(Maze's End | Cliff Childs)

In February 2006, the now-disbanded Rules Committee made a new rule for a very young format. Heartless Hidetsugu, Kaervek the Merciless, and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, were all banned as commanders only.

While they could not lead your deck, you could still play them in the 99. Different legendary creatures went on and off this list as the years passed.

After three years, in February 2014, the "banned only as commander" rule was eliminated, and Braids, Cabal Minion, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary became banned in the format, and so far, they have stayed there.

I wonder if they have remained for too long.

Currently, there are ten legendary creatures banned in the format. I want to examine whether any of them should be the reason for bringing back the "banned only as commander" rule.

Should they stay or go, or should some current creatures be added to the list?

My name is Nick; this is Myth Realized - Should We Bring Back Banned Only As Commander?

A Tireless Pilgrimage.

Have you ever had a card in your deck that was banned? If you have not, a player might go through a range of emotions. If you were a modern player when Splinter Twinwas banned, you might have felt like the sky was falling. However, if you were a commander player when Trade Secrets was banned, you might not have considered it.

While it might not be the most "impactful" ban that the format has ever seen, in the context of my series, there has been no banning that I have seen that has had the response to the likes of the banning of

But Why?

Two key things about Golos, Tireless Pilgrim must be understood. The first is that this creature is a five-color commander due to the activated ability on the card. This allows the card to be used in any strategy across all colors of the card pool. The second is that "commander tax" is essentially non-existent with this card thanks to the enters the battlefield effect.

For those unfamiliar, "commander tax" is the additional two mana that needs to be paid to recast a commander every time from the command zone. Usually, a five-cost commander, like Golos, would cost seven the next time you want to cast it from the command zone.

But Golos will always put you up one mana thanks to getting land from the deck to the battlefield tapped. This does not look powerful, but this might be the strongest part of the card, especially when considering the strategy that Golos was found most in, Gates.

Gates.

According to Edhrec, Lands Matter was the top strategy for Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. The primary way that every Golos deck I have ever played against or seen at a table was to win by using Maze's End.

If this was the highest tier strategy that you could do with Golos as a commander or if it was just played as the defacto five-color legend for a tribe that is lacking other options such as Skeletons, then I do not think the cards would have ever been banned.

It does power up the Gates strategy substantially since the biggest downside to running a Gates deck was the speed at which you could deploy your plan with all your lands coming in tapped. But Golos was not just grabbing gates with its ETB ability.

These are just a few cards that I and many others have grabbed directly from the deck. Not to mention some lands that have been printed since Golos was banned.

It is safe to say that as the years go on, a card like Golos, Tireless Pilgrim gets better than it was before.

But Wait, There's More.

Underneath all the lines of text discussing how Golos gets you land are three more lines of text and a prominent, activated ability. 2, allows you to spin the wheel for insane value. This ability is powerful even without the ability to put specific cards on top of your library, such as Scroll Rack.

Luckily, even with the help of Training Grounds, the ability will at minimum cost .

Any time you can cast your spells for free, or in this case, "discounted," it is always something to note. As mentioned above, one of the strongest Golos, Tireless Pilgrim decks, and the most fun to play against I have ever witnessed was one built around Astral Slide.

Getting ahead on mana is something that players prioritize so heavily that the activated ability seems to become an afterthought in most situations surrounding the Pilgrim.

Shed A Tear

Six five-color colorless commanders have been printed since Golos, Tireless Pilgrim.

I think you could argue that, outside Morphon, Golos could do just as good of a job, if not better, at leading a deck than any of these other creatures. Golos was one of the most popular commanders at the time of its banning. It was a card that let players do something with a deck that technically would do nothing since it lacked a sufficient commander. That was what made this banning so impactful to the player base.

This was not just a single card from a strategy or a single card from a deck. It involved eliminating decks of a wide variety across the entire format. Compare this ban to the banning of Leovold, Emissary of Trest. That ban eliminated the effectiveness of the Sultai Wheel strategy.

It was a strong strategy that never existed before Leovold and was awful to play against. The writing quickly was on the wall for this card getting banned, and though some were caught off guard, others built that deck knowing that it had a limited shelf life.

Golos Gates, or lands matters, was the prevalent strategy, but you could do almost anything with Golos. Was the commander annoying? Absolutely. Was the commander very powerful, no matter what you did with it? Again absolutely.

Was the card deserving of a ban? Maybe.

Split Decision.

So far, I have been very decisive about whether certain cards should be "banned only as a commander." Griselbrand was a solid no. Leovold, Emissary of Trest, and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, were both a solid yes.

Golos, for me, is a coin flip. I do not especially want to see the card back since it has a presence to always show up at tables. But as more and more cards are added to the format, I think it would be cool to see what people can do with it.

What is the next off-the-wall strategy someone does now that they can fix their mana and possibly cast some terrible cards to help out their 15-card combo? I also do not want to have the burden of constantly playing against a lands deck with access to all five colors and one of the strongest commanders for the strategy ever made.

Truthfully, one of the biggest issues with banning Golos only as a commander is that it would force players who want to use this card to build a deck around it, with it somewhere in the 99. I do not want to see this happen, either. Playing with a secret commander is something people do, but the decks that they have do not fall apart if they cannot ever find the "true" commander of the deck. With Golos, Tireless Pilgrim in the 99, I think the deck would do nothing far more often than it does something.

Public Opinion.

So, I will leave it up to the masses. What do you think should happen with Golos, Treless Pilgrim? Should it be off the banned list altogether? Should it come back but not be allowed in the command zone? Or should it stay right where it is? It would be safe to bring back "banned only as a commander," but I do not know if it would be worth it.

Unbanning it outright leads to a stronger card being played, but it can also lead to players utilizing more answers to combat the card. Cards like Torpor Orb and Confounding Conundrum can help fight the ETB ability.

And everyone's favorite white card, Drannith Magistrate, shuts down the activated ability outright. But is forcing the format to rely on these cards so that a small portion of the player base can do something wild once every 15 games?

As hard as this card was to get the ban hammer dropped on it, it might be harder to free it from its place on the banned list. I want to know what you all think. Let me know here, or find me on social media @nicnax96. Stay tuned for more articles asking: Should We Bring Back Banned Only As Commander?