WoTC forced to take over popular Magic: The Gathering competitive format after community tantrum over card bans involves 'credible threats of physical assault'
The Magic: The Gathering community's been in turmoil lately, but first, some much-needed context for the uninitiated among you: The Commander Rules committee is a volunteer group of MTG players who, in conjunction with Wizards of the Coast, preside over the Commander format of competitive play. It's one of the most popular rulesets and, crucially, happens to have a list of banned cards.
As somewhat of an outsider to the hobby, it's genuinely interesting to flick through that list and look at the reasons for said bans. They range from the obvious 'this thing's broken' justifications to lowering the barrier to entry. Take Time Walk, for example: «removing it from the card pool was intended to combat the notion that Commander is a prohibitively expensive and inaccessible format.»
The controversial bans in question are the first in the format since 2021—and, notably, also some of the first major rules decisions made after Sheldon Menery, considered the godfather of the Commander Rules committee, died September 7 2023 from throat cancer.
The forbidden cards were Dockside, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Some players were, it seems, very unhappy with this news. An FAQ posted in the aftermath of the bans gives some insight into the complaints, based on what the committee was keen to address.
The main anger seems to be directed at the cards' perceived reduction in value—a dent in the wallet of people who try to make money off these things, yet expect to never eat a loss—as well as frustrations towards a lack of proper notice: «We used to have a watchlist,» the FAQ states, «but it caused noticeable grief when things weren’t acted upon, slowed down our ability to react when we saw a problem, and shifted the losses to the less enfranchised players who were less aware. So we got rid of it.»
As is often upsettingly the case with these sorts of things, a contingent of the community took it way too far. As stated on the Discord by community admin Logan/Seraph
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