Sheldon Menery, Pioneer Of Magic: The Gathering's Commander Format, Has Died
Sheldon Menery, co-founder of Magic: The Gathering’s Commander Rules Committee and one of the guiding voices of the Commander format, Magic’s most popular format, has died following seven years of treatment for throat cancer.
As well as a former MTG judge and contributor to Star City Games, Menery is best known as one of the co-founders of the Commander Rules Committee, in which he effectively served as its representative. As lead of the Rules Committee, he played a large role in the bans, rules announcements, and guiding the overall health of Commander.
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The announcement of his death was posted on Facebook by his wife, Gretchyn Melde. In the message, she said “Sheldon’s body could no longer fight. He passed away peacefully last night [September 7, 2023]. I know Sheldon touched many lifes, and I can’t put into words how much he will be missed.” Over the past year, he has been in and out of hospital underground treatment for his cancer, including a week-long stay in June following a bout of pneumonia.
Menery has been involved in Magic: The Gathering for decades, serving as one of the highest-level judges for the game during his tenure. Since then, he’s primarily been involved with Magic’s Commander format, helping shape it. In particular, Menery advocated for the philosophy of the Commander format, helping solidify its reptuation as a “socially interactive”, with a “social contract” at its heart that tries to encourage games to be “resonant experiences” for all players.
Though Menery has been a part of Magic for years, he finally worked directly on the game for the first time in 2021, working as part of the R&D team for Commander 2021
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