same time, resolves the effect tied to their own choice, starting with whoever holds the token, and then the token is passed to the right. The countdown advances by one step, and regular Commander play resumes. On a board in the background, the Naughty and Nice options are revealed each round.
The choices, which do escalate as the rounds progress, feel finely tuned. Early rounds offered small, table-wide benefits for being Nice like life gain or Clue tokens, while Naughty options offer more specific advantages, usually at the expense of another player. One round in the middle let the players pick Naughty get a 4/4 flying Reindeer token for themselves. Those who picked Nice generated a 1/1 Toy artifact creature token for each player.
None of these effects are too powerful on their own and instead feel like a fun and festive to spark conversation. Should you take the selfish value now? Will Santa punish you later? Is he checking his list of who’s naughty and who’s nice?
Because the trigger only happens once per round, it doesn’t really mess with the pacing of the match either. The Naughty/Nice vote becomes an event that the players plan around, bluff through, or lean into for leverage.
On the eighth round, Santa arrived, transforming a gimmicky twist on Commander into something truly run and game-changing. Based on how often each player chose Naughty versus Nice, Santa handed out sealed “gifts.” They looked like deck boxes, but inside were Magic booster packs that varied in value.
The nicest player, Josh Lee Kwai, received a Commander Legends Collector Booster, easily the most powerful prize at the table. Jimmy Wong, judged the second-nicest, opened an Edge of Eternities Collector Booster. Jet, a special guest appearing through Nik’s Wish (the Nikolas Ritschel Foundation), got a Homelands Collector Booster, while the very naughty Zachery Renauldo (ZachTheBold) drew the short straw with Fallen Empires, one of the worst sets ever that’s essentially a punchline in itself.
Every card opened immediately became playable for the rest of the game, cast from exile using mana as though it were any color. For the nicer players who got great presents from Santa, their gift wound up being a power spike. Whereas the naughty players essentially got coal in their stocking.
Fitting, the bit worked. As the nicest, Josh got a huge advantage that eventually helped him win the match.
While The Command Zone put a lot of production value into executing on the concept, it’s one that anybody could easily replicate at home with custom rewards for the various Naughty and Nice effects. Everybody would bring their usual Commander deck, and all you’d need to do is get four different booster packs of varying value. The one drawback is that if they know ahead of time what being nice gets you, then everyone might aim for the best booster pack. You could mix it up in different ways, like drafting cards from a communal pile or letting players pull cards they own from outside the game.
Based on how the format played out in The Command Zone match, Countdown to XT-Mas is definitely a festive way to spread some joy and laughter this holiday season when Magic fans play Commander, and I can’t wait to try it with my pod.
