Earlier today, the Commander Format Panel announced changes to Commander - the first real format changes since Wizards took over Commander late last year. The announcement today saw five cards unbanned from the format, while Wizards gave some insight into how the Bracket system has been going since its announcement earlier this year.
The five cards unbanned from Commander as of today are:
Wizards of the Coast's Gavin Verhey explained, on behalf of the entire CFP, why each card deserved an unban, and some of the insight included how the new bracket system and how those discussions can help establish intent ahead of time which led to some of the unbans (Gifts Ungiven being a prime example of this). For cards like Braids, Cabal Minion, its unbanning is partly due to just how much the format has changed since it was first banned way back in 2009. Via today's unbanning announcement:
"The most frustrating Braids games are when it's put out extremely quickly and people feel locked under it. However, as little as a single removal spell can really set that entire plan back. As Commander decks have become more efficient, with more targeted removal spells, and players have gotten better at identifying commanders they don't want to play against and having pregame conversations, so that gives us the confidence to bring back Braids.
A lot has changed since Braids was banned in 2009. We mostly believe people will know what they're signing up for in a game with Braids as a commander, and as a card in the 99, it is reasonable and acceptable."
Notable exceptions to the unban list, though, are the cards that saw the community almost completely revolt last year, namely Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt. These cards were talked about, but the Commander Format Panel declined to unban them. It seems out of all the cards, Jeweled Lotus is the one most likely to receive an unban down the road, but there's nothing definitive to announce now, it seems. The panel did commit to no further bans or unbans for the remainder of 2025 (barring cards that have the same disruption to the format as Nadu, Winged Wisdom did).
Game Changers Update
While the bracket system itself doesn't seem to be getting an update right now, the list of Game Changers which can be used to help define what bracket your Commander deck sits within is getting a substantial update. Some cards are being taken off the Game Changers list, while 18 new cards have been added. Despite the initial desire to "keep the Game Changers list small," Verhey acknowledges that by doing so, the team "may have overcorrected a bit."
"When we rolled the system out, we tried to keep the Game Changers list small. We were worried about the number of cards people would have to track and worked with great community tools like Archidekt, Moxfield, and Scryfall to make sure those sites were ready to roll out and track those immediately. While a precaution I'm glad we took, we may have overcorrected a bit: the overwhelming response (and most common point of feedback) was that people could do with a lot more Game Changers. Having this set list and shared language has been helpful when talking about games. Additionally, adding more Game Changers will help distinguish brackets by pushing some decks upward."
Verhey is keen on ensuring that whether your deck has Game Changers in it or not, Intent should be the driving force behind what bracket your deck should fall in as well. Even if your deck doesn't include a ton of Game Changers, making it solidly sit within a lower bracket, the intent with which you built the deck should be the driving force of how you define it.
This obviously requires players to be exceeding honest during the rule 0 discussion ahead of time, which is a pitfall to the formula here - but that was always the case when you get down to it.
As far as the new list of Game Changers, we saw Trouble in Pairs and Trinisphere delisted from the GC list, while the following cards were added:
- Teferi's Protection
- Humility
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Intuition
- Consecrated Sphinx
- Necropotence
- Orcish Bowmasters
- Notion Thief
- Deflecting Swat
- Gamble
- Worldly Tutor
- Crop Rotation
- Seedborn Muse
- Natural Order
- Food Chain
- Aura Shards
- Field of the Dead
- Mishra's Workshop
You can check out the official Bracket Update post for more details. Additionally, if you'd rather hear all about it, check out the Twitch stream from this morning announcing the changes in the embed below.
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