Key points
- Magic: The Gathering’s Commander Rules Committee has denied allegations of insider trading following this month’s controversial bans.
- Outraged fans claimed that Commander RC sold the affected cards before the ban to avoid losing their value.
- The group has strongly denied this claim, claiming that it has a “zero tolerance policy for abusing knowledge of pending or potential changes.”
Earlier this week, Magic: The Gathering’s Commander format was rocked by a wave of bans, the first since 2021. These bans included the popular and powerful cards Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom, and their bans predictably sent their value plummeting.
Before the bans, these cards were worth quite a bit of money, going up to hundreds of pounds in some cases. For example, Jeweled Lotus was selling for around £90 before the bans, but now sells for around £20, a drop in value of 83 percent. This meant that many collections suddenly lost a lot of value overnight, and Magic: The Gathering fans were quite upset.
Shortly after the bans were announced, fans of the game began making all sorts of accusations on Twitter about the Commander Rules Committee, the body that decides on Commander bans. One of the most serious accusations is that Commander RC members were engaging in insider trading, selling cards that were about to be banned to avoid losing their value.
Magic: The Gathering's Commander RC Denies Insider Trading After September Bans
There is no concrete evidence that Commander RC did this, and the group was quick to address the allegations. In a new FAQ page created to address this month's bans (thanks Wargamer), Commander RC said it had a “zero-tolerance policy for abusing knowledge of pending or potential changes” and that it had not sold any of the cards prior to the ban.
“No. There is no way to prove this other than by placing our collections in escrow, but RC has a zero-tolerance policy for abusing knowledge of pending or potential changes. If a seller has evidence of cards that sold prior to the announcement, we encourage them to contact us and post it.”
Following these comments, Commander RC goes on to explain that he will not go back on his decision to ban these cards, despite widespread criticism, as he believes that “the format as a whole will be better” for them. However, he apologizes for how the bans were announced, admitting that “they could have been done a lot better.”
