Opinions: Banned Lists

        Hello and welcome to the Daily MTG, your one stop shop for all of your Magic needs. Sorry about the interlude during the weekend. I will not be writing on Saturdays, but Sundays I will be from here on in. Also apologies for the late posting of this article, but worry not, because we are now back on track. This piece is an opinion piece, which means I will be giving you my opinion, and backing that up with evidence, and if you don't agree, that's fine, but at least consider what I have to say. Now that we've got that out of the way, it's time to give my opinion on ban lists.

     A ban list, for those of you who don't know, is a list of cards that are banned in a format. This attribute of formats is designed to give objective control to WotC to keep formats diverse and interesting. If it is well regulated and strives towards making a fun and competitive environment in all formats, it can be a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, being objective can be difficult for anyone, and because of the amount of planning that goes into the production of Magic, WotC is unable to make bannings in formats that desperately need it in a reasonable time.

     Despite their reputation of being slower, WotC does do it's job well enough. All formats under WotC to date are functioning, and have good diversity in their metas, but WotC isn't the only group in charge of the ban lists of beloved formats. The best example of a non-official format doing well under an independent ban list is Commander. In Commander, there is a small group of people who gather, listen to the laments of the community, and adjust, not only the ban list, but the rules of the format. This groups most notable changes to the Commander format in recent history have been the banning of Prophet of Kruphix, and the annulment of the Tuck Rule.

    Now that we understand what ban lists are, how they are made, and why they exist, I can give my opinions on them. Though ban lists are clearly a necessity for any format, there is such thing as going too far. A ban list that is too restrictive can be damaging for any format. The inherent danger to ban lists is that it is always tempting to ban the most powerful thing in any format. For example, people these days are calling for the banning of cards in Modern, for example, Become Immense. Banning cards from the most powerful decks in a format can help diversify the meta of that format, but if there is excessive banning, it begins to constrain on the creative freedoms of deck builders, it lowers the power level of the format, and can dissuade people from the format if their decks are constantly having to be revamped and rebuilt to adjust to bans.

     The good news is that Wizards has always been slow to ban cards, are very careful in there deliberations on cards that can be banned, and rarely ban cards unless completely necessary. However, there is a format where unnecessary bans have been applied and, though the format is still vibrant and alive, it is weekend by it's oppressive ban list. That format, of course, is Commander. As an avid Commander player, and a bit of a spike at that, I enjoy few things as much as I enjoy putting Commander decks together. I like it when a deck comes together and it hums, full of synergies, cool combos, and just a dab of oppression. I believe that Commander can possibly be the most powerful format, but also the most fun. This is why I believe that ban lists should be as short as possible, and cards on  ban lists should continuously be under review, to find out if there can ever be a place for these cards in their appropriate formats.

     Again, this is just an opinion, and there are many good points to be made about aggressive expansion of ban lists. Feel free to tell us about your opinions and questions and I'll see you tomorrow!