While Commander is primarily a casual format for jamming wacky strategies with friends, there are more competitive variants of the format for those who want to streamline their strategies. Players have two different options for exploring competitive Commander play: cEDH and Duel Commander.
Duel Commander, an aptly named two-player format, has a massive ban list to curate the format to a balanced place. Today, five experimental changes are being tested for the days to come. While these can be reversed on any given Monday after the changes are made, for the time being, four banned Commanders and one banned card are officially returning to Duel Commander.
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary Unbanned
This is perhaps the most controversial of the experimental changes being implemented today. A Reserved List card, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary was never even given a chance in Duel Commander. This Commander can ramp up your mana at absurd rates, dropping big bombs into play multiple turns ahead of time.
Thanks to the evolution of Magic in general, however, cheating cards into play ahead of time isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Threats are more powerful than ever, and, compared to other threat-cheating strategies, Rofellos is much easier to disrupt and requires stricter deckbuilding costs; in theory, at least. Reanimation is given as an example of a similar cheating mechanic that currently sees play in Duel Commander in the official unban article.
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar Unbanned
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar didn’t really get a real chance to see play in Duel Commander. When the card was printed back in Modern Horizons 2, it was banned shortly after its release. At the time, the consistent level of power that this card was capable of producing on turn two was a power outlier in Duel Commander. You could consistently cast this card on turn two, search up a discard outlet, and get a removal effect online shortly after. The ability to stonewall aggressive decks and snowball the game from there was deemed far too effective.
Now, this card is, in theory, a lot more in line with what the rest of the format is capable of pulling off. The Underworld Cookbook is slow enough that other decks can keep up with Asmo’s value engines and, according to the announcement, this archetype requires enough individual card choices for it to create a deckbuilding cost. As a result, Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is now legal as a Commander.
Baral, Chief of Compliance Unbanned
Baral, Chief Compliance caused a lot of problems in past Duel Commander formats. Its looting ability, combined with mana reduction and a 1/3 body, was capable of both stonewalling aggressive decks and consistently answering threats for slower strategies when given time.
A 1/3 body on turn two is far worse than it used to be. Additionally, Baral’s abilities are rather unique in the current Duel Commander atmosphere, creating potential for this unban to create a new archetype. There is still some concern that Baral’s looting effect creates too much card selection for its rate, but it does seem far more in line with the current context of Duel Commander. As a result, Baral, Chief of Compliance is now legal as a Commander.
Esior, Warding Familiar Unbanned
Looking at cEDH, it’s clear that Partner Commanders are some of the most powerful cards to utilize in the game. Having an additional card to utilize at the beginning of the game grants an insane amount of flexibility, playing better with generic value piles that don’t have extreme synergy with their Commander. These are the best Commanders in cEDH by a clear margin.
Duel Commander certainly agrees with this, and that’s why Partner Commanders are severely nerfed in the format. In 2022, the decision was made to allow only one Partner Commander to be cast from the Command Zone per game. You can have two there, but once you decide to cast one of them, the other cannot be used.
The Partner Commander mechanic originally created an absolute mass wave of bans. Many Partner Commanders have been reintroduced to the game, and now Esior, Wardwing Familiar follows that pattern. Many of Duel Commander’s best Commanders are now capable of doing a lot more than Esior can on their own. The card notably does not create card advantage and relies far more on specific synergistic cards in the 99 than other Commanders. Because of the Partner Commander change and the power creep the format has experienced, Esior, Wardwing Familiar is now legal as a Commander.
Loyal Retainers Unbanned
Talking about reanimation, Loyal Retainers has been unbanned in Duel Commander. This was considered far too fast for past format variants, but threats and answers have evolved significantly since this card was originally banned. Reanimating a disastrous legendary creature, like Atraxa, Grand Unifier on turn three, is enough to take over any game of Duel Commander. In the past, plays like this would be far too powerful.
Not only can other decks compete with Loyal Retainers’ speed better, but interacting with reanimator strategies is significantly easier than it used to be. Duel Commander is now used to dealing with the strategy, which makes the hypothetical impact of Loyal Retainers smaller. Additionally, it is believed that the Legendary Creature restriction attached to Loyal Retainers is enough of a deckbuilding cost that reanimator decks won’t be able to play this for free.
Considering that Animate Dead is also legal in Duel Commander, this unban seems to make a lot of sense.
It all Makes Sense, in Theory
The reasoning given for the unbannings of these five cards is deep, insightful, and makes a lot of sense in the format’s current contexts. There are a lot of hypotheticals, however, since these cards haven’t actually been given a chance to shine yet.
As we saw with the Mox Opal unban in Modern, sometimes the problem isn’t the card itself being unbanned, but what it enables another card to do. Underworld Breach became a problem because of Mox Opal, and had to leave the format. Something similar could happen in Duel Commander. In all of these cases, however, the cards being unbanned either require too focused a strategy to make this seem likely, or there are already better tools in the format.
Duel Commander is being a lot more responsible about these bans than what we see for formats run by Wizards. Reserving the right to ban these on any given Monday allows players to try the new cards out, but also gives the option to snuff out any problematic outliers as soon as possible. At best, this reintroduces some cards to Duel Commander and creates some unique archetypes. At worst, the Genie needs to be put back in the bottle.
The Modern unbans proved that experimental changes like this can create a lot of fresh excitement about an MTG format. Hopefully, these changes go well and encourage Wizards of the Coast to experiment with more unbans in the future.
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