Commanders Changes Have Arrived: Unbans, Game Changers, and More

Posted on April 22, 2025

As recently promised, Gavin Verhey and the Commander Format Panel revealed some major announcements regarding the Commander format. The thing everyone expected was the cards that were going to be unbanned and the potential discussion surrounding it. However, it went far deeper than anyone could've expected, outlining Game Changer updates, data surrounding bracket play, and greater format philosophy.

First, let's talk about what was unbanned. Five cards came off the ban list with each one going directly to the Game Changers list. Those cards are:

Gifts Ungiven

Sway of the Stars

Braids, Cabal Minion

Coalition Victory

Panoptic Mirror

Each of these have been heavily discussed and have been banned in Commander in some form or fashion for a long time - over 15 years, in fact! Let's briefly run through some of the explanations given for each of these cards:

Gifts Ungiven brings with it concerns over being a powerful combo-enabling tutor. However, with the innovation of brackets and Game Changers, it seemed a more fun option to give players the tool to play with at higher bracket tables.

For a long time, many players compared this card to Worldfire, which came off the ban list under the care of the Commander Rules Committee. The new Commander Format Panel agrees with this sentiment and felt that it could be reasonable to give to players as a Game Changer.

While Braids can be extremely frustrating to play against, it was noted that the character is extremely iconic and the card itself very nostalgic for players of a certain vintage. Given how much Magic has changed since it was banned, the Commander Format Panel is willing to give it a shot once more.

Coalition Victory still has a ton of concerns over being an easy "I win" button for many games. However, it's noted that it's not difficult to interact with given how many players in any given pod will likely have counter Magic. Additionally, it was noted that by costing eight mana, it fits in the ballpark of where many players will expect games to end thanks to combo plays anyways.

Another winner of bracketed play, this card brings concerns over things like extra turns and repeatable board wipes. However, it was noted that the card is weak to artifact hate - of which there is no shortage of in Commander - and that extra turns are also within the bounds of higher bracket level play.

Gavin's articles covering these unbans also featured an appendix that talks about every single card on the ban list, the rationale for why those cards are on the ban list, and the likelihood of whether or not they might be unbanned in the future.

In addition to the discussions of the ban list, the Commander Format Panel also discussed the bracket system and the Game Changers list. While the Commander Format Panel feels like there are certainly some things that can potentially be adjusted on the bracket system, they feel it's too early to make changes at this time. Many places and players are still adopting the system and making changes now could undermine this. However, the early data has been remarkably positive with a higher numbers of players adopting it than expected so soon after the introduction of those brackets. Any changes will likely be around the time of MagicCon Atlanta.

Hand-in-hand with the coverage of the bracket system came some wider changes to the Game Changers list. While the Commander Format Panel. Two cards came off and several more were added on.

The two cards were removed from the Game Changers list: Trinisphere and Trouble in Pairs. Trinisphere was noted as already being comparable to other stax pieces and only shows up at higher tables anyways. Similarly, Trouble in Pairs feels like there's a bit of recency bias and it was noted as having numerous other similar effects. Thus, they were removed.

Additionally, a whopping 18 cards were added to the Game Changers list. These cards include the following:

Teferi's Protection

Humility

Narset, Parter of Veils

Intuition

Consecrated Sphinx

Necropotence

Orcish Bowmasters

Notion Thief

Deflecting Swat

Gamble

Worldly Tutor

Crop Rotation

Seedborn Muse

Natural Order

Food Chain

Aura Shards

Field of the Dead

Mishra's Workshop

The idea here was that many players felt that the Game Changers list could stand to include more cards on it. While the Commander Format Panel doesn't want to go too deeply on putting every powerful card on the list, having a more expansive pool of powerful cards helps define the kinds of gameplay experiences many players are signing up for.

While explaining all of these individually would take too long for me to cover in a simple article like this, I did want to single out Seedborn Muse. The reason for this is the discussion surrounding it appearing in the Abzan Armor precon from Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The Commander Format Panel noted that this puts the precon outside the bounds of what bracket 2 - generally seen as "the precon bracket" - represents. There's a hope to better define precons with regards to brackets going forward.

While the articles featured even heavier discussion surrounding Game Changers than this, there were two major points covered.

The first was the discussion surrounding legendary creatures on the Game Changers list. This is because of how representative of the core of the format they are. If you put powerful card after powerful card on the list, you end up hitting a large chunk of many players' favorite decks. So, they're treating this cautiously, continuing to discuss, and will reapproach it later on.

The second point was discussing many other cards as potential Game Changers - specifically Sol Ring. Several cards like Farewell, Mana Drain, Mystic Remora, and more were discussed, but the point of Sol Ring was how many players felt it should be on the list and then give everyone one Game Changer per deck. However, this creates a convoluted work-around that opens up players to gameplay experiences they may not want, such as playing with cards like Smothering Tithe or Rhystic Study. By keeping lower brackets with no Game Changers allowed, it allows players to avoid these experiences.

These changes are going to prove very interesting to follow in the coming weeks. Discussion spaces are already abuzz with what this means for Magic's most popular format going forward. I also encourage you to read the two articles by Gavin Verhey on behalf of the whole Commander Format Panel, as well as his video bringing this information together. I've covered quite a bit here, and yet Gavin's works on the matter are far more substantial, in-depth, and are worth your time to check out.

You can find links to those works here: