The day of Commander unbans is finally here, and we have a lot of changes to talk about. Not only did we get the much-anticipated reveal of unbans, but there’s a massive update to the Game Changers list as well. For now, we’ll specifically take a look at the cards that have been unbanned in the Commander format.
As is considered due process with the new system, these cards will spend some time on the Game Changers list. Here, players can figure out whether the cards are problematic or not before a final decision is made.
Sway of the Stars
During Commander’s infancy, massive spells that had irreversible impacts on the game were problematic. As a result, many gigantic spells like Sway of the Stars and Worldfire were placed on the Commander banlist. Magic as a game has sped up so much, however, that if you’re spending ten mana on a spell, you should be winning the game with it.
Sway of the Stars essentially forces players to restart the game with seven life. This is a game-altering effect, but there are more lethal ways to spend ten mana in Modern Magic. Expropriate, for example, swings the game much more heavily in the caster’s favor than Sway does. It even costs less mana.
Worldfire has a much more dire impact on the game than Sway does, and sees very little play after its unbanning years ago. Sway of the Stars is likely to follow in its footsteps. There wasn’t really any reason for this card to stay on the ban list.
Coalition Victory
Of all the cards that could have gotten unbanned today, Coalition Victory was the most obvious one. We got a very comparable version of this card in the form of Call the Spirit Dragons. If that’s fine for Commander, there is little reason why this wouldn’t be.
Coalition Victory works in any five-colored deck, but it is a bit easier to win with certain decks. In a five-colored deck, as long as you control your Commander, Coalition Victory is generally an instant win button. This was stated as a concern when unbanning the card, but Coalition Victory has some fatal flaws that lend to the decision to unban it.
Removal easily blanks this card. Any player can drop a Swords to Plowshares on your Commander in response to this. Suddenly, your eight mana accomplishes nothing, and you lose a card. It’s also important to remember that Coalition Victory, like all of the other unbanned cards, is now on the Game Changers list. While this card may be inappropriate for Commander Brackets 1 and 2, it perfectly aligns with when ‘I win’ combos should resolve in Brackets 3 and above.
Braids, Cabal Minion
This is an interesting unban, but the reasoning provided by the Commander panel explains exactly why Braids, Cabal Minion has returned to Commander. To summarize it, Braids got unbanned as a result of Rule 0 conversations becoming the norm for Commander players. Basically, you should all be ok with the type of game you’re going to play if someone rolls up to the table with a Braids deck. As Magic has become more powerful, Braids has also become more reasonable at higher levels of play.
The only time that Braids is generally an issue is when the Commander is ramped out early. If players cannot get enough permanents into play by the time Braids enters play, they can end up getting trapped under its effect. Commander players, in general, have become more responsible about playing cheap removal, however, which means that Braids should be a very solvable problem for an appropriate table.
This card doesn’t threaten to usurp the highest levels of Commander and Rule 0 conversations, and the Game Changer list should act as deterrents against Braids appearing in games that they have no business being a part of.
Panoptic Mirror
This one surprised me. Panoptic Mirror will be a kill-on-sight card at any Commander table, but it takes a long time to get going. Once it does, the game ends on the spot, and you generally only need one other card to do this.
Using Panoptic Mirror with any extra turn spell, like Time Warp, creates infinite turns for the controller as soon as Panoptic Mirror triggers. Similarly, Imprinting something that slows the game down with Panoptic Mirror can make it almost impossible to progress a game state.
On the other side of things, you need tons of mana to make Panoptic Mirror work, and players have lots of opportunities to remove the card before the game ends. Since Panoptic Mirror triggers on upkeep, players will generally have a full rotation of the table to stop the card. That, combined with how much mana it takes to get your combos working, means that Panoptic Mirror functions at an acceptable level for higher bracket games.
Gifts Ungiven
Of all the unbans seen today, Gifts Ungiven is the only one that has a strong chance of affecting cEDH play. This can be used to tutor up powerful infinite combos that can end the game shortly after Gifts resolves. Between putting two cards in your grave and two in your hand, winning the game is often trivial.
This is another card that is subject to the environment in which you’re playing it. If you’re trying to resolve Gifts to immediately win the game against a pod of players who aren’t doing the same, chances are you’re playing at the wrong Bracket level.
At a lower Bracket, Gifts can simply be used as a silly tutor to find answers for specific board states. Because of its nature, Gifts Ungiven can give rise to a lot of political interplay at the table that can make for interesting conversations. What cards will you give the player making the choice for your Gifts Ungiven, and how can they help you in return?
This particular unban has something to offer for every Commander player, and is only problematic in its misuse.
What About the Recent Bannings?
Many players expected the bans to Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Dockside Extortionist to be potentially reversed. Because of this, Gavin Verhey specifically addressed these cards in the unbanning article. These cards will not be unbanned now, but they could be revisited. Verhey clearly stated that, of all these cards, Jeweled Lotus has the highest chance of being unbanned, something that we agree with.
Unfortunately for players who are looking to play with their Black Lotus knockoff, Commander banlist changes won’t be revisited in 2025. Players will need to wait until 2026 before Jeweled Lotus might make a comeback. That also means that any Commander cards that aren’t on the banlist will be safe for the rest of the year.
Gavin Verhey
“So, we are committing no further changes to the banned list for the rest of this year.“
The only exception to this is if something that is egregiously overpowered in Commander gets printed this year. Nadu, Winged Wisdom is a recent example of a card that might become an exception. In order to accomplish this, quarterly check-ins are planned for the Commander format. The next one, Verhey states, “is being targeted for late June or early July.”
While the uncertainty might be annoying for some players, this is a rather refreshing stance compared to how rigid the ban window remain for other formats. We can rest assured that no new MTG mistake will take Commander for a ride for months before something gets done about it.
All in all, these unbans seem strong all around. While I personally think a few more cards could have been removed from the ban list, Wizards of the Coast has explained their stance on each card that shows up on the Commander banlist. If you’re wondering why a particular card was not unbanned, this should explain the reasoning behind it.