Vertain wrote: ↑2 years ago
This applies to
Sol Ring and
Mana Crypt as well, since they actually make virtually any deck better. So there is precedent for the original Moxen to finally come off the list.
With exceptionally powerful (
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale,
Mishra's workshop,
Gaea's Cradle), and/or genuinely interesting cards (
Hazezon Tamar,
Diamond Valley,
Rasputin Dreamweaver), as well as the original duals for their added utility behind a prohibitive price tag, such a "class structure" is not just sort of a thing. It is a reality that players are priced out of doing certain cool and/or powerful things. Add to that, that the same committee who axed 'perceived barrier to entry' also openly discourages the use of proxies. So much for the so-called inclusivity of the format.
Follow my logic very closely here - to be banned under perceived barrier to entry, the card has to:
1) be ubiquitous in its usefulness
AND
2) be prohibitively expensive
The problem with PBtE cards is that they make the format one that requires a ton of money to optimize any deck, which is discouraging to anyone who wants to have a decent deck without spending thousands of dollars, which pushes people out of the format. Nobody wants to play vintage because they see everyone playing 1000+ cards and nope on out of there. The RC didn't want that to happen to commander. At this point that's pretty unlikely given the format's popularity, but unbanning them wouldn't really have any positive impact either.
You may notice that almost all of the cards you're using as examples - especially sol ring - meet ONE of those criteria, but not both. As someone who owns all of those, I can assure you that the vast, vast majority of decks I see people play would not benefit from playing any of them. As far as PBtE is concerned, no one is seeing a hazezon tamar on the field and thinking "oh man, this is a vintage, I'll never be able to afford that" because hazezon is not played in vintage and he's not that good either, he'll probably get stomped by some precon commander that costs $2.
If you want to whine about the RL preventing people from getting 50 cent hazezon tamars, go ahead, but that's not the RC's fault. Short of saying "proxies are fully legal in commander, lol eat poop wotc" and probably creating some sort of mtg civil war, there's nothing they can do about it. Do you want them to ban Hazezon Tamar, who is presumably some old fart's favorite commander, just because a bunch of kids who have never even heard of it can't play it?
Now arguably mana crypt does meet both criteria, or at least it's a lot closer, but while $150 is a pretty hefty sum for a single card, it's far less than a mox and it's pennies compared to what a mox would be if it were unbanned. The sort of player who is trying to optimizing their deck in any real sense can probably afford to get one. Also I already mentioned it, so you bringing it up as though I wasn't aware of it is pointless.
Cradle is the only new example you've given that's at least arguably within range of both, though I've made plenty of green decks that didn't want it personally. It was a lot cheaper when the banlist was initially created, and since the PBtE isn't an official criteria anymore, I'd imagine it's hard to justify adding it, though I personally wouldn't shed a tear if it were.
There's nothing about proxies in the official rules and nobody really gives a crap what Sheldon says on twitter about it. The vast majority of players aren't paying attention to the RC unless they ban/unban something. I've never seen anyone get upset about proxies irl, and they day I see someone say "I won't allow proxies because someone on the RC said they don't like them on twitter" I'll eat my time twister.
Yeesh 
