The controversy surrounding the banning of four Magic: The Gathering cards in the Commander format has prompted a response from the rules committee amid allegations from fans of insider trading.
The Magic: The Gathering fanbase was in an uproar when it was revealed that four cards were being banned in the Commander format: Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom. This shock move tanked the value of the cards, halving them or worse.
Naturally, as money was involved, many Magic: The Gathering players took issue with the ban, with their collection suddenly losing value. This led to baseless accusations against the Commander RC (rules committee) that its members had sold their cards before the bans were publically known.
In response to this, an FAQ was released by the Commander RC, addressing the claims that cards were sold before hand.
“No. There’s no way to prove it short of putting our collections in escrow,” the post said, “But the RC has a zero-tolerance policy for abusing knowledge of pending or potential changes. If a vendor has evidence of cards being sold before the announcement we invite them to reach out to and publish it.”
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The FAQ went into greater detail about the reasons behind the bans (the cards were too powerful for the format) and discussed whether advance warnings would be issued in the future not to catch the fanbase off guard.
Obviously, it would be very difficult to prove if a member of the RC had sold cards in advance. All it takes is an anonymous eBay or reseller account to exploit this knowledge. If it were true and it were proven, then it would cause irreparable damage and cast doubt on any future bans.
The members of the RC have thrown down the gauntlet, and if the people making accusations think foul play is afoot, then it’s up to them to find evidence. It’s just a shame it’s come down to petty name-calling and claims of insider trading, but money talks, and when it gets taken from people’s accounts, then they’re going to be mad.
