Following the monumental Commander bans in September of 2024, control over the format shifted to Wizards of the Coast. One of Wizards’ promises to the community upon receiving control over the community format was to reassess the ban list. A lot of cards on the list have been there for a decade and Magic is not the same game it was so long ago. The Game Changers list is how Wizards of the Coast will address these changes.
What is the MTG Game Changers List?
Created as part of the new beta Commander Bracket system, the MTG Game Changers list is a list of cards that are restricted at certain Commander power levels. The list also acts as an official watchlist for the format. This means that cards on the list have a chance of being banned from the Commander format in the future.
Similarly, any cards that are unbanned from Commander will also go on the Game Changers list. This can serve as a testing ground for the card. If they are too problematic, they might get banned again. If they aren’t, they might be removed from the list after spending some time there.
This should help prevent blindsides to the Commander ban list that can catch players unaware. Many of the cards on this list are worth a decent amount of money, and banning some of these cards has the potential to strip all the value from them.
Currently, as of October 22nd, 2025, there are 51 cards on the MTG Game Changers List. This follows an update to the Commander Brackets Beta on October 21st. This update removed 10 cards from the Game Changers list following a major tweak to the format’s bracket system.
MTG Game Changers Latest Update
On the 21st of October, 2025, Wizards of the Coast updated the MTG Game Changers List for the third time. During this update, ten cards were officially removed from the Game Changers List, effective immediately. These ten cards are now completely legal in the Commander format at all bracket levels.
Those ten cards that were removed from the Game Changers List on October 21st, 2025, are as follows:
- Expropriate
- Sway of the Stars
- Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
- Urza, High Lord Artificer
- Deflecting Swat
- Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
- Food Chain
- Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
- Winota, Joiner of Forces
- Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
Additionally, during the latest MTG Game Changers List update, Wizards also discussed removing two more cards from the list. These cards are Rhystic Study and Thassa’s Oracle. Unlike the above cards, which have now become legal, Wizards is considering outright banning these cards. So far, no action has been taken against these cards, and they remain on the Game Changers List.
Magic: The Gathering Game Changers Contents
At the moment, it’s believed that no more changes to the Commander Brackets Beta or the Game Changers List will occur in 2025.
MTG Game Changers Bracket Legality
Past being a watchlist for the Commander format, the MTG Game Changers list also functions as a way to help categorize the power level of your Commander decks. Do you have multiple cards on this list in your deck? If so, there’s a good chance that your deck is higher up in the tier system.
For Tier 1 and Tier 2, the entire MTG Game Changers list is banned. These two tiers are primarily composed of preconstructed decks as the strongest options. These cards do appear occasionally in precons but generally go far beyond what an average MTG Commander precon is capable of.
In Tier 3, you are allowed to use three MTG Game Changers cards. This is where most Commander decks will fall, and an extra small deck-building challenge helps keep these decks from getting too close to the Tier 4 range.
Tier 4 and up decks have no restrictions from the Game Changers list.
MTG Game Changers Next Update
Wizards of the Coast has announced that the next Commander format update will take place in 2026. Currently, there’s no word on whether or not the MTG Game Changers List will be updated during this announcement, but it is likely. For now, Wizards has loosely penned a date of “by the end of February,” but this could be subject to change.
Until then, Wizards of the Coast is currently looking for feedback on their proposed Commander and MTG Game Changer List changes. This can be provided via the official MTG Discord.