Surprise Unbans Revive All-Time Powerful Commanders

Last updated on May 26, 2026

Winota, Joiner of Forces | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Duel Commander underwent a massive upheaval yesterday, May 25, 2026, when the format’s committee announced an update to the ban list: Three previously banned commanders are unbanned on an experimental basis to see how they impact the metagame: Winota, Joiner of Forces, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, and Emry, Lurker of the Loch.

These legends have been banned in the Commander variant for several years, with Emry and Najeela leaving in 2019 and Winota getting axed in 2021. But the commanders are free to rampage across the format now—or perhaps simply make it a more diverse place, as that’s the goal expressed: The three commanders represent strategies that have faded from the Duel Commander meta like aggro, artifacts, and typal, all which the committee hopes to revitalize via unbans.

Winota, Joiner of Forces

Winota, Joiner of Forces is no stranger to ban lists, as it’s been on the Pioneer ban list since 2022 and bounced on and off the Historic ban list before getting digitally rebalanced. It keeps getting banned because cheating creatures into play is an extremely powerful ability, not to mention aggressive as Winota drops them into play tapped and attacking. That’s enough to have legs in cEDH.

It was originally banned in Duel Commander because that power was oppressive in 2021; it hit play and demanded an immediate answer or it could dominate the game after a solid curve out. Give Winota a single combat step and it’s often board wipe or bust.

The unban was seen as fit for two reasons. Firstly, while Winota plays similarly to a combo deck, you’re forced to constrict you deck almost entirely to creatures, limiting the amount of interaction you can run. More importantly, the format’s grown faster (which is more punishing to the all-in creature game plan) and the instant-speed interaction necessary to answer Winota has grown better in turn. With this in mind, Winota was unbanned to “strengthen the strategic diversity of the format” by introducing a proactive aggro commander.

Najeela, the Blade-Blossom

Another familiar face to the cEDH players among us, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom takes over games with next to no effort thanks to its ability to spawn endless Warrior tokens in combat. It’s also extremely easy to work up an infinite combat engine with the activated ability, making Najeela a threat on two axises: An individually busted card that spawns an army, so that Swords to Plowshares might not be enough.

It also has a unique color identity, which was partially responsible for its banning. Prior to Najeela’s release, there weren’t cheap five-color commanders. That, coupled with its immense power and lightning fast game plan, saw it banned for having “a structurally problematic advantage.”

But that was 2019; the format looks quite different in 2026 which is to say, there are plenty of cheap multicolor commanders that rival Najeela in impact and speed. In effect, the rest of the format has sped up to meet Najeela, so it’s no longer an outlier but “an opportunity to strengthen the diversity of aggressive strategies.”

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Like Winota, Emry, Lurker of the Loch has been unbanned largely because the format’s context has greatly changed since its 2019 banning. It’s no surprise to find Emry on a banned list as artifacts are Magic’s strongest card type, and it abuses them quite well. Emry takes advantage of explosive artifact starts fueled by fast mana and enables combo loops with cards like Lotus Petal, plus affinity for artifacts makes it tough to remove.

But the format has changed. Much of Emry’s previous power came from Mox Opal and Lotus Petal, neither of which are legal anymore as the Duel Commander banlist excludes most forms of fast mana. Lotus Petal in particular was a big lose as many of Emry’s best combos revolved around it.

Additionally, as noted previously, power creep has sped Duel Commander up to the point that the managing committee views Emry as “a synergistic commander among many others” rather than a ban-worthy card. Because it’s lost many of its best tools and the format has evolved into a leaner, faster one in the last seven years, the merfolk wizard has been freed.