By Daniel Kitachewsky
Hello everybody.
After the last update which was, well, not an update, it’s time now for a few changes.
These changes take effect on May 3rd, 2013.
While we already acknowledged the large proportion of white and blue in January, it appears that the number of such decks is rising, and even more so in large tournaments. Saint-Nazaire’s tournament in March, with 77 players, had more than 30% of decks playing white-blue. It’s clear that while players enjoy playing diverse decks, many are coming back to the tried-and-true combination of disruption and game-breakers that these colors offer when it’s time to play a big tournament with significant prizes. The powerful commanders available in these colors add to their appeal.
Another large feedback has been the lack of aggressive options. While the relatively small number of such decks is explained by rules inherent to the format, 30 life being a big hurdle for very aggressive decks to overcome, we do believe that their small numbers are also explained by the fact that many experienced and successful players choose more controlling strategies.
Nonetheless, we are trying with these bannings and unbannings to push a little bit towards aggro and open up other possiblities as well. We are keeping an eye on the number of blue-white decks and if these continue dominating further measures will be taken.
Explanations about the individual changes can be found HERE.
We remain vigilant about the format and of course welcome any feedback, which you can send us HERE.
The Duel Commander rules committee.
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
Today is a day of important changes.
The reasons for those changes are explained HERE. They take effect on October 1st 2012.
By Benoit
Hello,
Here are the latest changes to the banlist for Duel Commander, as of June 20th 2012.
- Intuition is unbanned.
- Recurring Nightmare is unbanned.
The reasons of those changes are explained here.
The full banlist can be found here.
Those changes apply on July 1st, so this banlist will be in use for the Grand Prix Ghent side-event on Sunday July 22nd. If you plan to play a Duel Commander event, don’t miss that one. For more information about this, click here.
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
Hi all Duel Commander players ! Today, March 20th, is the banlist update day ! Don’t forget to check on magicthegathering.com for the updates for DCI-sanctionned formats. Here we will give you the updates for the Commander format played in one versus one.
Let’s say it : today is a major day of unbanning. Being conscious that the Duel Commander format is clearly faster than the multiplayer one, we decided to unban most of the cards that were banned only because they belonged to the multiplayer banlist.
Be sure to check this new banlist update to see what new cards you can reintroduce in your decks. Some are fun, like Sway of the Stars or Coalition Victory, others are powerful tools like Metalworker, and some like Upheaval may have a great potential.
Enjoy !
- The duelcommander.com team
