ASK THE COMMITTEE: RULES

Your question:

"How does the ''Learn'' ability introduced in Strixhaven cards work?"

Our answer:

In Commander, in general, whatever refers to “outside the game” works but has no effect. You can read the abilities and resolve them, but they refer to a non-existent pool. 

For the record, this pool comes from the sanctioned constructed formats (Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and back then Extended, etc.), where an additional game mechanic (namely: sideboard) becomes part of this pool (and, to a lesser extend, in Limited Formats). There are about 30 cards which refer to this pool (“wishes”, and more recently Legion Angel or Granted), and none of these cards do anything in Commander, with only 2020 exception of companion cards, which work as intended. Only the part of the text that does not refer to this card pool works (like you may discard and draw a card when resolving a card with the Learn ability).

As Wizards of The Coast said and from what we know: those cards don’t have a special treatment from previous rules. 

In other words: "outside the game" is an abstract, generic view of whatever is not brought into a game. It has different meanings depending on context. It can contain ensembles such as: "your collection within reach", "your drafted cards", "your sideboard", etc. Some game rules explicit what is part of "outside the game" in Magic The Gathering game rules. In Duel Commander, we chose for things to work as explicited above.

Your question:

"Is it possible to play cards like companions, lessons or dungeons and how does it count towards the 100 cards + cards outside the deck?" 

Our answer:

Thanks for your question! All of these have been added/updated in the Frequently Asked Question page now thanks to you!

Your question:

"Why is Choose a Background treated the same way as Partner despite being worse as a mechanic?"

Our answer:

We will discard your opinion on which one of the keywords/mechanics is the better, as this is not relevant to this place (start a conversation on our Discord, rather!). 

The approach we took is generic, keyword-agnostic and future-oriented. More similar concerns may appear in the future, this *should* prevent heavy sweating from players when things happen, to a maximum extend. Remember: we do not read the future!

Your question:

"Is there a rule that overrides the banned and restricted cards if a Commander preconstructed deck is played out of the box with no cards changed?"

Our answer:

Such a rule could exist, indeed, as these decks are not that strong. But they are constructed and designed for multiplayer games, not for duel games, they're rather balanced and fair, and do not contain the average power of a competitive Duel Commander deck. 

They will mostly not be viable in Duel Commander and in so, we do not want to make a strange exception for these.

That being said, Tournament Organizers could totally organize such a cool event, on condition that everyone respects that rule.