Summary
Magic: The Gatheringis undergoing big changes right now thanks to the release of the Duskmourn: House of Horrors set after the highly successful Bloomburrow, and the Commander Rules Committee recently shook things up even more with a blog post discussing four big bans coming toMTG’s Commander format. Commander is often described asMagic: The Gathering’s best format thanks to its newcomer-friendly approach with preconstructed decks that come out with each release and the sheer fun of theorycrafting decks for 4-player games. However, while Commander remains a stellar format forMTG, the recent bans caused an uproar of a huge magnitude among fans for various reasons.
Typically, the Commander RC bans one card, maybe at times unbanning another at the same time, which keeps expectations in check for fans and makes for steady updates to the rules. On top of that, some playgroups will go through “Rule 0” discussions before playing Commander, essentially self-regulating games by establishing power levels of decks and asking if some cards are fine to play. Thus,Magic: The Gathering’s new wave of banswas not really something fans expected to see, especially for two of the four cards to get the treatment. The banned cards in Commander include:
Magic: The Gathering’s Commander Bans Kill Card Value For Big Staples
MTG’s Commander Bans Explained
As a result,Magic: The Gatheringplayers started petitions to undo the Commander bansor even remove the Commander Rules Committee dedicated to balancing out the game, showing how deeply this decision has affected the community at large. Of the four, three were quite valuable cards, with Dockside Extortionist going for around $90 before the ban (now $20-30 and bound to go lower), Jeweled Lotus for around $100 (now around $40 and bound to go lower), and Mana Crypt for around $190-200 (now around $70 and likely to go lower).
One could argue that the bans are good and healthy for the game for various reasons, such as card cost and availability or the pace and power level of some decks exceeding most others. For example, Dockside Extortionist was one of thebestMagic: The Gatheringcards in Commanderdue to its incredibly strong ETB (enter the battlefield) effect, creating multiple one-time “mana rocks,” and then being capable of speeding up the game even further with mechanics such as recursion or flickering, repeating the ETB effect.
Likewise, Mana Crypt was arguably one of the strongestmana rocks inMagic: The Gatheringdue to its incredible turn-1 potential, allowing the owner to have up to 5 mana by turn two with cards like Arcan Signet or the various allegiance-themed talismans. Jeweled Lotus is also very strong, allowing players to cast their commander very early into the game, and even acting as a way to reduce the impact of the commander tax later on, all for 0 mana. Finally, Nadu is a very problematic card that was looked into for other formats before Commander, so it was likely less of a surprise to see it banned considering just how powerful it can be in Simic decks or other combinations that use Blue and Green cards.
While Dockside Extortionist and Nadu were being looked into and were known to be problematic cards, a lot of fans were taken aback by the sudden ban of Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus.
Still, these bans hurt a lot of players regardless of their interest in Commander, and that’s because of card value - which can be a massive problem for small businesses and sellers who suddenly had to account for thousands of dollars in losses due to the plunge these cards' prices have taken. Not only that, but even casual Commander players may have to go through uncomfortable Rule 0 discussions if they really want to play a banned card. WithChucky the doll coming toMagic: The Gatheringalongside other Secret Lair sets, the game will have no shortage of new Commander staples, but the ban of these four cards will likely sting for a long time - especially if nothing comes from the petitions.
