COMMANDER/EDH BANNED LIST ANNOUNCEMENT: January 2016
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 18, 2016, 11:39 a.m. by Ender666666
Summary:
- Commander-specific mulligan rules are removed
- Rule 4 (mana generation restriction) is removed
- Prophet of Kruphix is banned
Mulligans:
We promised in the last update that, with the advent of the Vancouver Mulligan, we'd be evaluating the mulligan process in Commander. This announcement is the culmination of that research. After examining several popular options, and coming up with a few of our own, we've concluded that the Vancouver Mulligan (with the standard first-one-free in multiplayer and a scry once you go to 6 or fewer) is the best option. The RC continues to use and recommend the Gis ("Mulligan 7s to a playable hand. Don't abuse this") for trusted playgroups, but that's not something that can go in the rules.
Ultimately, the goal of mulligans in Commander is to ensure that you start the game with enough lands to be a participant. With Commander games running an hour plus, it's unfortunate if you can't play anything because you miss land drops and get run over quickly.
We didn't want to solve the problems of Magic itself - mana screw and mana flood are part of the game - and players need to make a reasonable effort with their land counts, but we wanted a mulligan rule that tried to minimize unplayable opening hands. So, we brainstormed, and ran computer simulations. And what ultimately came out was... it didn't much matter. Nothing provided a clear enough upgrade to justify having additional rules for mulligans. For example, with 37 lands, Partial Paris was "successful" (which we defined as playing a 4th land on turn 4) 89% of the time versus Multiplayer Vancouver at 86%, but it came at a cost of about a fifth of a card on average. On the whole, 86% success is a rate that seems reasonable.
If you find yourself playing 1v1 (perhaps while waiting for a friend to show up), you should still use the free multiplayer mulligan. With a deck this size, variance is high enough to make not having the free mulligan potentially punishing - without the free mulligan you drop down to about 80% success rate, which, combined with being the only opponent to focus on, leads to too many unfortunate games.
Finally, its not an official rule, but we recommend setting aside the hands you're mulliganning away until you get a keeper. That saves shuffling time, and we're all for minimizing shuffling 100-card decks.
Rule 4:
We still love Rule 4. It's a nice piece of flavor and reinforces the idea that this format goes beyond simple mechanical restrictions into a deeper philosophical approach around color and mana symbols. Its effect on the game was pretty small, but that flavor message made it worthwhile to preserve.
However, the mana system of Magic is very complicated, and trying to insert an extra rule there has consequences in the corners. Harvest Mage. Celestial Dawn. Gauntlet of Power. And now, colorless-only mana costs.
Being able to generate colorless mana more easily in Commander wasn't going to break anything. But, it represented another "gotcha" moment for players, who were now likely to learn about Rule 4 when someone exploited the colorless loophole. We could paper over it (both "mana generated from off-color sources can only pay generic costs" and "you can't pay a cost outside your color identity" were considered), but a lot of the flavor would be lost in the transition, defeating the purpose. Without the resonant flavor, Rule 4 was increasingly looking like mana burn - a rule that didn't come up enough to justify it's existence.
We don't expect removing the rule to have a big impact. Some Sunburst and Converge cards might get a bit more of a look. Sen Triplets works more like you'd expect, as does Praetor's Grasp. The clone-and-steal deck, already one of the most popular archetypes, gets better, but less than you might think. It turns out there really aren't that many impactful non-blue activated abilities on cards that commonly get stolen in Commander. It's OK if you can regenerate that creature you just stole, and you'll need to work for it a bit anyway.
One side benefit to the removal of both the color production and mulligan rules is that, in terms of game play, Commander becomes a normal game of multiplayer Magic with a higher life total and a set of additive rules to bring a new piece (your Commander) into the game. That's good streamlining in terms of teaching people the format and reducing gotcha moments while still preserving the essential flavor of Commander.
Prophet of Kruphix:
This was challenging. Prophet is not a traditionally obvious problem card for Commander, so we chose to take a conservative approach and see if casual groups could adapt. In the past, we've seen unpopular cards generate a lot of outcry, but be handled reasonably well. Powerful cards existing is OK and exploring them responsibly is an essential part of Commander.
This didn't happen with Prophet. Casual groups haven't been able to work around it and problematic play has not dropped off in hoped-for ways. Instead, the primary approach has been to steal it, clone it, run it yourself, or get run over. Ultimately, it seems the card is too perfect - it does everything U/G Commander players want to be doing and it does it in a way that makes counterplay difficult. With traditional boogeymen such as Consecrated Sphinx, you're forced to expend a lot of your mana to cast it and will have a challenge protecting it as the turn goes around the table. With Prophet, it has virtual protection built in, negating that disadvantage almost immediately.
Prophet becomes only the second multicolored card on the banlist (after the structurally-problematic Coalition Victory). It's telling just how pervasive Prophet is despite such a restriction. Yes, U/G is the most popular color combination in Commander, but we've reached the point where Prophet is driving U/G deck choice, rather than vice-versa. That's centralizing in ways we can't ignore, so it's time for Prophet to take a break.
Whenever we decide to ban a card, we take a long look at the current list to see if any cards can come off, as we believe a casual format is better served by a minimalist banlist. After extensive discussion, however, we concluded that everything on the list served a purpose, so we won't be unbanning anything. It's been two years since the last (non-consolidation) card got banned, which is an acceptable growth rate!
http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18057
There seems to be some confusion about what the removal of Commander Rule #4 means, so here is some clarification.
The normal Commander rules regarding Colour Identity still apply. You may only include Spells, Artifacts, Planeswalkers, Creatures and Lands in your deck that match your commander's Colour Identity. The ONLY exception is with cards where mana symbols show up in reminder text which explain a mechanic, for example, cards with the "Extort" mechanic. Crypt Ghast is an example of a card that is purely Black, even though there is a 
symbol in the reminder text that explains how the "Extort" mechanic works.
Your commander's Colour Identity is determined by each and every COLOUR of mana symbol, printed anywhere on it (Again, with the exception of reminder text).
Cards with the mechanic of "Devoid" are colourless, but still fall under the normal rules in Commander when determining its legality for your deck. Want to play Transgress the Mind, but your commander is Green? Sorry, you can't. Transgress the Mind may be colourless, but it has a Black Colour Identity when you are determining if you can legally include it in your deck because it has 
in its casting cost.
What the removal of Commander Rule #4 means is that lands like Forbidden Orchard, Mana Confluence, City of Brass, and cards like Birds of Paradise can now legally make you mana of ANY colour (
), regardless of your Commander's Colour Identity. In the past, if something caused a mana of a colour that wasn't part of your Commander's Colour Identity to be added to your mana pool, it INSTEAD added that many 
to your mana pool.
Oh, and IS NOT A COLOUR. Got it?
So what about Command Tower? Can it create any colour of mana now? NOPE. Because of the wording on Command Tower, it will still only create 1 mana of any colour IN YOUR COMMANDER'S COLOUR IDENTITY
I hope that this helps clarify things for anyone who might be confused.
Megalomania says... #2
I don't get why guys think Memnarch should be banned. It is pretty much on the same level as Oona, maybe even lower. Memnarch is pretty useless without infinite mana.
I noticed that most of the cards that get banned are ridiculously strong enablers. PoK falls on this category. Memnarch does not.
January 20, 2016 11:27 p.m.
I think im just going to write "seedborn muse"" on all my copies of PoK in hot pink shrapie.
Should save me ~$13 a pop.
January 20, 2016 11:43 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #4
@DemonDragonJ: This format is full of disgustingly powerful cards. Power level is not the only consideration, here.
But one interesting thing about PoK is how little it asks of you to create a degenerate, unfun situation that turns the game into a disgusting clusterfuck. You don't have to build around it. You just put it in the deck and play it. Simply being in and having access to it means you're already poised to gain massive advantage from it. Most of the other cards people cry for bans on ask you to jump through a few more hoops.
January 21, 2016 1:34 a.m.
DarkZedCannon says... #5
I'm fine with the rule changes but there are better cards that should be banned, such as Iona, Shield of Emeria or Deadeye Navigator which just cause people to get frustrated or bored just as much if not more so than Prophet of Kruphix in my experience.
January 21, 2016 8:57 a.m.
I've got to agree with Iona, at least for multiplayer if they are banning things partially based on "fun".
At the same time though I would feel really bad for people I know who were happy about pulling her in Modern Masters and from it's original packs. In the end I would cave and put in colorless removal if I had to versus people who played her all the time...it would make me so very very sad but I would do it for a friend.
January 21, 2016 9:04 a.m. Edited.
Why should they ban navigator? It can enable a fast win with Tooth and Nail but you can handle it nonetheless. There are ways to disrupt your opponents with discard, countermagic, searching the library for specific cards and many more. I can't image that the card is so problematic it should be banned... If it's a problem in your playgroup make houseroules, adapt to it or team up against that opponent. I don't like that people always complain about combo... It is an important part about magic to exploit cards and combinations to the max. Voltron or "normal" ways to win are sometimes absolutely boring.
January 21, 2016 9:37 a.m.
JuiceboxHero says... #8
@AlexoBn: You said, "There are ways to disrupt your opponents with discard, countermagic, searching the library for specific cards and many more. I can't image that the card is so problematic it should be banned... If it's a problem in your playgroup make houseroules, adapt to it or team up against that opponent. "
The same could be said for Prophet of Kruphix.
January 21, 2016 9:59 a.m.
JuiceboxHero says... #9
Geez, price of Seedborn Muse just went up $15 in about a day. It would be cheaper to just buy Prophet of Kruphix, take a sharpie, and strike through "You may cast creatures as though they had Flash".
January 21, 2016 11:43 a.m.
JuiceboxHero says... #10
I didn't notice it til now, but Seedborn Muse untaps everything, whereas Prophet of Kruphix only untaps creatures and lands. So, is the issue with this card specifically having creatures with Flash? I just think that Seedborn Muse could be just as easily abused with almost as much groaning.
January 21, 2016 11:53 a.m.
For your perusal: Sheldon Menery wrote an article about the commander update with a bit more information.
JuiceboxHero - Yes, that's exactly it. If you want to do the same thing with Seedborn Muse, you'll have to run Alchemist's Refuge or Vedalken Orrery which turns a 1-card-combo of Prophet of Kruphix into a 2-card-combo.
January 21, 2016 11:55 a.m.
The_Ferret says... #12
Whelp, due to the elimination of Partial Paris mulligans EDH is going to have a lot more dead turns since it will take everyone longer to get to a stable board state before they can start interacting with each other...and here I thought the rules updates were meant to make EDH games go faster...
Partial for multiplayer and Vancouver for 1v1 definitely would have been the better way to go.
January 22, 2016 2:12 a.m.
Nah, Partial were broken. Mull until you find your combo? COOL!
Vancouver may slow the game down a bit, but will be better overall IMO.
January 22, 2016 2:20 a.m.
soapinthesink says... #14
Cool! The change to the mana rule means I can run cards like Etched Monstrosity or Suncrusher in my artifact decks that don't use all colors!
January 22, 2016 2:23 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #16
With PP mulls, you don't find your combo. You find a starting hand with early-game cards. That means lands, ramp, and removal with some cheap engines or draw effects. You tutor for the other stuff later.
I honestly think PP is better than Vancouver. Given the size of Commander decks and the curves that the RC encourages playing (indirectly, anyway, through favoring battlecruiser decks), traditional mulligan styles are worse because they just give you the same chance of ending up with at least some unplayable stuff. PP at least gives you some security.
January 22, 2016 6:56 a.m.
@ Epochalyptik - Exactly! The other day I had Bitterblossom + a nice 2 drop creature and Sorin (the six drop) with 2 lands and some 4 drops. Normally I would keep the Blossom, the 2 drop, and the lands and Partial. Instead I made a mistake and did the Vancouver Mul and ended up with a much worse hand.
Vancouver encourages "meh" hands but does nothing to stop god hands. Partial Paris could help every player get closer to a great hand or at least one that can deal with god hands.
January 22, 2016 7:15 a.m.
Percmajor666 says... #18
I am a little upset that Prophet got the axe but I understand. I was running him in my Animar deck... Not sure how many people can see how that escalates but I was getting Eldrazi on the board without doing much on OTHER's turns...
January 22, 2016 12:46 p.m.
HarroHunter says... #19
The biggest difference between Seedborn Muse and Prophet of Kruphix is that Prophet is blue. Yes Seedborn is powerful but green already has so much ramp and everything I feel like it's ok, but Prophet allows blue players that already like doing things on other people's turns to have counter mana up all the time and be able to play whatever they want when a counter isn't needed. Plus they have all the card draw in the world to keep their hand full. Green has a little more difficulty with that. Seedborn Muse is powerful, but Prophet of Kruphix was just broken.
January 22, 2016 1:35 p.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #20
I have a feeling a lot of EDH players will stick to partial Paris anyway. People seem a lot more lenient about mulligan rules than the banlist in my experience. Plus... yeah, Vancouver is weird in this format.
January 22, 2016 1:40 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #21
@HarroHunter: That argument doesn't really say anything about either card. Prophet required a deck. Muse is playable in and, by extension, in the same decks that Prophet used to support.
The important difference between them is the fact that Prophet extends flash to creature cards.
January 22, 2016 1:46 p.m.
JuiceboxHero says... #22
Well, if we're going to the nitty-gritty, Prophet of Kruphix does have 1 less toughness. That's gotta count for something, right?
January 22, 2016 3:09 p.m.
miracleHat says... #24
Yes it does. It doesn't die to Lightning Bolt, an EDH staple.
January 22, 2016 8:30 p.m.
Indeed. No red EDH deck is complete without a spell that takes care of a whopping 3/120 of the needed damage to kill the table, and can also double as an instant-speed answer to even the toughest of Little Girls.
January 22, 2016 8:48 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #26
You play Lightning Bolt as a removal spell for utility creatures and planeswalkers, not as a direct damage spell for players.
January 22, 2016 9:01 p.m.
miracleHat says... #27
I am sorry epoch: Lightning Bolt is used in this context:
on the battlefield is: Grip of Chaos, Hive Mind, and Isochron Scepter imprinting Twincast.
Cast Lightning Bolt and cast Twincast...
That is when you can cast Lightning Bolt, did i mention Seedborn Muse somewhere in there?
January 22, 2016 9:18 p.m.
JohnnyRamen says... #28
I agree with the ban. While I now have FOUR Prophet of Kruphix cards that will most likely collect dust until I have a use for them, I agree that the card was just too powerful by itself. And I will miss them in the decks they were in. Now you have to use Seedborn Muse plus a flash enabler to get the effect. 2 card combo slightly harder. I don't own any Seedborn's and have no plans to get any at this time. (Well I could use one for a RG creatures deck I have now that I think about it.)
It often took over games and made them one sided. We had several in my playgroups' decks. I had 4 in deck out of the 15 of my own. We have a UG deck in our group that abuses the untap/flash effects to essentially take 3-4 extra turns on each players turn.
Cards can get out of hands because of the player and how they play. Its harder to police all the players, than the cards played. We always found a way to make our decks better, or a way around it. This will allow for a better diversity of cards in our decks.
Got a deck that runs UG, it had a Prophet of Kruphix in it. And it was abused. As was Sylvan Primordial abused before its ban. I got 6 of those laying around now too. LOL
January 22, 2016 9:59 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #29
Megalomania, unfortunately, my friend has discovered at least two infinite mana combos to use in his Memnarch deck (one involving Basalt Monolith and Power Artifact and the other involving Palinchron), so the only way to stop him from taking control of all permanents on the battlefield is to defeat him as quickly as possible, before he can execute those combos. To be honest, those combos are more annoying than Memnarch himself, since another one of my friend's favorite techniques is to use that infinite mana to cast Blue Sun's Zenith and make a player draw their entire deck and then lose from being unable to draw any further cards.
As for Prophet of Kruphix, every deck of mine that contains that card also contains a copy of Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, so I shall not be suffering a major loss from the prophet being banned, since I shall still be able to cast creatures spells as if they had flash, but now, I shall have one less card that allows me to do that. Also, being able to untap artifacts along with creatures and lands is a major benefit, since every one of my EDH decks contains a Ring of Three Wishes, as well as numerous mana-generating artifacts.
January 23, 2016 8:04 p.m.
Megalomania says... #30
You said it yourself, Memnarch isn't the problem, the infinite mana combos are.
The fact that you need two cards to accomplish what PoK provides shows why it is considered OP and ban worthy by a large number of people.
January 23, 2016 11:32 p.m.
Memnarch takes time and an investment to work, like Deadeye Navigator. Both of these cards are basically useless unless their effects are abused (Memnarch to steal things, DEN to combo off).
Prophet had the effects of 2 different cards, had a playable body, cost 5 and was an autoinclude in every deck that /. That's why she's banned, she drove people to play / and was automatically included in those decks.
January 24, 2016 12:10 a.m.
There goes one of my win conditions Celestial Dawn in my Zedruu-deck
January 24, 2016 3:40 a.m.
So removing rule 4 means you can play cards from any color in your commander deck even if it's not in your commanders color identity ?
January 24, 2016 3:43 a.m.
PookandPie says... #34
No, that's not what it means at all.
Producing mana outside of identity does not equal having cards in the deck that are outside of the commander's identity. Let's say you're playing Sydri, Galvanic Genius. If you use Reins of Power to steal an Ezuri, Renegade Leader's board state, you can tap his Priest of Titania for green mana and use Ezuri's ability to pump the stolen Elves, possibly killing the table.
Under the old rule, Priest would produce colorless for Sydri. Now it produces green. That's all this rule changes- nothing about deck construction in the Commander format has changed.
January 24, 2016 3:56 a.m.
ok, thanks. I paniced there for a moment, cause that would have changed the whole concept of commander.
January 24, 2016 4:14 a.m.
I find this conversation confusing. When I build decks I build with redundancy. I do that due to the singleton nature and to increase my chances of getting the same effects. Prophet of Kruphix was simply the love child of Seedborn Muse
+
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
. Both of which are cards that should have been and still should be Staples in every deck. They should be staples in most decks that run either color as well. Other cards have even been mentioned by others that can still provide the same effects in Mono-Green which should have been staples as well.
Seedborn Muse is an absolute beast. If you weren't running it alongside Prophet of Kruphix, why weren't you?
I have to disagree that Prophet warped the format or that one card specifically drove people to play . There are other examples of cards that provide the same effects as two others. We have to disregard the fact that each deck running Prophet should have been running Seedborn as well. Seedborn allows the untapping of all of your Artifacts which can be huge. All of your Artifact mana from Sol Ring to Gilded Lotus and free Counterspells from Isochron Scepter. It isn't as though Seedborn drives people to include in their deck although it should be included in EVERY deck.
I also find the new mulligan rules to be a bad change. It will be harder to get what you need or even a decent starting hand. It will cause big delays in games or allow people that actually get a good hand to create a much better board state. I am not looking forward to these changes in tournament play. As I've mentioned countless times before, the rules impact tournament/competitive play the most because they can't be changed. There are no Houserule changes that are possible. Obviously any casual or social games will probably still do partial but this change is bad for competitive. Especially on a table that could have 12+ players.
January 24, 2016 2:35 p.m.
Spark0fPrimus says... #37
I find myself agreeing with Azire in regards to Prophet being the reason people flock to UG. You think that, maybe perhaps instead it's because nearly every UG Commander is ridiculously powerful on its own? I mean, Mormir Vig, Vorel, Kraaj, Kaseto, Ezuri, and though it's not strictly UG--ANIMAR, the list goes on...they are ALL powerful, and if I were looking to play UG I would look first to the Commander, not any one specific card that happens to be in color. Now this isn't to say Prophet wasn't an auto include into any of these decks, because it was, but there are FAR more compelling reasons to play UG than just slapping a Seedborn Muse and a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir together on a 2/3 body for 5 mana.
Honestly I don't even think I'm trying to argue against its banning anymore, so much as I'm just confused why something bigger didn't get the hammer instead. I'm just glad I got my Seedborn Muse before it spiked, and I hope everyone else did, too.
January 24, 2016 3:33 p.m.
I think another reason people go UG(x?) is because of ramp and card draw. In commander it sometimes feels that in general G>U>B>W>R. Mono red sometimes seems nearly unplayable in competitive or merely highly disruptive / interactive settings (barring magical Christmasland draws and politics).
My thing with PoK is the way every turn becomes PoK's controller's turn because of the way U supports card draw and G can get lands out - and sorceries aren't big in commander outside of Bx.
PoK requires a lot of other stuff to flat out win; but it only requires the competency to include G ramp/creature abilities and U draws to take over the game.
January 24, 2016 3:49 p.m.
I can understand why people are confused, but overall removing Prophet was a good chance. She dominated casual games, simple as that. People are saying that by herself she wasn't strong, but you didn't have to flex your deck around her at all, unlike having to include a Palinchron simply so that you could play DEN at all. She rewarded you at remarkable efficiency just for playing her.
Obviously, if you have no creatures in hand, no ways to draw cards and no activated abilities to abuse, then yes, PoK is weak (you know, like how topdecking a Black Lotus is pretty bad past turn 8). But beyond that extremely unlikely situation where you just misplay PoK, she snowballs into a monster very quickly.
Now that she's gone, you have to devote 2 cardslots to achieve her power instead of just one. I don't think that that's the worst situation to be in.
Oh, and guessling, commander power is usually something like > ≈ > ≥ . Approximately.
January 24, 2016 4:34 p.m.
My ordering of colors was based on playing in groups that frown on infinite combos termed "supercombos" so instead of focusing on tutoring up stuff fastest and going infinite on someone (or the whole table), there would be reams of disruption with politics determining the order of losers.
I can imagine that if infinite combos weren't "frowned on' (read: SHUNNED when 100% table hate focus failed), U and B would rank higher than G - while W and R would lag even more distantly behind the rest.
January 24, 2016 5:12 p.m.
My point was also the fact that any deck running Prophet of Kruphix should have been and still should be running at least Seedborn Muse. They should also be running Flash cards, plenty have been mentioned.
It isn't the fact that decks are swapping Prophet for Seedborn. Decks that were running Prophet need to take it out and just replace it with another random card that fits the deck. They aren't exclusive cards. Most decks were already running both.
January 24, 2016 5:21 p.m.
In EDH, the colors by power are > > > > .
Blue functions the best of any of the five colors by itself, having access to draw, combos, and answers to every possible scenario.
Green is second due to its unrivaled ramping ability coupled with an impressive slew of utility cards and some of the most powerful staples in the game (Survival of the Fittest, Birthing Pod, Sylvan Library, Gaea's Cradle, Chord of Calling, etc). It also has enough access to card advantage to allow it to function as a standalone color.
Black obviously possesses an immense amount of tutors, alongside a powerful suite of control cards mainly aimed at dealing with creatures. It can also ramp fairly well thanks to Cabal Coffers and a few other "Swamps matter" cards.
Red is severely impaired in EDH, it's typical aggro strategies all but useless in a 40-life multiplayer format. It does have access to both card advantage and decent commanders in the forms of Purphoros and Krenk though, which set it slightly above white.
White is ranked last due to its shocking lack of ramp and card draw. It doesn't even possess any redeemingly strong commanders, the closest probably being Eight-and-a-Half-Tails. It's one redeeming quality is its control power.
January 24, 2016 6:21 p.m.
White has both artifact and enchantment tutors, effective boardwipes, relevant plainswalkers, combo elements, resilience and evasion (and in general the ability to interact and stand up to disruption). It also has many of the best voltron enchantments.
...
And red has none of these.
...
Keranos is U/R and Krenko will die to every board wipe AND targeted removal that exists unless you got lucky and drew one of the -like roughly 4possible - artifacts that could protect him (from some but not all threats) and equipped it without anyone stopping you (so they let you do it or they suck and deserve to lose by being mobbed by goblins since no one at the table had either targeted artifact or creature removal or even one boardwipe after at least 5 turns of drawing)(and if anyone had any of these and Krenko got dealt with even once then you face at least 3 turns at the mercy of the table with only goblins between you and your opponent's - so if you didn't die then they were letting you live).
I think that in a combo-approved environment, B > G because of tutors vastly increasing consistency. In a non-combo-approved environment, G overpowers simply by having such a variety of cards that are at power levels beyond most of the others (with a few random exceptions) - as well as a super reliable ability to reach a power level that can just overpower the whole table (even without going infinite or relying on a few key combo pieces).
January 24, 2016 6:42 p.m.
After playing with the switch to Vancouver how do you all like it? Personally I am probably done with the game.
Also the change to Vancouver will probably result in an increased number of changes to the ban list next year. The two ways you take a mulligan greatly affect which cards are powerful and which cards are not.
January 24, 2016 7:27 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #45
My playgroup has been using the Gi's Mulligan, and it has been working out fine. Hands are frequently clunkier than they used to be, but it has also incentivized people to keep their curve more to the left. So overall I'd recommend Gi's over Vancouver.
January 24, 2016 7:56 p.m.
Ender666666 says... #46
lemmingllama what do you mean by the "Gi's Mulligan", and can you describe how it works?
January 24, 2016 8:02 p.m.
I think lemmingllama means this:
"The RC continues to use and recommend the Gis ("Mulligan 7s to a playable hand. Don't abuse this") for trusted playgroups, but that's not something that can go in the rules."
January 24, 2016 8:07 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #49
Basically you reveal your hand if it is unplayable and set it aside, then draw a new seven. This way you can't dig for combo pieces, since if you set one aside then you cannot get it back. Similarly, if you toss an hand that has a good amount of mana and relevant spells, people can call you out on it.
It's certainly something that they shouldn't implement as the official mulligan, but it is more fair than the Partial Paris or the Vancouver in that everyone is guaranteed to play some form of Magic. Also people have to truthfully see if a hand is playable or not, since you know others will confirm
January 24, 2016 8:42 p.m.
JuiceboxHero says... #50
The Gis Mulligan: Hang on, wait til I get the God hand. I want to make sure I have complete dominance from Turn 1.
kengiczar says... #1
DemonDragonJ they said Rule 4 was going to cause confusion. I don't think that was it. As others have stated any deck can play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and land fetchers and shenanigans like that were probably what they were trying to prevent. With Rule 4 only 5 color decks would have to actually run rocks or lands just to make
. The other colors could have just tapped Command Tower for a color not in their color identity and make 
. Now combine that with things like Gilded Lotus, Chromatic Lantern, and all the lands that tap for any color. They didn't want everyone jamming eldrazi so they made the change. Now it'll be more clear when you use a mana source to generate "mana of any color" that you cannot get colorless.
The ban is permanent. They can change the ban list but I doubt they would remove Prophet from it unless they actually needed a tool to fight another card. the chances of that happening without that card being better with prophet are slim to none.
I really do feel for you on memnarch. It's one of those cards that you have to either out aggro or disrupt through heavy artifact hate. I don't think it will be banned unless players learned to kill memnarch first every single game and it kept happening at game stores accross the nation. Anyways you want Mystical Tutor and Vandalblast as well as maybe Fiery Confluence. If you have access yo
you have Enlightened Tutor to fetch Pithing Needle, Stony Silence, Null Rod or Damping Matrix.
January 20, 2016 10:57 p.m.