Following the Commander Rules Committee’s decision to ban the heavily promoted and reprinted chase rare cards Jeweled Lotus and Mana Crypt from the Commander format, MTG Insider conducted a poll on X to see if MTG players are more likely to allow or play with proxies.
The results may surprise some, or come as no surprise to others. A whopping 75% of players responded that they would be more likely to accept or play with proxies in a game of Commander.
Individual responses were largely in favor of using proxies, including those from players who would not have considered it before. Here are some Commander player comments from X (formerly Twitter):
Not only are we seeing responses similar to the poll results on X in reaction to the ban, but similar reactions are also unfolding in other forums. For example, consider the below comments from the Commander Rules Committee Discord server:
Beyond those referenced here, there were hundreds more who shared the same sentiments over the past day on social media and MTG Discord servers.
Proxying MTG cards for Commander was originally controversial but is becoming more and more widely accepted among the MTG community. It became a major topic of debate when MTG printed official “proxies” of reserved list cards with the Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Collection. This product reprinted the likes of the Power 9, as well as dual lands.
As Magic: The Gathering continues to print power-crept cards like Jeweled Lotus, and increase access to tutors and cards like Mana Crypt by making them chase rares in future sets, the likelihood of more valuable cards becoming banned increases. Will MTG players adapt and accept losses? Will they proxy cards to avoid loss? Or will they use Rule Zero and continue playing with banned cards?
We don’t know yet how players will fully react to bannings of valuable cards, but the sentiment is clearly changing regarding proxies over the previous years and today. Commander has always been a format about Rule Zero. And Rule Zero means players can potentially play with anything, be it proxies or silver-bordered shenanigans.
ALSO READ: Op-Ed: Commander Rules Committee Needs To Implement This To Regain Trust of Players
