July 31, 2017 Announcement/Update
July 31, 2017

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn fundamentally ends games through sheer overwhelming force rather than strategic gameplay. The combination of near-invulnerability and Annihilator 6 creates an insurmountable threat that invalidates prior game development. While such powerful effects might be acceptable as legitimate late-game payoffs, this creature rarely appears through fair casting.

Cards like Synthetic Destiny and Through the Breach circumvent the fifteen-mana cost, deploying this game-ending threat far earlier than intended. The creature essentially never sees play at its printed cost, instead serving as an unfair payoff for cheating mechanisms. This pattern transforms games into races to deploy Emrakul rather than contests of strategy and resource management.

The card contributes nothing positive to the format's strategic depth while enabling degenerate gameplay patterns that bypass normal game progression.

Key ban reasons:

• Ends games immediately regardless of board state
• Near-impossible to answer through conventional means
• Consistently cheated into play rather than cast fairly
• Annihilator 6 breaks any semblance of competitive balance
• Transforms games into non-interactive races
• Adds no strategic value while enabling unfair strategies

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn must be banned to eliminate games decided by cheating out unbeatable threats rather than strategic play.

Geist of Saint Traft

Removing historically significant commanders requires careful consideration, yet Geist of Saint Traft's problematic nature demands action. The reliable, recursive damage output already proved oppressive at higher life totals—the return to standard twenty life exacerbated these issues exponentially. Several months of data confirm the commander operates beyond acceptable power thresholds.

Geist of Saint Traft stands among the rare hexproof commanders, and critically, the cheapest. This combination creates fundamental gameplay problems: complete inability to interact, immediate threatening pressure despite absent fast mana, and a reliable three-turn clock. The hexproof ability transforms games into non-interactive races where opponents cannot meaningfully affect the primary threat.

The commander's metagame position actively suppresses entire archetypes. Strategies relying on targeted removal or creature combat become unviable, reducing format diversity to Geist-favorable or Geist-proof builds. This warping effect eliminates strategic variety and creates binary deckbuilding decisions.

Key ban reasons:

• Hexproof eliminates all targeted interaction
• Cheapest cost among hexproof commanders
• Creates non-interactive three-turn clocks
• Suppresses removal-based strategies entirely
• Warps format around its presence
• Historical significance cannot justify toxic gameplay

Geist of Saint Traft must be banned as a commander to restore interactive gameplay and prevent hexproof threats from invalidating entire strategic approaches.