[...] In Lorwyn, [Aaron Forsythe] made a cycle of cards he originally called Super Charms. The original Charms from Mirage were instants that allowed you to choose one of three small effects. The Charms were much beloved and we've done them again and again in many different incarnations. The Super Charms gave you four choices instead of three and let you choose two effects instead of one. The Commands, as they ended up being called, were a huge hit; Cryptic Command , the blue one, became a staple in many formats.

[...] In Lorwyn, [Aaron Forsythe] made a cycle of cards he originally called Super Charms. [...] [Unlike the original Charms from Mirage,] The Super Charms gave you four choices instead of three and let you choose two effects instead of one. The Commands, as they ended up being called, were a huge hit; [...]

During Khans of Tarkir design, there was a lot of talk about doing three-color Commands. The problem was how do you make cards with four choices when there are three colors? The solution we came up with, as each wedge had a central color, was to let the main color get a second effect. But we knew that the last set was going to be two-color in theme and we'd never made multicolor Commands, so we thought possibly two-color would work better. That would allow two abilities to choose from for each color.

The Dragons of Tarkir design team tried a number of different cycles in this slot, but momentum kept pulling us back to doing Commands. It was just too good a fit to pass up. The five were obviously tied creatively to the five dragonlords.