The community is incapable of helping here. Deck building skills, which are the primary determinant in cards needing banned, are declining among the player base especially with communities becoming much more fractured. Hogaak is an example here, Wizards got that one wrong and then the deck got better using cards that were already available. Death's Shadow experienced the same thing when Gitaxian Probe was banned, and DS was the deck that got that card banned.cfusionpm wrote: ↑4 years agoAll of these problems stem from the fact that WOTC makes format-shaping decision and developments behind closed doors and without the help of the community. Play Design was supposed to help with that but... well, that also gave us likely the single worst year in all of Magic across every format.
One of the reasons Commander has been so successful, not just because of being a casual format, but because it's managed by an open tribunal of people, including taking input from several community members, that is separate from WOTC and their design teams. There is discussion and consensus about what to do, how to act, or if anything is needed at all among people deeply invested (financially, emotionally, etc) in the format, and they have a deep wealth of knowledge specifically about Commander. Out of the history of the format, there have only been a few head-scratchers, and for the most part is revered as excellently managed. It's what happens when you have transparency and community input, instead of behind-closed-doors, circular-logic, lacking-perspective, echo-chamber management WOTC uses for everything else.
It's definitely pushed me pretty much out of Modern indefinitely and laser focused on Commander in paper and Pioneer on MTGO. And unless something drastically changes, I expect many others to follow suit.
Wizards can't catch these things, and players sit complacent and then build a stronger deck once they're forced to.
Commander maintains what it is, because it doesn't push a competitive scene. Once you add the ability for people to compete in the format and sell it as being a professional job, you fundamentally change the sort of pressure the format has on it. This is the reason why Legacy gets so few bans. The format is incredibly unhealthy but it doesn't have enough pressure to make that obvious.