After weeks of waiting, and plenty of speculation, the new batch of Magic: The Gathering Commander unbans is finally here! Five cards have been freed from their banlist shackles, all of which have the potential to shake up the format. Not content with just that, however, Wizards decided to make a major update to the MTG Game Changers list today, too.
A whopping 18 cards have been added to the list, further shifting the Commander Brackets system towards Wizards’ ideal version. On top of that, two initial Game Changers have actually been removed, freeing them up for use at casual tables. If you’re a long-time Commander player, you may have to adjust some of your decks in the wake of these seismic changes.
The MTG Game Changers Update
Wizards published the MTG Game Changers update on its official site earlier today, alongside the unbans. As mentioned above, a staggering 18 cards have been added to the list, bringing the total to 58. The cards added are as follows:
This update increases the number of Game Changers in Commander by nearly 50%. These aren’t obscure cards that are unlikely to affect players, either. Many of these cards are stone-cold format staples, which players will now have to consider more critically for slots in their decks.
Green in particular got hit hard here, losing five of its best Commander cards to the list. This makes a lot of sense, since a common complaint about the original Game Changers list was the lack of green representation on it. Given how powerful the color is in Commander due to its access to premium ramp, these changes should help even things out a bit.
As Wizards taketh away, so too does Wizards giveth. Two cards, Trinisphere and Trouble in Pairs, were actually removed from the existing Game Changers list. This means they can be freely run in decks of all brackets, according to the current rules.
Trouble in Pairs makes some sense here, since it’s a draw engine that helps white compete with the other heavy hitters out there. Trinisphere is a bit more suspect, since it’s a pretty oppressive Stax piece, but Wizards justified the move by claiming that it “tends to be strongest at the highest power levels.”
Philosophy 101
There’s a lot to take in with this MTG Game Changers update. Where the initial launch of the system served to lay the foundations, this update is very much indicative of Wizards long-term philosophy for the format. You can see this clearly in the groups of cards targeted.
For one thing, draw hate cards took several big hits here. Notion Thief, Orcish Bowmasters, Narset, Parter of Veils and Consecrated Sphinx all fall into this category. In the announcement article Wizards notes that these cards are “frustrating” to encounter, and at worst, “combo with wheels to do some nefarious things.” Going forward, it looks like less restrictive card draw is a priority. The removal of Trouble in Pairs from the Game Changers list further supports this.
A number of tutors were also hit in this update. Worldly Tutor, Gamble, Crop Rotation, Intuition, and Natural Order all moved to the Game Changers list, which means most of the really good tutors are now restricted in this way. There’s already a rule about limiting the number of tutors you play in lower brackets, but moving more tutors onto the Game Changers list further discourages their use. Many established Commander content creators advocate against tutors because of how they homogenize the non-cEDH play experience, and clearly Wizards agrees with this idea.
The rest of the new Game Changers are largely just generically ‘unfun’ cards. Combo pieces like Food Chain, unfair draw engines like Necropotence, and stupidly efficient answers like Aura Shards all made the list. For the most part, these are cards whose absence was conspicuous from the first round of Game Changers. It’s great to see them there now. While some may object to an individual card or two here, for the most part these changes seem hugely positive.
Ones To Watch
The MTG Game Changers list exists, in part, to give players a heads-up, so future ban updates don’t hit quite as hard as those last September. If a card is on the Game Changers list, it’s fair game for a future ban, so players should exercise caution when buying. With today’s announcement, Wizards took this idea a step further. After the big news, they presented a ‘watch list’ for cards that it’s considering for the Game Changers list in future. That’s two layers of buyer protection!
A lot of the cards on the watch list are staples you’d expect. Farewell, perhaps the most frustrating board wipe in the game, is unsurprisingly on Wizards’ radar. Both Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos, similarly salt-inducing board wipes, are also being considered.
Deeper in, it looks like green may be in trouble down the line. For one, a ton of green tutors, Chord of Calling, Finale of Devastation, etc., are on the watch list. On top of that, big green bombs like Craterhoof Behemoth and The Great Henge are too. It got off easy at first, but green could end up with more Game Changers than any color in the end.
Wizards also teased the potential removal of more Game Changers in future. Force of Will was the only card on the positive side of the watch list this time. It makes sense, however, that we’d see more in future. Two cards have already been removed, after all.
If there’s one key take-away from these changes, it’s that Wizards is prepared to be very flexible when it comes to governing Commander. If we continue to get regular, in-depth updates like this going forward, I can see the format ending up in a great place.