Community

As per Sheldon's article, it looks like paper EDH (now to be called Commander) and Online Commander (to differentiate it from paper Commander) will be syncing up rules wise. Here is the relevant link:

www.starcitygames.com/magic/multiplayer/...

One of the most important spoilers is this:

"One of the side meetings I had was with Aaron Forsythe, Scott Larabee, and Dave Guskin about syncing up the online and paper games and rules. I'm happy to report that barring programming concerns—some of these things just take time—the online game is going to end up as close to the paper game as possible. Dave had done a great job of finding all the differences, and then we went down them one by one, agreed on solutions, and prioritized them. Hopefully you'll see the fixes in the near

With the previous weeks update, it seems that the COmmanz Zone issues have been fixed. Anyone who is still experiencing issues is encouraged to report them to both WotC and here.

Additionally, the new monoBlack Commanders, [c]Geth, Lord of the Vault[/c] and [c]Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon[/c], see to be very popular.

Since the implementation of the Command Zone (due to the change in Elspeth's wording), Commander has been majorly bugged. Some would almost say unplayable. Regardless, this is what is known:

1. Static abilities of Commanders in the Command Zone function as if they are in play; if someone chooses Teeg as a Commander his ability functions while he's in the Command Zone (as soon as the game starts). Ditto with any other static ability on Commanders in the Command Zone, like Linvala, Teferi, etc

2. Occasionally, when a Commander gets Exiled due to an ability that would return it to play at a later time (like via Voyager Staff), if it would return to play it just stays Exiled.

3. It's possible to access some activated abilities of Commanders while they are in the Command Zone.

I've sent out a broadcast to all of the Commander group members, but I'm also posting this to the Commander group blog for more public access.

As per the usual formula, Magic Online continues to follow the paper EDH ban recommendations.

As of June 20th, the following 3 cards are banned in Commander:

Channel
Staff of Domination
Tolarian Academy

You can visit the paper EDH boards if you are interested in the full explanation of the EDH RC's reasoning for banning those cards, and  also for the discussion threads centered around those decisions.

Essentially, the feeling is that explosively fast mana production is unhealthy for the format, and that SoD was only ever used as a combo enabler.

WotC has finally gotten around to banning [c]Recurring Nightmare[/c] in Commander. So now all you monoBlack mages will have to find something else to abuse for your recursion needs. I'm sure it won't be too difficult :p

Relevant info is here:

forum.dragonhighlander.net/EDH_Forum/vie...

Grindstone is unbanned.
Painter's Servant is banned.

What does this mean for the online Commander player? Well for me at least, it means that Painter's has to come out of my Oona deck.

While the EDH RC doesn't control the Commander format, Wizards has followed their recommendations pretty much to the letter until now and I dont' expect them to break from that anytime soon.
Also, there is usually some lag time between the EDH announcement and the online implementation so we'll either have until the 20th of Dec or possibly until the 20th of Jan.

I'm kind of sad to see this.
I realize that Iona was probably the proverbial straw and that Painters will only get more broken as time goes by. I also know that banning Iona instead of

I wanted to let all the Commander group members know that I've finished the Wiki list of both Mulitcolor Commanders and Mono-colored Commanders. Between those two list you should have a comprehensive reference for every Legendary creature  that it's possible to use as a Commander.

In the Decklist forum I've added some more of my own decks and also the lists for both of the Commander Precons; and there's a link on the Wiki hope page that will take you to either precon list for quick reference.

And I'd like to say thank you to all of the players who have joined this group. We're up to 31 members! I've seen steady growth so far and I hope that you are finding everything you need. If there's anything you'd like that's not here please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.

Here is the reference thread:

September B&R for EDH

A summary of the biggest change:

Generals will no longer use the Exile zone (previously the RFG Zone). They will now use the Command Zone, a completely new zone created with/for the Planechase multiplayer-centric expansion.
This means that  Riftsweeper in now unbanned in EDH because it no longer interacts with Generals (via the Exile zone), and may be unbanned in Commander (if this change is implemented).

I'm actually pretty happy with this and I hope that the MTG:O dev team can get this change coded into the client. I think that  putting a Commander in its' own zone helps to reduce confusion.

I  also liked the fact that they clarified that the trigger when a General dies is a replacement effect and that a General who is returned to