AUGUST 2020 RULES - BANNED/RESTRICTED UPDATE

Hello, everyone! 2020 goes on, and it’s hell of an extraordinary year, in all the good and bad meanings this word bears. Since the last update, it seems like the current metagame adjusted quite accordingly to the defaults that were addressed beforehand. New commanders entered the arena and demonstrated quite an impressive series of results, which shows how much innovation is always possible in Duel Commander. Despite those great news, one little change had to be done this time, which aims at correcting a small unbalance in what was observed since may.

Please stay safe.

Changes:

👉 Rules changes:


  • No changes.


👉 Individual card changes:



👉 Other changes:


  • No changes.


👉 Don’t forget to check out our Current Lists page for a recap of all the currently banned cards.


These changes apply on August 28, 2020. Of course, you can still contact us via our Facebook page.
The next announcement will be published on November 30, 2020 (applying on December 4, 2020).

Until then, we wish you all many good games! :)

Further individual explanations:

Genesis Storm

Over the last year, control decks had been struggling to stay in shape, and were most of the time smothered by a very aggressive metagame and overpowered combos, all of these with such good tempos that they couldn’t keep up with the pace and were most of the time forced to kill with random combos themselves.

Last update was among other purposes about balancing the overall playability and performance of control, combo and aggressive strategies. Since then, more blue-and-green-based decks started focusing on new combo kills backed up by control shells, like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, or even the older Thrasios, Triton Hero, for instance.

Those decks focus on a new way of structurally over-optimizing control decks, playing around Genesis Storm, a card from 2018 that has a very high affinity with “permanent-type-less“ builds. Genesis Storm becomes a one-card instant kill that dodges most common interactions, including counters and removal, provided the chosen combo only includes two permanents as pieces (such as Thought Lash + Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience).

Although removing the named commanders could be slowing the take of this card on the format, it would still be used in the future should a new commander or combo be printed. Therefore, Genesis Storm is now banned.