04/01/2023 Banned and restricted announcement

Announcement Date:04/01/2023(JST)

No changes

Changes of banned and restricted announcement schedule

As of today, we have decided to issue 3+α announcements per year regarding changes to banned and restricted, which we have been doing on an irregular basis. This is a measure to discontinue the “Watch Card List” that has been in operation until now, while continuing to share information on cards that the Hugeleaders Committee is currently concerned about and watching closely.

The 3+α is intended to include the regular banned restriction notices that are made once every four months and the +α that will be made when it is necessary to implement them on an emergency basis. The former will be announced even if there is no change in the prohibited restrictions, while the latter will not be announced unless there is an emergency. A similar case to the latter is the case of Lutri, the Spellchaser in the Commander format.

Cards currently being watched

Slicer, Hired Muscle

This is the most popular commander on the scene today in Hugeleaders.

This evil creature is very fast and stable, and if not dealt with in any way, it is capable of cutting down life in a matter of seconds. On the other hand, there are plenty of ways to counteract it, so we do not believe it is at the stage where it should be banned at this time. However, if there is a concern that the presence of this leader will exclude all players, we do not think that this is the case.

Perplexing Chimera

It is a powerful creature that combines with Homeward Path. Once this combination is in place, it becomes very difficult for other players to cast powerful spells, so the card acts as a kind of stabilizer. On the other hand, it is a frustrating card for all players.

We understand that this is a hated element, but we are concerned that banning this card will lead to more heinous behavior than ever before. We fear that when we ban this card, we will have to ban other heinous cards as well, ultimately resulting in a long and difficult to remember list of banned list.

Beacon of Tomorrows

This is the card we are currently considering most whether it should be banned or not.

Hugeleaders consider cards that gain an extra turn to be dangerous, and most of them are still banned today. The exception is Beacon of Tomorrows, which is used as a win condition by almost every deck that includes blue today to ensure a way to get an extra turn.

We don’t want to ban them outright because getting an extra turn is so much fun, but we can’t ignore the strength of this card.

Incarnation Technique

It is a 5 mana sorcery consisting of a single symbol, and we are concerned about its potential to win just by casting it. On the other hand, we do not believe that it should be banned at this time, as there are effective ways to interfere with it that can be cast with lighter mana than before.

Spell Swindle

It is blue’s best mana acceleration card. The major difference from the mana acceleration cards that other colors have is that this card also serves as a counter.

In fact, when this card resolves, it is almost guaranteed to generate five or more treasures. Therefore, we are also concerned about the fact that it can be used to properly counteract other players’ nondescript spells in order to take a powerful action on the next turn.

Kenrith, the Returned King The Ur-Dragon K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

When we banned Maelstrom Wanderer and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim in the past, we were concerned that too powerful an option as a commander would lead to fewer opportunities to consider other commanders. We are concerned about these for the same reason (as well as Slicer, Hired Muscle).

We believe that if these are to be banned, it must be done all at once to some extent. On the other hand, that would lead to the aforementioned long and difficult-to-remember list of banned cards, which is not a good trend. We will consider it again when we observe a situation where the presence of these leaders reduces the number of HugeLeaders players.