September 2024 Commander Bans Follow-up

After publishing my reaction to the most recent Commander bans, I saw a huge increase in recommended videos on YouTube covering the subject. Obviously it was a very contentious set of bannings, but even I vastly underestimated the overall response.

Given the financial ramifications of the bans, it would be logical to expect some acrimony — cards worth ~hundreds of dollars suddenly being rendered unplayable and thereby worthless is going to be painful — but to find out that the Commander Rules Committee has handed stewardship of the format to Wizards of the Coast was very surprising.

The announcement was posted on Twitter, citing threats made to the Committee members:

As a result of the threats last week against RC members, it has become impossible for us to continue operating as an independent entity. Given that, we have asked WotC to assume responsibility for Commander and they will be making decisions and announcements going forward.

We are sad about the end of this era, and hopeful for the future; WotC has given strong assurances they do not want to change the vision of the format. Committee members have been invited to contribute as individual advisors to the new management framework.

The RC would like to express our gratitude to all the CAG members who have contributed their wisdom and perspective over the years. Finally, we want to thank all the players who have made this game so successful. We look forward to interacting as members of the community.

Please, be excellent to each other.

Before I continue, I would like to explicitly state that, regardless of what you may feel about the Rules Committee and / or individual members, that does not excuse harrassment or threats in any way. I could not care any less how much theoretical money you may or may not have lost using a trading card game as an regulated security for investment purposes. If a few cards being banned send you into a violent rage, you are not mature enough to be indulging in "investing" — or anything with an element of risk.

I have complained about the Rules Committee consistently since before 'Commander' was even a thing, back when we called it the even less intuitive 'Elder Dragon Highlander.' I understand that the Rules Committee have (or had) their own vision for the format, and I am mature enough to understand that vision differs from my conception of what the format ought to be.

There were times where the differences were vast (ex: leaving Survival of the Fittest off the ban list because it was Sheldon Menery's pet card), other times we were mostly in agreement. Generally, my issue with the old Rules Committee was that they did not ban enough cards, not that they were too liberal with the ban hammer.

Now we are left in an awkward position, with Wizards of the Coast assuming control of the format. The initial announcement outlines some vague plans to help players separate their decks into tiers. The details are sparse, and the article states everything is very much in the preliminary stages, so I am not going to speculate on how the format will change.

I will say this, however; I don't think Wizards of the Coast are the ideal stewards of the format. This opinion has only crystalized over the years, as I have repeatedly said that the worst thing Wizards did for the format was officially recognize it. It was R&D that designed and printed Jeweled Lotus, and decided to put Mana Crypt — a card otherwise only playable as a singleton in Vintage — in premium products. I am also completely uninterested in going through my decks to see what arbitrary tier they fall into, so that concept feels like a non-starter.

Whatever one might think about the Rules Committee, their intentions were not motivated by profit. I am willing to accept their statements about not using information about forthcoming bans to sell cards in advance, as nothing has given me reason to believe otherwise. Wizards of the Coast, however much you want to laud the talents of their designers, are strictly focused on profit.

The company's stewardship of other constructed formats like Standard and Modern show clear evidence that the company aims to print poweful cards that incentivize players to open packs and buy sealed product.

This has resulted in extreme levels of power-creep, to the point that the Modern format is dominated by cards printed solely in Modern Horizons sets, while others had to be banned because they were too powerful and ubiquitous.

If recent history tells us anything, Wizards are quite fine with pushing the envelope in terms of power and then simply banning things if people complain enough. I am not expecting a restrained or more nuanced design ethos, to be blunt: I'm expecting a shitshow as cards like Nadu, Winged Wisdom and Dockside Extortionist continue to be developed.

Sometimes it feels like nothing changes and then everything changes, and this is one of those times. Right now, I am suggesting to my group that we simply adopt the current banned list and decide, as a group, what new cards to be ban. We can evaluate any new directives from Wizards when they are released, but my personal preference is a solution with minimal upkeep and busy-work. I will comment on any format changes as information becomes available.

—by Derek

Published: October 2nd, 2024.