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My Dream (Multiplayer) Ban List Looks Like....
Poll: What cards do you want to see banned?
Log in with your Curse username to vote in this poll.
What cards do you want to see banned? - Multiple Choice
- Ad Nauseam 22% of Users - 177 votes
- Ancestral Recall 62.2% of Users - 502 votes
- Ancient Tomb 6.2% of Users - 50 votes
- Armageddon (Ravages of War functional reprint) 13.5% of Users - 109 votes
- Ashnod's Altar 3.6% of Users - 29 votes
- Back to Basics 10.6% of Users - 86 votes
- Balance 51.8% of Users - 418 votes
- Biorhythm 58% of Users - 468 votes
- Black Lotus 70.3% of Users - 567 votes
- Boundless Realms 3.2% of Users - 26 votes
- Braids, Cabal Minion (as a general only) 52% of Users - 420 votes
- Braids, Cabal Minion (completely banned) 8.3% of Users - 67 votes
- Cabal Coffers 4% of Users - 32 votes
- Cataclysm 10.7% of Users - 86 votes
- Channel 58.8% of Users - 474 votes
- Chaos Orb 55% of Users - 443 votes
- Coalition Victory 41.5% of Users - 334 votes
- Consecrated Sphinx 23.1% of Users - 187 votes
- Crucible of Worlds 4.7% of Users - 39 votes
- Cyclonic Rift 10.9% of Users - 88 votes
- Deadeye Navigator 29.2% of Users - 236 votes
- Decree of Annihilation 10.9% of Users - 88 votes
- Defense of the Heart 8.2% of Users - 66 votes
- Demonic Tutor 10.8% of Users - 87 votes
- Derevi, Empyrical Tactician (as a general only) 17% of Users - 138 votes
- Derevi, Empyrical Tactician (completely banned) 4.2% of Users - 34 votes
- Doomsday 11.4% of Users - 92 votes
- Earthcraft 10.7% of Users - 86 votes
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest (as a general only) 11.1% of Users - 89 votes
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest (completely banned) 1.9% of Users - 15 votes
- Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (completely banned) 50.8% of Users - 410 votes
- Enlightened Tutor 5% of Users - 40 votes
- Enter the Infinite 10.8% of Users - 87 votes
- Entomb 2.6% of Users - 21 votes
- Erayo, Soratami Ascendant (as a general only) 43.6% of Users - 352 votes
- Erayo, Soratami Ascendant (completely banned) 13.9% of Users - 112 votes
- Falling Star 38.9% of Users - 313 votes
- Fastbond 46% of Users - 371 votes
- Felidar Sovereign 14.4% of Users - 117 votes
- Gaea's Cradle 15.2% of Users - 123 votes
- Genesis Wave 3.7% of Users - 30 votes
- Gifts Ungiven 27.2% of Users - 219 votes
- Great Whale 5.5% of Users - 44 votes
- Grim Monolith 6.1% of Users - 50 votes
- Grim Tutor 6.2% of Users - 50 votes
- Grindstone 9.8% of Users - 79 votes
- Griselbrand (as a general only) 27.6% of Users - 223 votes
- Griselbrand (completely banned) 47.6% of Users - 383 votes
- Hermit Druid 32% of Users - 259 votes
- Humility 6.8% of Users - 55 votes
- Imperial Seal 15.3% of Users - 124 votes
- Intuition 4.7% of Users - 39 votes
- Iona, Shield of Emeria (as a general only) 16% of Users - 130 votes
- Iona, Shield of Emeria (completely banned) 32.7% of Users - 263 votes
- Jokulhaups 9.7% of Users - 78 votes
- Karakas 49.2% of Users - 397 votes
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (as a general only) 6.5% of Users - 52 votes
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (completely banned) 6.7% of Users - 54 votes
- Kokusho, the Evening Star (as a general only) 18.3% of Users - 147 votes
- Kokusho, the Evening Star (completely banned) 2.6% of Users - 21 votes
- Library of Alexandria 39.1% of Users - 316 votes
- Limited Resources 43.5% of Users - 352 votes
- Lion's Eye Diamond 12.7% of Users - 104 votes
- Loyal Retainers 3.5% of Users - 28 votes
- Magister Sphinx 9.3% of Users - 76 votes
- Mana Crypt 33.3% of Users - 270 votes
- Mana Drain 16.3% of Users - 133 votes
- Mana Vault 16.4% of Users - 134 votes
- Memory Jar 3.9% of Users - 31 votes
- Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (as a general only) 6.1% of Users - 50 votes
- Mikaeus, the Unhallowed (completely banned) 3.7% of Users - 30 votes
- Mind Over Matter 9.4% of Users - 78 votes
- Mind Twist 7.6% of Users - 62 votes
- Mindslaver 9.1% of Users - 73 votes
- Mishra's Workshop 22.5% of Users - 182 votes
- Mox Pearl, Sapphire, Jet, Ruby, Emerald 66.8% of Users - 539 votes
- Mystical Tutor 5.8% of Users - 47 votes
- Natural Order 7.7% of Users - 62 votes
- Necropotence 13.7% of Users - 111 votes
- Oath of Druids 10.2% of Users - 82 votes
- Obliterate 8.6% of Users - 69 votes
- Oloro, Ageless Ascetic (as a general only) 11.3% of Users - 92 votes
- Oloro, Ageless Ascetic (completely banned) 3.5% of Users - 28 votes
- Omniscience 16.4% of Users - 133 votes
- Painter's Servant 27% of Users - 217 votes
- Palinchron 20% of Users - 162 votes
- Panoptic Mirror 34.3% of Users - 277 votes
- Personal Tutor 5.1% of Users - 41 votes
- Phyrexian Altar 2.5% of Users - 21 votes
- Power Artifact 7.1% of Users - 58 votes
- Primeval Titan 39.9% of Users - 323 votes
- Primal Surge 4.5% of Users - 36 votes
- Prophet of Kruphix 24% of Users - 195 votes
- Prossh, Skyraider of Kher (as a general only) 7.1% of Users - 58 votes
- Prossh, Skyraider of Kher (completely banned) 1.2% of Users - 10 votes
- Protean Hulk 35.9% of Users - 291 votes
- Purphoros, God of the Forge (as a general only) 7.3% of Users - 59 votes
- Purphoros, God of the Forge (completely banned) 3.7% of Users - 30 votes
- Recurring Nightmare 30.1% of Users - 244 votes
- Rhystic Study 5.7% of Users - 48 votes
- Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (as a general only) 46.7% of Users - 378 votes
- Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (completely banned) 9.7% of Users - 78 votes
- Seedborn Muse 4.3% of Users - 35 votes
- Serra Ascendant 20.9% of Users - 170 votes
- Skullclamp 7% of Users - 57 votes
- Sol Ring 23.6% of Users - 191 votes
- Sorin Markov 11.2% of Users - 91 votes
- Staff of Domination 6.8% of Users - 55 votes
- Strip Mine 7% of Users - 57 votes
- Sundering Titan 36.3% of Users - 293 votes
- Survival of the Fittest 12.3% of Users - 99 votes
- Sway of the Stars 41.9% of Users - 338 votes
- Sylvan Primordial 39.8% of Users - 322 votes
- Sylvan Tutor 4.3% of Users - 37 votes
- The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 19.5% of Users - 157 votes
- Time Stretch 14.5% of Users - 117 votes
- Time Walk 51.9% of Users - 418 votes
- Timetwister 21% of Users - 170 votes
- Tinker 46.6% of Users - 378 votes
- Tolarian Academy 43.1% of Users - 350 votes
- Tooth and Nail 21.4% of Users - 174 votes
- Trade Secrets 36.5% of Users - 296 votes
- Upheaval 41.9% of Users - 339 votes
- Vampiric Tutor 9.9% of Users - 82 votes
- Vicious Shadows 1.7% of Users - 14 votes
- Winter Orb 13.8% of Users - 114 votes
- Worldfire 46.7% of Users - 379 votes
- Worldgorger Dragon 11.8% of Users - 96 votes
- Worldly Tutor 4.3% of Users - 35 votes
- Yawgmoth's Bargain 45.8% of Users - 372 votes
- Yawgmoth's Will 13.3% of Users - 110 votes
- Zur, the Enchanter (as a general only) 19.4% of Users - 156 votes
- Zur, the Enchanter (completely banned) 4.8% of Users - 39 votes
- Metalworker 19.4% of Users - 159 votes
- Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (as a general only) 23.2% of Users - 189 votes
- Time Vault 61.7% of Users - 500 votes
Ended Oct 21, 2015
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It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: This forum, this thread, nor the moderators are endorsed or backed by the Rules Committee. The results of this thread have little to no impact on the minds of the Rules Committee.
Because we have an official thread for discussing the ban list, this thread will remain locked. All discussion should be done in that thread, and I encourage you to discuss what you voted for and most importantly why.
For reference, here is the Rules Committee philosophy:
The Rules Committee's goal for Commander is for it to be different than other Magic games. Where competitive formats seek to balance the playing field for all styles and strategies, we want to encourage a style of game that is more open and directed towards all players having a good time regardless of who wins. This is summarized as “Create games that you’d love to remember, not the ones others would like to forget.”
While the Banned List helps to define what can be played, Commander is unique to Magic formats in that it seeks to shape the mindset of the game before players ever start building decks, pointing them in the direction of thinking socially before they choose their first card. It recognizes that due to the Eternal nature of the format, there are too many cards to try to shape it via only the Banned List, but that infusing the decklist construction approach with these philosophies is important; it is easier to build decks designed to maximize fun than it is to pull punches while playing the game.
This is the direction of the format, with full understanding that it’s not for everyone. We recognize that without drastic measures (like a 200 card Banned List), we can’t actually prevent an individual from breaking the format. What we can do is create a social environment where that individual doesn’t want to, or at the very least, is discouraged from doing so.
The Banned List contains the worst of the offenders for games being played in the spirit described above, those that to us are obvious choices in steering the format towards the general style of games we’d like to promote. While we’ve tried to make it fairly objective, there will always be a measure of subjectivity since different people evaluate cards and their impacts differently. We’d like the Banned List to be as small as possible to make it easily understandable for the players and manageable for us, meaning we’re not going to ban every card that someone finds unpleasant to play against. It is not a problem that some cards are strong.
In creating the Banned List, there are several factors that are only taken into small consideration, if at all:
* Competitive balance. There are Commander tournaments, but this philosophy simply doesn’t take them into account. We feel that to do so violates the ideal of the social format.
* One on one play. A 1v1 community exists (and the French community has created a Banned List for it), but Commander is designed as a multiplayer format.
* While we’d like to maintain a measure of consistency (we wouldn’t for example, ban Grizzly Bears and not Balduvian Bears), we want to avoid the minefield of “cascading” bans (“if this is banned, then that should be banned”) because it inevitably leads to an unmanageable list.
There are several criteria that carry weight in Rules Committee discussions on individual cards. It is sometimes the intersection of these criteria that lead a card to be banned, not a single unified rule. Common criteria include:
* Creates Undesirable Games/Game Situations. Some cards produce the kinds of games we’d like to avoid and we see them as creating a negative experience for a majority of the player base. They tend to be anticlimactic wins out of nowhere, unexpected combos that end an otherwise enjoyable game, or creating situations which completely take play of the game away from the other players. This does include some cards that have a casting cost far too low for their effect, or whose abilities simply break the format at any cost.
* Warps The Format Strategically. Commander decks are about variety, and if a strategy becomes sufficiently omnipresent that the games become very similar even across different playgroups, we may need to try to rein in the presence of that deck.
* Produces Too Much Mana Too Quickly. Commander is a format about epic plays, but the Turn 10 epic play happening on Turn 3 is deflating. Limited acceleration is good, but we don’t want the format to turn into “Who can go off earliest,” so we rein in large quantities of early mana.
* Interacts Badly With the Structure of Commander. Magic is not designed with Commander in mind, and the different rules, especially the presence of the Commander in the Command Zone can create degenerate or unfortunate situations. This is also why some cards are acceptable as 1 of the 99, but not as Commanders.
* Creates a Perceived High Barrier to Entry. Because it’s a non-competitive format, we don’t want players to feel as though they need to spend a great deal of money to be able to play. It is not sufficient for a card to simply be expensive - expected ubiquity and the availability of suitable replacements are also considered. This rule is mostly invoked for cards fifteen or more years out of print and is unlikely to impact the list further.
Local Groups
We believe that both Official Commander and local variants can successfully co-exist. What works in the broader audience may not resonate around your local game shop or kitchen table. We encourage you to modify both philosophy and Banned List locally to suit your own needs while being aware that when you travel outside your local area, perhaps even on the other side of town, you’ll need to be ready to play with the Official rules, including the appropriate spirit. Likewise, when new players enter your playgroup they may have expectations closer to this Official Philosophy and it will usually help the transition to discuss why they/you do things a particular way.
Update #1: It was brought to my attention that Metalworker was not on the list and that there was no option for Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as a general only ban. They were added to the poll.
Update #2: It was brought to my attention that Time Vault was overlooked. It has been added.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg