Commander Staple Has $100 Price Jump After New Bans

Last updated on September 26, 2024

Mana Vault – Illustration by Steve Prescott

Following the unexpected Commander bans from last Monday, Mana Vault‘s price has shot over 250%, with the cheapest copies from Fourth and Fifth Edition going from $50 to largely surpassing its $100 peak from early 2021, according to MTGStocks.

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While no match for the fast-mana rocks that were banned last Monday, Mana Vault is strong enough to only be legal in Commander and Vintage, and restricted in the latter. 

Other zero-cost fast mana pieces like Mox Opal and Mox Amber have remained stable thus far, at around $90 and $45 for their cheapest copies. Grim Monolith has seen a moderate 16% increase from $279 to $325.

Mana Vault‘s spike is the mirror opposite of Jeweled Lotus, one of the fast-mana cards banned last Monday, which dropped by more than 50% overnight. It has no use outside of Commander, meaning the card is now only worth the cardboard it's printed onto.

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Mana Crypt, the other fast-mana card banned last Monday, and one of the Special Guests chase cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, also saw drops between 50% and 100%, depending on the version.

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A Community Split

Last Monday, the Commander RC committee wiped tens of millions in value when banning Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Dockside Extortionist. “We have no desire or intent to roll back these changes,” the RC confirmed in a later announcement, “and believe that doing so would make any financial concerns much worse.”

The RC also acknowledged that the announcement could have been made much better by giving players more advance notice.

“The financial impact of this change justified more discussion or community awareness ahead of time,” the RC said in their second announcement. “Keeping details secret to avoid leaks was important, but discussing the concept openly would have been worth it.”

The aftermath of the Commander bans, and the poor way in which it was communicated, has rippled past its huge financial impact. Player communities all over social media are in turmoil, and the tension about these bans and how they were communicated has had an impact on the Commander ruling body itself: Josh Lee Kwai, creator of The Command Zone podcast and very vocal against bans in general, resigned his position in the Commander Advisory Group.

The CAG is an advisory body to the Commander RC, but they were not consulted about last Monday's bans. 

According to the RC's second announcement, the CAG “was not informed of the choice to ban these cards because we felt we had the information we needed (from them and elsewhere), and as a large group, it would be difficult to keep it under wraps. As above, we felt making sure there were no leaks was paramount.”

Will these bans lead to a fracture in the Commander community, with cEDH in particular setting up their own ban list?

In an X poll conducted by Josh Lee Kwai – who has always been vocal against bans in Commander – the answer came with a mind-blowing, near-perfect 50/50 split after nearly 19,000 votes.

It's impossible to say what the Commander community will do after these bans and financial losses, but such a clearly divisive topic is far from over.