MTG Official Commander Unbans Effective April 2025

• Braids, Cabal Minion

• Coalition Victory

• Gifts Ungiven

• Panoptic Mirror

• Sway of the Stars

Braids, Cabal Minion

Braids, Cabal Minion has been banned since 2009, and it’s not hard to see why. With the low mana cost of four, Braids could quickly lock down any game, making for quite an unplayable and unpleasant experience. However, Wizards is confident in their players’ abilities to identify overwhelming threats such as Braids, incentivizing more removal or counterspells.

Coalition Victory

Instant-win cards are typically highly unfavorable amongst the majority of the player base. Wizards prefaced this unban by stating, “This card engendered a great deal of discussion.”. And we certainly hope they came to the right conclusion, as this card will probably be an auto-include for anyone playing a five-color commander. However, Wizards is once again confident that players will play enough interaction: either removing said commander while this spell is on the stack or simply countering the eight mana auto win.

Gifts Ungiven

Gifts Ungiven provides insane value for just four mana. If players are running graveyard interaction with Gifts Ungiven, it’s practically saying “Get four cards you need for four mana at instant speed.”. Given the explosive spike in price that occurred today following this card’s unbanning, it appears that players are eager to include this in their 99. Compared to all the other Commander Unbans, Gifts Ungiven has the potential to fit in most, if not all, decks playing blue.

Panoptic Mirror

Sadly, there’s only one artifact to receive an unban today. Perhaps the scariest of the Commander unbans, Panoptic Mirror, has the potential to chain infinite extra turns or board wipes. Wizards seem optimistic in players’ judgments and leave it to the discretion of each playgroup if something of this power level is welcome or not. Artifact removal is more prevalent than ever in 2025, so cards such as Panoptic Mirror are more easily dispensed with.

Sway of the Stars

Sway of the Stars is one of the most interesting blue spells and undoubtedly has a niche in Commander. Similar to Worldfire, Sway of the Stars is a massive commitment for ten mana. While it doesn’t exactly reset the game the way Worldfire does, it’s still impactful enough for those looking for a little flair in their blue decks. Since it’s the only blue card to alter life totals on this scale, it’s a welcome addition to the roster, although it probably won’t see much play.

Closing Thoughts

Some of us are understandably disappointed that bigger named cards, such as Mana Crypt, Dockside Extortionist, and Jeweled Lotus, were not addressed in these commander unbans. However, players can take solace in the fact that the banned list is still getting attention and hope for more changes in the future.