Wizards of the Coast sat down with Gavin Verhey to discuss the health of Commander Tuesday the 21st. (Click here to check out the article for yourself). Gavin is a very well-respected member of the Magic: The Gathering community and also an employee of Wizards. Recently, he has built the Commander Format Panel which consists of other highly respected pillars of the community to help the Commander format grow and maintain a healthy environment. The release of the brand new Bracket System was part of their first initial conversation directly to the community. The Bracket System is a great way to have a pre-game conversation and help players have more enjoyable games. In this discussion with Gavin on Tuesday he brought up some of the shortcomings and successes of this new found system and gave it a few tweaks. This new image is incredibly helpful at describing in clearer detail what the brackets individually look like and how to better communicate where on this scale your deck belongs. This system is still in beta, but is being greatly received by the community as a whole. The next topic of conversation around Commander brings me to the main point of this article.

Gavin told us that he and the other members of the Panel didn't want to ban or unban any cards for the rest of this year and made a few updates to the "Game Changers" list. The Game Changers list updates weren't that much of a surprise to anyone and didn't ruffle any feathers. Gavin also said that the two cards that the Panel has their eye on to potentially get the ban hammer are Rhystic Study and Thassa's Oracle.

I think for casual Commander this is a welcome change! Rhystic Study doesn't need to be included as a "staple" in lower power decks and the fear of getting Thassa's Oracle / Demonic Consultation in the early part of the game will fade away. I think this is a healthy change for the casual settings of Commander, even though both of these cards are on the Game Changers list, driving a deck to the higher tiers of the bracket system. For cEDH players, however, these changes could be huge shakeups to the current state of the game as we know it. Let's talk about what a world might look like with neither of these in the game, let's start with Thassa's Oracle.

Thassa's Oracle

Thassa's Oracle is a boogeyman of the cEDH meta. It is the most efficient, easily castable win condition in the entire Commander card pool. It has essentially been shunned by the casual Commander community, but is happily welcome in the cEDH community. cEDH is a format where the goal is to win the game as quickly as possible, so having access to the most efficient win condition in Commander makes sense to live in this space. But what if it didn't? Would cards like Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact still get played as normal tutor cards in decks without a way to win immediately after resolving one? What decks would be affected by this change and what win condition would become the best from now on? Let's answer some of these questions.

If you know of cEDH as a format at all you should be able to recognize Tymna the Weaver and Kraum, Ludevic's Opus (or Blue Farm) as the strongest Commander pairing in the current meta. This deck can play a variety of draw engines, like Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora, and reliable tutors, like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor, combined with the powerful Silence effects to win games. This deck can win by casting Thassa's Oracle, however, Underworld Breach is also an incredibly powerful win condition as well. Tymana and Kraum losing a single combo would unfortunately not set it back at all, in fact it could hurt other more fringe decks in Dimir that are trying to compete with these two bullies.

Underworld Breach, Brain Freeze, and Lion's Eye Diamond would defaultly become the strongest win condition in cEDH. Trust me there are a few other options, like Food Chain, which wins lots of games, but these win conditions aren't as easy to pull off as Underworld Breach.

A lot of people were scared that Red might become an unplayable color once Dockside Extortionist became banned. Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness is currently sitting at the top of the meta and climbed that high after the Dockside ban. In fact, it inspired more players to try and find other cards to try and make this Commander still playable, which I believe is one of the most fun aspects of Commander itself.

Tainted Pact will most likely still see some play in decks that struggle with better tutor options, or decks that are running Squee, the Immortal for Food Chain synergy. Demonic Consultation, however, might be unplayable in most decks since it could cause you to lose the game, but it is only one mana at instant speed to get the exact card you need.

So, should Thassa's Oracle get banned? I am unsure. If it is seeing a rise in casual Commander and will make a more enjoyable experience for that player base than I think it should be. If those players aren't seeing it though, the decision should rest on the cEDH player base and let them decide if they would like a shake up to their meta.

Now, let's shift over to Rhystic Study.

Rhystic Study

"Do you pay the 1?"

A question that lives in the heart and mind of every Commander player. Rhystic Study has been a part of the format since its conception and has been a very huge part of cEDH for years. This card is without a doubt, extremely powerful. It causes games to be bogged down with triggers and your opponents constantly tapping the table reminding you that you need to pay the tax. I have two views on this card:

1. In casual Commander, this card is terrible. Yes, this draws a lot of cards if people do not pay and it doesn't get removed. In my opinion, casual Commander is a place to find cards that are otherwise unusable in neat ways OR to play more cards that are synergistic to your overall strategy. Rhystic Study draws cards, but so do a lot of other things that might care about your strategy. This card also falls into the "Game Changers" list making sure it shouldn't fall into the laps of precon level gamers.
2. In cEDH, this card can be game changing. cEDH depends heavily on draw engines that will earn you more card advantage than your opponents. cEDH also has your opponents casting more than one spell a turn more times than a casual game, causing the Rhystic to trigger more and more. However, in the late game it can have the table bogged down. Everyone is ready to put a win on the stack, but scared of getting interacted with. I don't think it is an overall problem, but I could see it getting banned.

Obviously this is the opinion of one player in a very small sample size of the overall community. You might see Rhystic Study in more casual games than not and find its presence annoying. I don't see it often enough to have this opinion. So, if this would get banned in Commander, what would the best draw engines be in cEDH?

Mystic Remora is obviously the next closest thing. Honestly, this card goes hand and hand with Rhystic Study in my cEDH leaning brain, but in casual I see this card even less than Rhystic Study. A turn one Mystic Remora can heavily shape the game in that player's favor. The same can be said about Rhystic, however, Mystic Remora will eventually go away thanks to the Cumulative Upkeep cost. I would be interested to see what other draw engines would start to rise in the competitive scene, but I also see the impact that Rhystic Study has when you are trying to win with a controlling strategy.

Rhystic Study is not getting banned this year and it may never. Gavin said in his article to us that the panel finds this card to be "too iconic to remove from the format at this time." I don't necessarily love the wording of finding a card "iconic" and that is reason enough for it to be legal, but I also understand Gavin and crew not wanting to relay every single thought they had about this judgement.

So, what do you think? The Commander Format Panel has put the fate of these cards in the hands of the players. Do you welcome the change or are you hesitant about it? I for one am happy to let both of these go just to see how my beloved cEDH format would shake up. I continue to stress though that this seemingly would not affect the best decks in the format that rely on lots of pieces to win and gain advantage. I can see both sides for these cards and am very curious to see what data is collected from this announcement. I guess that only leaves one final question...

Will you pay the one?

-Nigel