The Commander cards that were banned last week are rising in price once again, now that Wizards of the Coast has taken control of Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format.
These cards – Dockside Extortionist, Mana Crypt, and Jeweled Lotus – tanked in value when they were banned by the rules committee, which sparked intense backlash against the small group of volunteers that ran EDH.
Since Wizards of the Coast declared on Monday it was taking the reins, it seems prices are on the rise again. After falling to $113, Mana Crypt is up to $134 on seller site TCGPlayer, while it’s gone from €47 to €87 on Card Market.
Similarly, Jeweled Lotus and Dockside Extortionist are still way below their previous values, but some variants have doubled from the pitiful prices they dropped to in the immediate aftermath of the MTG banlist update.
Now, it’s perfectly possible this would have happened anyway. When card prices spike or crash, there’s often a big peak or trough before that card finds a new stable price to sit at. But, judging from what we’ve seen on social media, it seems like a lot of fans are praying that Wizards of the Coast will overturn the card bans, and this is almost certainly reflected in that uptick.
Personally, I hope Wizards leaves well alone. I think it would be twisting the knife to go back on what the RC decided, and would validate those who made threats. But obviously, plenty of people hold the opposite view, and you could easily argue that a minority of players behaving badly should not spoil things for everyone else.
Wizards has not been clear on whether it’s going to reassess last week’s bans, but its statements have helped foster a glimmer of hope among those who disliked the rules committee’s actions.
For instance, in its initial article, On The Future of Commander, Wizards wrote that it would be “evaluating the current banned card list” but promised not to ban new cards as part of this evaluation, implying they might unban some cards. But then it also said “immediate changes to the list are not our priority”, so it’s perfectly possible that no changes to the Commander banlist are imminent.
On Tuesday, we heard more about the company’s new power bracket idea, designed to make evaluating decks easier. Many have the idea that most cards will be unbanned and just placed in tier 4, and that this will include the three controversial cards that got axed.
In the stream on Wednesday, Wizards made it clear it doesn’t want to create multiple banlists, one for casual players and one for cEDH, but design VP Aaron Forsythe did say it was possible players would essentially end up using the brackets in this way. So it’s definitely possible that Wizards is about to unban a bunch of stuff.
Obviously, we’re examining tea leaves trying to predict what Wizards is going to do, but it’s worth noting that Verhey said Wizards had discussed the banned cards a lot over the past few years, and he explicitly said “Jeweled Lotus was a mistake” (at about 32 minutes in if you want to hear for yourself). Remember that while they came out of nowhere for most people, Wizards of the Coast wasn’t blindsided by the bans.
For more Magic: The Gathering content, check out our list of every MTG set ever produced. You might also like our list of the best MTG commanders.
Source: Wargamer
