But karakas is bad right?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on April 3, 2020, 3:28 p.m. by Homelessguy
So there's a new card in the set for Lair of the behemoth. CMC one colorless and one white. Your opponent cannot cast spells from outside their hand.
So it basically says your opponent can't cast their Commander.
But karakas is banned. to my understanding it kind of went against the spirit of Commander. Not letting people play with their Commander.
So I guess what my question is,does anybody think this might open up discussions about us unbanning karakas?
I mean if they're fine with card that doesn't allow opponents to cast their Commander. is a card that bounces a commander back to a hand that awful?
GhostChieftain says... #3
I personally think Karakas could be unbanned, but I am going to play Mayhem Devil's advocate here.
While the new card stops all opponents from casting commanders, it is much easier to deal with. Land destruction is frowned upon by the general population of EDH players, so karakas is likely to staybon the board until the end of the game and can't be countered. The new one is a creature that can be countered or destroyed in any number of ways.
Once again, I am pro-unban here, but it reasonably could be kept as is.
April 3, 2020 3:38 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #4
Creatures are much easier to deal with even in metas where people use land destruction like they really should. Having your commander bounced to hand every time you cast it because it is the scariest one at the table is immensely frustrating and your answers are maybe 3 or 4 cards in your deck at most...
April 3, 2020 3:48 p.m.
Homelessguy says... #5
Yeah, guess I had a knee-jerk reaction when I read the card
Felt like they were similar effects and ask a question that if I would put a little more thought into would have realized.
a creature is much harder to stay on the board than a land.
I appreciate everyone taking time to answer a not very thought out question.
April 3, 2020 4:07 p.m.
dingusdingo says... #6
For context, the commander canceling Nevermore has been legal in the format for a long time, and sees little play. While this new card is 2 CMC instead of 3, it is also a creature, much easier to remove. This new card also has broader application in shutting off cards coming from graveyards, like any flashback card or weird things like Haakon.
Yes, Karakas is an extremely rough card to play against in Commander, but don't forget that it has the added bonus of returning your own legends to your hand to reuse ETB triggers. On top of playing board police against the single card your opponent's always have access to (their commanders), it also gives extra value to your own and can form some nasty lock combos like Karakas + Mangara of Corondor (return Mangara to hand w/ Karakas while Mangara trigger is on stack to avoid it exiling itself) or Karakas + Lavinia of the Tenth for a soft lock, you get the picture. Karakas has another exploitable element from a deckbuilding perspective but even without a payoff piece to its own combo it still has utility by slowing and interrupting opponent's board state. In short, it always has something good to do. Much much better than simply a Nevermore type effect.
April 3, 2020 4:48 p.m.
WotC doesn't manage the banlist for commander - while the two entities do work together at times, they are separate.
In addition to that, WotC should be allowed to print cards that may interact negatively with Commander.
On the topic of Karakas, the card is very strong. It can shut down combat commanders, can break combos and even protects your own stuff.
MTGSmith says... #2
Except a creature is a hell of a lot easier to remove than a land, plus the person who's played this dude will have to content usually with 3 other players who each have removal in their decks hopefully, this can also be countered which Karakas can't. If someone can play this and last long enough with it in play to win then they deserve it.
April 3, 2020 3:37 p.m.