Banned List Update – October 2nd

Sway Of The Stars [] is Unbanned

Sway Of The Stars [] is a card that we have talked about internally for a while, but have not previously put a lot of testing into because of other card concerns of the community.  With the move to more online testing, we were able to test more variations of the deck, and decide to release it into the format.  

Gifts Ungiven []/ Intuition []

We have finished our playtesting on Gifts Ungiven [].  We will be leaving it banned for now.  The decision was not unanimous, however we all did agree that we were unlikely to change our opinion so we have ended playtesting on these cards.  

We agree that while Gifts Ungiven [] and Intuition [] are different cards that do different things, we often see these cards linked together by some groups of players.  In the same thought as to not unbanning Gifts Ungiven [], the committee is equally split on Intuition [].  For now Intuition [] remains legal, and is not something we plan on testing in the near future.  

Paradox Engine []

This primary test deck ( Saheeli, Sublime Artificer []; Thoughtcast []), although capable of winning games on turn three occasionally, was a consistent turn four deck.  This is in line with what we see from other tier one competitive decks.  With that in mind, we don’t feel the need to ban anything this deck is doing, we recommend that you keep power level in mind when playing Oathbreaker with your friends.  

Teferi, Master of Time []/ See the Truth []

These were cards from M21 that we thought might have an impact on the format.  Teferi, being able to activate every turn in multiplayer, and See the Truth [], being a two mana to “draw” three from from the command zone.  Both of these felt fair in playtesting, and even our casual decks were able to handle Teferi.  Neither of these are on our radar anymore.  

Where do we go from here?

Worldfire []

This is the next step in testing after the unbanning of Sway The Stars [].  With the increased speed of our format compared to Commander, we have been reevaluating our philosophy on cards that “invalidate all previous game play”.  We suspect Upheaval [] will stay banned, but wanted to test Worldfire [].  

Zendikar Rising Cards

There were no new cards from Zendikar Risking that we were particularly worried about at this time.  We will be play-testing them as normal, but didn’t see anything noteworthy to include in this announcement.  

Signature Spell Lands

Lastly, two reminders on the rules for Signature Spells.  First, a card that is a spell on the front side can be your Signature Spell.  Second, you can’t play the land side from your Command Zone. “If a Signature Spell would somehow go anywhere but the Command Zone or the stack, it instead goes to the Command Zone.”, and “A player may cast a Signature Spell they own from the Command Zone as long as the associated Oathbreaker is on the battlefield and under that player’s control.” 

Our next announcement will be on Dec 26th.