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

[Aetherium Slinky]

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?

Absolutely to both! And you're right: you don't need to think about the restrictions, either. It's just that a "second" commander made it a fun mechanic to try and build around. Now that's pretty much gone.

[Judaspriester]

I've just build my Kelisen deck around zirda... had to cut like 20 cards in order to make her as companion possible.. now with the 3 mana requirement.. that really sucks.
I hope I can negotiate about this with my playgroup after this corona sh*t is over. Otherwise there is no real reason to play it in this form anymore, because playing zidra for 6 in stead of 3 makes a hard difference.

[WWolfe]

Yes you can use a companion as your commander or in the 99.

[Morganator 2.0]

I don't think this change was made for commander. Companions were fine. It was the 1v1 formats that were getting absolutely wrecked with companions, completely shifting the metas. This change makes it so those decks will be much less viable.

[Aetherium Slinky]

I don't think this change was made for commander. Companions were fine. It was the 1v1 formats that were getting absolutely wrecked with companions, completely shifting the metas. This change makes it so those decks will be much less viable.

Of course it wasn't, it's just sad that they decided to kill companion instead of making it almost viable. The side effect is that companion will die in almost all formats. Yet another forgotten mechanic.

[WWolfe]

I’ve looked at some results from online tournaments on a couple sites and the least I’ve found has been companion decks with 5 of the top 8 finishes.

Clearly something had to be done but I can’t help but wonder if this was the best answer?

[WizardSpartan]

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.

Yet another forgotten mechanic.

I would like to just say I called it.
And their next money-grubbing scheme is probably Double Masters. Yay.

[Slyvester12]

They really should have thought about this more. Literally doubling the cost of Zirda and severely hampering the others is ridiculous.

That being said, I was getting really tired of Fires decks and why in god's name does Agent of Treachery not say "as long as you control Agent of Treachery"? I ran it in Yorion control (now probably dead) and it was busted.

[robort]

LOL I did say the companion was card advantage but however it was meant for EDH. Trying to implement some form of commander play into other formats didn't bold well. Other players still can't interact with companion until it hits your hand which of course you pay 3. Then you still get priority with known information that everyone knows about. So in essence it is a pay 3 generic mana tutor for a specific card and in this case it is the companion and at sorcery speed which is only done in main phases. I don't see this as a bad thing it just makes strategizing a little more interesting

[Judaspriester]

LOL I did say the companion was card advantage but however it was meant for EDH. Trying to implement some form of commander play into other formats didn't bold well. Other players still can't interact with companion until it hits your hand which of course you pay 3. Then you still get priority with known information that everyone knows about. So in essence it is a pay 3 generic mana tutor for a specific card and in this case it is the companion and at sorcery speed which is only done in main phases. I don't see this as a bad thing it just makes strategizing a little more interesting

At some point you're right. But I'm looking at this mess from a different point of view:
EDH is already kinda restricted because of the nature of the format. The big card pool makes somewhat up for this, but you're still restricted. If you want to use a companion, you'll have to restrict your available card pool even more, in order to pay for the card advantage (the only non-restriction companion has become banned before the set was printed).
And now, after some people have already aranged with this and build their decks, the cmc for the extra card (which they already paid for with additional restrictions) doubles. EDH is a little slower than the other formats, especially at the kitchen table. But turning cmc 3 cards into cmc 6 without any compensations makes a huge difference.

In my Kelsien deck I added Zidra because she allows me to put some equipments on kelsien cheaper. Since zidra "only" lowers costs up to 1 mana, her usage is sometimes already restricted, since this lower limit doesn't allow her to use the full reduction potential on all equipments. and now I have to save up 6 mana in stead of 3 before she get's removed just to get out with +/-0 mana wise.
This difference in addition to the limitation zidra brings in order to play her as companion really makes me think about rebuilding the deck again and just use zidra as a 99er, ignoring the new (and interesting) mechanic. I'm really not sure she's worth the limitations anymore. This would also allow me (again) to add cards like Puresteel Paladin or Auriok Steelshaper which also work fine for the purpose and doesn't have this lower limit.

[Xaarvaxus]

I'm now really glad I didn't go to great lengths to try and retool decks to fit companions in or build new decks with the idea that the companion would be there to power the strategy.  As it is, adding Kaheera, the Orphanguard to my Arahbo, Roar of the World deck meant swapping out 2 creatures.  I would typically bring it out later game anyway so I don't think the extra 3 will affect it enough to make not having to tutor for it not worth it.