Principal Magic: The Gathering designer Gavin Verhey announced that some cards are now legal to play once more in Commander, the trading card game’s most popular multiplayer format. Five cards in total were unbanned by publisher Wizards of the Coast. Conspicuously absent from that list, however, were the cards involved in last year’s controversial bans — Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Those cards are still banned, and will almost assuredly remain so until at least 2026. The announcement was made in a blog post on the game’s official website.

The newly unbanned cards are Gifts Ungiven; Sway of the Stars; Braids, Cabal Minion; Coalition Victory; and Panoptic Mirror. Verhey said that all of these cards will now be included on the Game Changers List, which is part of an ongoing beta test of the so-called Commander Brackets system. The newly unbanned cards are each emblematic of different strategies, techniques, and styles of play. He said it’s the team’s hope that these unbans will excite the community and lead to interesting adaptations in the beloved Commander format.

He also acknowledged that not acting further on Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, and Mana Crypt in particular are not going to make everyone happy. (Apparently it’s assumed that everyone still hates Nadu, though.) He also provided quite a lot of the reasoning given by members of the new Commander Format Panel for not acting on those cards at this time:

Opinions from the Commander Format Panel varied. Some believe Commander is more fun without them, others would like more time to see how the Commander Bracket system is adopted before doing anything here, and others felt it’s too soon to do anything with these cards. There were a few people who were open to doing something with Jeweled Lotus now, but that was not the majority opinion. The overwhelming majority of the panel did not want to do anything with any of these cards at this time.

I will be transparent and say that I believe if any of these are ever to return, the most likely one is Jeweled Lotus due to its one-shot nature, iconic feel, and ability to help support high-mana value commanders. I want to be clear, this is not me saying that will ever happen, but that was the one among the panel with the most traction.

In closing Verhey said that, as a nod toward returning stability to the format, there would be “no further changes to the banned list for the rest of this year.” The one caveat being, of course, that “if a new or unbanned card begins to become generally reviled […] we can break that seal and act earlier.”

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