Navigating the MTG Commander Banlist

Modern trading card games contain thousands of cards and can be difficult to balance and Magic The Gathering is no exception. Magic’s Commander format has quickly grown into its most popular format and so today we are going to look at the current ban list for Commander, why it is there and how you can keep up to date with any changes and additions.

Overview of the MTG Commander Banlist

To put it simply, the ban list is in place to ensure that no cards are too powerful for the current game. Sometimes a card will be released in a new set which interacts in such a way with another card, often one released ages ago, that no one really predicted and this usually makes the card too powerful. The MTG gods then need to decide which card to ban and that is not always as simple as it sounds. Which of the cards causing the problem combo would have the least impact on the overall game? Which card will have the least impact on other decks? All things that need to be taken into consideration.  

Wizard’s Of The Coast say that they ban cards which “enable a deck or play style that heavily skews the play environment”. They also acknowledge that Magic The Gathering is such a huge and diverse game that even though they spend hundreds of hours playtesting before sets are released, it’s almost impossible to predict all the ways that new cards will interact with old ones.

Magic The Gathering has been running for so long and the card pool is so large that, unfortunately, a ban list is inevitable and necessary. The ban list is updated regularly and it is important that you check it around each new set release. The last thing you want is to turn up to play with an illegal deck! The ban list is updated quarterly, with announcements coming on the Monday following prereleases.

Categories of Banned Cards

As we said, there is a constantly updated list of banned cards. This is the current list of cards:

• 25 cards with the card type ‘Conspiracy’.
• 9 cards that reference ‘playing for ante’.
• Cards whose art, text, name, or combination thereof that are racially or culturally offensive are banned in all formats.
• Ancestral Recall
• Balance
• Biorhythm
• Black Lotus
• Braids, Cabal Minion
• Chaos Orb
• Coalition Victory
• Channel
• Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
• Falling Star
• Fastbond
• Flash
• Gifts Ungiven
• Golos, Tireless Pilgrim
• Griselbrand
• Hullbreacher
• Iona, Shield of Emeria
• Karakas
• Leovold, Emissary of Trest
• Library of Alexandria
• Limited Resources
• Lutri, the Spellchaser
• Mox Emerald
• Mox Jet
• Mox Pearl
• Mox Ruby
• Mox Sapphire
• Panoptic Mirror
• Paradox Engine
• Primeval Titan
• Prophet of Kruphix
• Recurring Nightmare
• Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
• Shahrazad
• Sundering Titan
• Sway of the Stars
• Sylvan Primordial
• Time Vault
• Time Walk
• Tinker
• Tolarian Academy
• Trade Secrets
• Upheaval
• Yawgmoth's Bargain

Each of these cards are banned for different reasons. Some, such as Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall are banned because the cards are too expensive and it is felt that they would prohibit and restrict entry to the game and make it more accessible.

One of the most recent additions to the ban list is Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, as it is such a generically powerful card that it strangled a lot of the diversity out of the game. It is simply seen as the best leader choice for all generic decks.

Don’t worry though, cards are not thrown onto the list constantly. In fact, the most recent additions to the ban list were in 2021, when Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Hullbreacher were added to the list. Sometimes the Magic community has concerns about certain cards, such as the recent Orcish Bowmasters and Mirkwood Bats. However, at their review, Wizard’s Of The Coast said that these cards had not had the effects that some players had feared and they escaped the ban list.

Recent Updates and Changes

Despite the fact that new sets are released periodically every year, no new cards have been added to the ban list since 2021. This shows that the game designers actually do a pretty good job of balancing the game. With a game that has been running as long as Magic the Gathering, it’s reassuring to know that the designers have got the hang of that element!

Understanding the Impact of Banned Cards

It’s difficult to understand the full impact of banned cards as we don’t actually get to play them. There may have been cards released since the ban which is a hard counter to a banned card. Cards may not have the same impact now as they did when they were initially banned. However, in my experience, Commander players tend to self regulate their own games and come up with their own banlists. The community at my locals even agree beforehand who will play what decks to make sure the games are as fair as can be. They even agree to leave out cards which are not ‘officially’ banned, but that they deem to be too powerful for a casual game.  

How to Stay Updated with the Banlist

The banlist is easy to find and is kept updated on the official Magic the Gathering website, as well as the Commander website. Both of these sites are completely up to date and the latter is a superb place to find information and articles on all things Commander.

If you need new cards to complete your world beating (and legal) Commander deck, head over to our website and check out the huge amount of cards we have in stock. After all, Magic is in our name!