1+ Hour of Banned Commander Cards To Fall Asleep to 

Im glad to know that there's a big enough demand for this, meaning I'm definitely not the only one who this is perfect for

I love how so many of these are like "This card is unfun. Commander is supposed to be fun. Ban the card. Next slide."

Iona is banned because they got rid of banned as commander. That is the whole reason. Banned as commander NEEDS to come back because there are cards like Iona and Braids that are actually fine in the 99 but because wizards at the time thought the player base were too stupid to comprehend two ban lists they pressured the rules committee to get rid of it.

Literally fell asleep on the first card. Thank you, liked and subbed. Video saved to sleep playlist.

34:50 I think you're understating the difference between Iona and Winter Orb/Stasis. The latter are definitely better lock pieces in general, but they can be answered by anyone affected by them at the table which, while a MonoBlack deck might have a harder time against Winter Orb than another player, it's still workable. Iona has no counterplay since the opponent cannot cast their spells of that color because it's literally just not in the cards to handle it since you cannot cast your cards.

I am a huge advocate on bringing back ”banned as commander” and in Lutri’s case ”banned as a companion.” Many if not all of the old banned as commander cards would be ok in the 99 and we have the tools to both make them work and to make them go away. I hope the RC takes another look at them at some point. Liked the video, conscise, to the point and well argumented in the short time you allocated to each card. Many kudos. Also, personally, I’d ban Sol ring and mana crypt along with dockside and jeweled lotus.

This is better than any Lofi video I've ever listened to.

We really need to bring back the banned as commander list. Braids isn't the worst when you have to draw it first

I've been falling asleep with theese videos for more than year😍😍 This is the best lullaby ever. Keep it going.

This channel just always hits, we appreciate your hard work 🎉

Awesome vid! Starting playing commander around 2015-16 so a lot of these already had the ban hammer. It’s fun to see why they where banned!

I’ve been waiting for this for a while. I’ve just been finding a manalogs video then trying to fall asleep in time

Thank you I always use your videos for this purpose and this video is like th perfected form of that

I think you're really underselling the "signpost ban" aspect. Commander is such a varied and personal format, the ban list should only dictate what cards you play in sanctioned events (even then, there should really be a "unless everyone at the table agrees" clause IMO). People really need to discuss what kind of game they're playing when they're planning for or sitting down for a commander session. I *would* prefer a separate signpost list for cards like this, so people *know* "this card isn't a powerlevel thing, so consider similar effects depending on the group's preferences" vs "this card is a problem" or "in the wrong deck, this is oppressive". But, again, the banned list shouldn't matter in most games. Most playgroups have an unspoken ban list anyway. You do briefly mention the committee's philosophy a few times, but only in passing. I feel like you could spend a bit longer on it, even if you disagree with it.

I played with and against Recurring Nightmare in eternal formats in the past. I don't ever want to see that card on the table in commander :D And gifts can find 4 "I win the game" cards instead of just 1 like a regular tutor, If you build your deck to play stuff from the grave, there's very little your opponents can do if it resolves.

An argument for Lutri to be unbanned is that is was banned under the old companion rule where you could cast it from the companion zone, and now you have to pay 3 mana just to put it in your hand

maybe an idea for the channel? a top 100 cards of all time, channelfireball did one a couple of years ago but since then there have been alot of new cards printed, (pre errata lurrus springs to mind), you could split the series over like 10 or so episodes and i think it could be alot of fun!, thanks for the videos anyways really enjoy all the channels.

You forgot to mention that Erayo's Essence combos really well with Arcane Laboratory and other similar cards. Just completely shuts down your opponents.

Love this. Learning so much.

Phenomenal job. Saved to the playlist.

A little tidbit about Gifts Ungiven, it's not banned because of the fact that you can make any 4-card win pile, but you could search for any 2 cards and then "fail to find" 2 more cards with different names, effectively an instant-speed 4-mana double tutor.

One thing about the moxed that wasn’t mentioned was that they don’t have a color identity so if they were legal it would be 5 auto include cards that makes things more swingy (some hands will have 3, some lame hands will only have 1, and some unplayable hands will have none) and also compound the pricing problem given that once you get one you might as well go for all. Keep them banned

I think its important to remember, Iona was banned alongside Painter's Servant being unbanned, when put together those two cards completely lock your opponents out of the game, which is why Painter's Servant got banned originally,

The one issue I take with the video is that griselbrand and yawgmoth's bargain are being misrepresented against necro. Theres a few very key difference between the effects that matter a lot, notably the timing of when you get the cards and the fact that necro doesnt draw. The timing for griselbrand and yawgmoth's will is instant speed, you dont have to wait for the cards but instead you can draw in response to removal as opposed to necro where you can "draw" but wont get the cards until your next end step. Why is that so important of a difference? Because of the ability to dig on others turns, you can draw a bunch just before your turn with the two banned cards and have access to all of it as opposed to necro which you have to premptively "draw" to use next turn, likely discarding to hand size. This difference is a major reason why the effects arent equitable, sure they both let you dig through your deck but necro does it much worse which brings me to the second factor; Black has a lot of synergy for particularly drawing cards, namely with sheoldred, if you have sheoldred out then griselbrand and yawgmoth's bargain are free. This may seem like a minor thing but K'rrik storm decks in cEDH use a 4 card combo to achieve the same effect as a 2 card combo because they want cards the turn they're storming off and to gain life from drawing them to fuel their ability to cast spells. This isnt something necro is able to achieve since it isnt drawing, it's a very narrow use and doesnt combo well with many cards. Necro is by all means a strong card but not comparable to pay 1: draw 1 and sees very limited play outside of zur decks because of it being simply too slow. The comparison of Griselbrand to Razaketh was more fair since both are premium reanimate targets however, Griselbrand is undoubtedly the stronger one because it provides more value by itself, requiring a creature harms Razaketh a lot in the comparison even if it's a diabolic intent on a stick. My personal opinion is that necro should stay unbanned while griselbrand and yawg's bargain stays banned due to the stark differences in utility, all three can run away with the game but necro is just much slower and requires you to commit to a certain amount before knowing if you drew enough. Ive seen necro run away with games but all of those times I can samely say if it was griselbrand or yawg's bargain the game would've ended like 3 turns sooner.

Love how you basically stitched all this videos together, I wonder how the algorithm will react

With leyline of anticipation or vedalcan Orrery and Seedborn Muse you have a harder to deal with prophet. However it does take a little bit longer to put together sometimes and it would also free up a card slot potentially.

The duel logs has a MTG channel! this is awesome!

One of my favorite two card combos witherbloom apprentice with chain of smog pretty nice i use it in my high powered meren of clan nel toth deck

My argument for Lutri is that Companions shouldn't be a thing in Commander and adding a paragraph to allow them was a mistake. Just remove that rule. If people want easy access to that cycle they can run them as their Commanders. They're all Legendary.

The reason recurring nightmare is banned and Reanimate et al. are not is because those only need to be answered once. Recurring Nightmare requires a counterspell to stop it from doing what it's doing without graveyard hate while the other ones can be answered with creature and/or enchantment removal which was a lot more common in the format at the time it was banned. I think nowadays you could make an argument for unbanning it with how much incidental graveyard hate is in the format, so it doesn't force players to play otherwise dead cards like rip or grafdigger's cage. At the same time you could make the argument that it being legal would heavily favor the colors that have incidental graveyard hate, which is usually green/black/white, IE colors that don't really need more help than they already get. Also, a notable reason for the Griselban while Necropotence is still legal is that there is no way to draw 35 cards with Necro and have them available immediately or on your next turn. With necro, you pay 35 to draw 35, get the cards on your end step, then you discard them on the cleanup phase. With Griselbrand you can just wait until the next player's upkeep and draw 35 and have all of those cards available immediately and get to untap with 40+ cards in hand. If you do that with Necro, you get them on your next end step... then discard them. Griselbrand draw is basically guaranteed to find you a reliquary tower or similar to circumvent this, and you'll have that card in hand on your main phase unlike with necro.

that otter kinda cute tho

I would say Iona is banned due to unbanning painters servant. Really reason to tooth and nail both of them. If tooth and nail is the card I’m thinking of. I’m not a green player. Painters servant bring more to the game than Iona. But if both of them where unbanned if you include one. There is no reason to not include the other.

Was just looking for one and this popped up thank you

Intuition is worse, you get two into your hand, intuition requires you to have a recursion effect on top of it to get the other piece, or a flashback effect like you said. Having to pay mana to do more things to combo off matters, one isn’t it a big deal which is why I see why gifts is banned, intuition requires extra cards and for you to pay more mana.

29:43 but Notion Thief also has flash....

Turn 1: Forest, fastbond, pay life drop sunscorched desert, zuran orb and a crucible of worlds and then table kill

This is great for background at work too

ok I just came to youtube to find something to sleep to so this is it, nice

"I technically can be a commander" why include this for emrakul in the thumbnail? Click bait?! 😢

The Iona take I don’t agree with. The fact Iona shuts out mono color decks from playing the game makes similar situations to the other cards you said should stay banned. Iona unlike winter orb is also very one sided. People are less likely to build mono color decks if they have to face Iona’s

- I really thought Golos was gonna be followed up with Jeleva, hah Jeleva is blue-red-black so she can't fit into nearly as many niches as Golos, but what she lacks in versatility she makes up for with sheer milling force Her exiling cards from her opponents' decks upon being summoned is already scary especially because she can use those cards against you no cost, but it gets even scarier because the number of cards exiled is tied directly to her effective summoning cost I learned this the hard way while test-running a deck I built around Niv-Mizzet, Parun as the commander - Sway of the Stars sounds less like a nuisance and more of a suggestion for a quickplay format with friends 40 cards, like 10 life, standard format rules otherwise, go wild - I'm not particularly competitive so I dunno how much the hand limit is of concern in higher-level play, but Upheaval to me also seems devastating because you're very likely gonna lose some of your cards to the cleanup phase of your turn - I will always love Worldfire as a "1v1 me bro" last resort

Any channel that great people talking should release one of this videos

as a new player, this is a godsend. Now I know how to recreate these unfun cards with legal combos. JK. subscribed!

I think Iona is a pretty reasonable ban, actually. The format already tends towards multicolor piles of cards, no need to incentivize that further.

39:00 I'm really glad Upheaval is banned, because when I started playing commander breaking this kind of "symmetrical" effect was really compelling to me, and I would have frustrated all my friends by accident. However, I *did* end up casting Armageddon a couple times. The first time it just made someone else win. I went, "Ah, I see. With great power comes great responsibility. I will only cast this when I have a clearly winning boardstate." I put it in an artifact deck, then I maneuvered into a winning board, and slammed Armageddon! None of my friends conceded. We sat there while I attacked one of them for 10, then some of them played a land. Then I attacked the same person for 10, killing him. Then the other two drew, played land, and passed. It took like ten minutes of them going land-think-pass to kill everyone. I wish Armageddon and Ravages of War were also banned, saving new players from tricking themselves into this unfun play pattern.

A card like Golos I feel is more so banned to set an example for the people who design magic cards rather than people who play with them. By banning a card like Golos they are basically telling the designer to stop making generically good 5 color commanders, especially ones that don't require all 5 colors to cast them.

I hate the copium the banning committee has against some of these cards. But thorcle combo is fine because "it's not seen at a casual level"

Amazing!!!!❤🎉

I think the most egregious thing about Library of Alexandria being banned is that Mishra's Workshop, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and Timetwister are all legal, so clearly there's no issue with commander legal cards costing multiple thousands of dollars, and I would argue that all of them are, in their own ways, at least around, if not above, the power level of the Library

lmao, i woke up with this video playing in the morning and i read the title

Didn’t think so many cards that were clearly over powered would be controversial to ban haha

thing is, we had a few players in our extended play group playing banned cards, was never a issue, but we also have cedh decks play with fun decks (2 - 3 power level or restrictions like 25$ budget) in the same pod... when people play for fun, those cards are less of an issue, compared to people playing for the win

Funny enough there are banned card on here my play group plays with. Prophet of Kruphix and Emrakul are two bigger examples but it's just how the decks that have them behave mostly. Emra is in an Animar deck as a big finisher while Prophet is in a rather cheesy Intet deck how usually wins by taking a million extra turns. I think play groups should look at the ban list and evaluate if they should allow certain cards or not due to the temperance of the players.

Coalition victory, paradox engine, panoptic mirror, primeval titan and biorhythm is legitimately the card that has the BEST justification for being unbanned especially with modern day powercreep

I'm 4 months late but: Iona being banned was a result of it usually being unfun to play against on top of them unbanning Painter's Servant. banning her as commander would do nothing either because it's easier to tutor for her. any green/white deck would probably include that combo, and it's not really hard to Tooth and Nail Entwine as early as turn 4 or 5

orayo can play a rule of law effect, basicly counter the only spell you have each turn

1:37 glad to hear Logs has studied at the Scott Steiner School of mathematical probability too.

RC:"Coalition victory is too easy and dumb to be allowed to be legal" Also RC:"Thassa's Oracle is a totally legit and fair card"

(time walk can go on isocron scepter too)

Gifts ungiven is actually better, because of the "up to" effect. Say you choose 2 cards you desperately need in your graveyard because you have a necrotic ooze on the battlefield. The opponent is forced to choose both to put in your graveyard, giving them absolutely no choice, which is the intent of the card. In the right deck, it's much better.

I don't think it's fair to pair primeval titan with sylvan primordial. The former simply grabs you two tapped lands (it can grab more on attack trigger, but lets be honest, its most likely not living that long) that at best grabs you combo lands and massively telegraphs what you're planning. The latter removes up to three opponents permanents and grabs you that many lands, effectively +6 in card advantage. Its an extremely huge swing with few limitations on situational applicability that absolutely breaks the board in a very unfair and unfun way. As a scummy Yarok main at heart, I think primetime could absolutely be unbanned and just be a powerful green staple, but sylvan primordial should absolutely stay banned.

All of this video seems very well put together, and i really like your viewpoints on most bans. However i think you really missed the ball on Iona. Say for instance youre playing a mono red deck, and someone casts Iona. You most likely have absolutely zero ways to interact with the cast, as red isnt known for its counters, and now that she's hit the field, any other way you had to answer her is gone should that player name red. If for any reason no one else at your table is playing red, then they have zero perogative to help you, and you're officially entirely locked out of the game, by only one card. You compared Iona to void winnower, but they're just not the same. Iona completely locks every card of one color, regardless. VW locks only even mana values, and if your deck contains absolutely zero odd mana value removal, you've made a grave error, as most removal used in commander is odd costed. I respect almost every other opinion in here flawlessly, but this one missed the mark for me, hard.

I'm surprised there was no mention of Iona being banned at the same time Painter's Servant was unbanned. It's kind of obvious someone thought that Painter's Servant was fine on its own or could be fine with other combos, but having both it and Iona around together was considered too much. Iona might be rough against mono-coloured decks, but realistically there aren't that many of those around, and in multiplayer games someone is going to have an answer for her in a colour that wasn't named.

I read Recurring Nightmares and all I see is Palinchron. No matter where our old friend Pali is, field or graveyard, and any other ETB destroy creature (Ravenous Chupacabra, Eternal Witness, *ACIDIC SLIME* ), that could kickstart into what players hate most: A complete board wipe that didn’t also end the game. I think there are possibly even better ways to abuse the card, but that alone is why I think it should stay banned 💯💯

It could be argued that a panoptic mirror victory is different from the non-banned combos will take a very long time to resolve and forcing everyone to just sit and wait for the caster to finish their single player gane so it's just a lot more tedious than playing/triggering them and saying gg

Id say the main argument for Panoptic to remain banned is that it doesn't win on the spot, and could take an excruciating amount of time to get to the win. It can be extremely grindy. Remember the argument for previous cards remaining banned, it's about it not being fun.

Played against dockside once I played artifakts so he made a total of 50 Treasure or so per time (he flickered 4 times😢)

Damn I would love to have Recurring Nightmare unbanned. I've got a Karador control value engine with its name on it.

Typo for Leovold, in the mana cost you write out.

“This has led to green generally being considered the best color in the game” *laughs in cEDH*

Seed borne muse and the orrery do the same. I run it in Atraxa.

Trade Secrets has always confused me as a card. I feel like I have to be misunderstanding it since I've never seen anyone else mention this, but what is stopping the targeted opponent from forcing the caster into drawing their entire deck out? If I get targeted, what is stopping me from drawing 60 cards and forcing my opponent to draw 120 cards and lose automatically? Edit: I just reread and for the first time noticed the part that says "up to four"

Since you mentioned Valndalblast...that should also be banned, alongside Bane of Progress or similar cards that make playing an artifact themed deck a living nightmare. Really bad balancing and card designs from WoTC.

Iona is weaker in the command zone than part of the 99. In the command zone you're playing monowhite, you don't have access to black for reanimation. If you're scared of fast mana making it busted, that's a problem with fast mana, any table given that amount of mana early is problematic. Unless you're playing against 3 monocolored players of the same color, in which case they will probably treat you as archenemy even before the game begins, Iona has a big target on her back and no protection. No, Iona was banned because the committe gatekeeps what kind of fun and play styles people are allowed to have, not for power level reasons. If anything, at its most powerful this is a black reanimation target and buried alive target.

Golos is banned, but in the sidenotes on 49:56 says that the card is legal in Commander(?)

Coalition victory only needs 2 lands and a couple mana rocks now.

Damn… i thought I’m the only one using commander podcast to fall asleep to..

Really was stunlocked in the beginning wondering why you sounded like the WoW guy 😅

Iona is fully deserving of a ban as it means mono colored players instantly lose, since they'll have no way to interact with it or play around it. I am fine with winter orb, a "fair" stax piece that at least gives you a few turns to build up to casting something, or can be removed if you have the mana.

You didn't even mention about Karakas answers that land destruction is considered a big no no in EDH.

my golos deck was snow and it was very slow golos allowed it to play at the speed of my play group so i was sad it got banned

At 5:06 you say the combo is mute this is which means silent or unable to speak what you clearly meant was moot which means not important functionaly impossible irrelevant or some other means of not mattering.

3:35 sorcery spell speeds? 😆

Oh damn. Literally fell asleep to this video

Speaking as someone whose primary commander is Momir Vig, Simic Visionary, the commander that synergizes with Prophet better than all others... Don't unban her. She has had her time.

1:18:10- you said June of 2010, the screen said April 2005. Those are very different dates, brother.

For me trade secrets despite being a powerful card for 3 mana it could be still around in 2023.

22:30 With a STIFLE!

I read Emeakul and all I can think of that it’s a curse to be literate ‘cause it reads more like a kid’s custom card thinking all MTG cards are like that

Recurring Nightmare might partially be banned just because it's kind of janky-feeling? I wouldn't expect to not be able to interact with it, because returning it to the hand is part of the cost. It's just not the most intuitive thing in the world, casually.

They should make a new lutri in the next ikoria set that is identical but doesn't have companion

Dayum recommended howd u know its my bed time

golos would be perfect for my eldrazi deck but its banned sadly

This list is why my table disregards the ban list, and we decide what cards are "banned", because we know our decks and what we consider "high power"....also we dont ever do tournament play or anything so our decks are just for fun...also imagine if someone copied shrahazad...honestly sounds really funny

To be honest razi should join gris on the list I agree golos is largely subjective, the reality is, the ability to get you any land you want, makes him run away with games. Cabal coffers, nykthos, and cradle end up with decks which put simply, are just poorly built and still remain forced threats. So much so, it wasn't uncommon to see multiple golos decks in the same pod.

I’m glad Iona is band I think it’s to easily able to just shut a player out of a game indiscriminately. Cards like boil I think are worse than armigedon because if you get around armigedon you basically win the game. If you cast boil if thier is a mono blue deck the loose strictly because they are playing a single color. Mono color decks don’t need more hate

I still prefer falling asleep to cumtown but this is pretty good

My vote for un-banning: Sylvan Primordial. Great Video.

20:09 porblematic

If an opponent cast trade secrets on me I would simply continue until they deck themselves