Commander bans, a year later
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Sept. 21, 2025, 2:14 p.m. by legendofa
In a few days, it will be one year since Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Dockside Extortionist were banned in Commander. I'm not here to discuss the immediate results of that, I think I made my feelings clear when it happened. But I do want to put a couple thoughts out there, now that some time has passed.
First, and more specifically, some content creators were theorizing that WotC would immediately unban these cards, or print something at or even above their power and efficiency level. I think it's safe to say that that didn't happen. Have those creators revisited this topic at all? I don't really follow a lot of this sort of content, so I'm interested in hearing their thoughts now.
Second, and more generally, have you and your group adapted, stopped playing, or just ignored the bans? In the spirit of EDH, I'm going to say that all of these are valid responses, as long as it makes the most fun for you and doesn't hurt anyone else's experience. Or did the bans just not affect you and nothing changed for you? Any other thoughts?
RiotRunner789 says... #3
Still haven't updated my cEDH deck and remove the lotus and only took out Dockside from another deck 3 weeks ago (hadn't played it in a while).
I've been fine with the bans (even with about $600 worth of cards turning to $0). For 2-3 months I'd say before games that if I played Mana Crypt, pretend it's a basic Plains.
Still iffy on the bracket system and still believe WOTC taking over commander is worse for the format over time. But it could have been worse at this point. My real worry is knowing it takes 2.5 years for cards/sets to make it to print. I'm convinced terrible things are in the pipeline that will hit 1.5 years from now. As usual, I hope I'm wrong.
September 21, 2025 5:24 p.m.
hyalopterouslemur says... #4
I mean, some people are still salty over the bans, but that's to be expected. That WotC would produce even better versions of the banned cards is a pipe dream.
Still don't know the difference between Bracket 4 and Bracket 5. I do have a Ghave, Guru of Spores deck in Bracket 3 and one in Bracket 5. The latter is actually cheaper because it's a Stax deck that runs Winter Moon and only three nonbasic lands. (I presume Winter Moon qualifies as mass land denial.)
I'm divided on WotC taking over the format, but I see why it was necessary.
September 22, 2025 6:03 p.m.
hyalopterouslemur My explanation of the difference between brackets 4 and 5 is, if you're trying to play strong cards and do awesome things, it's bracket 4. If you're trying to win a major tournament, it's bracket 5.
RiotRunner789 What kind of effects, specifically, are you worried about seeing in a year and a half?
Crow_Umbra If you see a followup video or article, could you please link it here?
September 23, 2025 1:27 a.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #6
I'll def post anything here that I could come across.
I've discussed it before in adjacent posts, but I wish that cEDH could be made its own format separate from EDH At Large™️ (Brackets 1-4). You're pretty spot on with the nutshell distinctions legendofa.
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Bracket 4: High powered EDH that still has some room for "fluff" or pet cards on occasion. Optimized, but not built for a specific meta.
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Bracket 5/cEDH: This is cEDH full stop. These decks are super optimized and have very lean average mana curves, usually below 2.5. These decks lean more towards combo finishes that can threaten wins before Turn 4, and are built with specific tournament type metas in mind.
Crow_Umbra says... #2
I wouldn't be surprised if The Command Zone or maybe The Professor revisit the bans closer to the actual 1 year anniversary. I think it would be an interesting topic to revisit, especially with the additional context of the Bracket system creation since then.
Of the three cards banned, Dockside was the most played in my playgroup, and there were a couple of Mana Crypts here and there. It seems like my group adjusted fairly quickly and moved on. I used to play Dockside in my Satya, Aetherflux Genius deck, and it was about as gross as you could imagine to get repeat copies of it. I swapped it out for some other creature with an ETB and haven't missed it tbh. The deck runs fine with out Dockside.
September 21, 2025 5:06 p.m.