June 1 2020 rules changes

[Inkeyes22]

I do wanna say that I deeply appreciate the fact that there's simultaneous "This didn't do nearly enough to hurt companion" and "this is going to nerf companion out of competitive play-ability completely" takes going around. It goes to show how hard this stuff is to evaluate.

What colossal idiot thinks this didn't do *nearly* enough to hurt companion? And what could possibly satisfy them, would all companion cards need to be tracked down and put into a blender?

Right? I mean, people play Barktooth Warbeard instead of Vial Smasher the Fierce here so, yes people will pick suboptimal commanders (I do it too, my Esper deck is Dakkon Blackblade and not something else).

But saying that Kaheera, the Orphanguard isn't going to drop in popularity now that it costs double for an anthem... that is just disingenuous. Companion is going to lose it's flavor a lot faster with the casual crowd and probably be ignored by the competitive crowd because of this.

[Airi]

Doesn't particularly effect me, as all of my companion decks use them as actual generals, but I am disappointed it's probably not going to kill the mechanic outright. I'd be happy to never see them again as companions.

[Wallycaine]

I do wanna say that I deeply appreciate the fact that there's simultaneous "This didn't do nearly enough to hurt companion" and "this is going to nerf companion out of competitive play-ability completely" takes going around. It goes to show how hard this stuff is to evaluate.

What colossal idiot thinks this didn't do *nearly* enough to hurt companion? And what could possibly satisfy them, would all companion cards need to be tracked down and put into a blender?

I've seen a handful of articles that posit that Yorion will still need a ban, and I can see it (though I'm not convinced it will be necessary). They haven't eliminated the free card element of the mechanic, just slowed it down. Starting out "up a card" on people in competitive formats is useful, even if the card is slightly harder to cast. Presumably, they felt that it needed to be the much harsher nerf of losing a card in hand, or possibly just a blanket ban.

[BeneTleilax]

companion was a mistake.

[maeos]

What's more surprising is that there are two new cards banned in Standard. Seriously, how many cards have been banned in recent years now? From the likes of this article, we're now at 15 cards banned in standard in just the last 3.5 years. 15 cards! I feel terrible for everyone that has been investing in Standard in recent years. Are people still confident enough in Wizards to continue investing in competitive Magic after this? Seriously, what is Play Design even doing at this point? They were formed with the purpose to avoid the massive bannings mistake that occurred in Kaladesh. Are they under so much pressure they can't properly test the power levels of cards? Talking about doing a terrible job...

Personally I would rather they have bans and stuff that deal with cards that push the limit than having a set full of vanilla beatsticks which are completely unplayable outside of constructed.

[Lifeless]

I think this change is fine if inelegant. Companion is not a mechanic I support in general since I don't think that deckbuilding restrictions are a fundamentally healthy design for eternal formats (I recognize this is an ironic viewpoint for someone who exclusively plays EDH).

I'm also glad I didn't bother brewing with any of the companions or pre-order anything from this set. That would feel pretty bad right now.

[WizardMN]

What's more surprising is that there are two new cards banned in Standard. Seriously, how many cards have been banned in recent years now? From the likes of this article, we're now at 15 cards banned in standard in just the last 3.5 years. 15 cards! I feel terrible for everyone that has been investing in Standard in recent years. Are people still confident enough in Wizards to continue investing in competitive Magic after this? Seriously, what is Play Design even doing at this point? They were formed with the purpose to avoid the massive bannings mistake that occurred in Kaladesh. Are they under so much pressure they can't properly test the power levels of cards? Talking about doing a terrible job...

Personally I would rather they have bans and stuff that deal with cards that push the limit than having a set full of vanilla beatsticks which are completely unplayable outside of constructed.

Which I sort of agree with to be honest. I do like them pushing the envelope but I also don't really play standard. I do play Arena every so often but with the current meta I just stopped.

I think that, basically, they overshot their mark. I get wanted to push things but they seem to be doing a lot of things they already know are problems: "free" cards with Companions; "free" spells with Fires and Winota. Cutting off stack based interaction with T3feri (though, og Teferi existed without issue so, again, maybe a development issue on costing).

I do like a lot of cards we are getting and I even like that they decided Grim Tutor was fine for Standard. I don't think it is overpowered. But, still, I think the number of bans has long term consequences and they need to reign it in a little.

[BaronCappuccino]

When companions were released, I wasted an enormous amount of time on Archidekt trying against all odds to make my Judith Apostles deck fit Obosh's only odds requirements, because it was only eight cards off and I really wanted to shoe-horn a new gimmick into my deck. 101 cards and 24 of them are the same in a Commander deck? Talk about the spirit of Commander. If I did that, I would shoe-horn an Extort card for good measure, for sure. It didn't work, and I'm glad it didn't after this announcement. Because of Covid, I haven't played any Commander in what feels like months, so I would have built a Judith deck, overhauled it immensely to build around the Companion mechanic, then scrapped all the changes before ever playing the deck because WotC ruined it before I ever got a game in. Crazy. I scrap decks before playing them all the time, but rarely is it someone else's fault.