In General: Banned List Update September 2014

Hello and welcome back to In General. This is the broad topics segment where your old Grandpa Growth discusses just about anything relating to the game of Magic. Being that this is a blog primarily about Commander, it would be appropriate for me to spend at least 10% of my time discussing Commander.

Some interesting news relating to the format came out this week; the EDH rules committee has announced a change to the "Official Commander Banned List". This exclusionary list explicitly defines the cards which are not to be included in Commander decks and provides recommendations for standards of community play.

You can find the announcement HERE. The forum post is succinct, but it does give some limited justifications for the decisions. I will discuss each of the cards individually below, but the short list is as follows: Braids, Cabal Minion; Erayo, Soratami Ascendant; and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary have been banned from use completely. Kokusho, the Evening Star and Metal Worker have been un-banned and are now legal for use.

Banned:

The three cards banned under this announcement were all cards that had previously been legal for use in decks, but had been banned for use as a commander. The EDHRC decided that the list should be streamlined and no longer include exceptions for certain cards that should only be used in 'the other 99'. As a general rule, I support their goal of simplifying any ordinance down to its most essential elements. However, I have misgivings about their choices relating to these individual cards.

Frankly, I don't want to play with anyone
who looks like that.

Braids has been on the community's watch list for many years. It is annoying to play against and not really in the spirit of having a good time. The aggressive disruption it provides in combination with early mana acceleration can lock multiple opponents out of the game starting as early as turn two.

I agree that Commander games should not be won or lost solely on the contents of your opening hand. However, if you are playing against someone whom you know has access to Braids early on, you MUST take that knowledge into account when evaluating your mulligan decisions or risk losing because you didn't.

As a Commander, I don't think that Braids provides a substantial competitive advantage in terms of raw win percentage over the other available mono Black Commanders. As a card it is extremely powerful, cheap, and universal disruption that scales easily to multiplayer. Thus it should be regulated by the community. I would like to point out though: Smokestack is easier to cast and no one is calling for that to be banned. Where is the objectivity?

One of the silliest portrayals of a male
figure in Magic art. Very gay, in the olde
English sense.

Now from mono Black to mono Green. All three of the 'banned as a commander' cards featured in this update are extremely powerful enablers that made their particular decks into pillars of the format. In my article "Seven Deadly Sins" link HERE, I detail why these cards are so well suited to play in Commander and why they are a what I refer to as "Tier 1 Decks".

In the case of Green, Rofellos was the only thing holding that pillar up. There is no other potential commander that I would even consider close to being Tier 1. Not Omnath. Don't even say it. It is unfortunate that things have to be this way but, if Rofellos is legal, Green is awesome. If he is banned, Green is not scaring anyone. I don't necessarily support the ban of this card by itself, but for consistency's sake, if you banned Braids you must also ban Rofellos.

When flipped, Erayo resembles a spell cast
by Genie from Disney's 'Aladdin'.

Erayo is something of a strange exception to this rule. Rofellos and Braids are still pretty awesome, even if they aren't your commander. Erayo is indomitable as a Commander, by far the best deck in the format. If she isn't your Commander though...well, she just isn't worth playing. It is that simple. Blue is still awesome, but it has to take a much different form. Non-Erayo decks are much slower and much less likely to 'auto-win'. For the health of the format I completely agreed with the banning of Erayo for use as a Commander. With such policy riders no longer used to save cards from the banned list chopping block, I wholeheartedly agree: Erayo must go.


Well, that wasn't so bad. Two conditional yes's and an outright no? Grandpa, you must be going soft. I am an outspoken critic of the EDHRC and their bannings, but I agree with the reasons they made these changes, which in some ways is more important than agreeing with the change itself. The EDHRC is trying to improve the format and simplify its systems. Quite frankly, that is God's work friends.

There is still more to talk about though. The committee saw fit to reintroduce two caged animals into the wild:

Un-banned:

Note the gas vents along the underside of
the Dragon. His dingy smog-farts literally
take on a life of their own.

Kokusho, was banned at a time when the graveyard, nay the format, was more like the wild west. Recurring Nightmare gave a steady string of recursion which, when combined with Kokusho, meant consistent life swings. As an engine, it was difficult to race and required specific, targeted removal to disrupt. Several years ago, they were banned as a pair, but now it seems one is being release for good behavior.

Things have changed. Everyone is aware that the graveyard is the place to be. In recent years, many new tools have come out to help players counter graveyard-based strategies. I foresee no problems with un-banning Kokusho and fully agree with the committee's decision. I expect this card to contribute positively to a well-rounded format.

"Shove it in my chest Sam!"

Finally, we arrive at the last card to change status: Metal worker. It has long been a premium accelerator for broken artifact-heavy decks in eternal formats. It is capable of producing a dozen mana. Unlike Grim Monolith it untaps every turn, but it can also be hit with Creature removal.
This is a confusing and edgy move by the rules committee. On the surface, Metalworker is everything that they stand up against. It promotes 'Mono Brown', which they have never been a fan of. Allows for game ending plays in the early turns, which they have explicitly stated: "does not conform to the spirit of the format." And, it is going to INCREASE the already staggeringly high percentage of Commander games that end in Eldrazi.

On the one hand, Metalworker isn't as broken in practice as it is in theory. Comparing its Commander uses to the role it played in Legacy is simply not fair. On the other hand, there are probably 15 cards that are generally weaker and less likely to disturb the format that are STILL BANNED.

I don't necessarily have qualms with the un-banning of Metalworker, but I do have questions and I was not satisfied with the reasoning presented in the announcement. Why Metalworker...and why now?

What are your feelings on the banned list changes? Are you upset that you just ordered a Rofellos and now it is worth less than you paid? Are you dying to play Kokusho again? Are you still wondering why Coalition Victory is banned? Shout at us in the comments or take your inconsolable internet rage to the official forums on Wizards website or Commander.net.
-GG