First and foremost, I am so sorry to anyone who lost value after the Commander bans today, especially those who saved up for a banned card and those who just purchased one. It sucks to lose money that way.

I wanted to create a thread for discussion because I have seen lots of discourse about the monetary impact, how bad this is for Wizards, and how this decision will (and should) be reversed because of the monetary losses.

Being totally honest, Magic is a card game. It was not made to be a financial investment tool, and while many people (myself included) buy/sell cards to finance the hobby and to make money, I think it would be really upsetting if Wizards decided to make investing in cards their focus. Also, they are not losing “millions of dollars” off of this decision, as I’ve seen over and over today.

All of the cards that were banned had a negative impact on Commander. I’ve been in many matches where an explosive start left 3 of us unable to deal with the person who has their commander out and access to 5 mana on turn two. Or games where someone creates 20 treasure tokens with Dockside extortionist. Obviously that’s anecdotal, but these cards are unhealthy in a fundamental way, and even if I disagree with the logic re: Sol Ring, or the fact that Jeweled Lotus was designed exclusively for Commander, I’m happy that the RC has taken a stand and are attempting to positively influence the meta game.

IMO, the worst thing that could happen right now would be for WotC to rescind their decision and cite the financial impact. That would signal that they explicitly condone powerful cards costing $40 , $100 , even $200 dollars. There are already enough problems with Magic’s prohibitive costs.

I’d love to hear other thoughts on this decision, but I am really happy they banned some borderline (or outright) broken cards, and I hope they continue to make decisions based around game health above all else. Feel free to go invest in stocks or a high-yield savings account if you want to make money, but I want Magic to be a game that’s accessible for all and focused on healthy and fun expressions of skill.

Edit: I don’t want to keep repeating myself in comments so to be super clear, this is about people who view Magic as a way to make money above all else, not about the secondary market, your LGS, people who got a lucky pull from a pack, or people who’ve had a mana crypt for 30 years.

Double edit: Yes, I know the RC is separate from Wizards. I have seen dozens of posts asking Wizards to step in and reverse this, which is why I worded my post the way I did. I understand that they didn’t make the ban themselves, and think it would be a horrible idea for them to get involved after the fact.

Final edit: I hate the reserved list and think it was a mistake; collector/play booster boxes cost way too much; money is involved in some way in a lot of decisions about MtG because it’s a business in a capitalistic society. I still stand by my point that problematic cards being banned is good, and that people should not treat MtG as a money-making scheme only.