Lutri up 1,500% Just Two Days After Being Unbanned in EDH

Last updated on February 11, 2026

Stormcatch Mentor | Illustration by Manuel Castañón

Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast released their Banned & Restricted announcement. We were expecting quite a few unbans for Commander (and so was the Magic card market in general, with a lot of price spikes during the weekend) so it was a bit of a let-down that there were just two cards that were set free…

… but, unsurprisingly, they are both going up in price big time.

Biorhythm, one of the unbanned cards, doubled in price since Monday, and is up about 500% since last week.

But that's just pocket change for what Lutri, the Spellchaser is doing: An unban that caught everybody by surprise, some Lutri versions have spiked more than 2,000%… yeah, more than 20 times what you'd have paid for it last week!

Lutri: Unbanned in Commander, But Can't Be a Companion

Lutri, the Spellchaser | Illustration by Justine Mara Andersen

As per yesterday's B&R announcement Lutri, the Spellchaser is unbanned in Commander… but WotC created a new designation: “Banned as a companion in Commander.”

In other words, it's as if Lutri, the Spellchaser had received an errata. It's still a companion in non-Commander formats, and now it can be your commander or go in the 99.

The change immediately rocketed Lutri, the Spellchaser from the bulk bin (it was priced at about thirty cents last week) to nearly $10 for regular, near-mint copies in the US market:

Source: MTGStocks

Why Lutri, the Spellchaser Was Banned Before It Even Released

Lurrus of the Dream-Den | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Back in April 2020, the Commander Rules Committee banned Lutri, the Spellchaser even before it was released.

The underlying issue wasn’t Lutri's power level, but rather that there's exactly zero cost for a Commander deck to include Lutri, the Spellchaser as a companion (because it needs you have only one copy of each nonland card… which is how you build decks in Commander). That, in turn, would turn Lutri into a card that every blue-red deck should include. Even if Lutri has nothing to do with your deck's gameplan.

By and large, companion was indeed one of the most broken mechanics that WotC released in quite some time. Lurrus of the Dream Den, the most powerful of the companion creatures, was such a powerhouse that had to be banned… in Vintage (something that hadn't happened since the late 90s).

WotC eventually had to backtrack, with Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater even admitting companions had been the biggest mistake that year, and they rework how companion works: Initially, companions used to cost nothing extra to cast from outside the game. Now, you have to first pay to bring them into your hand, and then you can cast them. The change allowed Lurrus to be unbanned from Vintage, but several companions still had to be banned in other formats.

Currently, companions are pretty fine in Commander. Their deckbuilding restrictions are more than enough to keep them in check. Lurrus of the Dream Den, for example, sees quite a bit of casual Commander play, but more in the command zone or in the 99 than as a companion.

The only exception, given how trivial was its deckbuilding restriction in Commander, was Lutri… until yesterday!

Why Wizards Thinks It’s Fine Now

Zirda, the Dawnwaker | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

Wizards’ current stance is that, without the Companion ability, Lutri, the Spellchaser isn’t too strong in normal Commander play.

“Lutri itself is far from too strong of a card in a game of Commander,” wrote WotC's Gavin Verhey yesterday, explaining their thinking for Lutri's unban. “However, the problem is that if Lutri is legal as a companion, every deck for the rest of time that has a blue-red color identity should have Lutri as a companion. There is absolutely no downside to doing so.”

By and large, Magic players pretty much agree with Gavin's assessment about Lutri's power level, with some players going as far as to consider it a mediocre-to-bad card for most Commander decks.

“There's plenty of better and cheaper ways to get this effect,” notes u/53184s. “Lutri is only better than the other options in certain niches.”

But, power level aside, Lutri, the Spellchaser is certainly a very popular otter: From being a card that traded just a couple of copies per day, literally thousands were traded yesterday!