The Commander Rules Committee, the general governing body for the Commander/EDH format, faced heavy criticism on social media after announcing the ban of three fairly valuable cards from the format.

The three valuable cards banned from Commander/EDH games were Jeweled Lotus, Dockside Extortionist, and Mana Crypt. The CRC also banned Nadu, Winged Wisdom, but fans seemed to welcome this announcement, as Nadu had already caused problems in other formats (see “Brings ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Formats to Life”). Before the ban, various versions of Mana Crypts were selling on eBay for $160-$180, Jeweled Lotus cards were selling for around $100, and Dockside Extortionists were selling for around $70. Since the ban, these cards have been selling for less than half that. Jeweled Lotus was hit particularly hard, as it contains text that essentially limits its use to the Commander format.

Fan reactions on social media were overwhelmingly negative, ranging from “Jesus you guys are a joke” to more articulate comments like “This is incredibly bad for player confidence, these cards should be dealt with Rule 0… You can’t have players losing hundreds of dollars and expect that to be a good thing.” One comment seemed to get to the heart of the issue for many collectors and players alike: “This is ridiculous, you used Lotus and Crypt to sell Masters and Ixalan; probably made sure the stock was really empty beforehand, right?” This comment was clearly referring to the fact that Wizards of the Coast recently released Jeweled Lotus as a Chase card in Commander Master (see “Magic: The Gathering – Commander Masters”) and Mana Crypt as a chase card in The Lost Caves of Ixalan (see Magic: The Gathering – Lost Caverns of Ixalan), and now the cards can no longer be used in the format in which they were popular.

These bans may also have an impact on retailers selling individual pieces. Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, and Dockside Extortionist, as mentioned, all had significant value and may now be destined to remain in retailers’ inventories as they now have a market price below their previous shopping list numbers in some cases.