To move this discussion forward is how to handle the wishes.
1) Ban Ring of Ring of Ma'rûf, Glittering Wish, Burning Wish, Cunning Wish, Living Wish, Golden Wish, Death Wish.
2) Or establish a proper wishboard within the rules which is greater than 0 but not more than 10. In casual environments, a binder might be used but the player must ask for permission.
3) Allow the cards to fetch the equivalent card from exile as long as they own it such as with Karn, the Great Creator as per the rules prior to Magic 2010. (Example: A Living Wish can grab a creature or land card you own that is exiled.)
I already know your thoughts on two of the three sections, but I feel you might find that the third is a more fair compromise.
All three of those examples are pretty bad. The main idea behind allowing wishes is that they should either be banned or be allowed to work as to not need additional rules for them (r13, at this time).
Version one: hits the useless wishes while leaving the useful ones, good. However you'd still rule 13 to clarify that Karn and Research//Development don’t grab anything outside of the game.
Version two: the one that allows wishes to function as sorta intended. It would still need an additional rule for the size of the sideboard and what rules they would follow (presumably the normal edh ones since you can’t add a banned or modern legal card to your standard sideboard).
Version three: a wish level errata to update them to modern times. Technically the cleanest version, but it has three ‘problems’. The first is that normal wishes would still be mostly useless, the second is that they still wouldn’t function ‘as intended’, and lastly it would still need an additional rule to govern them. So we’re essentially back at where we are now.
Tldr: two of your suggestions are practically the same thing the RC is doing right now, and the other would need even more details while still not working “as intended”.
The reason for the third just means that
1) The cards do have purpose within the format
2) That no wishboard is needed
3) No banlist update is needed
4) Half the functionality exists for them just like in other formats, but of a different manner
5) Rule 13 being rweritten to accommodate them
1) Agreed.
2) Except that it is. Cards cost money and making cards more desirable suddenly is something that has to be taken into account by the RC and the CAG. We're not WotC and we're allowed to acknowledge the existence of the secondary market.
3) This is true for anything in Commander, not just wishes. What makes Wishes special is the degree to which a bad or ignorant actor can abuse them to the detriment of everyone else in the game.
4) You are literally arguing that a rule of the format should be changed. The onus is on the side asking for change to prove that change is better than the status quo. Inertia is a powerful force.
5) Rule 13 was clarified for exactly this reason. Should ignorance of any given rule by some percentage of the playerbase be a valid reason to argue for removal of that rule? I don't think so.
2) It has been my understanding that how their decisions affect prices is not a concern for the RC, at least not one that they wish to address. Are you speaking for yourself or individual members, or the collective?
2) It has been my understanding that how their decisions affect prices is not a concern for the RC, at least not one that they wish to address. Are you speaking for yourself or individual members, or the collective?
I'm speaking for myself, but there's a part of the philosophy document that says that the format is to be steered to avoid significant barriers to entry. This has come into play in discussions of unbanning some cards that are likely innocuous for the format at this time but whose price makes them unobtainable for all but a few players.
I'm speaking for myself, but there's a part of the philosophy document that says that the format is to be steered to avoid significant barriers to entry. This has come into play in discussions of unbanning some cards that are likely innocuous for the format at this time but whose price makes them unobtainable for all but a few players.
I have championed to unban Library for a few years now, but the impression I got was that the few cards that are banned under PBtE are cemented on that list, and that this criteria is basically dead which won't apply to any additional cards. Personally, I think that you are opening a can of worms if you take price into consideration for future bannings.
I have championed to unban Library for a few years now, but the impression I got was that the few cards that are banned under PBtE are cemented on that list, and that this criteria is basically dead which won't apply to any additional cards. Personally, I think that you are opening a can of worms if you take price into consideration for future bannings.
No one has mentioned this at all in our discussions, so I have no reason to believe that it's off the table when it comes to discussions about bannings and unbannings going forward.
3) Allow the cards to fetch the equivalent card from exile as long as they own it such as with Karn, the Great Creator as per the rules prior to Magic 2010. (Example: A Living Wish can grab a creature or land card you own that is exiled.)
So you want to add a format specific rule that changes the actual function of the card, but don't see that as a larger issue than Rule 13?
If people are sick of reading about stuff just stop taking part. You have 100% control over what you read. Simic Ascendancy isn't going to get banned just because you didn't tell someone to shut up on the internet.
3) Allow the cards to fetch the equivalent card from exile as long as they own it such as with Karn, the Great Creator as per the rules prior to Magic 2010. (Example: A Living Wish can grab a creature or land card you own that is exiled.)
I already know your thoughts on two of the three sections, but I feel you might find that the third is a more fair compromise.
That rule neuters exile removal. We run exile removal to get rid of things, but if you make wishes now act as a Get Out of Jail Free card for exiled cards, it makes a lot of cards far, far worse.
That rule neuters exile removal. We run exile removal to get rid of things, but if you make wishes now act as a Get Out of Jail Free card for exiled cards, it makes a lot of cards far, far worse.
A wish is just tutoring from exile with how I purpose. Is it really any different if you tuck my non-commander cards and I use a normal tutor to retrieve it?
After all Karn, the Great Creator is the modern day version of a wish card. If you exile my artifact, I can just retrieve it with Karn. Also Karn is far more repeatable than most other wish cards aside from Spawnsire of Ulamog.
That it would require a deck to run Pull From Eternity and/or Riftsweeper to retrieve a wish since most legal wish cards exile themselves after finishing their effect and also tend to be one-use cards. That the only that would see play with a rules change is Pull From Eternity because Riftsweeper sends it to the deck and even then PFE puts it in your graveyard and not in your hand so you need a way to cast it from your graveyard or to put that card into your hand and then cast it. Which if it sounds clunky and casual level of play, it likely is.
So you want to add a format specific rule that changes the actual function of the card, but don't see that as a larger issue than Rule 13?
Function is prior function per prior rules within the game.
Yes, I am aware of that, I have been playing since 1995. Those rules were purposely changed for a good reason, exile is a specific zone to remove items from the range of recursion. You would revert them to something more complex, AND no longer in the rules set. Just to shoehorn them in.
Use Rule 0 if you want wishes, stop trying to hoist them on everyone. People need to be good sports, and ask to use them if its something they want to try.
If people are sick of reading about stuff just stop taking part. You have 100% control over what you read. Simic Ascendancy isn't going to get banned just because you didn't tell someone to shut up on the internet.
Random forum posters don't just set the ground rules for a discussion.
Agreed. I don't agree to half your basic premises, so your clarity is irrelevant.
Why does price not matter? Why are other cards that do nothing nonequivalent to the cards in question that do nothing? If the RC decides "outside the game" is a functionless term in the same way paliano's "reveal-in-draft" is, why is that a foul ball?
Random forum posters don't just set the ground rules for a discussion.
Agreed. I don't agree to half your basic premises, so your clarity is irrelevant.
Why does price not matter? Why are other cards that do nothing nonequivalent to the cards in question that do nothing? If the RC decides "outside the game" is a functionless term [redacted sentence fragment], why is that a foul ball?
I will just quote what ForgottenOne posted to show why price doesn't matter much with wishes.
So you want to add a format specific rule that changes the actual function of the card, but don't see that as a larger issue than Rule 13?
Function is prior function per prior rules within the game.
Use Rule 0 if you want wishes, stop trying to hoist them on everyone. People need to be good sports, and ask to use them if its something they want to try.
Here is a counter point from ground rules I listed. You got to admit you walked into this one.
Quote from Ava »
3) If a player would hypothetically misbehave with using wishes, they are obviously violating the social contract / gentleman's agreement.
If a player would hypothetically misbehave with using wishes, they are obviously violating the social contract / gentleman's agreement.
Defining misbehaving and social contract is a Whole task in it self, wishes not working without rule 0 gets around that by basically putting the definition of misbehaving / social construct on the individual playgroup. If you make it legal for everyone then you make it more difficult for Pick up games as what one sees as misbehaving with wishes another one sees as fine.
On the other hand getting in a Pick up game with rule 13 in place there is no chance for that.
Use Rule 0 if you want wishes, stop trying to hoist them on everyone. People need to be good sports, and ask to use them if its something they want to try.
Here is a counter point from ground rules I listed. You got to admit you walked into this one.
Quote from Ava »
3) If a player would hypothetically misbehave with using wishes, they are obviously violating the social contract / gentleman's agreement.
Your ground rules still do not set the basis for a discussion.
Besides, its not about the social contract at that point, there is no agreement on how they work, just look at this thread.
If you want to use them, cool. Ask before hand, set the parameters, and allow people to say "no". They didn't build for wishes, and you did. If some go into a game thinking they can just cast it, then the discussion is had when its on the stack, it makes for a bad game.
If people are sick of reading about stuff just stop taking part. You have 100% control over what you read. Simic Ascendancy isn't going to get banned just because you didn't tell someone to shut up on the internet.
This is effectively a summary of the points I've gathered so far, with an attempt to be as unbiased as possible (I'm in the anti-wish camp):
Pro-Wish Camp:
1) We have cards that we want to use on a regular basis, with any group we might come across, without having to ask permission before doing so.
2) We don't like that the rules are in the grey area of legal but non-functional in the Commander/EDH format and we want the RC/CAG to either ban them or make them legal.
3) We don't feel that comparing other format cards to wishes (ex. planechase and draft) are valid arguments against why wishes can't be functional in Commander. Cards that have alternate conditions like Battle of Wits also don't count in the argument against playability because while legal, they inherently break the limit on deck construction of 100 cards or require multiples prohibited by singleton.
4) The "spirit of the format" is to allow all cards that could see play in other formats, but don't, due to mana cost, effect, efficiency, etc. Wishes are a part of that list of cards, in our opinion, and want them to see play as well.
5) Don't judge the cards and their 'worst-case scenario' in the hands of competitive players, they don't represent the majority - some of us just want to try to pull off these cool plays.
6) The 'Perceived Barrier to Entry' isn't an issue because the majority of the cards are well within reasonable limits and are even lower than most of the most commonly played cards.
Anti-Wish Camp:
1) Any functionality granted to wishes violates one or more rules, would circumvent the rules, or would require too many additional concessions to limit their scope. The changes that would need to be made would change the wish card's functionality to be something else entirely (or at least heavily errata'd).
2) Wishes are currently cards that have the potential to spike in popularity/demand, and the single time printings of them could cause a 'Perceived Barrier to Entry' for players.
3) The social contract is determined/interpreted to be something different for each play group, and the current state of wishes being non-functional maintains reasonable expectations going into anywhere, be it a new group of friends, an LGS or anywhere else.
4) The 'worst-case scenario' has to be taken into account when banning/unbanning anything. While this case is unique, it is not immune to the same consideration.
5) The current system isn't broken when it comes to dictating what sort of things are suitable for casual, group accepted play. Everything from running currently banned cards, making your own banned lists, running wishes, or even special mulligan rules is all within reach, if your play group agrees to it.
Rule 0: These are the official rules of Commander. Local groups are welcome to modify them as they see fit. If you’d like an exception to these rules, especially in an unfamiliar environment, please get the approval of the other players before the game begins
Rule 0 has been part of Commander philosophy for more than a decade. Urged by the CAG, we simply decided to formalize it. Making it the first rule does two things. First, it lays out the baseline rules for the format. If you want to play official Commander, the rules that follow are set in stone.
This becomes important in unfamiliar environments. When you go to a large event or play with people you don’t know, we want everyone to have the same basic expectations and understanding of what they’re getting into.Second, it underscores that quality communication is one of the best ways to ensure the best possible experience.
I've seen plenty of comments on the subject, as new action or continued inaction often bring these things back up to the surface. This is especially true for those that hold a topic close to heart. In addition to what I feel are logical points against wishes and the often mentioned 'wishboards/sideboards', These next points might tip the scales in favor of things remaining as they currently are.
1) There is a distinct lack of consistency in what people want when it comes to wishes. Some favor the most literal reading of the card... duplicate of a card in your 99, card in a binder, off color card, etc. Some of those same people later make concession after concession, from trying to make it adhere to the rules of singleton to bartering for the size of the side/wishboard. Some are suggesting that the RC adopt an official sideboard from which wishes can be pulled, despite a sideboard never having been legal by official rules.
This all points to what the social contract is for. While the RC/CAG could technically implement the changes that are requested, and the Pro-wish camp would sing it's praises, there are still likely those among that same camp that would complain that their vision for how wishes would function isn't what's official. ex. "We shouldn't be limited to 5/10 cards. Magic's sideboard is 15!" or "The card says I can pull any card that matches the criteria, why am I limited to anything at all?"
2) Setting aside potential demand and cost increases for these underutilized cards, the ease with which a card can be abused and how good a card is at what it does are some of the things that eventually gets it banned (see: Primeval Titan, Griselbrand, Sylvan Primordial, Prophet of Kruphix).
When there's a will, there's a way. People will find the most degenerate uses for them, and with enough attention and prevalence, the outcome will be the same. Even if you're not on "team hyper-competitive", a subsequent banning or rule change would effect you as well if you play by the official rules. If you choose not to play by the official rules at that point, then you're already in unofficial territory, so why persist in getting wishes into official gameplay?
TL;DR
Convincing individuals you know and play with regularly to try out wishes and their wishboards seems like the path of least resistance here. If you can't manage to do that, try to find another group of people at an LGS or come to terms with people not liking/wanting wishes in Commander/EDH. Trying to force the issue and your desire to use cards that don't currently function in the format isn't in line with the social contract as it is. When people come together and agree on the kind of games they want to play, they stay and do so. When no agreement is met, people don't play. Find people who agree to play the way you want to and play games with them.
Glittering, Cunning, and Acquisition are self-explanatory. Coax and Spawnsire already have a thing going with Eldrazi cards exiling cards. Karn is basically for artifact-centric decks.
The last one is Ring of Ma'rûf, its already expensive because its a reserved list card from Arabian Nights and as one of the four horseman sets it tends to be picked clean by speculators and old-style formats like 93/94 Magic. It should be ignored from concerns as it is also a very slow card requiring two payments of 5, 10 in total to activate, also it exiles itself after use.
The next category to see growth is Burning Wish and Living Wish. They are good but they aren't weak either, they will see play but not nearly the same as the prior category, minus ring.
The final category for growth is Golden Wish, Death Wish, and Research // Development. Golden s a very expensive to cast tutor that will only find a home in mostly enchantress decks. Death is cheaper but it also comes with a steep cost of 1/2 the caster's life which in EDH can mean being left with 18-20 life easily after one cast and would likely only find a home in decks that purposefully wanted low life total like Near-Death Experience. Finally Research is the weakest of the bunch as while it gets you four cards in total with one cast, those same cards enter your deck.
(Then they misquote me about how the social contract applies and also does not apply)
By that logic people should be fine with banned cards or Shahrazad as long as they don't do anything outside the social contract. Of course that makes zero sense, because expectations for a pickup game have been set by the RC long before any deck was contructed.
If people are sick of reading about stuff just stop taking part. You have 100% control over what you read. Simic Ascendancy isn't going to get banned just because you didn't tell someone to shut up on the internet.
People can't agree on what the social contract is, much less a set of cards even when handed to them with a silver platter that provides the cleanest answer. Also that is fools talk to suggest unbanning Shahrazad as an equivalent to allowing a wish, one is an abusable minigame while the other is a tutor for exile and wishboarded cards. Man this thread is truly the one that keeps on giving.
People can't agree on what the social contract is, much less a set of cards even when handed to them with a silver platter that provides the cleanest answer.
First of all at least you don't just add snarky comments and misquotes anymore so welcome back to the discussion.
And for you it seems like the cleanest answer if not everybody can agree that one this "cleanest answer" then it just stays that "your opinion" of a clean answer.
Then I want to know your cleanest answer since you put forward the 3 card wishboard rule, the regular sideboard rule, including a General magic rule reversion back to when they were able to get exiled cards. I aslo assume (but for this I couldn't find a post you did confirming this ) that you wouldn't mind them being able to grab anything.
A great example for how each individual/individual group has their own social contract, and its difficult to come to a consensus is MTGO.
Some people say no X in the comments some say no X/Y some just say no Y some say nothing and are fine with anything some say nothing and scoop when one of the things they thought "were obviously against the social construct and they shouldn't have to mention it".
With X/Y including but not limited to:
MLD, Extra turns, Counterspells, Monocolored commanders (Yes it seems some peole take issue with that), Infinite, Purphoros(and singling other commanders out purph is just the one I see most often), Infect, Planeswalkers, Tribal (also seeing some thatjust want tribal), Tutors.
With wishboards included that list will grow as it seems to be that not all people are in favor of that.
Sidenote In MTGO irregardles of tournament non tournament you can only search your sideboard with wishes, so implementing a grab anything further divides MTGO Commander from Paper commander.
EDIT:
one is an abusable minigame
yeah he said so himself but thats exactly his point it is abusable but you dont have to abuse it. Same with wishes they are abusable but you dont have to abuse them.
People can't agree on what the social contract is, much less a set of cards even when handed to them with a silver platter that provides the cleanest answer. Also that is fools talk to suggest unbanning Shahrazad as an equivalent to allowing a wish, one is an abusable minigame while the other is a tutor for exile and wishboarded cards. Man this thread is truly the one that keeps on giving.
No one suggested an unban of Shahrazad, because people will use it strictly in the social contract, right? Oh wait you said its abusable? No way!
You don't even know the rules of wish cards. You cannot get cards from exile, thats part of the issue. What is this 'silver platter' you speak of? One of the dozen ideas for allowing wished in this thread?
If people are sick of reading about stuff just stop taking part. You have 100% control over what you read. Simic Ascendancy isn't going to get banned just because you didn't tell someone to shut up on the internet.
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1) Ban Ring of Ring of Ma'rûf, Glittering Wish, Burning Wish, Cunning Wish, Living Wish, Golden Wish, Death Wish.
2) Or establish a proper wishboard within the rules which is greater than 0 but not more than 10. In casual environments, a binder might be used but the player must ask for permission.
3) Allow the cards to fetch the equivalent card from exile as long as they own it such as with Karn, the Great Creator as per the rules prior to Magic 2010. (Example: A Living Wish can grab a creature or land card you own that is exiled.)
I already know your thoughts on two of the three sections, but I feel you might find that the third is a more fair compromise.
Version one: hits the useless wishes while leaving the useful ones, good. However you'd still rule 13 to clarify that Karn and Research//Development don’t grab anything outside of the game.
Version two: the one that allows wishes to function as sorta intended. It would still need an additional rule for the size of the sideboard and what rules they would follow (presumably the normal edh ones since you can’t add a banned or modern legal card to your standard sideboard).
Version three: a wish level errata to update them to modern times. Technically the cleanest version, but it has three ‘problems’. The first is that normal wishes would still be mostly useless, the second is that they still wouldn’t function ‘as intended’, and lastly it would still need an additional rule to govern them. So we’re essentially back at where we are now.
Tldr: two of your suggestions are practically the same thing the RC is doing right now, and the other would need even more details while still not working “as intended”.
1) The cards do have purpose within the format
2) That no wishboard is needed
3) No banlist update is needed
4) Half the functionality exists for them just like in other formats, but of a different manner
5) Rule 13 being rweritten to accommodate them
2) It has been my understanding that how their decisions affect prices is not a concern for the RC, at least not one that they wish to address. Are you speaking for yourself or individual members, or the collective?
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I'm speaking for myself, but there's a part of the philosophy document that says that the format is to be steered to avoid significant barriers to entry. This has come into play in discussions of unbanning some cards that are likely innocuous for the format at this time but whose price makes them unobtainable for all but a few players.
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GWU Angus Mackenzie's Fog of War GWU / B Sheoldred's Sleepless Cemetery B / R Ashling's Purifying Pilgrimage R
U Unesh's Sphinx Storm U / R Ib's Goblins: What It Says On The Tin R / UR Okaun & Zndrsplt Flip Out UR
Oathbreaker: UB Ashiok's Persistent Nightmare UB
I have championed to unban Library for a few years now, but the impression I got was that the few cards that are banned under PBtE are cemented on that list, and that this criteria is basically dead which won't apply to any additional cards. Personally, I think that you are opening a can of worms if you take price into consideration for future bannings.
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Burning Wish - $1
Cunning Wish - $7
Living Wish - $1
Golden Wish - $0.50
Death Wish - $0.50
Glittering Wish - $6
Ring of Ma'rûf - $100-$150 Starcitygames.com (Note this is an Arabian Nights card; price range is for NM to SP)
Coax From the Blind Eternities - $0.35
Research // Development - $0.70
Mastermind's Acquisition - $2
Spawnsire of Ulamog - $4
Karn, the Great Creator - $10
Are we really talking 'Perceived Barrier to Entry' based on that?!?!?
Jalira, Master Polymorphist | Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | Bosh, Iron Golem | Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Brago, King Eternal | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Wort, Boggart Auntie | Wort, the Raidmother
Captain Sisay | Rhys, the Redeemed | Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight | Obzedat, Ghost Council | Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind | Vorel of the Hull Clade
Uril, the Miststalker | Prossh, Skyraider of Kher | Nicol Bolas | Progenitus
Ghave, Guru of Spores | Zedruu the Greathearted | Damia, Sage of Stone | Riku of Two Reflections
No one has mentioned this at all in our discussions, so I have no reason to believe that it's off the table when it comes to discussions about bannings and unbannings going forward.
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Oathbreaker: UB Ashiok's Persistent Nightmare UB
Random forum posters don't just set the ground rules for a discussion.
So you want to add a format specific rule that changes the actual function of the card, but don't see that as a larger issue than Rule 13?
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A wish is just tutoring from exile with how I purpose. Is it really any different if you tuck my non-commander cards and I use a normal tutor to retrieve it?
After all Karn, the Great Creator is the modern day version of a wish card. If you exile my artifact, I can just retrieve it with Karn. Also Karn is far more repeatable than most other wish cards aside from Spawnsire of Ulamog.
That it would require a deck to run Pull From Eternity and/or Riftsweeper to retrieve a wish since most legal wish cards exile themselves after finishing their effect and also tend to be one-use cards. That the only that would see play with a rules change is Pull From Eternity because Riftsweeper sends it to the deck and even then PFE puts it in your graveyard and not in your hand so you need a way to cast it from your graveyard or to put that card into your hand and then cast it. Which if it sounds clunky and casual level of play, it likely is.
Use Rule 0 if you want wishes, stop trying to hoist them on everyone. People need to be good sports, and ask to use them if its something they want to try.
Agreed. I don't agree to half your basic premises, so your clarity is irrelevant.
Why does price not matter? Why are other cards that do nothing nonequivalent to the cards in question that do nothing? If the RC decides "outside the game" is a functionless term in the same way paliano's "reveal-in-draft" is, why is that a foul ball?
Defining misbehaving and social contract is a Whole task in it self, wishes not working without rule 0 gets around that by basically putting the definition of misbehaving / social construct on the individual playgroup. If you make it legal for everyone then you make it more difficult for Pick up games as what one sees as misbehaving with wishes another one sees as fine.
On the other hand getting in a Pick up game with rule 13 in place there is no chance for that.
Besides, its not about the social contract at that point, there is no agreement on how they work, just look at this thread.
If you want to use them, cool. Ask before hand, set the parameters, and allow people to say "no". They didn't build for wishes, and you did. If some go into a game thinking they can just cast it, then the discussion is had when its on the stack, it makes for a bad game.
Pro-Wish Camp:
1) We have cards that we want to use on a regular basis, with any group we might come across, without having to ask permission before doing so.
2) We don't like that the rules are in the grey area of legal but non-functional in the Commander/EDH format and we want the RC/CAG to either ban them or make them legal.
3) We don't feel that comparing other format cards to wishes (ex. planechase and draft) are valid arguments against why wishes can't be functional in Commander. Cards that have alternate conditions like Battle of Wits also don't count in the argument against playability because while legal, they inherently break the limit on deck construction of 100 cards or require multiples prohibited by singleton.
4) The "spirit of the format" is to allow all cards that could see play in other formats, but don't, due to mana cost, effect, efficiency, etc. Wishes are a part of that list of cards, in our opinion, and want them to see play as well.
5) Don't judge the cards and their 'worst-case scenario' in the hands of competitive players, they don't represent the majority - some of us just want to try to pull off these cool plays.
6) The 'Perceived Barrier to Entry' isn't an issue because the majority of the cards are well within reasonable limits and are even lower than most of the most commonly played cards.
Anti-Wish Camp:
1) Any functionality granted to wishes violates one or more rules, would circumvent the rules, or would require too many additional concessions to limit their scope. The changes that would need to be made would change the wish card's functionality to be something else entirely (or at least heavily errata'd).
2) Wishes are currently cards that have the potential to spike in popularity/demand, and the single time printings of them could cause a 'Perceived Barrier to Entry' for players.
3) The social contract is determined/interpreted to be something different for each play group, and the current state of wishes being non-functional maintains reasonable expectations going into anywhere, be it a new group of friends, an LGS or anywhere else.
4) The 'worst-case scenario' has to be taken into account when banning/unbanning anything. While this case is unique, it is not immune to the same consideration.
5) The current system isn't broken when it comes to dictating what sort of things are suitable for casual, group accepted play. Everything from running currently banned cards, making your own banned lists, running wishes, or even special mulligan rules is all within reach, if your play group agrees to it.
I've seen plenty of comments on the subject, as new action or continued inaction often bring these things back up to the surface. This is especially true for those that hold a topic close to heart. In addition to what I feel are logical points against wishes and the often mentioned 'wishboards/sideboards', These next points might tip the scales in favor of things remaining as they currently are.
1) There is a distinct lack of consistency in what people want when it comes to wishes. Some favor the most literal reading of the card... duplicate of a card in your 99, card in a binder, off color card, etc. Some of those same people later make concession after concession, from trying to make it adhere to the rules of singleton to bartering for the size of the side/wishboard. Some are suggesting that the RC adopt an official sideboard from which wishes can be pulled, despite a sideboard never having been legal by official rules.
This all points to what the social contract is for. While the RC/CAG could technically implement the changes that are requested, and the Pro-wish camp would sing it's praises, there are still likely those among that same camp that would complain that their vision for how wishes would function isn't what's official. ex. "We shouldn't be limited to 5/10 cards. Magic's sideboard is 15!" or "The card says I can pull any card that matches the criteria, why am I limited to anything at all?"
2) Setting aside potential demand and cost increases for these underutilized cards, the ease with which a card can be abused and how good a card is at what it does are some of the things that eventually gets it banned (see: Primeval Titan, Griselbrand, Sylvan Primordial, Prophet of Kruphix).
When there's a will, there's a way. People will find the most degenerate uses for them, and with enough attention and prevalence, the outcome will be the same. Even if you're not on "team hyper-competitive", a subsequent banning or rule change would effect you as well if you play by the official rules. If you choose not to play by the official rules at that point, then you're already in unofficial territory, so why persist in getting wishes into official gameplay?
TL;DR
Convincing individuals you know and play with regularly to try out wishes and their wishboards seems like the path of least resistance here. If you can't manage to do that, try to find another group of people at an LGS or come to terms with people not liking/wanting wishes in Commander/EDH. Trying to force the issue and your desire to use cards that don't currently function in the format isn't in line with the social contract as it is. When people come together and agree on the kind of games they want to play, they stay and do so. When no agreement is met, people don't play. Find people who agree to play the way you want to and play games with them.
Cunning Wish - 2 Printings
Living Wish - 3 Printings
Golden Wish - 1 Printing
Death Wish - 1 Printing
Glittering Wish - 1 Printing
Coax from the Blind Eternities - 1 Printing
Research // Development - 1 Printing
Mastermind's Acquisition - 1 Printing
Spawnsire of Ulamog - 1 Printing
Karn, the Great Creator - 2 Printings
Ring of Wind - 1 Printing
Of the lot, the biggest ones to spike would be: Cunning Wish, Glittering Wish, Coax from the Blind Eternities, Mastermind's Acquisition, Ring of Ma'rûf, Karn, the Great Creator, Spawnsire of Ulamog.
Glittering, Cunning, and Acquisition are self-explanatory. Coax and Spawnsire already have a thing going with Eldrazi cards exiling cards. Karn is basically for artifact-centric decks.
The last one is Ring of Ma'rûf, its already expensive because its a reserved list card from Arabian Nights and as one of the four horseman sets it tends to be picked clean by speculators and old-style formats like 93/94 Magic. It should be ignored from concerns as it is also a very slow card requiring two payments of 5, 10 in total to activate, also it exiles itself after use.
The next category to see growth is Burning Wish and Living Wish. They are good but they aren't weak either, they will see play but not nearly the same as the prior category, minus ring.
The final category for growth is Golden Wish, Death Wish, and Research // Development. Golden s a very expensive to cast tutor that will only find a home in mostly enchantress decks. Death is cheaper but it also comes with a steep cost of 1/2 the caster's life which in EDH can mean being left with 18-20 life easily after one cast and would likely only find a home in decks that purposefully wanted low life total like Near-Death Experience. Finally Research is the weakest of the bunch as while it gets you four cards in total with one cast, those same cards enter your deck.
First of all at least you don't just add snarky comments and misquotes anymore so welcome back to the discussion.
And for you it seems like the cleanest answer if not everybody can agree that one this "cleanest answer" then it just stays that "your opinion" of a clean answer.
Then I want to know your cleanest answer since you put forward the 3 card wishboard rule, the regular sideboard rule, including a General magic rule reversion back to when they were able to get exiled cards. I aslo assume (but for this I couldn't find a post you did confirming this ) that you wouldn't mind them being able to grab anything.
A great example for how each individual/individual group has their own social contract, and its difficult to come to a consensus is MTGO.
Some people say no X in the comments some say no X/Y some just say no Y some say nothing and are fine with anything some say nothing and scoop when one of the things they thought "were obviously against the social construct and they shouldn't have to mention it".
With X/Y including but not limited to:
MLD, Extra turns, Counterspells, Monocolored commanders (Yes it seems some peole take issue with that), Infinite, Purphoros(and singling other commanders out purph is just the one I see most often), Infect, Planeswalkers, Tribal (also seeing some thatjust want tribal), Tutors.
With wishboards included that list will grow as it seems to be that not all people are in favor of that.
Sidenote In MTGO irregardles of tournament non tournament you can only search your sideboard with wishes, so implementing a grab anything further divides MTGO Commander from Paper commander.
EDIT:
yeah he said so himself but thats exactly his point it is abusable but you dont have to abuse it. Same with wishes they are abusable but you dont have to abuse them.
You don't even know the rules of wish cards. You cannot get cards from exile, thats part of the issue. What is this 'silver platter' you speak of? One of the dozen ideas for allowing wished in this thread?