Hi everyone,
The Archon Council decided to put a change up for vote. You can vote on the following change:
Unban Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow as a Commander in Archon
Ban Contamination in Archon
Ban Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful and Esior, Wardwing Familiar as a Partner Pairing in Archon
Ban Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful and Tymna the Weaver as a Partner Pairing in Archon
You can head over to our discord to cast your vote! You have time to do so until 15-11-2025 10:00 CET.
Here are the reasoning for the proposed change:
Unban Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow as a Commander in Archon:
Whether Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow should be part of the format has been extensively debated for years.
The main point of discussion is the Ninjutsu ability, which bypasses Commander tax and conflicts with the principle that additional mana costs should come at a real price. Although the advantages of Commander Ninjutsu cannot be denied, the deck must adhere to certain deck-building restrictions (i.e., play a critical mass of mediocre cards) in order to enable Yuriko.
Furthermore, we already have a significant number of commanders that bypass or mitigate Commander tax in similar ways — through cost reduction (Eris, Hogaak), “half tax” via partners, or abilities like Eminence. These decks have become an integral part of the format.
Unbanning Yuriko, on the other hand, would introduce a commander-centric tempo deck in blue-black, a color combination currently lacking a true headliner. Yuriko has the potential to fill that gap. Although we believe the deck would have a place in a competitive meta, testing over the past months and years has shown that it has natural weaknesses and that its play patterns can be disrupted by cards already common in most decks.
Finally, Yuriko is a fan favorite in Commander and could attract both new and returning players to the format.
Overall, we as the Council believe — with Jan abstaining and the rest in favor — that Yuriko deserves a place in the format, and that the community should decide on a possible unbanning during the next voting period
Ban Contamination in Archon:
elfellmeres Reasoning:
Very few cards have such a special place in my heart as the card Contamination. It might be the weird bird-like thing stalking in the background of the skeleton. It could also be the nostalgia I get from resolving a card I used to play in my childhood. Or it might be related to the great success I had with the deck associated with it. Probably a combination of the three… What I want to say is: I – as a longtime Magic player – really like the card. I still voted in favour of a vote. Not because I think the card is too powerful. Not because I think the arguments mentioned in our discussion channel in favour of a ban were “outweighing” the ones against it. Not because I think the decks that use the card are too powerful or the card is bad for our format (if you want to know more about my opinion on the card’s play pattern – check the discussion channel!). I did it because I feel that we as a community need the vote in order to finally close the door on this issue and to give people the feeling of being heard. We cannot call ourselves a democratic format if we ignore the issues our community has with our format or the cards we play in it. We depend on our player base, on our community, and on a positive atmosphere. When I was playing Rograkh/Tevesh in the last months, I could literally feel how the vibe changed as soon as I resolved Contamination. I still think the card belongs in our format, but I hope the attitude towards it will change once we have all voted on it. If it gets banned, that is fine by me and I will accept that. If the majority of our community shares my opinion, it will hopefully take the steam out of the discussion and result in its acceptance overall.
chiwengels Reasoning:
Rarely has a single card in the 99 been as intensely debated as Contamination.
The card enables play patterns that, with the correct setup, can lock opponents out of the game very early on or without any signs. Especially when combined with Rograkh in the Command Zone, extremely potent moves can result. This allows the card to fulfill the role of a combo with the right commander in some situations.
I personally piloted the deck in 61 matches over ~ 18-20 tournaments and can confirm the card’s potential. However, I have also experienced often enough that a lock cannot be maintained due to black cards, free spells, and last but not least, pressure on the board. Contamination falls victim to the phenomenon that it usually cannot be stopped when you see it on the board while the times when the card cannot be played or cannot be tutored due to interaction often go unnoticed.
The discussion among players has been as polarizing as the play experience with Contamination. I believe that all arguments have been exchanged and further discussions are more about anecdotal evidence than new arguments. In my opinion, how one feels about Contamination is more a matter of taste than a matter of power level. Personally, I am firmly convinced that the card belongs in our format.
I see my role as Archon as representing the community, and in this role I want to maximize the enjoyment of the format. Because I believe that every player has access to all the information/arguments, the community as a whole should decide on the matter.
frygeists Reasoning:
The Council has decided by a 3:2, community spanning, majority to put Contamination up for vote. I voted in favour of this, even though I will vote against a ban, and I would like to explain why, whilst refraining from paraphrasing the entire “Ban Contamination”-Thread. The issue to me is simply bigger than Contaminations powerlevel itself, but resides with Rograkh and with respecting your views.
I don’t like playing against Contamination, as much as I dislike facing Back to Basics or Bloodmoon, but I don’t consider it too strong or worthy of a ban. Contamination is a strong card that leaves room for little interaction, but at the same time, its meta share is too small to draw reliable conclusions about its actual impact on the health of Archon.
Contamination was the final nail in the coffin for my Omnath, Locus of Creation Control Deck. This anecdote merely serves to show that I emphasise with those that find the Card banworthy. Control has been declining within Archon due to Land and Mana restriction, not a sole issue with Contamination.
I am in favour of banning toxic cards, yet I am certain that Contamination is not reliable as a win condition and that the only problematic playpattern arises in combination with Rograkh, thus I will vote against a ban.
Much more important to me than my personal assessment is respecting the wishes of the community and responding to the numerous requests for a vote in order to finally provide clarity.
It is important to me that everyone is heard and that we can conclude this discussion in a transparent manner.
You may notice that we have not discussed Rograkh within the Council yet and I want to clarify: this vote is agnostic of Rograkh, meaning that if you find the combination problematic you should vote accordingly.
I am in favour of takig a close look at Rograkh in the near future.
Lastly, none of this pushes me to be a proponent of automatically putting every card up for a vote in the future. Such steps remain the exception and will only be taken if the Council deems them necessary.
theymademedothat: Reasoning:
Contamination is probably the most debated card in the last year by a large margin.
I will therefore not go into too much details on the pro and cons of the card but I rather want to hightlight why I was against a “Ban Contamination” vote.
Contamination itself is a Stax/Lock Piece enabling players to lock-out their non-black opponent from the game. Apart from a few niche answers like “free spells”, Seal of Cleansing or Mana Stones, a resolved Contamination typically stops the opponent from casting any more spells. In all cases where the established board presence is not strong enough the Contamination lock results in a game win. And I guess we all agree that losing because one is unable to cast any more spells is one of the most frustating experiences in Magic.
Keeping a Contamination alive is no trivial feat and surely the reason why the card sees almost no play outside of Commander formats. In Archon it is possible to combo with Contamination from the Command Zone using Rograkh, Tevesh or Grist. It is surely possible to keep a Contamination alive via Bitterblossom or Retrofitter Foundry but in my view the only real problems are in the Command Zone where Contamination can become a one-card combo. From those only the play pattern around Rograkh in Rograkh/Tevesh feels ban-worthy (turn 3 Contamination into Rograkh). All other scenarios need a resolved Planeswalker and occur in later turns only. Here Contamination, is a reward for playing those Commanders and gives them a (unfun) win-option against slower non-black decks. In my view this should be okay within the format and to be frank slow non-black (and mostly non-blue) decks have a hard time in Archon due to a multitude of reasons. I question whether a Contamination ban would increase their viability.
For me the real problem behind Contamination is Rograkh and would not want it to go for Rograkh’s sins. Apart from Contamination Rograkh enables Culling the Weak (very very close to the banned Jeweled Lotus) and is known to freely contribute a Storm Count of two to Tendrils of Agony. Why do I not go for Rograkh more, if I think he is the Problem? Frankly, the two problematic Rograkh decks Rograkh/Tevesh and Rograkh/X Storm do not seem too overwhelmingly strong right now. While Rograkh/Tevesh saw a lot of play early in the year, its Matchup spread within Archon seems to be well-within bounds.
So from my side I do not see a reason to act on Contamination right now, but I respect the wish of my fellow council members to put this decision up to the Community. In the end a Contamination ban would not cause any deck to be unplayable and may improve the Archon play experience overall.
QKeys Reasoning:
I voted against putting Contamination to a community vote.
From my perspective, the card itself isn’t too strong for Archon. It’s powerful, but it only becomes oppressive in very specific setups — mainly when paired with Rograkh. Outside of that combination, Contamination is slow, fragile, and far from a guaranteed win. It requires constant upkeep and the right timing to matter. The typical “lock” scenario assumes an empty opposing board, no pressure, no mana rocks or dorks, and no interaction. That’s simply not how most games actually play out.
If Contamination looks broken, it’s usually because the enabler behind it makes it so. That should make us question Rograkh, not the enchantment itself. In reality, Contamination is a synergy piece, not a one-card game plan. You can interact with it in many ways, and calling it unanswerable is only true in idealized examples that don’t reflect the actual dynamics of Archon matches.
That’s why I don’t think the card crosses the line in terms of power level or gameplay experience. It fits the format’s philosophy: a high-power environment where strong effects exist, but interaction and timing still matter.
As for the process itself, I also voted no because I believe the Council’s job is to act as a filter, not as a forwarding mechanism for every ongoing debate. There’s no rule that every long or heated thread automatically results in a vote. The system is designed so that the Archons evaluate the arguments, discuss the context, and only move an issue forward when there’s a clear, substantive reason to do so. Otherwise, we risk turning votes into popularity polls rather than structured decisions rooted in principle and analysis.
For me, Contamination doesn’t meet that threshold, and I think it’s wrong to vote on this issue without a majority within the Council in favor of banning the card.
Ban Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful and Esior, Wardwing Familiar and Ban Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful and Tymna the Weaver as a Partner Pairing in Archon
Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful is without a doubt one of the strongest and most popular Partners in Archon. It is a potent one-mana threat that scales well into the later turns. Furthermore, it adds white to the color pairing — one of Archon’s strongest colors. The most popular pairings for Yoshimaru are Esior, Wardwing Familiar and Tymna, the Weaver.
Esior itself may not be the most potent threat, but as a two-drop it fits perfectly into the curve and complements Yoshi’s weaknesses against early removal. Blue as a partner color adds additional (often free) permission to protect the dog or its legendary companions. The resulting deck is a tempo powerhouse with above-average consistency thanks to the one- and two-mana commanders — two lands already ensure a strong curve. The large assortment of “free spells” available in blue and white adds a high-roll variance on top of this already great baseline. These free spells come with little downside, as threats are available directly from the command zone without needing to be drawn.
Tymna, on the other hand, is a more potent card in itself and adds power to Yoshimaru through card advantage. Additionally, black provides a wide range of removal spells against aggressive decks and discard tools against combo decks. The deck thus combines an aggressively costed command zone (with two threats) with the flexibility to handle a large variety of matchups. Even though it lacks a two-drop in the command zone, it remains more consistent than most other aggressive Archon decks, as only two to three lands and a single two-drop are required for a solid curve-out. While Yoshimaru specifically asks for legendary creatures, recent Magic sets have made it entirely feasible to build almost exclusively legendary decks without suffering from lower card quality.
With its low mana value and as a white card, Yoshimaru is the Partner that benefits the most from “Partner abuse” cards such as Flowering of the White Tree, Commander’s Insignia, or Keleth, Sunmane Familiar. Yoshimaru already has one banned Partner pairing — Yoshimaru/Rograkh — which worsened this issue by introducing an even cheaper partner. It might therefore be the case that not individual pairings, but Yoshimaru as a Partner in general, is too strong for Archon.
We therefore want to give the community full control over how to deal with Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful.
In today’s vote, you can decide on the two most popular Yoshimaru pairings individually.
If both pairings are voted to be banned, Yoshimaru will be banned as a Partner overall.
If both Yoshi/Esior and Yoshi/Tymna become illegal partner pairings, this will mark Yoshimaru’s third banned pairing. In that case, Yoshimaru can only be played as a single commander, similar to Vial Smasher the Fierce.
Possible voting outcomes:
Both Yoshimaru/Esior and Yoshimaru/Tymna remain legal.
Yoshimaru/Esior is banned; Yoshimaru/Tymna remains legal.
Yoshimaru/Esior remains legal; Yoshimaru/Tymna is banned.
Both Yoshimaru/Esior and Yoshimaru/Tymna are banned → Yoshimaru becomes banned as Partner overall and can only be played as a single commander.