[...] 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.