MTGNexus

Sheldon Menery wrote:RULES

Rule 10 is removed. Rule 11 is renumbered to Rule 10.

CARDS

Worldfire is Unbanned

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is Banned

Rule 10, which stated that commanders were subject to the legend rule, was created in the days when the legend rule was less stable; the rule remained as an artifact of that time. It's not a Commander-specific rule, but simply existed as a clarification. Since it's redundant, we chose to eliminate it. This change is administrative only and will have no impact on how games are played. Rule 11 bumps up to Rule 10.

Worldfire was once banned due to the problematic interaction with floating mana and having access to your Commander. We want to foster a Commander environment where 8- and 9-mana spells are viable and likely to show up in a game, so we evaluate the expensive ones in that context. Unlike Coalition Victory and Biorhythm, which we continue to believe are problematic in that environment, the level of effort needed to make Worldfire effective is sufficient that we suspect it will not be as much of an issue. There are already cheaper ways to do similar things in the format. We believe the social contract and robust pregame discussions will keep Worldfire out of games in which it doesn't belong.

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim has been a much-discussed card that is both popular to play with and unpopular to play against. There are many problems with the card, but the greatest is that in the low-to-middle tiers where we focus the banlist, Golos is simply a better choice of leader for all but the most commander-centric decks. Its presence crushes the kind of diversity in commander choice which we want to promote. You can drop in Golos and a few 5-color lands into a random deck and get all the ramp and card advantage you would ever want from a commander, with no worries about your mana base. Golos' ability effectively reduces the commander tax to one and once you hit seven mana (with Golos assuring that you have WUBRG and helping you get there quickly), you don't need to do anything for the rest of the game except cast spells for free—something we always want to be careful about. We've talked to the folks in Studio X and they understand the problems created by generically-powerful five-color commanders that don't have WUBRG in their mana cost. We don't expect similar cards to come from them in the future, so a surgical strike now makes sense. We understand that many players love Golos, so we don't take this action lightly. In the end, the health of the format is our primary concern and we find Golos unhealthy. While Kenrith, the Returned King is a similarly flexible and popular commander for good stuff five color decks, we see it as a clear step down from Golos.

cryogen wrote: ↑

2 years ago

olos is simply a better choice of leader for all but the most commander-centric decks. Its presence crushes the kind of diversity in commander choice which we want to promote. You can drop in Golos and a few 5-color lands into a random deck and get all the ramp and card advantage you would ever want from a commander, with no worries about your mana base.

illakunsaa wrote: ↑

2 years ago

I just %$#% built the sorrows path deck and now its banned.

RxPhantom wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Not having WUBRG in his casting cost isn't that big a deal, IMHO. He's emblematic of a bigger problem that they touched on in the announcement: commanders that serve as self-sustaining value engines that require little to no setup. Having so many easy buttons in the format makes it so much worse. I do wonder if there will be any backlash. Sure, plenty of us are rejoicing, but you can't just ban the most popular commander ever without repercussions. Anyway...

May Golos burn in hell forever.

Maluko wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Also really surprised to see Worldfire getting unbanned. The card was banned almost three months after its printing, which to me signalled it was going to stay on the banned list forever. Still reticent about seeing the card going wild again. But I applaud the initiative by the RC. Even if it ends up being banned again, I'm glad they decided to test the waters.

Venedrex wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Just played a game versus Golos with my Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge Historic Brawl deck yesterday. It went about how you would expect. Basically you can try and fight them, or just auto-concede because you realize the power level disparity is so massive.

BeneTleilax wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Oracle is not that bad without Flash in my experience.

3drinks wrote: ↑

2 years ago

Oh cool worldfire is unbanned maybe I'll grab a cop-- lol silly r/mtgfinance, you can't spec on that card. Can't wait until they reprint it or people realize it's never been good, to make every one of these trash bag hack "investors" lose their butts on this buyout.

ISBPathfinder wrote: ↑

2 years ago

My complaints about oracle are not cEDH based. Its a much worse card to encounter when not playing cEDH because its "technically" not a combo (even though it totally is) so I know a lot of people who play it in 75% commander. Its a much worse offender as you go to more casual magic because the expected counterplay being primarily counterspells see less play.

I am not saying that your argument is strictly speaking about cEDH but I haven't ever once seen Flash be cast but I have seen a ton of Thassa's Oracle cast. I don't believe I have ever seen a cast Oracle not resolve in part due to how a lot of the decks that draw the entire deck quickly often having a grip of like 3 free counterspells in hand when they do it. It can be just as toxic as the other variants but it costs less mana making it easier to do and limiting interaction options. I think all three can go and be banned but I don't suspect a request like that to ever take.