JULY 2017 RULES / BANLIST UPDATE
IL Y A 9 MINUTES · PUBLIC
The last 3 months were quite interesting for our beloved format, with lots of great tournaments and a large affluence at those tournaments. With such a large data and a careful study of the Magic Online 1vs1 Commander updates, we found that the following changes would improve Duel Commander tournaments.
Changes:

👉 Individual card changes:
Geist of Saint Traft is now banned as as commander only.
Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is now banned as as commander only.
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder is now banned as as commander only.

Polymorph is now banned.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is now banned.

Ancient Tomb is now legal.
Mind Twist is now legal.
Fastbond is now legal.
👉 Don’t forget to check out our Current Lists Facebook note for a recap of all the currently banned cards.
These changes apply on July 21, 2017. Of course, you can still contact us via this Facebook page. The next announcements will be published on September 25, 2017 (applying on September 29, 2017).

Until then, we wish you all many good games! :)

Further individual explanations:



Geist of Saint Traft
It’s always hard to remove a historical commander. The true, recurring, solid outs that Geist of Saint Traft provides were already a strong problem when facing a higher starting life total, which they proved to be even more efficient at blowing up now, several months after they even got lowered back to normal.

Geist of Saint Traft is one of the rare handfuls of commanders which have the evil hexproof ability, and the cheapest of them. The absolute lack of interactions it offers, the immediate pressure it gives -despite the absence of moxen- and the killing clock it gives, as much as its position in the format, forbidding many building strategies to exist or annihilating them makes Geist of Saint Traft too toxic to remain in the command zone.


Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
Among all the available commanders for control decks, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is without a doubt the most proactive one. It enters the battlefield very early, it sculpts its owner’s hand efficiently, up to the point that player can compose his or her deck with very “metagame” cards, like Hydroblast, or Mind Harness. During the game, it favours blue’s favourite weapons, like instants and sorceries, abilities like flashback or delve, and generates card advantage easily. At some point, it allows setting up degenerate synergies that will quickly end games, with cards like Intuition, functional copycats of Time Walk, or High Tide.
Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy definitely has too many elements in its favor to remain eligible to the Command zone. In order to open the diversity of the format, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is now banned as a commander.


Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder is a strong card. But most problematically: it’s a toxic card. It shaped the metagame by removing all fair aggressive decks and most midrange decks. It is focusing the format by losing against mono-blue decks and beating mono-blue decks predators. Banning Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder also allows keeping the very interesting Partner keyword which favours original and exotic deckbuilding. So it’s unfortunately time for Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder to leave us.




Polymorph
Having a gigantic creature entering the battlefield at a reduced cost is a dreadful strategy that should be subject to reasonable constraints. The interaction between Polymorph and the Command zone makes it unfair. Indeed, in Duel Commander, Polymorph is definitely freed from its initial constraint: producing a creature without playing creature cards. We’re reaching the breaking point of those reasonable constraints when Polymorph is paired with highly synergic commanders like Baral, Chief of Compliance (that allows it to happen on turn 3) or Vendilion Clique (which controls possible answers). Because of the danger it represents in Duel Commander, Polymorph is now banned.


Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is most of the time the end of any strategic approach of a game. Being nearly impossible to kill and having Annihilator 6 makes it overwhelming. If Emrakul, the Aeons Torn was only cast during the later parts of games, it wouldn’t be a problem. But with cards like Synthetic Destiny or even Through the Breach it can enter the battlefield way too early. The card is also very (very) rarely cast for {15}. Adding no value to format and causing some trouble, we choose to ban Emrakul, the Aeons Torn from Duel Commander.



Ancient Tomb
The ban of Ancient Tomb is mostly an archaism of the 30 starting life totals era. Without any playable aggressive strategy, it was a flawless 2-mana land. This is not true today anymore! Ancient Tomb is still a great card, but a very risky one. Bringing back Ancient Tomb also promotes strategic complexity of the format by offering more versatility in mana development. So… Welcome back Ancient Tomb! But beware: the world has changed...





Mind Twist
Mind Twist is one of the first cards to be banned in Magic, back in 1994. Even if there are many combinations one could dream of with Mind Twist (with fast mana elves or Dark Ritual, for example) most of the time it ends up being an expensive Hymn to Tourach. Also, fast mana is now getting harder to produce in Duel Commander. The pro-active metagame also means more active decks and Mind Twisting an opponent’s hand by turn 4 is not such a good deal now. The command zone also reduces the impact of mass discard. This is why we think it’s the right time to bring back this iconic card in Duel Commander.



Fastbond
Fastbond is explosive in most early games (with many more conditions than it looks, though) and often forsaken in the late game state, despite the presence of Crucible of Worlds or The Gitrog Monster, or Ramunap Excavator. Despite the fact that it has led to aberrant starts in the past, the drawback is now far more problematic. Fastbond still holds a high potential, yet it is tamed by the pace of the format we’ve had for a few months now. We also think Duel Commander is more spectacular with that kind of broken cards than when played with four copies. Therefore, Fastbond is worth a come back.

Le problème de Zurgo c'est surtout du au fait que les gens pensent que ça se gerre comme pak. Alors que c'est exactement l'inverse ça s'agresse comme pack!

Et par dessus tout, le passage a 20pv est la meilleure décision qu'ait pris le comité pour faire de ce format : un format semi-competition.

Non.

Counterspell-like n'est pas la seule solution et ce depuis toujours.

Tu connais ce truc :
"lien"
Je peux t'en montrer d'autres, beaucoup d'autres.

Ca me semble bien "contrer" les blast.

J'arrive à lutter contre zurgo tandis que tu me dis que c'est impossible.
Que veux tu qu'on te dise ?

Doran t2 stop le papa

Je m'excuse pour le ton un peu "aggro" de mes propos, seulement il y une difference entre "divergences d'opinions" et "dire n'importe quoi" :

Je te remercie pour ton message et je reconnais parfois être aussi un peu sec et je sais que parfois c'est pas volontaire, c'est l'effet fofo qui coupe les intentions qui augmente l'impression d'agression.

Pour etre plus exact : le DC à 30pv était atrocement mal adapté pour les tournois, a commencer par le pool de points de vie.
Donc les 20pv, oui c'est une bonne chose, maintenant si je précise bien "semi"-competition, c'est parce qu'il y a aussi une volonté de préserver le lore Commander et que (la c'est mon avis) selon moi ca entre en contradiction avec un format pleinement competitif du fait de la taille de bibliotheque trop élevé et plutot injustifiée surtout depuis les 20pv et l'absence de réserve.

Ce que je voulais dire est que jouer du bleu dans son pack est le seul moyen de dire non à des blasts qui te tues (avoir des contres quoi^^).

Ce que je voulais dire est que jouer du bleu dans son pack est le seul moyen de dire non à des blasts qui te tues (avoir des contres quoi^^).

Une Timely Reinforcements ça encaisse 2 foudres et 3 sauces de Zurgo.

Zurgo Burn blast tiens méchament tête à Doran pour info ;)

J'ai pas réussi à voir la page du lien, du coup pas vu, compris.

Perso j'arrive très bien à empêcher des gens de me cramer la tronche en engageant des îles ;)

c'est mieux quand on prend le temps de manger une part de gateau basque et de mettre de coté ses certitudes.

Après qd tu vois certains doran qui ont toujours leur cata/geddon dans leur pack, tu rigoles bien avec ton zurgo. Je pense que ton pack doit bien aimer ce genre de petite free win.

Croire qu'on gagne des parties à Magic est un mythe. Celui qui fait la sortie la moins pourrie gagne parce que son adversaire a encore plus perdu que lui.

C'est aussi une des raisons (outre les objections statistiques) qui fait que décrire un deck sur ces sorties ultimes et même sur ces bonnes sorties est idiot.

Croire qu'on gagne des parties à Magic est un mythe. Celui qui fait la sortie la moins pourrie gagne parce que son adversaire a encore plus perdu que lui.