Greetings everyone ,
the Archon Council decided to put a change to the vote. You can vote on the following change:
Banning Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes as a Commander
You can had over to our Discord to cast your vote! You have time to do so until 15-May-2023 12:00 CET.
Here are the reasoning for the proposed change:
Minsc&Boo is a recent addition of WotC as a command zone option, being a flavorful planeswalker that was clearly designed with multiplayer in mind. Similar to other cards from the same set (mostly, the initiative mechanic), this card has fast impact in 1v1 formats where the designed-for-multiplayer just outshines other options by providing above-average value for the cost. Minsc&Boo brings you a 4 mana 4/4 with haste and trample, attached to a 4 loyalty planeswalker, if you don’t factor in any other board state. If uncontested, you can increase the pressure that Boo provides by pumping him to 7/7 next turn or cashing him in for a full grip of cards. Even then, Minsc refreshes his hamster friend on your next upkeep, effectively providing you with a new 4/4 the turn after. It is without a doubt one of the strongest planeswalkers ever introduced into magic. Also being designed to act as a commander gives our format access to this powerful card in our “free hand slot” which we have access to every game and can utilise multiple times.
Gruul colors fit the Planeswalker perfectly, as they provide a plethora of mana acceleration options to bring him out even earlier. When also adding in rituals/ritual-likes and free mana acceleration (Spirit Guides, Lotus Petal), Minsc&Boo can be a threat consistently by turn 2, forcing preparation from the very start of the game. Paired with different packages of specific hate cards (like Blood Moon or Maddening Hex), decently statted creature beatdown options and burn spells, M&B has a versatile arsenal of options for deck building, all leading to a decent deck in the end.
Minsc&Boo provides you with early pressure, can boost your already established creatures, can be used as a burn finisher, refreshes your hand, protects itself with the token, snowballs on his own and is a hard to interact with permanent type. The sheer flexibility of M&B means that no matter the situation, Minsc&Boo will almost always offer something interesting and worthwile. However, the biggest advantage from Minsc&Boo comes from the threat it poses in any matchup. As the opponent of Minsc&Boo, you can not spare any time preparing for handling the planeswalker, because if Minsc&Boo sticks to the board, the game will soon be over. This caused the deck to have a wide spread of positive matchups, while losing points in only a hand full of decks. Even then, decks that have a decent matchup against Minsc&Boo do not completely blow it out of the water, as Minsc&Boo’s consistency leviates the matchup by a bit. Resolving it once against an unfortunate hand of the opponent will quickly close the game out.
We think that the overpowering and game-defining nature of Minsc&Boo is not healthy for our format, as it boils down to handling the opposing commander in a narrow timely fashion and only then starting the real game, similarly to how Keleth strategies played out. For these reasons, we propose that Minsc&Boo be banned as commander in Archon.