By Benoit
Hello everybody, and happy new year.
Today the update is a bit special, on several points.
I – Banlist update
For the first time since more than a year, there is no change in the banlist this time. The rules committee is watching closely tournament results and the metagame evolution since the ban of Edric last September. The Duel Commander French Cup has been a good occasion to get complete and competitive decklists, and to gather precise statistics on the metagame. We are well aware that white and blue are currently over-represented in top 8s compared to the three other colors. Today, it is still too early to get a good overview of the long-term evolution: certain decks have started to adapt to the fact that the format’s new slower speed but there remains some room for adjustments. We will keep gathering data from all tournaments in the next three months.
The format is currently oriented towards white and blue (Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Geist of Saint Traft and Zur the Enchanter being the most common decks in top 8), but decks with other colors are far from being wiped out and we had numerous good feedback from players who currently find the format more diverse and open than it had been before Edric’s ban.
We keep working on the metagame evolution, but for this time the banlist remains unchanged.
II – Resources for Duel Commander
After several months of work on two documents, we are proud to present you some resources on Duel Commander.
The first document is for players. It is a complete guide that includes all the rules for playing Duel Commander. If you have doubts or a question regarding Duel Commander rules, you will find the answer there. This “Bible” for Duel Commander has been written with the goal if being the ultimate reference for Duel Commander rules. Don’t hesitate to download and to share it, it is available for free. We also recommend tournament organizers to have it printed at their tournaments in addition to the Comprehensive Rules from the DCI.
The second document is specific to tournament organizers. It gathers recommendations about how to organize, hold and communicate on Duel Commander tournaments.
Duel Commander Rules
Tournament Good Practices
III – Rules clarification
The rules document mentioned above has been written and validated way before Gatecrash previews, and one rules question is often asked about Gatecrash, that hasn’t been answered in the previous rules document (it shall be updated later). That question is about the Orzhov new keyword ability : Extort. The card’s text box is written like this :
Extort (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay {W/B}. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
The reminder text for Extort shows a black and white hybrid mana symbol on the card. Hybrid mana symbols are considered as being of both colors identities.
But this text in italics and between parenthesis is just a reminder text and, like Trinisphere that is playable with a commander whose color identity isn’t black, this reminder text doesn’t affect the card’s color identity.
Example: The card Blind Obedience has a white color identity, not black. This card is legal in a deck with Gaddock Teeg as commander.
The Duel Commander rules committee.
By Benoit
Vanishing is banned
This is a central piece of Zur the Enchanter and a primary reason of its success. Zur’s strategy is to attack relentlessly, locking the game up bit by bit. As long as it can protect its commander, its game plan is basically bullet-proof, since Zur’s tutoring can handle any incoming threat. Vanishing is a key part of that strategy since it protects the commander from everything, up to and including Clone effects and mass removal.
While the continued success of Zur in large tournaments can be attributed in big part to its experienced pilots, it is by itself an extremely potent commander with a strategy that’s quite difficult to stop. The prospect of facing Zur forces many players to include specialized measures, such as split second removal. We believe that the pressure on the format is too strong, but not strong enough to ban the entire deck. Therefore we are choosing to ban Vanishing, so that other decks can fight it on more equal grounds.
Humility is banned
While not a central piece of any top deck, Humility has a very profound effect on the game. As soon as it’s on the board, every creature is a 1/1 with no ability, including commanders. This nullifies a variety of creature-based and commander-based strategies, and makes the game quite unfun for the unprepared player. Moreover, it prevents the vast majority of commanders from functioning, which breaks the spirit of Commander somewhat. It forces players to run specialized cards (Disenchant, Nature’s Claim) to answer it, as it gets around more versatile enchantment removal like Qasali Pridemage or Acidic Slime. Aggressive decks are wrecked by Humility since they either lose to it, or run answers and thus dilute their primary game plan. For these reasons, and since it has influence on decks even when it’s not played a lot, we are banning Humility.
Protean Hulk is unbanned
For years, this card has been banned from the multiplayer format, because as soon as it dies, there’s plenty of ways of winning the game on the spot. Moreover, getting a creature to die isn’t hard at all, given the many sacrifice effects available in the format.
When we transitioned from a common banlist to a separate one, Protean Hulk was left banned as precaution, since the format is full of ways to cheat it into play. However, after closer inspection, it appears that there already are plenty of huge creatures which can win the game as soon as they hit the board – Iona, Shield of Emeria, Elesh Norn, Griselbrand. These aren’t oppressive and most decks can either fight through or counter those reanimation strategies. Protean Hulk requires additional setup: a few dedicated slots in the deck, as well as a way to sacrifice it in order to win. Instant wins are also possible using Flash, but this requires four colors to work. Given that you have to make compromises for this unreliable combo, we believe it’s safe enough to have it in the format.
Bitterblossom is unbanned
This card has been banned 15 months ago amidst a lot of controversy. Many games were won on turn 2 just by resolving this innocuous enchantment. What the opponent did by this point mattered little – either they would lose to the incessant stream of fliers, or they would spend too many resources fighting them and would lose to anything else you played. And let’s face it, 1 life a turn is completely negligible in a 30-life format.
What has made us change our minds then? First of all, the format has accelerated quite a bit and most decks can win before Bitterblossom can make a real difference. Second, many decks now pack more enchantment removal in order to face the diverse threats found in the format – what stops Oath of Druids, Sylvan Library, or Survival of the Fittest can also stop Bitterblossom, not to speak of Disenchant-likes which many people run to stop Swords. Third, a few decks in the format can ignore Bitterblossom – ramp decks like Maelstrom Wanderer or combo like Zur. Last but not least, black is the most unpopular color at the moment (tied with red), so it could benefit from an additional weapon.
We are unbanning it for now to give these decks a little boost, but the effect on the game is so big that it will be closely watched.
Staff of Domination is unbanned
This card’s only use is as a combo engine combined with any creature that produces 5 or more mana. Since artifact-based decks with Metalworker aren’t competitive, this leaves only Elves able to exploit it effectively. Ezuri is played to a certain success but is far from dominating. Giving it an extra weapon that it can’t tutor shouldn’t make a big difference.
As usual, you can find the full banlist on the “Rules” page.
By Benoit
Duelcommander.com is now open ! Welcome !
Today is the opening of duelcommander.com : the website dedicated to the “Duel Commander” format for Magic®. Welcome !
You will find here information, advice, decklists and articles about this format. This new website aims at offering a set of rules to help players build a strong community and help spreading the game. While the multiplayer Commander community is quite structured, the Duel Commander community has always been scattered all around many websites and forums. We hope that those common rules will help people design decks that can be played anywhere, to share the same basis.
We have good hope that this website will also help those who are looking for players around their town, those who wish to discuss decklists, rules and metagames, those who would like to launch local tournaments and those who are looking for clear rules for Duel Commander.
Maybe in the future we’ll open a forum, to allow discussions on this format and start building a strong community.
Enjoy !
The Duelcommander.com team.
By Benoit
Duel Commander follows the exact same rules as classic multiplayer Commander, except for the following.
First, players start the game with 30 life.
Also, the following cards are banned :
- Ancestral Recall
- Ancient Tomb
- Balance
- Back to Basics
- Black Lotus
- Channel
- Crucible of Worlds
- Gifts Ungiven
- Grindstone
- Hermit Druid
- Humility
- Imperial Seal
- Karakas
- Library of Alexandria
- Mana Crypt
- Mana Drain
- Mana Vault
- Mind Twist
- Mishra’s Workshop
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Jet
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Ruby
- Mox Sapphire
- Necropotence
- Sensei’s Divining Top
- Serra Ascendant
- Shahrazad
- Sol Ring
- Strip Mine
- The Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale
- Time Vault
- Time Walk
- Tinker
- Tolarian Academy
- Vampiric Tutor
- Vanishing
- Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Ante cards and manual dexterity cards are also banned.
The following cards are also banned from being played as a commander :
- Braids, Cabal Minion
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest
- Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
- Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Also, the legends rule doesn’t apply to commanders as long as both creatures with the same name on the battlefield are commanders. If a creature with the same name is on the battlefield but is not a commander (either because it is played as a “normal” creature or because of a card like Clone), the legend rule applies and all those creatures are put into their owners’ graveyards as the result of a state-based effect.
Finally, in addition to the ability to put the Commander back into the Command Zone if it would go to the graveyard or be exiled, you may do so also if it would be put into your library.
Why specific rules for Duel Commander ?
When you play a game with more than two players, social interactions, diplomacy and negotiations usually prevent a player from taking a huge advantage at the start of the game. Indeed, if a players becomes the main threat at the table, it is likely that he will become the top priority target for other players. Such a player should have to face several opponents at the same time, which brings balance in the game. Multiplayer games tend to be balanced by diplomacy.
When only two players are facing each other, this cannot be done. If a player takes a great advantage early in the game (example : turn one Island, Lotus Petal, Mana Crypt, Jace the Mind Sculptor), his opponent won’t be able to get back in the game. That is why we banned certain cards which lead to extraordinary early game advantages from which an opponent cannot recover (Mana Crypt, Sol Ring…). Some cards are banned as commanders for this purpose : those cards can still be played in your deck, but can’t be chosen as a commander. We also removed certain cards which can easily lead to degenerated combos, such as Hermit Druid.
Sometimes a tournament is organized for Duel Commander. Such events need to put a time limit in rounds, generally between 50 and 60 minutes per round. Considering the time restrictions, we banned Sensei’s Divining Top and Shahrazad, because they tend to make games last considerably longer, leading to numerous unfinished games at the end of the round.
Apart from the points mentioned above, all the rules of Duel Commander obey the rules of classic multiplayer Commander.
You can find more complete explanations in the Duel Commander Rules Summary.
