EDH/Commander Ban List Announcement Archive

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

This thread is an archive of all ban list announcement from the now defunct official site, as well as the new site.
Sheldon wrote:You're the reason we can't have nice things.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

February 28, 2008
RobRoy wrote:February 29th EDH Banned List Announcement

As of tomorrow, we are adding two cards to the banned list for EDH - Recurring Nightmare and Kokusho, the Evening Star. This has been the product of a fair bit of discussion among the Rules Committee as well as with others, and we feel that both of these cards meet the criteria we've set forward for banning cards.

Recurring Nightmare: this card is extremely powerful for its mana cost. It has a reusable effect that cannot be stopped with enchantment removal, and lets you abuse comes-into-play abilities repeatedly. More, if your graveyard is sufficiently stocked, it's entirely possible that once you draw Recur it is the only spell you'll want to play for the rest of the game. This makes for degenerate games, so we're giving it the axe.

Kokusho: this was less of a slam-dunk, as there was some discussion that with Recur gone it was at a tolerable power level. However, even without Recur, the first time Kokusho goes to the graveyard represents a twenty point life swing in a four-player game, and there are many, many ways to get multiple uses out of him. Too many games were being swung by Kokusho, and he was far too often an automatic tutor target. In the end we decided that his power level in EDH is too far above both what his mana cost would indicate and his power level in normal games of Magic, and so he is getting banned as well.

Two other cards were put forward as candidates for banning. Mind's Eye was discussed, due to its power level in longer multiplayer games, but it was deemed to still be within our comfort zone. It will not be banned anytime soon. Myojin of Night's Reach, on the other hand, is still being considered. It does have a very powerful effect, but with a mana cost of 8 and the restriction on when you get the divinity counter, we believe it to still be tolerable. We may be revisiting it in the future, though.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

June 4, 2008
Genomancer wrote: Crud...I knew I forgot to announce something earlier this week. With near-universal approval among the playerbase, and unanimous approval within the EDH rules folks, Limited Resources is getting the axe immediately.

It's been added to the list of banned cards on the rules page.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

September 1, 2008
Genomancer wrote: I'll have a more detailed explanation of our goals, logic, and plan tomorrow, but in the meantime here's a quick version of the changes to the B&R list taking effect September 1st, 2008:

* Card-specific rules are being removed
* Karakas is banned
* Riftsweeper is banned
* Rune-Tail, Kitsune Attendant is legal for play as printed.

Card specific errata have proven to be a significant deterrent to adoption by new players. Since the rules are getting more complex in other ways, removing them is a positive for the format.

Even when flipped, Rune-tail has proven good but not overwhelmingly so, and only in aggressive weenie decks anyway. Since this is an archtype which could undergo enormous improvement before being overpowered anyway, that's find. Riftsweeper and Karakas can't be allowed in EDH games -- both are too hard to deal with and too good at disrupting generals.

* Test of Endurance is no longer banned

This came up during the discussions of the card specific errata (Rune-Tail, specifically). There was discussion of which "life total cards" should be banned or dealt with, and while test of Endurance is much easi*er* to win with in EDH, we don't believe it's actually that easy. It requires significant setup to gain the necessary life and stay above 50 in the face of multiple opponents. Yes, it's possible, but we think it will be a reasonable (not broken) strategy. If we're wrong... we'll revisit it in a few months.

* Protean Hulk is banned

This one really hurt, and I expect a lot of playgroups will still allow the Hulk to see play in games between trusted friends. Hulk is one of the most prototypical EDH cards... high cost for a huge effect, which is well suited to the highlander nature of the format. Unfortunately, it's proven too good. It's a one-card combo which is too easy to tutor up, and once it resolves there are several ways to kill every opponent, instantly. Hulk combo has cropped up multiple times, in different places, and has been the most problematic element in competitive environments.


The key here is that the kinds of cards required to answer Protean Hulk combo (cheap permission, hand disruption, or RFG-creature removal) aren't the kinds of cards we feel people should have to fill their EDH decks with. As such, the hulk needed to go.


* Grindstone is banned
* LED is banned

While not as problematic as hulk, neither of these is nearly as big of a loss for casual players. Many other two-card combos fall within the realm of "fair game", but the LED/Salvagers and Grindstone/Painters Servant combos are made up of cheap components which are easy to tutor up and quick to hit play. Because they come down so soon, they can be online before opponents can be expected to have disruption available... and make up the top tier of combo options.

While we don't want to make the banned list longer than necessary, these were felt to be acceptable additions. The complementary combo parts (Salvagers and Painters Servant) were felt to have more "legitimate EDH uses."


So, those are the changes we're implementing for now. We know some people will complain no matter what we decide, but we feel this addresses the major problems faced by competitive environments and cleans up some of the less polished corners of the rules.


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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

December 21, 2008
Genomancer wrote: Effective Dec 1st, 2008:

* Time Vault is banned
* Optional rule for tournament/competitive EDH games now in public testing



MTG World championships in memphis provided a great opportunity for discussion and testing, so we delayed our announcement of B&R changes until after that had passed (and we'd had time to reflect on them).


Time Vault:

This shouldn't surprise anyone. When Time Vault was unerrata'd to be Twiddle-effect friendly, it became one of the most rediculous cards in the format. Plenty of community members have commented on how game-wrecking it is, and a little extra last minute testing at Worlds showed it's just as broken as expected. Das Boot.


Public Testing of optional tournament rule:

EDH exists primarily as a fun, multiplayer format for social games among friendly playgroups. Accepted social conventions buttress the rules to achieve the kind of games local groups want. In more cutthroat environments (tournaments, some MTGO games with unknown opponents), this can break down. Rather than banning an increasing number of arbitrary cards, we're looking at other options to help make the format more stable in the face of extremely competitive deckbuilding and play styles. Because these options are departures from the norm, we've been testing them in private for the past 6 months, and now we're opening them up to further testing by the community for another 3 months. Once we gather commentary during February, we'll decide to either make these changes an official option *for tournament games* or look to other possibilities.

IF (and only if) your group fits this description and is having problems with more degenerate strategies, you can help us test them by reading this post

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

March 20, 2009
Sheldon wrote: Effective immediately (20 March 2009):

* Tinker is Banned
* Metalworker is Banned

* Crucible of Worlds is Unbanned
* Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary is Unbanned

* Gifts Ungiven is on the Watch List
* Sundering Titan is on the Watch List
* Time Stretch is on the Watch List

Tinker
The subject of much debate, this should come as no real surprise. We decided that the low cost ability of Tinker to get high cost artifacts (such as Sundering Titan, Mindslaver, or Darksteel Colossus) into play early in games and significantly impact their outcome easily warranted its banning.

Metalworker
Cards that easily and cheaply produce great deals of mana are inherently dangerous to the health of the format. Metalworker is clearly one of those cards, and had to go.

Crucible of Worlds
We felt as though the primary combos with Crucible (Strip Mine and Wasteland) aren't particularly dangerous in a multiplayer format. We will keep an eye on other potential combos with Crucible, but think that for now, it will make the format healthier by being able to provide some control of explosive decks.

Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Rofellos has been the poster child for "what might be" without ever being proven to be broken. We think that while strong and possibly have the potential of such terribly anti-social Generals such as Braids, Zur, or Arcum, it also has many social applications. As with any unbanning, we'll keep our eyes peeled, but we seriously doubt that Rofellos will be a format-changing General.

Gifts Ungiven
You love it or you hate it. The reason it's been added to the Watch List is its ability to search your library for two of your best four cards for only four mana. There are many game-breaking two card combos, so we want to keep a serious eye on the ability to get to them so quickly.

Sundering Titan
Three, four, and five color decks being the majority of what gets played in EDH, Sundering Titan can easily strangle any single player, moreso when it comes out early. The fact that it can go into any deck and its asymmetrical nature multiplied this advantage. We're hoping that banning of Tinker and Metalworker will help, but we're still watching this for serious abuse (and recurring ST with Academy Ruins has not escaped us).

Time Stretch
The ability to take multiple turns is a significant advantage in multiplayer games. Time Stretch resolving once isn't so bad, but the second extra turn gives the player a great deal more opportunity for recursion, which we think is problematic. The primary thing saving Time Stretch from the banned list right now is that it costs 10 mana. We'll revisit next time.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

June 18, 2009
Sheldon wrote: Effective 20 June, 2009:

Gifts Ungiven is BANNED
Fastbond is BANNED
Braids, Cabal Minion, is BANNED as a GENERAL
The Watch List is DISCONTINUED
No other changes

GIFTS UNGIVEN
We know that this will raise a great cry from some players, but as we previously noted, Gifts is simply broken (especially at the 3U cost and the fact that it's an Instant). The ability to tutor for two combo pieces and two ways to recur them generally makes this a one-card game-ender, which we feel is completely contrary to the EDH vision.

FASTBOND
The overwhelming reason Fastbond gets played is to fuel a degenerate combo. The EDH life total makes Fastbond easy and safe to use for an inconsiderable cost. Couple that with the land destruction combo with Crucible of Worlds (which we're still very happy we unbanned), and Fastbond becomes even worse. We're not opposed to land destruction or even mass land destruction, but asymmetrical mass land destruction that's nearly uncounterable worries us a great deal.

BRAIDS, CABAL MINION
If you're not absolutely prepared for it and capable of doing something about it on the first few turns, a Braids lock is nearly inevitable. We also don't want games to devolve into being about a single card every time that card hits the table (see Kokusho). Braids as a General defines 'unfun'.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

September 10, 2009
Sheldon wrote: EDH SEPTEMBER 2009 UPDATE

Effective 20 September 2009

*No additions to the Banned List*

*Riftsweeper is Unbanned*

*The Command Zone is adopted*

*The Open Play Rule for Generals is adopted*

*The "Partial Paris" mulligan is adopted*

Although there has been a great deal of debate on cards that some see as problematic (such as Staff of Domination, Eternal Witness, Time Stretch, and Mindslaver), the Rules Committee was not sufficiently convinced that any of these cards currently pose a significant threat to the health of the format. We will continue to keep our eyes peeled.

The Command Zone, created specifically for Planechase cards, is an excellent fit for Generals. Many players actually believed up to this point that there was a separate General Zone, so we feel that this move is consistent with both the direction of Magic and the way players intuitively see the game. The rules will be updated as follows:

8. The General begins the game in the Command Zone

11. While a General is in the Command Zone, it may be played. As an additional cost to play your General this way, you must pay {2} for each previous time you have played it this way.

12. If a General would be put into a Graveyard or Exile from anywhere, its owner may put it in the Command Zone instead. This is a replacement effect. The creature never goes to the graveyard and will not trigger such abilities. Note: The General may still go to a player's hand or library. This will not be replaced by rule 12.

Riftsweeper is unbanned due to it no longer interacting with Generals.

Having two different rules for playing Generals has become very confusing to many players. We've chosen to adopt the Open Play rule as the official, and move the League Play rule to the Optional Rules section. The ever-growing popularity of EDH means that there are simply too few Generals available for everyone. We still support local groups playing with the League Play Rule. Note that while some groups play with the rule that the General is "Superlegendary" (meaning immune to the Legend Rule), this is not the official position of the Rules Committee. Generals are still subject to the normal Legend rule. We feel as though the ability to simply replay your General more than balances out the ability of another player to at least temporarily get rid of it via Clone and friends.

As far as the mulligan rule goes, we want players to be able to play the game (and lessen the chance of mana screw) without enabling degenerate combos. To that end, we've chosen to adopt the "Partial Paris" (sometimes called the "Brittany") mulligan. In the Partial Paris mulligan, you may set aside any number of cards from your initial seven and then draw that many minus one. Like the normal Magic mulligan, you may repeat this process, drawing one fewer card each time. Once you have a hand you're happy with, you shuffle back in the set-aside cards. We feel as though this will give players the maximum opportunity to start with a playable opening hand.

The Rules Committee is dedicated to keeping the format vibrant, alive, and responsive to the needs of its player base. In the coming months, in addition to the normal discussion regarding banning/unbanning of individual cards, will be considering other conceptual areas for the format, such as 1v1 play, the involvement of Planechase, and more.

On behalf of the RC,
Sheldon

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

December 3, 2009
Sheldon wrote: EFFECTIVE 20 DECEMBER, 2009

Grindstone is UNBANNED

Painter's Servant is BANNED

No Other Changes

Painter's Servant has been the fuel for unpleasant combos, most notably with Grindstone and Iona, Shield of Emeria. The latter two cards occupy some interesting design/deckbuilding space, so we'd like to see them in the format. Swapping Grindstone/Painter's Servant seemed like a natural fit to bring back a decent card and get rid of the true offender.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

March 22, 2010
papa_funk wrote: EDH BANNED LIST UPDATE MAR 2010

*no changes*

Although we're keeping a close eye on a few cards, we feel the format is pretty healthy right now, and that we've struck a good balance throughout different play groups and different play styles.

(Apologies for the delay. Sheldon is temporarily away, having way too good a time)

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

June 18, 2010
Sheldon wrote: Effective 20 Jun 10

BANNED
Rofellos as a General
Channel
Tolarian Academy
Staff of Domination

It's clear that especially in the post-Eldrazi world, super-fast, super-reliable early mana production is dangerous to the format. Rofellos, Channel, and Tolarian Academy have all demonstrated they can do this with quite a bit of ease.

Unbanning Rofellos as a General was a year-long experiment that didn't pan out. We had hoped it would lead to a spate of fun-and-full-of-fat decks, but that wasn't the case. First- or second-turn Channel into Emrakul or similar things are simply negatively format-warping. Tolarian Academy, while not quite as explosive as the Rofellos and Channel, fuels easy early-game super-production of mana.

We've had our eyes on Staff of Domination for a long, long time, and were hoping that someone would find uses for it that didn't include the term 'degenerate.' That hope proved fruitless. Strangely enough, it's the first and cheapest activation that has proved the most troublesome.

The watchword of the Rule's Committee's vision of the format is 'interactive.' We'd like to foster an environment where ridiculous things happen, but that everyone playing has a chance to do them. Early, reliable, hyper-production of mana often leads to a single player playing by himself and others watching, and that's not what we want for EDH.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

September 20, 2010
Sheldon wrote: SEP 20, 2010

BANNED
No changes

UNBANNED
No changes

As of summer 2010, we find the format relatively healthy and stable. Some of the peak attention has abated, but the format is still being played a great deal with more than 40 EDH side events at both American and Japanese nationals, online games firing regularly, leagues cropping up all over the place, and reports of EDH being played at every major prerelease. The social-first, dialogue-guided philosophy has gained a lot of traction around the world. While there are always cards which are particularly powerful and/or difficult to play against, none of them are warping the format or dictating particular play styles. Emrakul in particular has elicited concerns, but is usually dealt with promptly using an omnipresent board sweeper. Both tournaments and social games are seeing a variety of Generals and deck styles, so we see no need to make changes to the banned list at this point.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

December 14, 2010
Sheldon wrote: Effective 20 Dec 2010:

BANNED
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

This is one on which we listened heavily to what the community was saying, and nearly without exception, everyone hates Emrakul. It's a card that makes the game devolve into a war over a single card whenever it hits the table. Add to that the fact that its combination of abilities made is seriously unfun to play against. We had already had our eye on it, and when the community spoke, we listened.

RULES UPDATE
Color Identity (which will be added to the Magic Comprehensive Rules)

Rule #2 is amended as follows:
When building a Commander deck, the mana symbols in the text box are just as important as those in the cost of a card. The Commander's color identity restricts what cards may appear in the deck.

* The color identity of a card is the colors of all mana symbols on the card, along with any color defined by a characteristic-defining ability (CDA) in the card's rules text.

* Cards in your deck may not have any colors in their color identity not shared by your Commander.

* Mana you produce of colors that are not in your Commander's color identity is colorless instead.

* Mana symbols in reminder text are not part of color identity.

The major impact here is that there are a few Legendary Creatures who no longer invalidate themselves as Commanders: Memnarch, Bosh, Iron Golem, Thelon of Havenwood, Daughter of Autumn, and Rhys, the Exiled. It means that you can have these creatures as Commanders, and you can generate mana of their color identity (so if you're playing Memnarch, you can generate blue mana, or if you're playing Thelon, you can generate black and green).

The RC spends quite some time considering the needs of the format itself and the voices of the format's player base, making an effort to strike the balance that while keep the format strong and healthy for a long, long time.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

March 17, 2011
Sheldon wrote: EFFECTIVE 20 MARCH, 2011

BANNED
No changes

UNBANNED
No changes

We see no compelling evidence that there are new cards which are warping the format, nor any cards whose unbanning would significantly improve things. There are cards RC members like and dislike more than others, but our personal likes and dislikes are not primary reasons for bannings. We struggle to maintain a balance for the overall health of the format.

One of the concerns we discussed is Commander's current growth and its additional attraction of newer players, especially when the new materials are released in June. We considered if we needed to ban additional cards in order to provide less of a social barrier-to-entry to those new players. In the end, we came to the conclusion that while a few of the less social cards might provide suboptimal experiences for some of those new players, they also might not, and some of those cards provide a positive experience for veterans and Johnnies as premium win conditions. Attempting to over-engineer the way players have fun in the format by banning a few cards that we consider anti-social would lead to a cascade of bannings ("If you ban X, you have to ban Y"), creating a large, unmanageable, and undesirable Banned List, which we believe is extremely unhealthy.

All in all, the format seems quite healthy. We'll continue to work with playgroups, individuals and the wider Commander community in an effort to keep it that way.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

June 14, 2011
Sheldon wrote: EFFECTIVE 17 Jun 2011 (Early, to coincide with Launch Parties)

BANNED
No Changes

UNBANNED
Worldgorger Dragon

We don't unban cards lightly, but it's time for Worldgorger Dragon to get out of the penalty box. It is no longer a particularly strong example of unwelcome, format-warping, combo-play style, but simply another infinite-combo piece. Those applications are narrow enough that it should not cause problems for social players, and the type of player who wants to play this kind of infinite combo isn't going to play a more fun deck because Worldgorger Dragon is available. Thus, since it's a goal to keep the list as short as possible and focused on more fun-oriented games, we believe it can come off the list.

We'd also like to take the chance to thank the folks on the various forums for their continued input and commentary to and support for the Rules Committee. The broader community has many voices, and we do our best to hear them all.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

September 19, 2011
Genomancer wrote: We've got something for everyone today, including one relatively straight-forward change and two updates which may be more surprising.

BANNED
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant should not be played as a General
The exemption making Shahrazad acceptable for play is removed.

UNBANNED
Lion's Eye Diamond is unbanned.

Shahrazad

Starting with the least contentious issue: Shahrazad. Historically, the {W}{W} sorcery was allowed as an example of an interesting, crazy card. It provided a potent tool for aggressive decks such as white-weenie, but most importantly it highlighted the fact that the Commander games (and rules) can differ significantly from "tournament stable" formats.

Unfortunately, Shahrazad was instead used almost exclusively to troll other players by forking it, recurring it, and otherwise drawing out the game in byzantine ways. While there are lots of cards which can be used to do the same thing, Shahrazad was only allowed because of a special exemption to the rules. Since one of our aims is to keep the rules lean, and this extra rule was a net negative for most groups, it has been removed. We don't think many tears will be spread for its loss but, as always, if your group doesn't mind the occasional subgame, feel free to keep playing it!

Erayo, Soratami Ascendant

Listing Erayo as the third example of a legendary creature unwelcome in the commander role is likely to raise more questions. Some people will argue that other legends are more deserving of hate, but we feel that Erayo is a flagship example of a general whose sole purpose is to decrease interactivity. We don't think she's ever used to make games more interesting: the deck (and Erayo decks are pretty much identical) plays the same every game, requires fairly narrow answers to disrupt, and when it wins does so very early in the game.

Worse, it's not always obvious to newer players that the game is over when Erayo flips, and they suffer through many turns of waiting to "actually die". Strategies like this, which win in confounding and non-obvious ways, often cause poor play experiences because they exacerbate the difference between players' understanding of the game.

Is Erayo the most powerful early game mono-blue commander? It doesn't really matter.. what matters is that adding her to the banned list sends the clearest message that generals *like this* shouldn't be played... they make for boring games.

Lion's Eye Diamond

Unbanning Lion's Eye Diamond is also likely to cause some hue and cry. There is a small but vocal segment of the commander player base who say that all fast mana like Sol Ring and Mana Crypt should be banned to balance the format... a complaint which rather misses the point. Our aim is not to make commander an unbreakable tournament format... it continues to be (and hopefully always will be) chock full of crazy powerful plays which you, the players, are trusted to explore rather than exploit. The rules page and list of unwelcome cards is there to help players avoid *accidentally* ruining games... and LED's presence on the list wasn't accomplishing that.

LED was originally banned as an example of a two-card infinite mana combo (with Auriok Salvagers), but like Worldgorger Dragon its presence on the list is increasingly incongruous. There are many two-card combos which actually kill multiple players in a single turn, and most players new to the format don't see LED and think "Ah, inifinite mana combos are kind scummy." Additionally, there are interesting ways to use LED and, consistent with our philosophy on blacklisting cards, most of the boring uses of LED are easy to distinguish from its interesting applications. It enables commanders late in the game, and expensive commanders in particular because they tend to be played later when hands are smaller.

One possible source of problems with LED is its synergy with various tutors, which may be a good or bad thing. As with any change to the list, we'll keep a weather eye out and if it turns out to be a signficant force for degeneracy or repetitive games, we have no problems admitting we're wrong and sending it back into exile. Honestly, we don't think taking it off the list will have much impact other than makes the list one card shorter.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

December 20, 2011
Sheldon wrote: 20 Dec 2011

BANNED LIST
No changes

We're extremely happy with the current state of the format. While there may be a few cards that we see causing folks some heartburn, we don't currently find any of them format-warping and worthy of getting bounced. Our view at the moment involves taking in the big picture to make sure that we're capturing the spirit of EDH. We're attracting more and more players to the format, with no near turn end in sight to that growth. The RC will continue to very carefully keep an eye on both how players approach the format as well as the cards they're playing with.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

March 20, 2012
Sheldon wrote: BANNED
No new additions

UNBANNED
No new removals

Commander continues to grow briskly and the format appears healthy. At this time we feel that it needs no changes. While there are always a few cards that are still worth keeping our eyes on just in case they start tipping over the edge, we feel that there is nothing that's currently warping the format in an unhealthy direction.

As we do all the time, we revisited cards just to make sure they still deserve their place on the banned list. After some long discussions, we agreed that removing anything would be detrimental to the format's current health.

The most intensive work we're doing regards some reworking of the rules and philosophy section. We're not really changing anything so much as more deeply and clearly articulating the set of cascading philosophies of the format and our goals for it. You'll see the results of that work shortly. The top level message is that there is an Official Version of Commander, and that the official version can live in harmony with local and house rules. The vision of a shared positive group experience and methods for achieving it will play strongly in what we have to say.

We're aware that there are no fans of any format so dedicated to it and passionate about it than ours. We continue to thank an ever-growing community of players for their input and support in keeping this the most fun format in the game.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

June 19, 2012
Sheldon wrote: Griselbrand is BANNED

Sundering Titan is BANNED

No other changes

Griselbrand was relatively simple choice. We knew all along it was pretty busted. While we had a glimmer of hope that the batch-of-7 card draw would help mitigate the obvious problem of a player being able to draw so many cards immediately (like Yawgmoth's Bargain, unlike Necropotence), it simply didn't. Griselbrand's Lifelink ability, allowing you more resources to draw cards with, coupled with being a creature and therefore easier to get into play (not to mention repeatedly) for far less than his mana cost, led to quite degenerate game states.

Sundering Titan has long been a card on the edge. The decision to get rid of it came from the combination of two points. One, it simply created undesirable game states. It was too easily both intentionally abused and unintentionally game-warping, especially since its ability triggers on both entering and leaving the battlefield. Two, there has been a fair amount of community distaste for the card, and we agreed that the card overwhelmingly creates a negative experience for players. Listening to the ever-growing and ever more-involved community is important to us.

There's an M13 card—Worldfire—that's been generating some talk. We're going to keep a close eye on the card after its release to look at its impact and potential impact on the format, but there's no reason to panic and pre-ban it. Banning cards is about what they do, not about what they might do, so like we did with Griselbrand, and despite what we see as a likely outcome, we'd like to see some evidence of it first.

As a side note, remember that there is ongoing Kokusho testing, so no decision will be made on it until the September update, at the earliest.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

September 18, 2012
Sheldon wrote: BANNED
Primeval Titan
Worldfire

UNBANNED
Kokusho, the Evening Star

BANNED AS COMMANDER
Kokusho, the Evening Star

Worldfire
This banning was largely expected. Though the card itself isn't overpowered, it does have unfortunate interactions with the format, namely that the Commander is available to be cast even after the spell has resolved, and our philosophy is to avoid cards like that. Since, outside of this one quirk, there aren't a lot of interesting applications to the card, we don't anticipate it'll be missed much. Unlike...

Primeval Titan
One of the concerns that we've had recently is the overrepresentation of heavy ramp strategies, to the point where it makes up a large proportion of the aggregate decks out there. While we think ramp should be good - this is battlecruiser Magic, after all - it's probably a little too prevalent and needs reining in a bit. With that in mind, we're banning the most egregious offender, Primeval Titan.

This decision won't be universally popular. Primeval Titan is dripping with awesomeness, and we ourselves are big fans of the card. But its ubiquity and effect on games couldn't be ignored and sad though we are to see it go, we think it will make for a more interesting and diverse format.

Kokusho
It's appropriate that Kokusho comes off at the same time as Prime Time goes on, as Kokusho was originally banned along the same lines. His presence had a similar warping effect on the format in the early days, with too many decks reusing the Dragon over and over (even if it didn't start in their deck!). However, in the intervening time, graveyard hate has become stronger and the overall level of creature power has risen to the point where we're comfortable - moreso after some testing - that it won't have the same impact.

He remains banned as a Commander because the mechanics of being a Commander allow him to circumvent the best method of dealing with him - the aforementioned graveyard hate. Getting him into exile as a creature is the end of it. As a Commander, it's license to start again.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

January 26, 2013
Ban Ki-moon wrote: BANNED LIST
No changes

Commander as a format is as healthy as it has ever been, and there are currently no issues that require changes to the banned list. As always, there is spirited debate on a number of topics both among the community and within the rules committee, but none are problems that challenge the enjoyability or growth of EDH.

EXTORT
With the release of Gatecrash, we'd like to clarify our stance on Extort by confirming that, as always, reminder text has no effect on color identity. Extort adds no colored mana symbols to a card outside of its reminder text, and therefore is legal for play in Commander decks of any color or colors (as long as the card it appears on is otherwise legal, of course). There will be no updates to the rules in the foreseeable future that affect how Extort works in Commander.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

April 21, 2013
obsidiandice wrote: Staff of Domination is UNBANNED

Trade Secrets is BANNED

Overall, we're very happy with the current state of Commander. Both of these changes are decisions that have been building momentum for a while rather than urgent issues.

When Staff of Domination was banned, it was one of the most widespread and iconic combo cards in the format. Banning it sent a clear message that turn four wins weren't the gameplay we wanted to see. These days there are plenty of scarier combo cards out there, and Staff of Domination has a valid role as a cool utility card. Neither of these would be enough their own, but together they provide solid reasons to unban the do-anything stick. Please enjoy Staff of Domination responsibly.

Trade Secrets is much like Limited Resources in that has some issues in a multiplayer environment. It isn't a problem when one player draws four cards and another draws eight. Trade Secrets is a problem when both players decide to draw 80 cards and effectively turn a four-player game into a two-player game. It just doesn't add enough to the format to justify the games that it single-handedly ruins.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

July 7, 2013
Sheldon wrote: BANNED LIST: No Changes

While we will continue to keep an eye out for problematic cards, we are quite happy with the state and direction of the format at the moment. We're looking forward to seeing what interesting developments, new deck types, and strategic interactions the M14 rules will bring.

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

September 15, 2013
papa_funk wrote: Here's the news you're waiting for up front: There are no changes to the banned list. Commander is in a good place right now. Sure, there are some potentially unfun cards out there, but most of them either telegraph their unfun-ness, or have too much potential for awesome in the right hands to be kept down. A few months of playing with the new Legend rule suggests that it hasn't made anything more problematic. As for the current list, as a thought exercise all the RC members named a card they felt was closest to being removable from the banlist. No card got named twice.

We are making a small change to the format. For a long time, the "Optional" section has confused people. Are they official optional rules? Do they apply on a per-player or per-playgroup basis? The goal of the section was to show how flexible the format could be and that there was no problem tailoring the rules to suit your playgroup, but we feel that it wasn't accomplishing this goal in its current form. So, we're going to replace it with a "House Rules" section where we discuss the philosophy of house rules and link to some popular/and or interesting ones other groups have adopted. If your group has a house rule you'd like us to consider linking to, please suggest in in this thread.

The main impact of this change is that there won't be any endorsement of sideboards as an 'official optional' rule, though playgroups continue to be welcome to house-rule them into existence as they desire. Originally, the sideboard rules were conceived as a way to give a little more structure to competitive playgroups, but that never got much uptake; the few people who did adopt sideboards mostly did so as wishboards, and not as the intended group decision.

The League Rule also goes away, but the new Legend rule made that irrelevant already.

Theros looks like it's going to be a slam-dunk for Commander - sets dripping with flavor produce great generals and support cards alike - so go out and get brewing!

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Post by cryogen » 4 years ago

February 2, 2014
Genomancer wrote: It's been almost a year since the banned list for Commander was altered, as we feel the format continues to grow, games are reasonably diverse where their players want them to be, and we want to keep the banned list as short as practical.

That said, there is one card which has drawn an increasing amount of ire over the past year. We feel Sylvan Primordial is causing far more problems than its contributions justify, and that the format will be better off without it. It meets many of the heuristic markers for a banned card, insofar as it invalidates many other creatures as search targets and causes arguments about whether its use is degenerate or reasonable. It can be easily accelerated into on turn 4 or 5 (before players are expected to have extensive defenses or threats online), at which point it turns a reasonable ramp deck into uninteresting games.

If the card was just a big ramp, or just utility destruction, or just spot land destruction, it would likely be fine but by combining both factors it becomes ubiquitous, frequently overwhelming, and repetitive. After some debate in previous seasons, the committee members all voted in favour of removing it from the format.

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