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September 2014 Commander Rules Update

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The quarterly rules update for Commander has been posted, and with it comes some rules tweaks and new commander bannings:

These ban changes coincide with an update to the "banned-as-commander" flag being removed from the rules around choices of commander:

There are, in essence, two changes here. The first one is that we've decided to eliminate "Banned as Commander". Having multiple lists was unnecessary information overhead, and we felt it was clearer to have a single, streamlined banlist and add "Problematic as a Commander" to the banlist criteria.

Doing that meant that we needed to evaluate the four cards on that list. Fully banning Braids and Rofellos were easy calls, especially given Rofellos' last stint. Though we have a few reservations about how annoying Kokusho may be, general consensus was that unbanning her was more correct. Erayo was the most contentious; it's a bigger problem in competitive play, which we don't really consider, but is a miserable card to play against at all levels. We're leaving it banned for now, but may revisit that in the future.

What about Metalworker, the long-time Vintage combo card?

We've been discussing the possibility of unbanning Metalworker for a while now. It's capable of making some truly ridiculous amounts of mana, and having 12+ mana available on turn 4 or 5 is not something that casual games should have to deal with. We like to encourage battlecruiser-style decks, but over the later stages of a game, where players have had a chance to build up to combat it. However, the all-in nature of Metalworker leaves it vulnerable to mass artifact removal, and when it isn't performing optimally it's a pretty weak card (though still part of several combo engines). Aside from Sharuum - a deck that can already be built to a competitive extreme - the decks that most look to use Metalworker already have a lot of disadvantages to overcome, so allowing them the occasional early explosion should be acceptable risk.

What do you think of the changes? Be sure to swing by the official Commander forums to read up on the ongoing discussions and share your thoughts on how the Rules Committee streamlined the banned list.


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