Cards I’ve Seen Banned

And Signpost Bans

I’ve been playing commander for over a decade (and Magic for over two decades), so naturally I’ve seen a lot of cards get banned and played through the time they saw play… so I thought I’d write about which cards I saw banned, my experience playing with them, whether I think they should still be banned, and what types of cards the banned cards might be signposts for.

Remember that the banlist is made for “casual play” and cards aren’t always banned for power. They’re banned to make the format more fun by removing things that make the format less fun.

Signpost Bans

A signpost ban is an important but often forgot concept when looking at the Commander Banlist (and the important but also ignored Philosophy Document). Let me first pull relevant quotes from the banlist page:

“These cards are not legal without prior agreement from the other players in the game, and may steer your playgroup to avoid other, similar cards.”

And from the Philosophy Document:

“We encourage groups to use the rules and the ban list as a baseline to optimize their own experience.”

“We prefer to be conservative with what goes on or comes off the ban list.”

“The format can be broken; we believe games are more fun if you don’t.”

In essence, to the RC, to the commander banlist isn’t the end-all-be-all of what should happen in the format. It’s a list of the most absurd stuff that they absolutely had to ban (because they’re “conservative” about adding new stuff and they understand that every playgroup has different needs and different desires to be competitive).

But notably, the hint at the RC’s mindset is in the words “and may steer your playgroup to avoid other, similar cards.” This seemingly innocuous line of text looks like it does nothing, but when listening to RC members, CAG members, and others who have talked with and played with them… it’s very clear that this line of text is central to how the top brass of our format think about what’s on the banlist. So let me put it this way: the cards on the banlist are often the most egregious examples of certain things, and the philosophy is that players will see that as a “signpost” and be wary about running some of the less egregious versions.

Cards I’ve Seen Banned

(Only the ones I’ve played with/against)

(As of November 23, 2023 8:02PM)

Printed: October 2001 (Odyssey)

Banned: June 2009 (As Commander), September 2014

My experience: The legendary minion so “nice” she got banned twice. First banned as commander and later banned completely. I’ve played against her as a commander (alongside the original Smokestacks for which many say “Stax” is named - where as others say it’s from “The 4 Thousand Dollar Solution” or $T4KS), and it was just as miserable as you’d think. As much as I dislike hug and blue braids, this effect certainly takes the cake. The trick is that, with enough mana rocks or rituals, you can get Braids out fast enough that your opponents basically don’t get to have any lands… and a token generator can keep you from ever losing anything of value.

Verdict: Never unban Braids.

Signpost for: Tergrid

Printed: April 2010 (Rise of the Eldrazi)

Banned: December 2010

My experience: The Zendikar to Rise of Eldrazi block was one of my favorite blocks of all time. It was the first block I played competitive magic in, and the narrative trick of printing Eye of Ugin before they printed any eldrazi so that no one knew what it did (well, I saw some people play Eye of Ugin in EDH just for the tutor effect) and everyone speculation purchased it wondering what Eldrazi would look like. Going from Zendikar being one of the fastest limited formats of all time, to Rise of Eldrazi being one of the slowest limited formats of all time was also neat sleight of hand. Also, my friend who wanted to take repeated turns off of Lighthouse Chronologist at all costs also jammed Emrakul in the command zone. I’m pretty sure I’ve spent several lifetimes watching “Andy” take extra turns. Thanks “Andy.”

Verdict: I’ll be old and gray and I’ll still be watching “Andy” take extra turns. Keep it banned.

Signpost for: Honestly, I think that Emrakul and Time Walk both being banned is a good case that extra turns in general are the target of this signpost.

Printed: June 2005 (Saviors of Kamigawa)

Banned: September 2011 (As Commander), September 2014

My experience: Another card that was banned twice (first as a commander and then banned again in 2014 when the RC got rid of the “banned as commander” list). For those of you who don’t know, you play this on its front side (the two mana 1/1) and then flip it to the legendary enchantment side (rotating it 180 degrees, not the new werewolf type of flip) when you meet its requirement. In this case, it’s pretty easy to play four spells between all the ramp spells and cheap cantrips blue has access to. Once it’s flipped, it counters each opponent’s first spell every turn… so unless your opponents have uncounterable spells, any time they want to cast a spell they’d have to pitch another spell to it first. In these days, the commander format was fairly slow, and many people would be holding two cards with 5+ MV in hand and waiting for 10+ mana (since they had to cast both just to get one to resolve). This inexorably slowed down games.

Verdict: Honestly it’s probably fine in today’s commander. Curves are lower, people run more removal, and the person playing this deck will probably get aggro’d out.

Signpost for: Things that preemptively counter stuff, such as Decree of Silence.

Printed: October 1996 (Mirage)

Banned: April 2020

My experience: Flash is an interesting card that I’ve seen played more than a few times. It’s a neat way to give a creature Flash (making it aptly named). Flash has existed, more or less harmoniously in the EDH meta for years (alongside similar cards like Scout’s Warning) and is mostly unproblematic. What pushed Flash over the edge is Protean Hulk being unbanned - a unique interaction that takes advantage of the fact that Flash, unlike other similar effects, has a “sacrifice the creature if you don’t pay the mana” clause, letting you instantly put hulk into your yard and trigger it’s ability. Given that there are probably more ways to win off of Protean Hulk going into your graveyard than there probably are Doomsday piles (ok, that might be an exaggeration), Protean Hulk’s ability might as well read “when this creature dies, you win the game.”

Verdict: Unban Flash. Ban Protean Hulk instead. Banning Flash shores up cEDH, but Protean Hulk is still an “I win button” in a lot of casual circles.

Signpost for: Any card that wins the game if it resolves such as Tooth and Nail.

Printed: July 2019 (M20)

Banned: September 2021

My experience: Golos is a superpower Sadbot on steroids, who threatened not just the power and fun of your opponents, but the diversity of the format itself. The color pie was built with a few trade-offs, one such trade-off being that between running more colors (more options but with a harder time fixing) and running fewer colors (easier fixing but fewer options), and having access to perfect fixing by getting any land from Golos for 5 mana circumvents that (if we refer to Mark Rosewater’s “the queen problem” a good five color commander lets us play “all queens”). Commander was built with a failsafe for difficult-to-deal-with commanders, if you kill them they become harder and harder to cast… but by fetching a land on every ETB, Golos circumvents that. One of the downsides of ramp or draw cards is often that if you ramp too much and don’t draw, you run out of stuff to do… and if you draw too much and don’t ramp, you can’t cast what you get. By having ramp and draw on the same body you can always re-cast from your command zone, Golos circumvents that. Not one, but three cardinal sins put Golos in the top spot of EDH, in the short two (ish) years he was legal he quickly shot up to the most played commander slot (not even close) on EDHREC and stayed there. It was so bad that, for any given theme, you could take the very thematic and relevant commander and replace it with Golos… and you’d simply have a better deck! Naturally, I saw plenty of Golos decks at my LGSs.

Verdict: Please keep it banned.

Signpost for: Morophon, Kenrith, or other commanders that let you play a variety of themes and give you “free value” while you do it.

Printed: May 2012 (Avacyn Restored)

Banned: June 2012

My experience: I am a black player, and I love me some demons. I played Kothophed (another of the four demons from Liliana’s contract) for years. Unfortunately, Griselbrand was a bit too strong. Having way more life in EDH means you can pay 7 several times more than you can in a regular format, and much like the Modern deck that uses Goryo’s Vengeance to bring back Griselbrand swinging and winning, I originally played against this card in the context of a reanimated deck. Thankfully I didn’t have to play against this for too long.

Verdict: Keep it banned.

Signpost for: Paying life to draw cards without any sort of limitation, such as Ad Nauseam, Necropotence, or Bola’s Citadel.

Printed: November 2020 (Commander Legends)

Banned: July 2021

My experience: Hullbreacher is a long list in cards that interact negatively with wheel effects such as Windfall. It is by far the worst offender, being that it’s only 3 mana and can come in at Flash speed. Even its older cousin Notion Thief costs a respectable four mana. Also note that when you wheel with Notion Thief you get all the cards, but still are limited on mana… where as Hullbreacher lets you still refill your hand while giving you a bunch of treasure so you can be sure to cast everything you just drew. My experience, of course, is that discarding your entire hand sucks and that replacement effects that prevent you from drawing cards also suck. It’s just miserable to watch someone play all their cards while you sit with nothing in hand.

Verdict: Keep it banned.

Signpost for: Notion Thief, Narset, Parter of Veils, and other similar effects.

Printed: October 2009 (Zendikar)

Banned: July 2019

My experience: Iona is a bigger, meaner Void Winnower… and it’s a card that I have a particular bone to pick with. You see, I often feel like monocolor decks are the most interesting to build and play, as you trade a lot of options but get more firm definition. Iona hates the way I like to play, and her existence in my local meta forced me to drop all of my monocolor decks to play only decks that were two or three colors. The worst part about playing against Iona is when you’re the only one playing a certain color, so no one else sees Iona as a threat. You simply rot away at the table and no one wants to help you. I hope you enjoy drawing a card and passing turn, only to wait 30 minutes to see if you live to do it again!

Verdict: We need more reasons to play monocolor, not more reasons to not touch monocolor with a 10 foot pole. Keep it banned.

Signpost for: Cards that prevent specific people from playing such as Curse of Exhaustion or Overwhelming Splendor.

Printed: August 2016 (Conspiracy: Take the Crown)

Banned: April 2017

My experience: As with the aforementioned Hullbreaker, Leovald is just a little too good at abusing wheels. Unlike Hullbreaker, he sits in the command zone and gives you access to the three best colors in the game (at least as far as casual, non-combo circles are concerned). Oh, and sometimes you might draw extra cards, too… particularly if someone has the audacity to want you to stop emptying their hand. One of our resident players (you know the one - the one who suspends three huge creatures with Jhoira and then untaps and immediately casts Jokulhaups) took to this as a commander, and I’m glad it’s reign of terror came to an end.

Verdict: Please never unban these wheel-abusing cards.

Signpost for: Cards that turn Windfall into “several people stop playing the game.”

Printed: January 2017 (Aether Revolt)

Banned: July 2019

My experience: It’s hard for me to believe this card saw two and a half years before it got banned. It really speaks to the conservative approach the RC takes to changing anything. This card saw play in almost every deck and if your opponent happened to get it their turn was going to, unintentionally, take almost a whole hour. Untapping so many things in a format where mana rocks are a standard and ubiquitous form of ramp (and tapping cards can be used for other effects like attacking, convoke, mana, draw, etc) just leads you with a lot more resources than you had before and a lot more decisions than you had before.

Verdict: This card existing probably singlehandedly added an hour to the runtime of every game it was in.

Signpost for: Storm decks and nondeterministic loops that make your friends watch you for 40 minutes while you “see if you have it” in general.

Printed: July 2010 (M11)

Banned: September 2012

My experience: M10 was certainly a whimsical time to play commander. Right off of the back of one of my favorite dual decks of all time (Phyrexian vs Coalition “I.e. Monoblack vs The World” from March 2010), the core set, like many before and after it, brought a cycle of six drops that represented each color combination. Yes, the Nitpicking Nerds love talking about how Grave Titan is overplayed, but did they ever tell you about his pushed green twin? The main thing that pushed Primetime over the ledge was the ability to get any lands, regardless of type or lack thereof. Sure it costs six mana, but if you get 4 lands that turn (2 from it entering and 2 from attacking after putting some boots on it) it really isn’t that bad. And who said green didn’t get all the best toys?

Verdict: Take it off the banlist. Dockside Extortionist is way more deserving of its slot, and keeping it on the banlist while Dockside is unbanned just makes the banlist look silly. Plus, at least Primetime encourages players to attack each other.

Signpost for: Anything that tutors out several specific broken lands from your deck, such as Scapeshift, or simply produces a lot of mana and goes in any deck such as Mana Crypt or Sol Ring.

Printed: September 2013 (Theros)

Banned: January 2016

My experience: The two (ish) years that Prophet was in play, it was an easy staple. Untapping stuff all the time and having flash meant you could simply play during other people’s turns. Since every turn was your turn, you ended up taking up the majority of the pods time by just having it out. At five mana, if you untapped and could play stuff during other people’s turns, you got 5 mana per turn, meaning it basically ramped you 20 mana per turn cycle. Really, it’s like Paradox Engine but spread out and with extra steps.

Verdict: Too much effective mana, and combining it with too much trickiness while taking too much time. Keep it banned.

Signpost for: Anything in simic. Tatyova. Koma. Kinnan. I don’t know… just… simic things.

Printed: February 2004 (Darksteel)

Banned: June 2012

My experience: Like Braids, one of the primary reasons this card got kicked out of the format is the ability to mess up lands. This time, because it triggers when it comes into play OR leaves play, flickering or reanimating it could easily mess up land bases. The worst part is that, unlike Armageddon, the person using Sundering Titan mostly gets to keep their own land base in tact. Often, Sundering Titan would also act sort of like the aforementioned Iona, and really mess up one person’s land base in particular, ensuring they sat idly by while the rest of the players played the game.

Verdict: Easy ban. I hate land destruction.

Signpost for: Land destruction. Cataclysm. Apocalypse. Really any land destruction that doesn’t replace the land you’re destroying with a basic (Friendly land destruction examples: Wave of Vitriol and Demolition Field).

Printed: February 2013 (Gatecrash)

Banned: February 2014

My experience: Sylvan Primordial is the unholy fusion of two other cards I’ve already mentioned on this list: Primeval Titan and Sundering Titan. I don’t know why “a Titan + a Titan = a Primordial,” but here it is. When it enters the battlefield, you destroy one of each of your opponents lands and get three lands of your own. Since it’s only on EtB, you’ll have to flicker, reanimate, or otherwise make it EtB a lot, but like Braids and Sundering Titan you could very easily cheat it out early and keep people on very few lands and turn the entire game into “who can flicker Sylvan Primordial the most.” At least you can only get forests, and not any broken land that you want, though… I’m sure your opponents will appreciate that when they have no lands left.

Verdict: Land destruction is an easy ban from me.

Signpost for: Just another sign post for land destruction being mean, especially when it gives you resources like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss.

Honorable Mentions

I just want to throw out some homage to my girl Kokusho. She was on the banlist when I started, but was made legal to play in the 99 and moved to the “banned as commander” list. Only to be made legal again when they revoked the “banned as commander” list in 2014.

If you ever wonder if commander was designed to be a slow and awkward format… if you ever wonder if the format has changed since its inception… take a look and a second look at this card. Note that between 2004 and 2007, this card that basically doesn’t see play outside of some of the slowest life gain decks, was banned. That’s almost 3 years that “do nothing but gain life” and then “shuffle it in to do it again” was considered too good and ubiquitous at prolonging games.

The Tuck Rule

Alright. This isn’t really a banlist thing, but allow me to have my “old man yells at cloud” moment for a second, please. In March of 2015, the rules committee changed an important rule regarding cards that put creatures into your opponents library and how they work in the commander format.

Before 2015, a card like Spin into Myth (and its more popular cousins Spell Crumple and Hinder) did exactly what it said when used on a commander - it let you take someone’s commander and put it into their library where it’s difficult for them to access. Problem commanders could be answered with cards like this, and there was a reason to build your deck with the idea that you’d need a backup plan if, for some reason, your commander wasn’t available (it was also a slower format back then, so it was much easier to have a backup plan). Every deck needed something to do if their commander got “tucked” away into your deck.

After 2015, however, a player hit by such a card could simply choose to put the commander into their command zone instead. The outrage?! Why would anyone ever build a deck that didn’t rely on their commander ever again? Why would anyone build a deck that had a backup plan without their commander again?! And, the audacity of it was that, in the article so old they don’t even keep it archived, that was the purpose! They wanted people to play with their commanders, build knowing they’d have their commanders, and not have to worry about their commanders being inaccessible. In other words: The RC told me and all the players playing in 2015 that centralizing your deck to need your commander to function was a good thing, and having your commander is something we should take for granted.

Signpost for: Oubliette, Song of the Dryads, Imprisoned in the Moon, Out of Time

Verdict: Bring tuck back. If you’re going to allow so many soft ways to suggest people build backup plans into their decks, then it’s time to unbench Oblation.

Finale

Ok, my crazy old fogey rant aside… I don’t have any animosity towards the RC or CAG or how they manage the format. Honestly, it’s probably a good thing that they ban things and I don’t (and it’s not really a responsibility that I’d want weighing on my shoulders anyway). Trying to please an entire world of players is no enviable task, and I have full respect for the conservative approach that the RC and CAG take, as well as the reliance on the Philosophy Document and “Rule 0” to help players take responsibility for their own experience.

In the end, I’d keep most of the bans they have, and only unban a few cards.

Trust me, you don’t want to know about what currently not banned cards I would ban (if you want a peek into that dark reality, check out my article: Humble Beginnings Commander).