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I actually don't have any strong opinions on the Emrakul ban. Ultimately, I guess I'm against it, because there are plenty of overpowered and pretty comparable things that one can do with big mana in EDH. The extra turn thing is kind of bonkers, but now we have Rise of the Eldrazi (the card, not...

They are the Power 9 after all. If they'd just always banned those 9 specific cards for price/optics then I would never have thought much of it.

Here we are. I don't know if I'm going to be quite as critical of any of the other entries on this list as I am of this card right here. And the bizarre explanation blurb here doesn't help matters. What does "in which case Coalition Victory is far from your biggest problem" even mean? Seriously...

Won another game with this deck. Started out without access to blue mana, so that was a risk. Weathered Sentinels kept me protected and bought a little time, then Entish Restoration solved my problem. Cryptic Coat happened to hit a topdeck Shield Sphere, which gave me access to The Pride of Hull...

I'm liking the new changes. Pulled this deck out for a fresh start last night. There was initially a lot of back-and-forth, combat tricks, and such. Good game. I made a risky play by using Planar Birth after one of my opponents had milled the rest of us significantly. This gave my other two...

Brought this deck to a game last night as a deliberate attempt to ratchet down the power level (I'd just won two games in a row and one person in our pod was swapping out and being replaced by a newer player). It was a good fit. I presented a threatening board state to each person at the table...

I combined these two. Not much to say on them. Unlike ante cards, conspiracies, and the salty seven, these weren't covered in the introduction to the ban list, perhaps because there are only two of them. These cards are relics of a bygone age. It wouldn't make any sense for them to be legal, so...

Yeah, I can't really think of anything to add for this one. It's a solid explanation. Channel is broken even at 20 life. Starting at 40 life instead and always having access to a legendary creature would push Channel to absurdity. Notably, back when Channel was originally banned, the payload of...

After multiple games and some testing, I want to fine-tune this deck a bit. I also took the time to dig through my pile of lands to switch to snow basics, just for Thermopod. -1 Conspiracy Theorist -1 Field of Souls -1 Idyllic Tutor -14 Mountain -15 Plains -1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle +1...

This is a good explanation. I kinda roasted the RC for their weird blurbs on those Power 9 pieces, and for their hilarious take on Biorhythm. It's only fair that I give them props when they do better. The main point of interest here is the 2014 change that saw the "Banned as Commander" category...

I guess that this is, word-for-word, the same blurb as the one for Ancestral Recall, except for the card name. The thing that I didn't cover in the Ancestral Recall post is the effect that these cards would actually have, assuming that they were legal. And I find it interesting that the RC steer...

Going in alphabetical order, we've hit the first card that exemplifies a classic issue with the RC. What they've always told us with some of these cards is that the cards are ones that ignorant casual players would believe at first glance to be fun, but that these cards are actually not fun...

I've only gotten one game in with this deck so far, but it did what it was meant to do. Initially, I had no creatures. Topdecking Wall of Junk saved me, and soon Invisibility on The Pride of Hull Clade set me up to draw tons of cards. Earthcraft was super helpful here too. My opponents tried to...

Ran out of time on my final game of last night. I liked my chances. A first turn Mana Vault let me threaten to get started with Zirilan activations early. I held back mana on my third turn, hoping for an end step Zirilan activation that could set me up to build a board position. The opponent...

Both Ugins put in work last night! I built up a significant board presence and was going to try to either tick Omarthis up or get him killed and try to use the manifested cards. I went from being the player with the strongest board presence to being the one with the weakest board presence in two...

Played this deck again, and the results were decent. The only creature I ever drew all game was Shield Sphere, so I had to rely on recurring that in order to make tokens with Desecrated Tomb and Quintorius. Once I got Anointed Procession online, this worked reasonably well, and I was able to...

In any other format, the explanation for why Balance is banned would note the extreme effect of the card along three separate axes of gameplay all for a mere two mana. It's well-known to experienced players, pretty much universally. I'd speculate that anyone here at the CPA has pretty much the...

I always try to build some sort of deck corresponding with major set releases. For Murders at Karlov Manor, I was immediately drawn to The Pride of Hull Clade. Since the commander is so unusual and since the ability offers so many options, I went for something that I believed would really stand...

So, from a historical perspective, there's nothing wrong with this blurb. They explain why Ancestral Recall was originally banned, back when the format was first created (around 20 years ago). But whatever you think of Ancestral Recall, the fact of the matter is that none of the reasoning...

Recently, the Commander Rules Committee completed a project in which their website was updated to provide brief explanations for all of the cards on the ban list. The results of the project look pretty nice, and I'm sure that the new blurbs would be informative for new players or those curious...