(Blackmail | Art by: Christopher Moeller)

In February 2006, the now-disbanded Rules Committee made a new rule for a very young format.Heartless Hidetsugu, Kaervek the Merciless, and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, were all banned as commanders only.

While they could not lead your deck, you could still play them in the 99. As the years passed, different legendary creatures went on and off this list.

After three years, in February 2014, the "banned only as commander" rule was eliminated, and Braids, Cabal Minion, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary became banned in the format, and so far, they have stayed there.

I wonder if they have remained for too long.

Currently, there are ten legendary creatures banned in the format. I want to examine whether any of them should be the reason for bringing back the "banned only as commander" rule.

Should they stay or go, or should some current creatures be added?

My name is Nick; this is Myth Realized - Should We Bring Back Banned Only As Commander?

Triple Threat.

There are five cards that I currently have not talked about as candidates to bring back as "Banned Only As Commander" candidates. Today, I cover three of those five.

Let's start with my favorite of the three, and the only one I have ever played in any format, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Mother.

The undisputed biggest and badest spaghetti monster of all the Magic: The Gathering universes and the only one of the twelve non-meld Legendary Eldrazi banned in the Commander format.

So what is the hatred for the mother of all Eldrazi monsters? This card is tough for anyone, or even a table of other players, to be able to shut down before, during, and after it hits the field.

But what makes it so hard to stop compared to a group of creatures that, on average, cost you a double-digit amount of mana?

This spell can't be countered already in the first line of text, causing a massive issue. While something I appreciate, being stapled onto a big creature occasionally is usually not a big issue outside of playing a control deck in a competitive 60-card format. But considering Emrakul, it is just the tip of the iceberg.

The next issue is that you do not get a reprieve once this card hits the board thanks to the casting of this spell giving you an extra turn. So even in the world where you use something like Sink into Stupor to "force" an opponent to cast it again, they will get another turn right away to do so.

Extra turn spells are some of the most disliked spells in the commander format. Time Stretch and Expropriate both find themselves on the salt list most years on EDHrec.

If all of this was not enough, the torn comes with the following: Flying, protection from spells that are one or more colors, and annihilator 6.

So it is hard to block, will not die, and every time it attacks, the blocking player has to sacrifice six of their permanents before they can even try to block.

If extra turns were not disliked enough, the fact that this card has annihilator six also rubs people the wrong way, so much so that only the other two original Eldrazi Titans and the latest retrain of Ulamog have it (when it comes to the suite of legends).

But Nick, look how much mana this creature costs; you are not considering that it costs mana to cast this card; I hear you scream at me from the other side of the internet.

Well, I would tell those people that by my current count, 33 of the top 100 most played colorless cards can help you by either accelerating your mana, getting you more lands, or reducing the costs of your Eldrazi. Yes, is a lot of mana. Sadly, it is not as much as you think it is.

One of the best decks I have ever played against was built around Kozilek, the Great Distortion years ago. Since then, more and more cards have been released, making ramping into colorless cards more straightforward than ever.

Having this card in the command zone would be groan-inducing, to say the least. Unfortunately, to our colorless card-loving players, this one is just a bit too strong to let see the light of day.

Generally, I tend to take a medium-of-the-road stance on these cards because, most often, I do not know how bad these cards might be, or I have a strong feeling one way or another, but I can see the arguments from the other side.

This is not one of those times. This card should not be allowed back into the format in the command zone or the 99. There is too much going on, and even if the table teams up or someone has wrath to take care of it two turns after it comes down, it will be too late for at least one player.

Do A Flip.

One of the original "flip" cards and one of the original creatures on the first banned list for the format Erayo, Soratami Ascendant is next up on the discussion list.

It's a cheap to-cast 1/1 flyer in blue. What could be threatening about this card? How about locking out the entire table by turn two of the game and making everyone else suffer while you put together a win that will take 25 minutes?

Play Island, then cast a Sol Ring and an Arcane Signet on turn one. Turn two; how about another Island and cast Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, with your mana rocks?

Follow it up with Mox Amber, Mishra's Bauble, and Arcane Laboratory. Now, the entire table can only cast one spell a turn, and that spell is automatically countered.

You are also playing mono-blue and packing every counterspell from Force of Will to a foil copy of Foil.

Yes, this is a bit of a "magical Christmas land" scenario, but the real talk about this card is that it is deceptively easy to flip around and cause a hellish game state for the rest of the table.

This card might need some of the least discussion regarding the possible unbanning of cards in the commander format across the board.

Ask any person how bad it felt to play dual/French Commander when Baral, Chief of Compliance, was running around, and you will know why this card should never be a guaranteed turn-two play.

Trust me when I tell you that casting four spells in one turn is far better and easier than trying to ultimate a Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, or resolve a lesser lockdown piece in Nullstone Gargoyle.

Back In Black.

Last but certainly not least, we have Braids, Cabal Minion. And I will not bury the lead on this one, readers, Braids, Cabal Minion brings the total of cards that should not be allowed back into the format to....two. Braid does not up the count at all.

Yes, Braids is, in their way, an easier-to-play around Smokestack for the caster of the card. The biggest thing bolstering the power of this card and what makes it a good commander to lock out a table is that, unlike the blue version of this card, Braids, Conjurer Adept is that it will punish the other three players at the table before it punishes you.

Braids is a strong commander, and I cannot deny that the earlier this card hits the board, the more havoc it can wreak on a table. But this is an effect you must build around to maximize, not one you can toss into the command zone and go your merry way.

Take four of the other cards that have been talked about so far in the series. All four of these cards can be built around to maximize their abilities, and if they were allowed to be played in the format, those versions of the individual decks would shine brighter than the others.

But, in all their ways, they can also be placed into the command zone and/or into a deck, and you could carry on business as usual. Braids do not have the same luxury concerning how effective a deck is just using it as a commander or as a random creature in the 99.

The best example of why I would not be worried about a card like Braids, Cabal Minion, being released from the list, especially since it would still be "banned as a commander," is the card Tergrid, God of Fright. Tergrid is one of the top 100 commanders of all time.

And I think it is a more effective card to have as your commander than Braids would ever be. It does not affect you negatively, and even if you draw the portion of your deck that does not make anyone discard a card or sacrifice any permanents, eventually, someone will do the work for you.

Like Tergrid, Braids would most likely have a high salt score and would be a deck and a strategy that would generally be unfun for the other people at the table to play a game with and, like many of the cards, legal to the format, would self regulate its way out of many decks.

I think that Braids, Cabal Minion would be a fine card to bring back, and honestly, I would like to see it banned as a commander only to make people find a way to maximize its abilities when it is inside the 99, rather than in the command zone.

Threes Company.

So, with it all said and done, two cards are never allowed to return, and one of the most unnerving smiles in magic comes back, but not with a vengeance. With only two creatures left on the list, this series is winding down to a close, but I still want to hear from you.

What do you think if Braids, Cabal Minion gets to have a triumphant return? How do you feel about Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, still being trapped?

And what are your favorite four spells to flip around an Erayo, Soratami Ascendant? Tell me here or on the socials anywhere you can find the name nicnax96 and come back for one more article asking: Should We Bring Back Banned Only As Commander?