Changes are coming to the Magic: The Gathering Commander ban list. Wizards of the Coast’s new format panel has announced changes to the most popular way to play the acclaimed card game. In addition, changes are coming to its Game Changers brackets.
The Magic: The Gathering Commander Ban List Changes
In an official blog post, Wizards of the Coast’s Gavein Verhey updated the Magic: The Gathering Commander ban list. Like all prior ban list updates, these changes are in response to changes in the competitive meta of the game and are done to facilitate engaging, ongoing matchups.
To that end, five cards are being removed from the Magic: The Gathering Commander ban list. Yes, these five cards are Commander-legal again. They are as follows:
- Gifts Ungiven
- Sway of the Stars
- Braids, Cabal Minion
- Coalition Victory
- Panoptic Mirror
The post continues, explaining the reason for these unbannings. Sway of the Stars, while a potent reset option, has too high of a mana cost compared to other more impactful effects. Similarly, Coalition Victory takes too much time to set up. It is an auto-win if you have one of every color, but simply removing one of those lands from the field means eight mana spent for nothing.
These Magic: The Gathering Commander ban list changes occurred alongside changes to the Game Changers bracket system. In another blog post, Verhey explained the connections between the ban list and these updated brackets.
Generally, the Game Changers bracket is a list of cards that have a huge impact on play. These cards are broken up into five brackets, each one denoting different levels of competitive play. Bracket one, Exhibition, is casual play. Bracket five, CEDH, is highly competitive and built with the current meta in mind. The system is currently in beta and still receiving player feedback.
It is thanks to the (mostly positive) feedback that Wizards of the Coast is making some slight adjustments to what cards are in what brackets. Two cards are being removed from the list: Trouble in Pairs and Trinisphere. Alternatively, eighteen cards are being added to Game Changers. Those cards are as follows:
- 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
These Game Changers brackets are not official ban lists for any format of Magic: The Gathering. They are intended to give players a rough estimation of how competitive their built deck is. If you want to play more casually, brackets 1-3 are just fine. If you expect to enter any major tournaments however, brackets 4-5 is your floor.
