Commander Bans: Thoughts on Latest Bans & Sol Ring

Our members discussed this event and its impact a bit, as well as raising a new question:

Romeu

Favorite Commander: "The one that wins" (or, seriously, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and Edgar Markov)

Sol Ring is Commander's trademark, it won't be banned.

But let's talk about what's really in this banlist? The RC decided that Commander games can't be too fast - advantages of having a Jeweled Lotus or a Mana Crypt in the first turns - and also decided to remove a card that punished common Signet plays on turn 2 by banning Dockside Extortionist, which on a three-mana rocks board on turn 2, guaranteed a Black Lotus on turn 3 and, with some luck, already starting looping with blinks and other effects to increase this mana advantage. The goal was to maintain resource parity in a game by reducing the number of actions that players can perform too early.

What I'm wondering at this point is whether it's not time to separate cEDH from Commander and create a new banlist focused on competitive play with its own committee. There is a huge difference between the goals of cEDH players and Commander players, and these bans have hit competitive first and then casual, where most of these cards were already frowned upon anyway.

There is a huge disconnect between cEDH's perception and RC's view of the format - and just as it doesn't make sense for competitive players to ban Dockside Extortionist because it was a way to police their opponents, it also doesn't make sense to keep quick victory lines like the many involving Thassa's Oracle in casual Commander if the goal is to slow down the format and make it more focused on gradual game progression.

Commander, as it is currently run, is not a format designed for competition. Either players will have to accept this, or there will come a time when a competent group will have to take the reins of cEDH and separate it from casual.

Eduardo Silveira

Favorite Commander: Gavi, Nest Warden

Nadu's ban has relevance in casual tables, where his abilities made him very expressive, creating a huge advantage. The variety of combos and his consistency made him the commander with the highest Salt Score (an index that measures the oppression caused by a Magic card), such characteristics put him at the top of competitive tables since his release and caused discrepancies as the only commander in all positions of a finalist table.

Statistically, in most games, whoever opens the game with Sol Ring will win - adding it to Mana Crypt and Mana Vault we have the holy trinity of turn 1. In the casual table, these cards more than dictate the pace of the game with explosive openings in the classic Sol Ring (or Mana Crypt, or Vault), and a Signet, is the great controversy of bans, and the motivator of heated conversations about the need or not to ban the most iconic card of the format. In competitive, its loss changes the Metagame a lot, making several decks unviable or weakening them, especially those that lost an important piece for its perfect 3-mana entry: Malcolm, Najeela, Sisay and many others...

Dockside causes a great loss of several combo lines, in addition to being a "silver bullet" against several others - Its departure from the competitive tables will be felt by everyone with a change in several decks.

At the kitchen table, his departure is bittersweet: happy for some and sad for many. On the other hand, Jeweled Lotus is the opposite, with his departure being of great relevance for casual games and little or no relevance for competitive tables.

Otávio César

Favorite Commander: Nicol Bolas, the Ravager

Of the 10 years I've been playing Magic, at least 9 of them have been Commander.

I've followed several bans closely: Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Prophet of Kruphix, Paradox Engine, and as someone who's been playing this format for almost a decade, I can say with certainty that every Commander ban was very surgical to keep the environment healthy, and these latest bans are no different. The difference is that today we have a branch of EDH called cEDH, and this messes up this "format" quickly.

The ideal would be to separate two different banlists so as not to harm cEDH players because casual players don't need to have access to any of the banned cards. It is worth noting that when you start a format in a TCG, you are aware that there are rules and ban lists, so using extremely strong cards becomes a risk that is basically accepted from the moment you enter the format.

These were fair bans that will prevent explosive tables and help improve the environment. I will end with the controversy that there was a lack of courage to face the community head on and ban Sol Ring, to avoid almost 100% of the positive rocks in the format.

João Vieira

Favorite Commander: Volo, Guide to Monsters

Magic has always had problems with cards that generate more mana than they cost, and with the continued development of increasingly powerful cards, as seen in Standard, it was inevitable that these cards would also become an issue in Commander. Legendary creatures have become even stronger recently, mainly due to Wizards' shift in focus to bringing Magic more to the battlefield. In Commander, being a format where you guarantee the most important card of your strategy in your opening hand every game, it is possible to abuse cards like Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus and Dockside Extortionist. Another major problem with these cards is the possibility of combos, especially with Dockside, which can be abusive in certain game contexts.

As for Nadu, the reason for the ban was the excessive time spent on the play style that the card imposes, in addition to its mechanical similarity to the Paradox Engine, currently banned in the format. Nadu was basically a Paradox Engine in the command zone.

I partially agree with the banning of Mana Crypt and Dockside for the following reasons: they are extremely punishing cards for those who do not have them in the strategies in which they are used, in addition to having a high value on the secondary market, which makes them prohibitive for new players. In addition, they often provide an unfair advantage, almost guaranteeing victory if they show up in the opening hand. I do not believe that the removal of these cards will harm the format, since Commander has always been a "casual" format.

Jeweled Lotus: With the banning of Mana Crypt, I do not see much need to ban Lotus, since its mana can only be used to cast the commander. I believe it was banned so that Sol Ring could remain in the format, since it is the most used card and an icon in Magic's history, having been reprinted precisely because of Commander. Removing Sol Ring would lead to a huge backlash. Lotus, on the other hand, is a less accessible card than Sol Ring and its absence will not impact players as much. Furthermore, Sol Ring costs the first land of the turn, while Lotus does not. In the right deck, using both is extremely powerful, and if Sol Ring is not going to come out, it is better to get rid of "Black Lotus at home".

Nadu: I do not agree with the ban. Nadu has the characteristic style of Simic decks in Commander. Many UG decks are based on "snowballing" (see Kinnan, Lonis, Volo, etc.), very common strategies that, in my opinion, have never harmed the format. Nadu is just another one of them.

Gabriel Almeida

Favorite Commander: Queen Marchesa

Every time a ban is mentioned, we have two points to evaluate: whether the ban was necessary and what was the context that led to the emergence of these ban-worthy cards.

It is very difficult to argue about the need for a ban in Commander, since it is a format with a very diverse audience and without a real Metagame. The closest thing to having something like this is cEDH, but in addition to not being the majority of the format, the committee has made it clear several times that it is not the focus of the format and the banlist. Personally, I think that bans improve the format. Fast mana leads many games to unfun stages.

Those who don't have a well-defined playgroup end up feeling this a lot. The issue of power level is always troublesome when it comes to gathering people you don't know at a table in the store.

The real problem lies in the other point. How is it that cards that were made for Commander are banned? There was nothing that came along that broke Jeweled Lotus and Dockside Extortionist. What justifies their creation and maintenance for so long? The first is clearly problematic. It's a Black Lotus for your Commander. The second is a card with all its math broken, allowing you to open up a huge advantage on turn 2. And even so, they were made with Commander in mind and took years to be banned. And they all cost a fortune due to their scarcity on the market.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom at least didn't take long to be banned, and it didn't come in a Commander-focused product, despite its design being thought of for the format. But this ban probably only took so long to happen because the card being the deck's commander makes it very difficult to ignore.

Mana Crypt goes way beyond the scope of the others. It's a very old card with a high power level, and it's always been at risk of being banned. I believe it was ignored for a long time because it's not a popular card. Anyway, I think it's a ban that makes sense in terms of "necessity" and there are no "extra game" issues to worry about.

In short, my opinion is that the bans will be good for the overall gameplay (ignoring cEDH), but if Wizards doesn't find a way to align its design with the format's philosophy, it will continue to lose the players' trust.

Pedro Braga

Favorite Commander: Soundwave, Sonic Spy

This week's bans are entirely focused on cEDH, the competitive Commander modality. Most of the cards are expensive and unreachable for regular players, who at most use proxies to replace them, an action that usually requires everyone at the table to agree.

As such, the ban probably won't make much of a difference to players outside a cEDH tournament. Those wealthier groups that enjoy the privilege of being able to buy a Mana Crypt will likely ignore the ban and keep their cards, and for the crowd that argues for using proxies, allowing banned cards is just a small step forward in their dynamics.

Fernando Fiore

Favorite Commander: Koma, Cosmos Serpent

The RC justified the bans by arguing that they were looking for slower, more rhythmic games. However, many other cards that also speed up the game were not included, such as Ancient Tomb, Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond.

We note that the decision to keep Sol Ring, as it is considered iconic, raises questions about possible commercial influences, since it is a card present in all Wizards of the Coast Commander precon decks.

The bans directly affect players who have invested financially in the now banned cards, contrasting with the board's argument about the format's accessibility, without, however, considering the damage caused by this dynamic. Among the various aspects of this situation, the late decision is critical evidence and reveals a failure in the RC's stance and decisions, especially considering that these cards, according to them, have been causing impacts since April 2021.

The lack of a proactive stance, with the bans being applied after recent reprints of the cards, generates frustration in the community. The clearest example is the specific ban of Mana Crypt, present in the Commander format since its inception in 2011. If this card was already a problem, the question remains: why wasn't it evaluated and banned earlier?

The ban on Dockside Extortionist is controversial in my analysis, since the card served as an important answer to game-ramping artifacts and enchantments under your opponents' control. Its removal could reduce tactical diversity for the red color pie archetypes.

As for Nadu, Winged Wisdom, it was mentioned he took the hit for generating undesirable effects, which would justify its ban in other formats. However, in 4v4 games, three players have the opportunity to respond to this threat, which makes the preparation of opponents a crucial factor. In addition, there are other cards with similar potential to Nadu, such as Stella Lee, Wild Card, from the Quick Draw precon deck, which can also create quick combos or even consume game time with long turns, but was not mentioned by the announcement, raising questions about the coherence of the criteria adopted for the ban.

João Pedro Vieira Barros

Favorite Commander: Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex

It's hard to explain in a short text the impacts that the bans of Mana Crypt, Dockside and Jeweled Lotus have in the format. I completely understand that the bans were made with Commander's health in mind as a casual format, but it makes me wonder: "When was the last time I saw these three cards at a casual table?" Well, honestly, the answer is almost never.

In the last four years of playing Magic, I can count on one hand the number of casual games in which I encountered one of these cards, with Dockside being the most common, and even then, they were rare encounters. This was a measure that, despite being aimed at casual tables, hit cEDH players much harder. Several decks that rely on Dockside and Jeweled Lotus were practically erased from the format, further reducing the already low diversity.

As a player, both casual and cEDH, these bans sadden me. Of course, every player has at least one story of being crushed by someone using these cards against weaker decks. I believe this has happened to everyone, including me. But, as I mentioned before, I can count on one hand the number of times these cards have appeared in a casual game. All this banlist has done is prove that Rule 0 doesn't exist and that we are incapable of communicating.

Antônio Faillace, L3 judge

Favorite Commander: Garth One-Eye

In addition to evaluating whether the ban was good or bad for the format, what is a bit worrying is the insecurity/anxiety that the announcement brought. After all, the same announcement talks about the non-ban of a certain card (Sol Ring), which in theory meets all the requirements of the other banned cards, and the justification is "being the face of the format".

Are other ramp, such as Grim Monolith or Mana Vault, therefore threatened? Or are they also safe because they are considered "the face of the format"? It is difficult to assess with the info in the announcement.

Bruna Chiochetta, L5 judge

Favorite Commander: Rin and Seri, Inseparable

The banning of cards like Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus seems like the right move, although too late: cards that are so powerful should not have a place in a casual format like Commander. However, even though it was a good decision from a gameplay standpoint, the announcement is inconsistent with other cards still allowed in the format and equally troublesome, raising suspicions about the game's banning policies and the associated financial impact.

For players who bet on cards with concentrated demand in a single format, the lack of a clear banning criterion and predictability arouses strong financial insecurity and disbelief in the future of the format.

Wendel Lemos, judge L2

Favorite commander: Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

I believe that some of the bans had very lame excuses. These cards were already used mostly by cEDH players and yes, they are totally "anti-fun" at a Casual table. But the difference lies there, where players who played with these cards are already more competitive and would not play casually.

In addition to the high price tag, the fact that the Commander Advisory Group was not consulted recently before these announcements only makes the situation harder to swallow and increases the uncertainty of what to expect from future decisions for the format.

These are some opinions from people who write content, are part of the community, and some judges!

And you, who are reading - what is your opinion? Were the bans good? Should Sol Ring go to the coffin with them? What about other fast mana rocks?

Tell us in the comments!