Ban List Update and Changes - 7th June 2025

Hello Leviathan players in the July banlist update and rules. The shape of our decisions in this announcement was greatly influenced by the results of the survey and your statements. This is also additionally supported by a database built on the basis of reports received from you. Today's announcement is the first of several announcements, introducing changes in our format in stages. We invite you to read it.

Rules change:

• The starting amount of life points is changed to 25

• The amount of commander damage is changed to 18

• Legendary Vehicles and Legendary Spacecrafts are now eligible to be chosen as a player's Commander in the Leviathan Commander format

Commander changes:

• Eris, Roar of the Storm is now banned

Individual card changes:

• Emrakul, the Promised End is now banned

• Glacial Chasm is now legal

• Serra Ascendant is now legal

Experimental change

• Flash is now banned

• Protean Hulk is now legal

Announcement Date: July 7, 2025

Date of entry of changes: July 7, 2025

Date of next announcement: September 1, 2025

Current banlist - website version Current banlist - moxfield version

Further explanation

Rules update: Life and Commander damage change

For a long time, 30 hp has favored greedy strategies in our format, especially midrange and control. They have become the best archetypes, dominating the rest, especially aggressive ones. To weaken these strategies while strengthening the rest, we decided to reduce the amount of hp to 25 and cmd damage to 18. Both of these changes are aimed at balancing the archetypes in meta. Reducing hp will give the control and midrange archetypes less time to stabilize, and aggro(on other hand) in various forms (go wide, burn, pure aggro) more chances to end the match. Reducing cmd damage also aims to help aggressive strategies, only this time based on the commander alone (voltron archetype). This change will also positively affect the other archetypes, giving them the opportunity to win by making one less attack with their Commander.

Rules update: Legendary Vehicles and Spacecraft as Commanders

In alignment with the new rules update announced for Commander alongside Edge of Eternities, Legendary Vehicles and Legendary Spacecraft will now be eligible to be played as your Commander. We decided that Leviathan will adopt this rule before it will officially begins with the release of Edge of Eternities in traditional Commander. Eris, Roar of the Storm

Eris, Roar of the Storm, a legendary creature in the Izzet (blue and red) colors, has quickly gained popularity in our format, becoming a subject of discussion and analysis among players.

Currently, Eris holds the title of the second most popular Commander in our meta, having been used 29 times in tournaments to date. Her presence translates into an impressive 106 matches played in tournaments, which speaks to the growing interest in her abilities. Furthermore, these statistics are supported by a solid 59.26% win rate, suggesting that Eris is not only popular, but also effective in the hands of experienced and less experienced pilots.

A key feature of Eris that makes her such a powerful Izzet Commander is her ability to avoid the Commander tax. Her casting cost is reduced by 2 colorless mana for every different mana value of instants and sorcery cards in your graveyard. Sending cards to the grave is relatively easy to achieve without much sacrifice in deck construction. This mechanic allows for multiple casts of Eris from the command zone at a much lower cost, which is especially problematic for opponents who count on the increasing cost of Commander. This ability allows for maintaining pressure on the table even after Eris has been removed multiple times, which is a huge advantage in games.

In addition to the flexibility in cost, Eris also has the ability Flying and Prowess. Flying grants her evasion in combat, and Prowess (which gives her +1/+1 until end of turn whenever you cast a non-creature spell) makes her a dangerous finisher, especially in an Izzet deck, which is naturally heavy on instants and sorcery. The icing on the cake is her final ability: "Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 4/4 red Dragon Elemental creature token with flying and prowess." This ability allows you to generate an army of powerful tokens that have flight and prowess in them, which increases the threat Eris poses to the opponent.

To sum up, Eris, Roar of the Storm, is a dynamic and powerful Commander that brings a breath of fresh air to Izzet's strategy. Her ability to avoid tax, combined with token generation and offensive abilities, made her a problem in our meta, which is why we decided to ban her as a commander.

Emrakul, the Promised End

Based on the survey and feedback, we are acknowledging that releasing Emrakul was a bad decision. Despite the intention to boost ramps and midrange decks by releasing him as a good thing, we created toxic situations that occurred every time he was played. Since we cannot afford for this to continue, we have decided to once again ban Emrakul.

Glacial Chasm

Land, which was banned 1.5 years ago due to the 30hp rule, which allowed you to pay for the accumulating upkeep a few extra times. It strengthened land based decks and combo decks, which are currently in decline. With the change of lives to 25 and commander damage to 18, we want to give players the option to fight in the upcoming more aggressive meta.

Serra Ascendant

White Monk, who has been banned since the format's inception. He deserved it because of his ability, which worked perfectly with the 30 hp rule, making him a 1 mana 6/6 creature. With the change of starting hp, we don't see any reason for him to still be on the banned list.

Experimental change: Flash and Protean Hulk

In this announcement, we decided to experimentally release Protean Hulk, thus opening up the possibility of a new combo deck in our format. However, in exchange for this, we are banning Flash, which would make this duo 2 mana instant combo which would be too strong. This move is intended to lift the combo archetype off its feet while increasing the use of green in the meta.