Commander status as hidden information

Question

Inspired by Ivo Beckers' comment on the answer to Is your commander still a "commander" if it gets turned face down?

If Akroma, Angel of Fury is your commander and is returned to your hand, followed by casting her as a morph creature for {3}, how is her commander status handled?

Naturally, by CR 903.3, the face-down object still is your commander. However, that fact is hidden information. Normally, if a commander has been turned face down, since everyone is permitted to know what the morphed creature was, dealing commander damage with the nameless 2/2 isn't an issue. But if the commander was cast as a morph, that doesn't help.

The most relevant specific question to this situation, I suppose, is "can you deal commander damage to your opponent without them knowing it?" (ie, connect for combat damage with the morph creature without revealing that the creature is your commander)

Answer 1

Is it my commander?

To reiterate what is stated in the question, your commander is always your commander, and nothing can change that. This is because of the following rule:

903.3. [...] This [commander] designation it is an attribute of the card itself. The card retains this designation even when it changes zones.

Does a commander deal commander damage?

Yes, obviously.

Even if it's morphed?

Yes. Commanderness cannot be hidden. It's an attribute of a card, not a card face. This is specifically covered by an example under rule 903.3.

A commander that’s been turned face down (due to Ixidron’s effect, for example) is still a commander.

Even if it's morphed from my hand?

Yes. Being unable to immediately prove* commanderness is not a legitimate argument for ignoring the rules. To illustrate this very clearly, consider these two rules:

• Correct rule 903.3
  • The commander designation is an attribute of the card itself.
• Incorrect rule 903.3
  • The commander designation an attribute of the card itself if and only if you can prove what card it is.

*_{Note that you will eventually be required to reveal your morph via comprehensive rule 707.9.}

Am I required to immediately tell the truth if asked if a morph is my commander?

It's not clear. The EDH Rules Committee previously stated on their forum:

Face Down Commanders
Since the card itself is designated as the commander, face down commanders still deal commander damage. Your opponents are also allowed to know which morph creature is your commander.

MTGCommander.net is cited in the comprehensive rules as being a source of "additional resources", so rulings made by the EDH Rules Committee are pseudo-authoritative. However, the forum has since been taken down, and with it the ruling. For lack of an authoritative source, it is unclear if "commanderness" is free information.

Answer 2

I could not find anything that specifically says that everybody knows that it is your commander. Being a commander is an attribute of the card itself, however nowhere in the rules is the word 'attribute' defined as it applies to a card, it isn't a characteristic or status as those are both defined in the CR. Morph creatures only lose characteristics they don't lose any other properties of the card. As such I would say that everyone should know when you cast the card that it is your commander. If you do decide that you don't need to tell people when you cast it you would have to tell them when combat damage is dealt as life totals are free information so you have to tell someone if they are dealt commander damage.

Regardless, currently the only Legendary Creature with Morph is Akroma, which means you are mono-Red, and there are very few playable mono-Red morph creatures, so you should pretty much always assume it is her if they play a morph creature.

References:

109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, rules text, abilities, power, toughness, loyalty, hand modifier, and life modifier. Objects can have some or all of these characteristics. Any other information about an object isn’t a characteristic. For example, characteristics don’t include whether a permanent is tapped, a spell’s target, an object’s owner or controller, what an Aura enchants, and so on.

110.6. A permanent’s status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.

707.2. Face-down spells and face-down permanents have no characteristics other than those listed by the ability or rules that allowed the spell or permanent to be face down. Any listed characteristics are the copiable values of that object’s characteristics. (See rule 613, “Interaction of Continuous Effects,” and rule 706, “Copying Objects.”)