Barigord Gaming – 09/23/24 – Magic the Gathering
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Hey Magic people! The banhammer came down today.
In a surprise announcement, the Commander Rules Committee banned 4 cards, and I have a few immediate thoughts about it.
You can read about the announcement here.
First, let’s harken back to a post I wrote last year. It’s getting some attention today.
Three of today’s banned cards were on my list. The last was not printed at the time, but if I made the list in the last month or so, it would be on it. I don’t think these cards were flying under the radar.
Here are the four cards:
This is a really interesting group because 3 of the 4 are not only extremely expensive and heavily played, they are very reprintable. I’m not including Nadu, Winged Wisdom which is not that expensive and banned in the format it was printed for.
I really don’t want to talk much about Nadu. We can all agree it was a mistake. WotC does. They admit it got through development untested. Ouch.
But the others are big time pack sellers. All three have price tags in the three digit range, depending on where you live and the condition of the card. Or what special edition it is. They’re not cards WotC would want banned.
Jeweled Lotus was first printed in Commander Legends, a set that was calibrated to appeal to Commander players. The first one of very many. Now that’s every set. I don’t know what led to the printing of Jeweled Lotus, exactly. They had to know it was broken, but I guess they knew how the Rules Committee was going to react, and it was printed anyway. It has always been expensive.
Mana Crypt is extremely old, and probably never went through much of a testing process. The card was originally distributed as a reward for buying a book. It was always broken, and found a home in the Commander community as the format got popular. It was reprinted into obvious demand, with a recent special edition in Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
Dockside Extortionist was printed in Commander 2019, in a blue/red/white deck headlined by Sevinne, the Chronoclasm. It was one of the first ever cards that made treasure tokens. Hard to imagine now, as every set is full of cards that make treasure tokens. At the time, and still, non-green decks struggled to ramp, and a red mana-maker seemed reasonable. Like a conditional ritual spell, that scaled for Commander. Well it was just too good.
It’s tough to know what effect this will have for WotC. If sales are affected, we might see powercreep on other angles to compensate. But will we?
What this means for Casual Commander
Rule 0 means these cards can still be played if everyone agrees to it. But a lot of casual players who spent a lot of money on these cards are probably salty. As they should be. Their desire to optimize is very relatable, and so is spending money on your hobby.
Overall though, this should be good for the game. Casual Commander is about getting to do our thing, and these cards all contribute to one player doing all the things while the others watch. We still have powerful fast mana options, so some decks will still be fast, but getting to cast a 4+ mana Commander on turn 1 regularly has been nerfed a bit.
What this means for cEDH
This is a big deal for cEDH. I think this might be a tipping point for the format to officially separate, and maybe even become a fully sanctioned format with big money tournaments sponsored by WotC. Why?
In part because it gives people who like these cards and want to play with them a place to do that. It also gives WotC the demand they need to keep using them to sell packs. Real demand, not niche demand. Put some prize money behind things, and maybe the value of these cards will climb.
A full separation and whatnot for cEDH would open the door for that format to embrace things like the Power 9, and all sorts of nonsense, while regular Commander could ban a few more things. Maybe change how Annihilator works, or make tutors only able to fetch cards that are allowed in multiples, like basics.
What this means for the RC
Relevance. I don’t know what they’ve been up to in the last little while. The only thing I can specifically recall is Sheldon Menery talking about pre-banning Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines. That was a while ago.
If the RC wanted to get back into the Commander conversation in a big way, this is how to do it. It also could give players the impression that the RC and WotC are totally separate entities and nobody’s secretly telling the RC what to do. Think what you want on that subject. Regardless, this was a big swing for PR, and it should pay off.
Wrap-Up
I like these bans. I’ve advocated for them. These cards suck to play against. But there are still places to play them for those who like a velocity and overall power level of card that’s too good for casual tables.
Hopefully this is the start of more attention to detail on the part of the RC and WotC. We need adjustments to our game, because R&D is squeezing out cards too fast to keep from making mistakes. And the game has to make money, so packs gotta move.
There have been big shakeups to a few formats recently, and while it risks financial harm to WotC and players alike, the long term health of the game is paramount. It has to be fun. Good bans, RC.
Thanks for reading!
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