Official Commander July 2020 Rules Update

[WWolfe]

Nothing surprising.

https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/2020/06/29/july-2020-update/

[dexflux]

They are trying to communicate more. That is good.

[Morale]

Can you summarize the changes for any of us who cant get on that website due to work restrictions?

[CleanBelwas]

It just covers things that have already been announced.

- Commanders now get death triggers
- Removed affiliation with vintage ban list to self manage (essentially Lurrus isn't banned in EDH)
- Confirmation of following suit from WotC and removing the defined list of racist cards from their format.

And that's it. Just summarising these points really.

[Slyvester12]

It seems really weird that they would split the new dies trigger state-based action between death/exile and hand/library. If the original rule was confusing for new players, wouldn't only changing it halfway be JUST as confusing?

[ApothecaryGeist]

It seems really weird that they would split the new dies trigger state-based action between death/exile and hand/library. If the original rule was confusing for new players, wouldn't only changing it halfway be JUST as confusing?

I thought it seemed a little weird too.  I don't think the change was made to make everything less confusing.  Just the part about death triggers.  Which apparently even members of the RC and CAG didn't understand how they worked (or didn't work, more accurately) with commanders.

[WWolfe]

Yea, apparently the catalyst for a change was because one of the members of the CAG made mention during one of their chats about one of their decks doing something for the others to inform him that it didn't work that way because of the previous rule.

[robort]

So in essence it was because some people didn't understand the "replacement affect" rule? 

[ApothecaryGeist]

So in essence it was because some people didn't understand the "replacement affect" rule?

That's the gist of it.


But not just "some people".  Some members of the CAG/RC.

[robort]

So in essence it was because some people didn't understand the "replacement affect" rule?

That's the gist of it.


But not just "some people".  Some members of the CAG/RC.

I don't want to sound like mean or anything but C''mon it wasn't that difficult to understand. A commander dies/gets exiled instead "replacement affect". Not like it is rocket science or some of the more complex part of the game.

Then to take a quote from that "A side effect of that rule was that cards like Grave Pact wouldn’t trigger if someone’s commander was destroyed.  This was played incorrectly by many players, so we’d been looking for a way for commanders to behave “more normally” for many years."

First of all I would say it was played incorrectly mainly by new players to magic and new players to commander. Once the rule was explained and understood then it isn't played incorrectly anymore. It is a simple misunderstanding of a rule that is easily corrected.  Understanding how the "stack" works is much harder to play correctly compared to "replacement affect".

2nd of all C'mon many years??  You mean to say they couldn't come up with a simple solution until now?? Was it really that complex to come up with a solution and to think there are magic the gathering judges on this panel who for some reason couldn't come up with a solution until now??

Oh wait there is this which explains why a solution came along just now, "Fortunately, the RC’s Toby Elliott and WotC’s Eli Shiffrin are really good at clear, clean rules and working with Sheldon Menery (at the time with a foot in both worlds), they found a way to make “dies” triggers work correctly without any significant corner cases. "
Of course Sheldon who'd have thunk Sheldon continually digs his heels in because of the mindset "it is my creation and I am not going to change a dam thing" attitude.

And significant corner case is Roon of the Hidden Realm. Exile someones commander and they choose not to put it into the command zone after it is exiled. Roon player can use stifle, dissallow, timestop, and anything else that has a way to negate roon's ability. Now the other opponent's commander is stuck in exile for the rest of the game.