Casual Fridays

The Definitive Tier List for Potential Commander Unbannings

Aetherdrift is on sale today, and let’s be honest, Ketramose is lighting up all sorts of cards. BW Blink is a big deck in Modern right now, and it’s about to get a powerful draw engine. Psychic Frog plus Darkblast and Ketramose is a deadly combo that we’re going to see a lot of as well. It’s $50, and we’re going to see that price go higher this weekend and hopefully it comes down to something reasonable. 

It’s not going to be soon, though, because people are buying the card four at a time…and it’s worthwhile to do that. It might come down if the meta shifts, but I expect Ketramose to hit $75 in the next week, and after that, supply should bring that back down. Heaven help us if there’s a Standard deck as well as the Modern implications.

However, from a MTG Finance perspective, the biggest news of the week was Commander-related. We got an explanation of the Commander Brackets system, a list of Game Changer cards, but most importantly, Gavin Verhey saying that sometime in April, there will be some cards unbanned in Commander. 

Frankly, there’s already been a lot of buying around this potential news, and all sorts of speculation online about which cards he’s referring to. I’m here to give you the definitive list of what is and isn’t getting unbanned, now that Wizards runs the banned list.

We’re going to put this in tiers, from the zero-chance (F tier) to the ‘absolutely going to happen sometime’ (S tier). For each, I’m going to put down the current cheapest price, and what that price could go to. More premium versions will of course go wild too. I’m presuming that the cards will not get a reprint to go with the unbanning, and if that happens, watch out.

S-Tier: Will Get Unbanned 

  • Jeweled Lotus ($76, but was $40 before the announcement)
  • Dockside Extortionist ($37, was $12)
  • Mana Crypt ($80, was $45)
  • Coalition Victory ($3)

These are the easy picks. The three bannings that triggered the end of the Commander Rules Committee era are all cards that were fine until the RC decided this specific set of fast mana was a problem. Wizards is happy to reprint these cards, mark them as Game Changers, and move on. I don’t think they will all get reprinted immediately, or even at the same time, but eventually yes, they are going to be legal again. Eventually.

I bought four borderless foil Jeweled Lotus when I heard about the announcement, but I should have moved on Dockside. Legit spec targets, but I’ve no idea when it will happen.

A-Tier: I Have Slight Doubts, But Likely Eventually

  • Biorhythm ($6)
  • Golos, Tireless Pilgrim ($2)
  • Iona, Shield of Emeria ($4)
  • Sylvan Primordial ($2)
  • Flash ($1.50)

These five cards are powerful and potentially really annoying, but there’s a lot to be said for each of these being totally fine. Golos could become the default ‘five color good stuff’ deck and with the land find it’s possible to recast it almost every turn. Is that more or less annoying than other cards? Iona hoses one color (you should name blue) but the other colors make for a fun political subgame. Primordial is capable of killing three permanents, and finding you forests, but it’s not problematic until you flicker/reanimate/etc and isn’t that every damn card in Commander? Same thing with Flash–puts a card into play, instantly sacrifices it. We’ve got a range of such effects already, and while this is cheaper, it’s got a good chance to see an unbanning and try it at high power levels.

I could defend you buying these, especially at these low prices, but I wouldn’t be in super deep.

B-Tier: Make Your Case, But I Lean No

  • Braids, Cabal Minion (bulk)
  • Emrakul, the Aeons Torn ($20)
  • Hullbreacher ($3)
  • Trade Secrets ($1)

I think that these all represent cards that are unfun in most settings, and should stay banned. They are also ridiculously powerful, and since we’re legislating in the high power brackets of Commander, I think people will make a case. I definitely would not spec on any of these cards. 

C-Tier: Reserved List Conspiracy Brain

  • Fastbond ($30)
  • Library of Alexandria ($1,300)
  • Recurring Nightmare ($60)
  • Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary ($42)
  • Yawgmoth’s Bargain ($22)

Hot take: I don’t think these are so much more game-breaking that they can’t be considered for unbanning, but they won’t be unbanned because they are on the Reserved List and therefore Wizards cannot make any money off of the unbanning. It is super easy to imagine Gavin calling up someone at WotC and saying, ‘when’s a good time for us print <name of card> so we can unban it at the same time?’ These are enormously powerful cards, worthy of being banned, but less powerful than some other unbanned cards. 

D-Tier: Enormously, Incredibly, Boringly Unfun and 95% Never Unbanned

  • Erayo, Soratami Ascendant ($6)
  • Gifts Ungiven (50¢)
  • Griselbrand ($3)
  • Leovold, Emissary of Trest ($2)
  • Limited Resources ($3)
  • Lutri, the Spellchaser (bulk)
  • Nadu, Winged Wisdom (50¢)
  • Panoptic Mirror ($8)
  • Paradox Engine ($7)
  • Primeval Titan ($8)
  • Prophet of Kruphix ($1)
  • Sundering Titan (bulk)
  • Sway of the Stars ($3)
  • Tinker ($1)
  • Tolarian Academy ($200)
  • Upheaval (bulk)

A lot of these cards are just repetitive play patterns, over and over again. Are there plenty of Commander decks built the same way? You betcha, it’s the main format for people who love to spin their wheels over and over and yet accomplish nothing. With these cards, it isn’t always about the instant win, no, you should be so lucky as someone demonstrating their Gifts Ungiven for a combo, or the Paradox Engine loop twice and then table is scooping. It’s the non-deterministic Nadu combo for ten minutes, it’s a flipped Erayo from someone who also has four counters in hand, just in case. It’s Prophet basically taking four turns every cycle while you do one. Good riddance to all of these.

F-Tier: Why Are You Even Asking?

  • Ancestral Recall
  • Balance
  • Black Lotus
  • Chaos Orb
  • Channel
  • Falling Star
  • Karakas
  • Mox Emerald
  • Mox Jet
  • Mox Pearl
  • Mox Ruby
  • Mox Sapphire
  • Shahrazad
  • Time Vault
  • Time Walk

Name your reason, these are staying banned. I love the idea of the ‘dexterity’ cards like Orb and Star, but having seen people argue about Orb in Cube drafts, heaven help us at regular Commander games. These aren’t getting unbanned ever, no need to go over prices here.

If you disagree with these tiers, please, let me know in the comments, on social media, or preferably, in the ProTrader Discord! I’m happy to talk about the reasons I ranked them this way.

Cliff (@WordOfCommander at Twitter and BlueSky) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.