Four popular cards used in Magic: The Gathering's Commander format have been banned from use.
Here are the cards along with the Commander Rules Committee's reasonings behind each card's banning:
Says the Rules Committee: "Dockside isn't normally quite as explosive in the early game as the other two cards, but it can still go mana-positive on turn two and start generating substantial Treasures after that. It's been on the border for years, and we've shied away from acting in the past because the card has scaled well with the power level of the table, but it's a frequent contributor to the more egregious snowballing starts."
Says the Rules Committee: "Though you're restricted in what you can do with the mana, four- and five-mana Commanders can pack a significant punch nowadays, often drawing cards to make up for the one-shot mana, and defensive abilities such as ward can't be interacted with that early in the game."
Says the Rules Committee: "Coming down for no mana on turn one, it's quite possible to have the explosive start of Mana Crypt into a Signet or Talisman, land, and another Signet, leaving that player untapping five mana on turn two. In games going over twelve turns, the accumulated threat of damage from Mana Crypt provides a reasonable counterbalance for its explosive effect, but when you are snowballing to a turn-six to -eight win, it's a meaningless drawback."
Says the Rules Committee: "Given that Nadu, Winged Wisdom has been ejected from multiple formats at this point, it's no surprise that we took a close look at it for Commander. Sometimes, hugely problematic cards in other formats (Oko, companions) are fine for Commander, but our observations of Nadu suggest its inherent play pattern is going to cause problems.
Part of the problem is the way in which Nadu wins, where it takes a really long time to do non-deterministic sequences that can't be shortcut and might eventually fizzle out. These aren't dedicated combo lines that you have to build a deck around; dropping Nadu into a "normal" Simic shell still runs the risk of grinding the game down to a slog of resource accrual. It interacts badly with cards that are staples of casual play, most notably Lightning Greaves, meaning that decks it gets thrown into without abuse intent can still create a situation where the player is monopolizing all the time in the game. That's not an experience we want to risk, so Nadu gets itself another ban."
Another card that comes up as a possible ban target by players is the ever-popular Sol Ring. The Commander Rules Committee state that they have no desire to ban the card now or ever.
"Banning Sol Ring would be fundamentally changing the identity of the format. We aren't trying to eliminate all explosive starts—it happening every once in a while is exciting—and removing the other three cards geometrically reduces the number of hands capable of substantial above-curve mana generation in the first few turns."
In other Commander news, the Rules Committee and Community of Cardboard will be hosting its second annual Sheldon Menery Charity Stream on Sept. 28 and 29. The event is being put on by the same team to raise more than $50,000 for cancer research after Menery's passing in 2023.
The charity event begins at 8 a.m. (ET) each day, running until midnight.
"We hope you'll join us in honoring our dear friend, Sheldon," says the Committee. "There are some amazing things being donated to help raise money, including some items from Sheldon's personal collection. "
Those wishing to tune into the event can do so on Twitch.
