Commander Banned List 2026: All Banned Cards and Unbans

The Commander banned list names 42 cards on Wizards' official page, plus three groups that are banned as a whole: Conspiracy cards, ante cards and cards Wizards lists as racially or culturally offensive. Scryfall counts 83 banned cards in total. The list is getting shorter. Since the Commander Format Panel made its first changes in April 2025, seven cards have been unbanned and none banned.

The last change came on February 9, 2026, when Biorhythm and Lutri, the Spellchaser came off the list. Wizards said then that three more cards were close enough to discuss, and one of them, Iona, Shield of Emeria, was "right on the cusp."

Every card on the Commander banned list

These are the 42 cards Wizards' Banned and Restricted page names for Commander on October 23, 2026, grouped by card type:

On top of those, the same page bans every card with the Conspiracy type (25 cards), every card that refers to playing for ante (9 cards), and the cards on Wizards' list of racially or culturally offensive cards, which it calls "a work in progress." Scryfall's search for cards banned in Commander returns 83 results, which leaves seven cards in that last group today.

What the 83 banned cards are. Image: BaseMTG chart from Wizards' Banned and Restricted page and Scryfall, October 23, 2026.

One entry doesn't fit the table. Lutri, the Spellchaser is legal in your deck and as your commander, but it's "only banned as a companion." It's the only card on the Commander list with a partial ban.

A lot of the named cards are old fast mana: Black Lotus, the five Moxen, Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus. Ancestral Recall and Time Walk are here too, though Timetwister, the last of the Power Nine, isn't on the Commander list. The three cards the panel discussed freeing in February are all creatures.

What changed on February 9, 2026

Gavin Verhey posted the update on behalf of the Commander Format Panel. Two cards came off the list and none went on.

Biorhythm. Each player's life total becomes the number of creatures they control, which can end the game for a player with an empty board, or for three of them at once. It was unbanned and went straight onto the Game Changers list: "Like all of the previously unbanned cards, this will immediately be put on the Game Changers list as well, where it belongs." That keeps it out of Bracket 1 and 2 decks. Our Commander Brackets guide explains what the Game Changers list limits.

Lutri, the Spellchaser. Lutri was banned for what it did as a companion. Its condition, a starting deck where every nonland card has a different name, is one every Commander deck meets by default. As a regular card it copies an instant or sorcery spell you control when you cast it. It's now legal everywhere except the companion slot, and Wizards didn't make it a Game Changer: "there's no reason to gate it as a Game Changer. Lutri is finally free."

Card images: Wizards of the Coast, via Scryfall.

The companion ban made people ask whether Commander would get a separate "banned as commander" list. Wizards said no: "don't take this to mean we're likely to implement a banned-as-commander list in the future." That's worth knowing because MTG Arena now does exactly that in another format. The October 12, 2026 announcement banned Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Spider-Man 2099 and Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice as commanders in Competitive Brawl. That rule applies to Competitive Brawl on Arena, not to tabletop Commander.

How the list has changed since 2024

The September 2024 bans were the last cards added. The April 2025 unbans all moved to the Game Changers list on the same day, and that's the usual pattern: a card comes off the banned list onto the Game Changers list, so it stays out of the lower brackets. Two cards break it. Wizards took Sway of the Stars off the Game Changers list in its October 21, 2025 Brackets update, and Lutri never went on it.

Three banned cards Wizards could free next

The February article named three cards the panel "discussed quite heavily" and asked players for feedback on. These are the ones to watch.

Card images: Wizards of the Coast, via Scryfall.

Iona, Shield of Emeria. The closest to an unban. Iona names a color as it enters, and your opponents can't cast spells of that color. Wizards wrote that "it totally stops monocolor players from playing Magic," and still called it "very close to being unbanned." If one card comes off next, our money is on Iona.

Sundering Titan. When it enters or leaves, it destroys a land of each basic type, which used to mean repeated blinking and no mana for anyone. Wizards' view is that the format has changed since then, and that the card "would be a Game Changer, limiting it from appearing in Bracket 2 and below."

Griselbrand. Pay 7 life, draw seven cards. Wizards' own description is that it uses Commander's 40 life to "draw a good chunk of your deck," and the article was blunt: "If the other two are on the safer side, Griselbrand certainly is not." We'd be surprised to see it unbanned before the other two.

Jeweled Lotus came up too, and it stays: "That's not to say that an unban in the future is impossible, but it is staying banned at this time."

Cards being watched, not banned

The February update added no bans. In an earlier article Wizards had said it was watching two cards. On Thassa's Oracle: "The case seems mostly closed on that one, though things could change." On Rhystic Study, the bar is high: the panel "would have to see some pretty serious signs and public opinions change before touching that card," and it will "continue watching Rhystic Study." If you run either one, nothing suggests that changes soon. Our Commander tutors guide covers which tutors are Game Changers, the other list that now does the work bans used to do.

When is the next Commander banned list update?

There's no date. Commander doesn't follow the main Banned and Restricted calendar: Wizards says "Commander gets to operate on its own schedule," and the panel isn't limited to one update a year. The February article ended with "We'll talk with you again likely this summer in May or June."

That update didn't arrive. As of October 23, 2026, Wizards' banned list still matches the February 9 changes, and the mtg.wiki timeline of announcements has no Commander update after that date. The next general Banned and Restricted announcement is on November 30, 2026, but there's no sign Commander will be part of it. If something changes, the announcement will come from the Commander Format Panel on magic.wizards.com.

Gavin Verhey went through the February update on Good Morning Magic the same day:

What r/EDH made of it

The top reply in one r/EDH thread after the unbans read the update as a direction. "It seems like their intention is now to unban rather than ban cards going forward," wrote u/TooTooBear. Another reply, from u/Alternate_Cost, put it as policy: "Yeah seems like the goal is to unban the representative cards and use the game changer list heavily."

Not everyone thinks the brackets can contain the next candidates. In the same thread, u/fenwayb asked: "what does the bracket system do against an Iona for a mono color deck though?" A separate thread about Griselbrand was less divided: "He's completely busted in commander and should absolutely stay banned," wrote u/DNedry.

What it means for your deck

If you play casual Commander, the bracket matters more than the banned list now. Of the cards that came off since 2025, Gifts Ungiven, Braids, Cabal Minion, Coalition Victory, Panoptic Mirror and Biorhythm are Game Changers, so check your bracket before you add one. Sway of the Stars and Lutri aren't: Lutri is fully legal in your deck and as your commander. Before a game with house rules, the Rule Zero conversation is where banned cards come up. If you want the whole format in one place, start with our MTG Commander deck guide. For the Standard equivalent, see the Standard banned list.

What would change this picture: a Commander announcement that bans a card. None has since September 2024.

References

• Wizards of the Coast: Banned and Restricted List
• Wizards of the Coast: Commander Banned and Restricted Announcement, February 9, 2026
• Wizards of the Coast: Commander Banned and Restricted Announcement, April 22, 2025
• Wizards of the Coast: Commander Banned and Restricted Announcement, September 23, 2024
• Wizards of the Coast: Banned and Restricted Announcement, October 12, 2026
• Scryfall: cards banned in Commander
• mtg.wiki: Banned and restricted cards timeline
• Good Morning Magic: What's Banned and Unbanned?? Is Hybrid Changing? A Commander Update!