Gavin Verhey, on behalf of the Commander Format Panel, stepped forward today to announce an update to the Banned and Restricted List for EDH: more specifically, to make any revisions to the existing ban list after a review of all the existing cards on it. The original article is linked here, which I encourage you to read as it has dialogue on every card on the existing banlist, even ones that did not have any changes made from this balance pass. This evaluation was intended as a way to, in plain terms, check to see if anything on the banlist was worth unbanning in 2025, as many of the cards on the list have been there for quite some time. A few criteria were given for why cards should remain banned and/or unbanned, as well as a few comments that these would have the existing bracket system in mind, with the stipulation that not all groups are using the bracket system due to how new it is. To paraphrase a bit, the criteria are:
- Cards that don’t inherently promote negative play patterns or unwinnable games for the rest of the table
- Cards that can provide fun, interesting, and splashy moments as well as positive deckbuilding experiences
- Cards that are attached to fond memories that players would enjoy seeing back
There is a footnote that they are not planning to unban Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, or Dockside Extortionist at this time. It was stated that the opinions on them were varied, however the overall conclusion was overwhelmingly against taking any actions with them at the moment. It was stated that of the list, there was some discussion over Jeweled Lotus, but it was still a majority opinion to leave it banned for the moment. There likely will be some discussion on these in the future, but expect these to stay on the B&R list for the time being.
There also is a comment towards the end that they don’t plan to make any major updates to the banlist for the rest of the year, with the exception of any format warping cards that can warrant an emergency ban (with it literally being referred to as “The Nadu contingency,” for good reason).
In addition to these things, there was an update to the Game Changers list as well as some addendums and clarifications on the brackets. You can find them here.
18 new cards were added to the Game Changers list:
- Teferi’s Protection
- Humility
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Intuition
- Consecrated Sphinx
- Necropotence
- Orcish Bowmasters
- Notion Thief
- Deflecting Swat
- Gamble
- Worldly Tutor
- Crop Rotation
- Seedborn Muse
- Natural Order
- Food Chain
- Aura Shards
- Field of the Dead
- Mishra’s Workshop
As well as all of the cards that were unbanned today. In addition to these, two were removed:
The following are the cards that were unbanned, along with some of our thoughts on the unbannings:
Gifts Ungiven
Loxi: Gifts Ungiven is a topic of a lot of discussion, since it can be used as a way to effectively be a super favorable tutor to net yourself multiple useful cards in one fell swoop. While I agree this can definitely be used for powerful means, it’s still a 4 mana tutor that provides plenty of space for people to interact with whatever you end up fetching. This can still get some really powerful combos with a single card, but at this point in time one cheaper tutor can effectively fetch most of what you’d need for a win condition anyway for half the price (and potentially in a less telegraphed way). Frankly, I don’t expect to see this used outside of really powerful use cases even if it does have the fun Fact or Fiction play pattern as an option, just because most decks that run tutors like this are doing so with the intent of fetching something to answer the board or win the game anyway.
FromTheShire: This is the one most likely to wind up back on the ban list by a wide margin, with ever more ways to turn it into a one card combo as additional sets are released. That said, I still think this is fine to unban, there are plenty of one card or effectively one card combos in the game already anyway. At lower bracket tables you can’t use it to assemble a combo since you shouldn’t be playing those in that bracket anyway, and in higher end play everyone is both aware of the power of the card and already expected to be packing answers. The main way that I could see it being forced back on is if it pushes a bunch of bracket 4 decks into bracket 5 ones to deal with this potentially coming down on turn 3 or 4 and people are super salty about it, but generally if you are not trying to play CEDH already you’re less concerned with meta decks so I think it’s unlikely.
BPhillipYork: This is a really solid tutor especially for reanimation decks or decks that turn the yard into a resource, but at 4 mana cost and a limitation on tutors based on bracket it seems totally fine to unban. I would say in the context of tutors that there’s a wide variety of “goodness” of tutors. Vampiric Tutor is a 1 cost instant that lets you tutor any card to the top of your library. Trapmaker’s Snare is also “a tutor”. But in the sense of impacting the game, these two cards are going to have completely disparate levels of effectiveness. Trapmakers Snare is effectively unplayable, whereas Vampiric Tutor is like, one of the best cards ever printed. Gifts Ungiven is definitely on the much stronger side of potential tutors. Especially since it tutors for multiple things, which is effectively often going to be grabbing both pieces of a combo. Still, completely fine given the 4 mana cost, but I do wish some more thought would be put into “tutors” as a list of cards that are impactful.
Sway of the Stars
Loxi: I like the idea of seeing Sway of the Stars at the top end of a sort of counter-burn style deck, leveraging cheap and aggressive damage spells as a way to burn out everyone before they can recover from the reset. I think this card falls similarly into place with my opinions on mass land destruction: if you can leverage this to be skewed in favor of yourself by playing a deck that can more reliably win off this, then go nuts with it. The problem is that every player will pretty much always be on equal ground off this, and unlike with other spells at this cost (see: Omniscience) this has a much lower chance of securing you a win, rather it gives you a chance to fight for one in a vacuum. It’s a neat card but it’s likely just here for the good times now that it’s unbanned.
FromTheShire: I genuinely had forgotten this was banned or even existed because even in magical Christmas-land I hadn’t dreamed of resolving it. Yes it’s going to annoy some people if it gets cast because you’re restarting the game, but you’re restarting it with a full grip and very importantly at 7 life. Even in Commander that’s dangerously low and the game will end rapidly so you don’t have a Jokulhaups-esque board stall that takes forever to recover from. And if you let the game get to the point where someone slams this against you, that’s kinda on you so you really can’t be mad about it.
BPhillipYork: Well this is a fun way to set up the end of a game, and, well, bad, so if you want to make a deck around it it seems completely legitimate. Let’s be honest, I’ll probably write an article about making a deck to win with either this or Worldfire, since they’re fun huge swingy spells, and frankly games should end. Unbanning this will have virtually no impact on the game, so it seems like a no brainer.
Braids, Cabal Minion
Loxi: Braids, Cabal Minion is a powerful way to make an asymmetrical sacrifice deck, but I definitely think her unbanning was perfectly warranted. If you’ve ever played against something like Korvold, the Fae-Cursed King you understand what a powerful sacrifice engine through a commander can look like, and while Braids can provide a similar value engine, she does it at a much slower and more controlled pace. She’s also quite fragile and doesn’t have a way to keep herself protected from off-the-board spells very well. She can wreck things if left unchecked, but that’s how this controlling sacrifice strategy should play out in my opinion. She also leaves a lot of interesting choices for the table in finding an answer to her or just weathering the storm and finding fodder to kill off. I think folks get spooked by the lands clause here, but really if you’re down to that point you’re in a tough spot anyway. She’s powerful for sure and can do some real scary stuff, but I’d argue there are modern commanders in her archetype that surpass her in raw power alone, so seeing her unbanned will be interesting to see some new decks hit the table. She’ll likely be stuck around higher brackets though just due to how her decks function as a stax-y archetype in general.
FromTheShire: I tend to agree with the panel that this card is completely fine in the 99, and if you sit down against it as a Commander it’s very easy to say nah, I don’t really want to play that type of game tonight, or oh okay let me grab something equally powerful. It does put the onus on potential Braids players to be cool about that, and not get salty or try to guilt trip people into playing against it. Bring a second deck and you’re golden.
BPhillipYork: I’m a bit surprised to see Braids become unbanned. Personally I couldn’t care less, because yes it can be an oppressive effect, but I run instants in my deck and can interact with major threats like this. I’ve never made a deck that just folds to a 2 toughness creature forcing me to sacrifice. The idea is ridiculous. Braids as a commander is what it is, a bit oppressive, but if 4 cost 2/2 can lock 3 people down, those 3 people deserve to lose. As part of a deck Braids could be protected by spells in other colors, and that’s kind of obnoxious, but again, just blow it up. If someone is investing multiple pieces in protecting Braids and you can’t overcome that that’s just a way to win and should be fine, because again, games should end someday.
Coalition Victory
Loxi: I’m stoked to see Coalition Victory come back, it’s an 8-drop sorcery that lets you just win the game if you can pull off having a bunch of specific stuff on board. I normally don’t like “win the game” cards that much, but I’m totally cool with this coming back. Why, you might ask?
Bear with me here, compare this to Craterhoof Behemoth. It’s an 8 mana card you have to (usually) cast at sorcery speed that can let you win the game if you have a bunch of stuff on the board. Both have an opportunity to interact with the existing board state to try and shut it down. Although Coalition Victory has an extremely specific condition compared to the Hoof and arguably provides more setup due to this, it provides a much smaller window to actually interact with the things on board and guarantees the victory.
While it seems silly to compare them (and it is), my point is that most 8+ mana cards require some setup and can win you the game outright, and while this is slightly harder to interact with than others since it doesn’t require combat or damage, it’s also more fiddly to setup, cast, and actually secure a win with than something like, say, Expropriate, which often results in a win when you cast it even if it doesn’t say “win the game.”
It’s a fun alternate win condition, and it’ll be fun to see people try to pull this off through modern levels of interaction and other shenanigans.
FromTheShire: I’m again fine with this because you have to put some work in to get it to go off, draw or tutor for it, and then resolve an 8 mana spell without getting any of your lands blown up or creatures killed in response. Yes there will be games where it happens and it feels a little too soon or too sudden but like…. with current Magic power levels that’s just a thing you have to be aware could be coming anyway from one of the many other win on the spot cards or combos.
BPhillipYork: The fears of this card being an “easy win” seem vastly overblown to me. Most of the 5-color identity commanders that are actually good are not actually 5 color cards at all, but rather have WUBRG activation costs in their text box. The ones that are actually 5 color are 26 cards, but most of them don’t really play well with getting a land of each type out, and if they do you are committing to grabbing those lands, getting your commander out, and then casting this; which costs 8, and will do nothing if someone blows up a single permanent of yours. There’s some ways to “cheat” it like Transguild Courier and Prismatic Omen, things like that, but then you talking multiple pieces to win the game, just like any combo deck. So all in all this again seems completely fine to unban, another fun way to win, and I like multicolor matters and the support for it keeps creeping up, and eventually it’ll be there and a fun way to play.
Panoptic Mirror
Loxi: Frankly, Panoptic Mirror is the card I have the fewest opinions on. It’s really powerful, but it’s also really slow and telegraphed. It costs a shitload of mana to use this with any sizable spell, and in order to effectively get real value from this compared to just casting the spell, you need to get multiple activations from this. Truthfully I don’t see this seeing play unless you plan to abuse it in some way, such as infinite turns or some other combo. Even then, I think if you can stick a 10+ mana combo that requires you to untap with one of the pieces on board and nobody can interact with you to solve it, that’s not really much different than tons of other existing combos in the format. It’s fine, you can be super toxic with it but I think this is likely the piece that will see the least play on its return.
FromTheShire: Yeah this is basically for turbo turns decks, and you either were already annoyed by them or thought they were fine and one extra card capable of looping them isn’t going to be the breaking point either way.
BPhillipYork: The really mean thing with this is the obvious one, extra turn spells would be game winning, and there’s a number of things that could be pretty unpleasant. But putting together an extra turn spell and this would cost 10 mana, and it can still be blown up, so that should be mostly okay. Artifact removal tends to be a bit less common, but nonetheless, among 3 people you should be able to shut this down. It does seem like the most risky of the unbans, 5 colorless mana isn’t hard to generate quickly and getting some slam dunk spell that you’re copying over and over could be tremendously impactful on the game. Especially since you can imprint multiple things on Panoptic Mirror, rushing it out will almost never be bad, start with a value spell, then switch to your game winner later.
Our Thoughts on the Update
Loxi: Overall, it’s a solid step for modernizing the format. I really like that the CFP have been taking serious steps to make Commander feel like it’s being maintained and focused on outside of things like product sales and promotional materials, and their transparency is extremely appreciated. Probably the only other card I think could have maybe been unbanned is Sylvian Primordial, but I think their reasoning for keeping it off makes sense. I’m in favor of targeted land destruction since there are so many powerful nonbasic lands in the game now, so being a way to benefit off running basic forests while beating up those seems interesting.
That being said, I think all of the cards they did unban were good choices and didn’t really need to be on the list for the current state of the format. Between an updated bracket article to revise the game changers list and provide more clarity on top of this update, I think they’re off to a pretty stellar start towards better health for the format, even if all of their changes aren’t quite spot-on for all playgroups. I’m interested to see how things shape out going forward.
FromTheShire: It’s always nice to see unbans to show that WotC is actually actively monitoring and evaluating formats, and to let people either relive the glory days of their old cards again or discover the fun of something from before their time. I also really appreciate them going out of their way to highlight repeatedly that the brackets are mainly about intent, and the people saying look what a busted a thing I can make that’s TECHNICALLY bracket 2 are wildly missing the point. With the sheer number of cards and unique combinations of interactions in the format, if someone wants to be a sneaky pubstomper they’re always going to be able to. The brackets are not meant to be a carved in stone authoritative list of power levels, rather to get players to actually sit down and have rule 0 conversations and to give them some form of universal framework to do so, and that is an excellent goal.
I still have some quibbles with some of the terms they use like “average precon level” which even Gavin acknowledged in the article is probably something that needs to be changed, and on some things that are or aren’t Game Changers, but this seems to be moving in a positive direction. I have heard a lot of good feedback from people that use it for LGS’s, and while I have currently not been using the system it’s because I play with established groups of friends where the same kind of conversations the bracket system is intended to facilitate are always ongoing. I feel like that has always been the case in playgroups I enjoyed and that ended up being long running, and if the end result is making half of the community’s pickup games at the LGS more fun and balanced then it seems like a success.
BPhillipYork: First off, unban Golos, Tireless Pilgrim you absolute cowards. Secondly, there’s plenty more room for other unbans or silly cards, Upheaval is arguably way less of a problem than Cyclonic Rift, for example. It’d be nice to see them methodically clean up the ban list to be cards that are overly impactful to games, rather than cards that pissed off the former members or whatever bizarre criteria was used. Also please just, please add Timetwister. It’s truly dumb to have a card that costs over $3,500 be legal in an anything goes format.
In terms of the overall changes to commander, they are moving in the right direction, but the bracket system needs a lot of work. There’s really only 3 brackets and most decks live in bracket 3, which is still effectively “my deck’s a seven” bracket. Thankfully at least a lot of cards are banned or limited to be used in a seven deck, so that’s a lot of progress, but there really ought to be a significant difference between a 4 and a 5, and an understandable difference between 1 and 2 and 3. Anything more objective and clear is better than subjective and hand wavey and then leaning on rule zero. There’s a weird pandering to people who don’t want to use deck lists or whatever, and it’s quite a strange thing. The very people who are going to ignore the brackets and just play whatever they want we somehow have to constantly work around and design rules around?
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