Invert Polarity

Invert Polarity's ability to drastically swing games as early as turn 3 through coin flips has proven problematic for player experience and creates unnecessary frustration. 

From a strategic perspective, the card offers poor decision-making opportunities, particularly when targeting bilateral effects like board-sweeping effects, static effects, or uncounterable spells—essentially becoming a coin flip with a 50% chance of having no impact, which increases unwanted randomness.

While Invert Polarity previously saw limited play due to its {U}{R} color requirements, the current dominance and widespread adoption of Aragorn, King Of Gondor decks has led to increased usage of this card. To improve overall player experience, we've determined this is the appropriate time to remove it from our game.

Zurgo Bellstriker

When Zurgo Bellstriker was the only one-mana mono-red commander available, it proved too consistent and fast for metagame health. However, subsequent printings of additional one-mana mono-red commanders have demonstrated that the metagame can now withstand this power level. In fact, mono-red strategies are currently nowhere near tier 1 status.

We believe that providing access to Zurgo Bellstriker will benefit mono-red strategies by allowing players to tune their decks in response to tier 1 threats.

Commander swapping is a significant strength for mono-colored strategies, and by making Zurgo Bellstriker legal as a Commander, we hope to increase strategic decision-making by enabling more commander swaps based on play/draw decisions and opposing strategies.

As an experimental unban, if Zurgo Bellstriker proves to break the metagame balance, we reserve the right to respond swiftly by returning him to the banned list. 

Zurgo Bellstriker is now legal as a commander.

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

Rather than targeting top contenders with bans, we wanted to provide players with more tools to fight back and increase diversity by offering a viable winning strategy for green-based decks.

Green is currently the least-played color by a significant margin, and we hope Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis will revitalize green strategies like Grist, the Hunger Tide while introducing new midrange decks such as Teval, the Balanced Scale and others.

We also wanted to give midrange strategies the tools necessary to match the velocity of combo decks.

As an experimental unban, if Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis prove to break the metagame balance, we reserve the right to respond swiftly by returning him to the ban list. 

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis is now restricted.