Hello dear Leviathan players to the next installment of our banlist update. During this test season, we played around 1,300 games to test and make the right decisions. At the same time, we listened to your suggestions, which are a great indication of what you players expect from us. Of course, we are not able to do everything in one test season, so at the moment we present the following changes. We hope that our decisions will meet with your approval. We wish you a lot of fun with the new banlist.
Banned as Commander
Shorikai, Genesis Engine
Niv-Mizzet, Parun
Banned as Card
Leveler
Phyrexian Devourer
Unbanned as Card
· Necrotic Ooze
Announcement Date: July 4, 2022
Date of entry of changes: July 8, 2022
Date of next announcement: October 3, 2022
Further Explanation
Shorikai, Genesis Engine is one of the newest additions to our format but it did not take long for it to rise and shine as one of the best Control Commander decks in our format. Every time there is a new commander that is not a creature, it should be evaluated rigorously. In this case it plays around most cards designed and used in decks as answers to commanders, creature removal. Being an artifact most of the time allows the deck to survive board swipes and continue deploying creature while generating card advantage and card filtering. And at the same time being a fast finisher taking only three swings to end up games. As we guessed the deck is securing great positions in almost every tournament it is played around the world. After a long period of testing, playing over 550 matches and with a consolidated win rate of over 67.32% we see no reason for it to stay. Considering how great Control is already doing in Leviathan, Shorikai just lowers the healthiness of the format. For the above reasons, Shorikai, Genesis Engine is banned as Commander.
Niv-Mizzet, Parun was always showing around but moderate to high success but in the last few months the number of players navigating this deck raised the alarms and we put our eyes on it. Having “This spell can't be countered.” printed in a card is strong but having it on a legendary creature that enables a great control deck makes it reach a dangerous zone of power level. Knowing your commander will resolve almost every time you cast it leaves a lot of room to play just around protecting it. And even when it resolves the amount of card advantage it usually generates just trying to find answers to it or try and resolve the answer, it already paid off. In addition, it will ping every creature till they hit the graveyard or just get your opponent closer to zero. It is a commander that closes matches very fast as soon it is deployed. Most games where you untap with Niv-Mizzet on the board are basically over. And to top it off, it also enables a two-card combo with the second combo card being a 1 Mana Value spell. After having most of the committee members test the deck and reaching the highest win rate of the season with 68.46%. We decided that for the health of the format and allowing more aggro, midrange and combo decks to shine, Niv-Mizzet, Parun is now banned as Commander.
Part of a new one-card combo with The Beamtown Bullies. With the right tutors like Unmarked Grave or Goblin Engineer, it allows you to win on turn 3 or 4 by exiling your opponent entire library. We decided to get rid of this combo by banning this card instead of The Beamtown Bullies to leave room for you to get creative while playing with this new Jund Commander.
As with the Auriok Salvagers (Auriok + LED) combo, we're experimentally banning the Phyrexian Devourer to be able to unban Necrotic Ooze. Devourer is virtually absent from the decks and unlike NO, it was just a combo component (before the NO ban). We think that NO without Devourer can be a multi-deck ingredient that probably won't prove too strong to deserve a re-ban. We cannot allow these two cards to exist simultaneously, so we have made a decision to give away a card that is playable.
A very popular combo in mono Black decks, which had to be banned due to its non-interactive nature. This was due to the ability on the Phyrexian Devourer card, which costs zero mana. This blocked the possibility of stopping it with any removal in any amount by re-activating it for free in response. However, we decided to give him a second chance and the possibility of a new creative use by changing him with a Phyrexian Devourer on our banlist.
As always, we are looking forward to your feedback.
Your comitee:
Wojciech Kopański, Justo Chacon, Diego Rivera, Meng Du, Leonardo Leal, Marcos Mayora, Pawel Dziewulski.
And Your RP:
Diego Paredes, Mengshi Guo, Nacho Monza.