Duel Commander is an interesting format that has gained a lot of additional support in recent months. This is in large part thanks to its introduction to the Magic Online space. There are plenty of different legends for players to build their decks around, each one offering its own unique gameplan.
Duel Commander also happens to have its own Rules Committee that oversees the health of the format. Bans and unbans don’t follow the traditional schedule of the major Constructed formats. In fact, just yesterday, a handful of changes were announced. These changes are intriguing to say the least, though they are a bit odd in our opinion. Let’s start by looking at perhaps the weirdest ban of the bunch.
Invert Polarity Banned
Kicking things off, we have a spell that has a ton of variance associated with it. At minimum, Invert Polarity functions as an inefficient Counterspell. However, the upside of gaining control of an opposing spell, especially a strong Commander, is definitely extremely high.
Invert Polarity has the potential to completely swing a game as early as turn three. This card has seen a massive increase in play as Aragorn, King of Gondor has staked its claim as the most popular Commander option in the format. The ban to Ezio, Auditore da Firenze back in January only made Aragorn a bigger force to be reckoned with.
All that being said, the ban to Invert Polarity feels like its mostly tied to gameplay experience and variance rather than power level. The Rules Committee stated that swaying games early through coin flips “creates unnecessary frustration.”
They also mentioned that the card’s potential to interact unfavorably with board wipes (gaining control of a board wipe doesn’t stop the effect from happening) is a negative play experience by creating “unwanted randomness.”
From a metagame share perspective, though, Invert Polarity isn’t problematic in the slightest. Even looking strictly at the Aragorn shell, there are other cards like Forth Eorlingas! that we’d argue are stronger and warp games even more around them than Invert Polarity.
This ban feels akin to Tibalt’s Trickery being banned in Explorer back in 2022. After all, the associated play patterns with high-variance cards aren’t the most enjoyable from the other side.
Zurgo Bellstriker Legal as a Commander
Next up, we have a couple specific unbans with the goal of increasing format diversity. Zurgo Bellstriker was previously banned only as a Commander. This highly aggressive one-drop threatens a lot of damage early. Combined with other aggressive cards like Broadside Bombardiers and burn spells, Zurgo decks can end games in a flash.
Still, mono-red decks in Duel Commander are few and far between. Both Kellan, Planar Trailblazer and Norin, Swift Survivalist are recently printed red one-drops with two power, and while both Commanders do appear from time to time, they are hardly dominant.
This makes a lot of sense for a few reasons. First of all, branching into white gives you some stronger aggressive options. This includes the Partner duo of Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder and Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful.
Second, some of the top strategies, especially Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury decks, are well set up to take advantage of mono-red’s low curve by gaining life, killing everything on sight, and taking over the mid to late game.
There’s a chance Zurgo Bellstriker’s Dash ability adds a new dynamic that makes mono-red a bit stronger, and the card is very unlikely to be a problem at this point. Therefore, unbanning Zurgo as a Commander seems perfectly reasonable to us.
The Rules Committee also mentioned that if mono-red becomes too strong after this decision, they can take swift action to reverse the change. It just seems unlikely this change will have a major impact of any kind on the metagame, but perhaps we’re undervaluing Zurgo overall.
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis Restricted
Finally, we have one of the most powerful Creatures ever printed getting restricted. In the context of Duel Commander, this means that Hogaak is now only banned as a Commander but is legal in your deck.
Hogaak is obviously an absurd Magic card. However, the justification the Rules Committee provided for this change is reasonable.
One goal in allowing players to utilize Hogaak in their 99 is to increase the viability of green decks in the format, which currently see very little play compared to the other colors. Hogaak fits particularly nicely alongside Grist, the Hunger Tide, which could receive a nice boost with Hogaak in the picture.
Another objective is to help newer midrange decks, such as Teval, the Balanced Scale shells, flourish more. Teval is decent in grindy matchups but can suffer versus combo archetypes like those built around Lier, Disciple of the Drowned. As an 8/8, Hogaak helps increase your early pressure by a big margin.
Obviously, Hogaak is too good as a Commander when you can build your whole deck around it, hence why Hogaak is restricted and not just unbanned. It’ll be interesting to see how Hogaak fairs in the format moving forward.
There are matchups where a quick Hogaak may singlehandedly end the game. Mono-red, for example, can’t realistically kill Hogaak with damage-based removal, and, may struggle to race the burly body. If Hogaak does encourage more player to play Golgari and Sultai strategies, though, this decision could prove to be beneficial in the long run.
Overall, while these changes are intriguing, they are rather unexpected. Some players have noted that these bans seemingly feel random, and they can never guess what cards will actually get banned ahead of time. Time will tell how Zurgo and Hogaak fair in the format, but for those who have grown tired of Aragorn’s reign of terror, the deck isn’t going anywhere.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!
