After two days of discourse on social media following the Commander Rules Committee’s decision to ban Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, Dockside Extortionist, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom on Monday, the group posted a FAQ to X this morning to help clarify its stance on the bannings.
Monday’s banning came out of nowhere and left countless players confused, less confident in buying cards, and angry — to the point where players were sending threats to member of the Commander RC. The FAQ started out making it clear threats of violence are unacceptable and will be handled through legal channels. From there, the document answered many common questions asked after the bombshell announcement banned multiple high-dollar cards from the format.
The first things the RC cleared up was that members didn’t sell off their copies of the banned cards ahead of time and that it will not be walking back the bans. The bans were made to make the format better and rolling back the bans would be even more volatile to the financial concerns players have. The RC does admit this announcement could have been handled better, but going back to a watch list for problematic cards doesn’t fix the issues.
Another often-asked question following the announcement was did Wizards of the Coast (WotC) know of the bans, particularly because of how frequent some of the cards that got banned were reprinted, some with chase versions that are priced between $400 and $800. The FAQ states that the Commander RC discussed its concerns with fast mana with WotC for some time, but the RC only recently decided to implement the ban. Ultimately, it is still unclear how long WotC knew of the timing of the banning.
The FAQ also makes it clear that none of the changes made were meant to target cEDH, noting that cEDH is such a small portion of the global Commander player base. Lastly, the Commander RC didn’t inform the Commander Advisory Group about the decisions, but members of the CAG had been involved with previous discussions around the cards and fast mana in general. This statement implies that these bans were made by the five members of the RC entirely. For further clarification, Jim Lapage posted that the vote on the bans was 4-1, with the only dissenting voice being Olivia Gobert-Hicks.
Read the Commander RC FAQ on the bans.
