The Commander Rules Committee has released their complete list of updates for Commander, effective July 1.
Banned List
There are no changes to the Commander Banned List for this quarter.
Commander Death Trigger Update
Previously, when a commander would die, it would return to the Command zone and any permanents on the battlefield with abilities that trigger when a creature dies would not trigger.
Under the new rule, “if a commander is in a graveyard or exile, and was put there since the last time SBAs were checked, its owner may choose to put it in the Command zone”, meaning now, when a commander dies, death triggers will trigger as intended.
Commander VS Vintage Legality
For many years, Commander mirrored the Banned and Restricted list for Vintage. With the release of companions in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths however, the coupling between the two formats had to be broken.
Back in May, Lurrus of the Dream-Den became the first companion to be banned in Vintage. However due to the structure of Commander, there was no need to ban Lurrus — making it easier to simply separate the two formats criteria for bans, which now stands as followed:
- All oversized cards
- All cards which don’t have black or white borders
- All cards which mention the Ante Mechanic
- All subgame and conspiracy cards
Wizards of the Coast Removes Culturally Offensive Cards
Earlier this month, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), began an initiative to remove cards with racist undertones. These cards were banned from constructed play in the applicable formats and also had their entries from The Gatherer card database removed.
Due to the “kitchen table” nature of Commander, it is impossible to fully ban these cards from play, however the following cards will not be welcomed at WotC sanctioned events and players are ultimately encouraged to “avoid these cards, and any others which make your group unhappy” moving forward.
- Invoke Prejudice
- Cleanse
- Stone-Throwing Devils
- Pradesh Gypsies
- Jihad
- Imprison
- Crusade
Read the original article from the Commander Rules Committee.