Every few months the Magic community waits with bated breath for a Banned and Restricted Announcement from Wizards of Coast. Commander players keep an eye out for a different ruling body to issue their changes: the Commander Rules Committee. The January 2019 announcement came last night on the Commander Forums, with a surprise: the establishment of a new Commander Advisory Group.
The Commander Advisory Group will serve as an advisory body to the Commander Rules Committee, which maintains the rules of Commander and administers its banlist. The new Commander Advisory Group will be made up six well-known community members in order to broaden the range of voices that help guide the Commander format. Those six community members are:
Adam “Stybs” Styborski: Magic writer, content manager, 10-year Commander player, GP and Pro Tour Coverage team member. Twitter: @the_stybs. Website: thepaupercube.com
Charlotte Sable: Level 3 Judge, rules guru, Commander player since the EDH days. Twitter: @JqlGirl. Website: magicjudge.tumblr.com
Josh Lee Kwai: Former movie trailer editor at Disney and Universal. Current CEO of The Command Zone channel on YouTube and creator/director of Game Knights. Twitter: @JoshLeeKwai
Rachel Agnes: Content creator, a self-described faerie girl in an Eldrazi world. Commander player for about five years, huge Commander Cube fan. Rachel Agnes on Facebook and @baetog_ on Twitter and Twitch.
Ron Foster: Long time Organized Play figure, former Global Manager of the Grand Prix program; Japanese translator; brought/popularized Commander in Japan. Commander player from nearly the beginning. Twitter: @RonMFoster
Shivam Bhatt: Co-host of the Commanderin’ podcast, cultural critic. Commander player since 2011. Twitter: @ghirapurigears
The members of the Commander Advisory Group are all volunteers and will serve indefinitely at the discretion of the Commander Rules Committee.
As a Commander player, I see this change as a very positive one. Every one of these Magic personalities are well-known, positive members of the Magic community, and they all are very active on social media and advocate for our favorite format. I am excited for this change because it should give the Rules Committee a good sounding board that is representative the player base, which can only improve the format.
Congratulations to the Commander Advisory Group members.
No Bans or Rules Changes
Cards
No Changes
Rules
No changes
Other than the new Advisory Group, no new cards have been banned and nothing is changing about how we play Commander. This was to be expected, as nothing had really shown itself to be an issue within the format, and it appears that the Rules Committee agreed.