MTG Commander banlist May 2025

Looking for the MTG Commander banlist? With such a vast format, knowing which cards you aren’t allowed to use can be tricky. In this guide you’ll find a list of every card that’s forbidden in Commander, complete with the date it was added to the EDH banlist.

For more bans in other formats, see our full  MTG banlist guide. We can also give you more details about upcoming MTG sets, and the best MTG Arena decks to play after each new release.

Latest Commander banlist update

On April 22, 2025, Wizards of the Coast unbanned five cards in the Commander format: Gifts Ungiven; Sway of the Stars; Braids, Cabal Minion; Coalition Victory; and Panoptic Mirror.

An update shared by Wizards says that these cards, the first unbanned since the introduction of the new Game Changers list, were chosen as they were considered “safe at the power level of Bracket 3 and above”. They’re also considered to encourage positive play patterns rather than negative ones, or they have “fond memories associated with them”.

No cards were banned in this update.

No further banlist changes are expected for the rest of the year. Wizards promises that we will return to a more regular ban schedule in 2026.

MTG Commander banlist

Conspiracy cards

25 cards with the Conspiracy type are banned in Commander, and all other MTG formats. The full list of Conspiracy cards banned in Commander is:

• Adriana’s Valor
• Advantageous Proclamation
• Assemble the Rank and Vile
• Backup Plan
• Brago’s Favor
• Double Stroke
• Echoing Boon
• Emissary’s Ploy
• Hired Heist
• Hold the Perimeter
• Hymn of the Wilds
• Immediate Action
• Incendiary Dissent
• Iterative Analysis
• Muzzio’s Preparations
• Natural Unity
• Power Play
• Secret Summoning
• Secrets of Paradise
• Sentinel Dispatch
• Sovereign’s Realm
• Summoner’s Bond
• Unexpected Potential
• Weight Advantage
• Worldknit

Ante cards

Nine cards that reference ‘playing for ante’ are banned in Commander, and all other formats, because they don’t work within the rules. Playing for keeps in a four-player game is probably a bad bet anyhow. The banned MTG ante cards are:

• Amulet of Quoz
• Bronze Tablet
• Contract from Below
• Darkpact
• Demonic Attorney
• Jewelled Bird
• Rebirth
• Tempest Efreet
• Timmerian Fiends

Offensive cards

The Commander banlist includes cards that are racially or culturally insensitive. These cards have been banned in all formats, and their images were even removed from Wizards of the Coast’s database in 2020. The seven cards currently included in this ban are:

• Invoke Prejudice
• Cleanse
• Stone-Throwing Devils
• Pradesh Gypsies
• Jihad
• Imprison
• Crusade

Game Changers list

Wizards of the Coast updated the Game Changers list along with the latest commander banlist update on April 22.

Removed from the Game Changers list:

• Trouble in Pairs
• Trinisphere

Added to the Game Changers list:

• Teferi’s Protection
• Humility
• Narset, Parter of Veils
• Intuition
• Consecrated Sphinx
• Necropotence
• Orcish Bowmasters
• Notion Thief
• Deflecting Swat
• Gamble
• Worldly Tutor
• Crop Rotation
• Seedborn Muse
• Natural Order
• Food Chain
• Aura Shards
• Field of the Dead
• Mishra’s Workshop

Current Game Changers list

• Drannith Magistrate
• Thassa’s Oracle
• Urza, Lord High Artificer
• Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• Opposition Agent
• Tergrid, God of Fright
• Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
• Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow
• Winota, Joiner of Forces
• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• Enlightened Tutor
• Cyclonic Rift
• Force of Will
• Fierce Guardianship
• Mystical Tutor
• Vampiric Tutor
• Ad Nauseam
• Serra’s Sanctum
• Gaea’s Cradle
• Ancient Tomb
• Glacial Chasm
• The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
• Smothering Tithe
• Rhystic Study
• Underworld Breach
• Survival of the Fittest
• Expropriate
• Demonic Tutor
• Imperial Seal
• Jeska’s Will
• Bolas’s Citadel
• The One Ring
• Chrome Mox
• Grim Monolith
• Lion’s Eye Diamond
• Mox Diamond
• Mana Vault
• Teferi’s Protection
• Humility
• Narset, Parter of Veils
• Intuition
• Consecrated Sphinx
• Necropotence
• Orcish Bowmasters
• Notion Thief
• Deflecting Swat
• Gamble
• Worldly Tutor
• Crop Rotation
• Seedborn Muse
• Natural Order
• Food Chain
• Aura Shards
• Field of the Dead
• Mishra’s Workshop

What are Game Changers?

Game Changers are cards that dramatically warp a game when (or shortly after) they’re played. The number of game changers a deck contains is one factor in determining which Commander ‘bracket‘ it falls into during pre-game discussions.

Though certainly not banned – or even at risk of banning – Wizards has made it clear that future banned cards are likely to come from this list. Similarly, any cards that get unbanned are likely to move onto the Game Changers list.

Brackets

The beta brackets system is a tool to help Commander players to talk about the gameplay experience they want to create with their deck. Each bracket has a set of deck building conditions: if a deck meets those conditions, it sits in that bracket.

1. Exhibition

Decks prioritize theme over function and showcase a unique idea or experience over valuing winning.

• No game changers
• No mass land denial
• No extra turns
• No two-cards infinite combos (game-enders, lockouts, or infinite)
• Few tutors

2. Core

Decks are focused, even if every card choice isn’t the highest power, and comparable to an average precon. Wins are often telegraphed or incremental.

• No game changers
• No mass land denial
• No chaining extra turns
• No two-cards infinite combos (game-enders, lockouts, or infinite)
• Few tutors

3. Upgraded

Decks are thoughtfully designed, full of synergistic or strong cards. Games could end out of nowhere with powerful spells and late-game combos.

• No mass land denial
• No chaining extra turns
• Late game, two-card infinite combos allowed
• Up to three game changers

4. Optimized

Decks are turbocharged with the most powerful cards in the format. Everybody intends to win and is ready to play against anything.

No restrictions other than the banlist.

5. CEDH

Decks are built to win in the competitive metagame. Players intend to use only the most powerful strategies.

• No restrictions other than the banlist.

Are Commander brackets power levels?

Commander brackets are numbered, but these numbers don’t measure the power level of a deck. The higher the bracket, the more tools the deck has to succeed in competitive, meta-focused gameplay. The lower the bracket, the more casual and focused on ‘doing something neat with friends’ the deck is.

Hopefully, players can use the brackets to choose decks that have similar gameplay goals. There will still be decks that perform well above, or below, what their bracket suggests.

Commander has the potential to be a very high-powered format. You only have to glance at our cEDH Tier List or guide to the strongest MTG Commanders to see that. For more on Magic: The Gathering, here’s the latest on the MTG release schedule, plus the MTG Arena codes that still work.

We also maintain an up to date Yugioh banlist and Yugioh MasterDuel banlist, if you’re a duellist as well as a planeswalker.

Source: Wargamer