A daylog in two parts.

To begin, I'll start with today's

Quarterly Commander Banned and Restricted Announcement

Four cards became victims of the ban hammer. They, and why that was, are:

• Dockside Extortionist: Not as explosive in the early game as the next two cards, it can still become mana-positive on one's second turn and generate substantial treasures as soon as turn three, allowing for rapid resource generation to fuel powerful effects. Walking the line of being worth banning for years, no previous action was taken because the card scaled well with the power level of the table; however, it’s still a common enough contributor to the more egregious snowballing starts, not to mention mid-game shenanigans, that it's now gone from the format.


• Jeweled Lotus: A card that can help provide four mana on turn one, and does it without even needing a decent hand. Though one is restricted in what can be done with the mana, four- and five-mana Commanders pack a significant punch these days, often drawing cards to make up for the one-shot effect (without recursion), and defensive abilities such as ward can't be interacted with often enough in the early game that, although specifically designed for the Commander format, it, too, had to go.


• Mana Crypt: Coming down for no mana on turn one, it's entirely plausible to have the explosive start of Mana Crypt into a Signet or Talisman, land, and then another Signet, leaving that player untapping five mana on turn two, significantly impacting the early game. In games going over twelve turns, the accumulated threat of damage from Mana Crypt provides a reasonable counterbalance for its explosive effect, but when you are snowballing to a turn-six to -eight win, that drawback becomes neglible, if not entirely meaningless.


• Nadu, Winged Wisdom: Given that this bird has been ejected from multiple formats already, it should come as no surprise that its inherent play pattern causes problems in the most played casual format, as well. Part of these problems is the way in which Nadu wins: it takes too long time to do nondeterministic sequences that have to be played out and might eventually fizzle. These aren't dedicated combos that one has to build a deck around; dropping Nadu into almost any Simic deck can still grind the game down to nothing but one-sided resource accrual without an immediate payoff. It interacts badly with cards that are staples of casual play (the top of the list being Lightning Greaves) means that any deck it gets thrown into (even without the intent to use for abuse) can still create a situation where one player is monopolizing all the time for the game, and so Nadu got banned again.

The community's reaction to these bans has been mixed, as one would imagine. Many have expressed support for the CRC's efforts to maintain a healthy and diverse Commander format, a seemingly equal amount have voiced concerns about the potential impact on their favorite decks or playstyles. These comments have also been pretty much echoed equally on both sides of the casual/competitive fence. My take, as it impacts me little to none, is this: Power creep exists, new cards come, other cards go, adapt and move on or get mired in bitterness and regret. I no longer actively play as my play group got dispersed to the five corners of the world (who said the flat earth had to be some sort of rectangle, anyway?) and I don't get out enough to find a new one. I do still enjoy talking (and writing) about the game, and recently heard the passion in my own voice as I was discussing the last set with a coworker, and why I occasionally insert a little magic into this place I suppose. I do own two copies of Jeweled Lotus as I could never convince my self to part with one, but already sold my Kaladesh Inventions Mana Crypt, and gave my Dockside Extortionist to a former coworker and member of the previously mentioned play group. All this, of course, leads to part two of this log. (Some segue, huh?)

You have an introspective nature and for the last few weeks, or months, or years, you've been reflecting on and assessing what does and doesn't work in your life. It's likely that you're ready for some kind of major change. Your either in a rut or need a complete overhaul. Follow your instincts as you plan how to develop and grow from here: You are your own best guide afterall.
-- The Stars

Ah, but what if I'm not my own best guide? After a little over a year of being active around here, I still find my self questioning where my passion(s) currently reside. Is it in Chaos and Discordianism? Do I embark on noding missing metaphysical traditions and lore? Is it in food and drink, especially recipes, cheese and wine, either facts or opinions? Is it in documenting jargon, slang, the stray idiom, and/or neologisms and such that aren't currently noded? Is it attempting to document as much as I can concerning Magic: The Gathering as so much here is either outdated or missing? Wait for, or run, E2 Quests and just do my best then, when there is obvious direction, and just soft link and nodeshell in between to fill my days? Should these questions be in the form of a poll? I honestly don't know and feel it may be a quantity versus quality issue, as if I'm trying to make up for coming to the site "late," if you will. To really write what I feel to be relevant to the ages, I need to find that passion. Anyways, anything else on this at the moment would be rambling, so I'll end with this: Feel free to /msg me with insights, opinions, thoughts, or requests (and, no, I'm not fishing for compliemnts…that's what votes and C!s are for!!!) I appreciate the feedback and perspectives I've received during my time here, just wanted to make sure all knew I have an open door policy when it comes to (now solicited) constructive criticism. I mean, as introverted and anti-social I am irl, I understand I chose to be an active member of this community. And, by the way, I currently have 145 drafts, yet none are speaking to me. Thank you in advance for your time and attention, and safe travels.

Edited to add: Oh, and speaking of numerology: This is my 200th writeup, and I need 444 xp to reach Level 11 and have 44 votes left today, how about that? Quite an auspicious set of numbers, those.

Source:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/commander-banned-and-restricted-announcement-september-23-2024
Original announcement:
https://mtgcommander.net/index.php/2024/09/23/september-2024-quarterly-update/

Posted this Boomtime
Bureacracy 48, YOLD 3190