6/1 Banned & Restricted Announcement Coming, will also address Companion

[WWolfe]

https://twitter.com/wizards_magic/status/1265432376542445570

Magic: The Gathering
@wizards_magic
On Monday 6/1 there will be an update to the Banned & Restricted list impacting the Standard and Historic formats that will also address the Companion mechanic.

[Morganator 2.0]

First Oko gets banned in most every format, and now companions might follow suit.

[WWolfe]

That was my thought as well when I saw this.

[Judaspriester]

mhh.. it sounds more like there will be changes for the companion mechanic as whole, in stead of banning some of them.

[terminalgeek]

This might be a bit drastic but I can see them making it so that the only thing you can have in your sideboard is the companion. That would fix the problem in older formats and more competitive formats but still let them have free reign on Arena's best of one, Brawl, and EDH. It also wouldn't need any tweaking to the reminder text. That seems to be the cleanest solution outside of straight banning them.

The more likely solution is to add some sort of draw-back in the rules that people will have to remember. If you have a companion:

a) You don't get to mulligan
b) You start with six cards in hand
c) You have to slap yourself really hard when you cast it

[WWolfe]

https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/rasmussen-confirms-wotc-will-change-the-companion-mechanic/?_ga=2.139789235.1426960737.1590512666-525678760.1590332354

As Rasmussen answered questions from the chat, he confirmed that the update “will change the companion mechanic.”

[WizardSpartan]

Oh lawd, Wizards are putting Companions on the chopping block. They've made their money, now it's time to send Companions to the realm of obscurity so they can set up their next money-grubbing scheme.

I'm being 45.7% sarcastic, btw.

[Slyvester12]

Oh lawd, Wizards are putting Companions on the chopping block. They've made their money, now it's time to send Companions to the realm of obscurity so they can set up their next money-grubbing scheme.

I'm being 45.7% sarcastic, btw.

This basically sums up why I play EDH instead of standard nowadays.

[Marshstepper78]

It's shameful to see the lack of play-testing and general foresight with each new expansion.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the WotC offices just to get a sense of how exactly the game got to this point.

[Morganator 2.0]

The companion mechanic has in fact changed. Now you must pay {3} to move your companion from your sideboard into your hand. This is a special action that can only be done at sorcery-speed.

Also, Fires of Invention and Agent of Treachery got banned in Standard, and are suspended in historic.

[WizardSpartan]

So they mess with Companions, say that will affect the metagame, but don't wait around to see exactly how the metagame will change before banning some cards? Hmm.

[WWolfe]

Here's the link.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/june-1-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement

[Aetherium Slinky]

I have an opinion about this: Boo.

They've essentially doubled the cost of using a companion and I think that's going to kill it for most formats - including EDH. Companions were already kind of difficult to build around to extract as much value as possible and now it's even harder with the extra cost and vulnerability to removal.

[WWolfe]

I agree. There was only one companion that interested me in using in EDH and between it's cmc & the way I'd have to retool the deck I'd want to use it with, it kind of turned me off but I was still thinking about it. Now that there's an additional cost to it it's totally out the window.

[KB2MCCLOUD]

Maybe this is a stupid question but can a companion card be used as your commander rather than a companion? to the same effect can I include a companion card as one of my 100 cards in EDH and consider it a normal creature and disregard the companion attribute?