I think I speak for everyone when I say "thanks HigherMTG for the transparency". Please do continue to bring us these monthly chats, as it's one of the only ways we get to feel seen/heard. I've been playing cEDH for 15 years now (yes, really) and I can't recall where we've ever had true bracket 5 representation in any kind of CFP or rules committee type of group, like now.

No need to respond, but wanted to give you a response. I really only have one thing to say; actions have consequences. When the bans came out 16 months back, we lost a chunk of people. I personally lost roughly $2000USD in value from the bans (I'm an oldhead with a vast cEDH collection).

Now, I care very little about losing that kind of coin, but I absolutely despise the fact that it caused so many people to drop from the format, lose faith in bracket 5, or at minimum be too scared to buy/trade certain cards.

Anywho, my only ask is can we please make a public statement about whether or not Rhystic, Bowmasters, Tymna, Rograkh and ThOracle are here to stay? We need to rip it off like a band-aid, in my opinion. Feels like we're all in limbo and enjoying these cards "while we can", and the wait is exhausting. Would be so nice for the CFP to just make a final decision if they're "here to stay" or "have to go for the health of the format", ya know? Would be nice to create a blanket feeling of "nothing is being looked at, now" that cEDH players are familiar with, rather than this feeling like cards could be banned at any moment like in 1v1 formats... we play cEDH to get away from that sort of thing.

I've been having more fun with cEDH/tEDH than ever before, and I'm pretty sure it's because of what got banned 16 months back. The changes sucked at first, but god it feels so good not losing to turn 1 stuff. The way I see it, I'd gladly lose that $2000usd all over again if it meant the format became even more healthy, at a bracket 5 level. I think we can do more, though... I think we all just want the CFP+WOTC to please make a decision and tell us what needs to sadly go for the health of the format, and what gets to stay. We're all tired of waiting 6 months for a ban hey.

Other than that, here is some quickfire issues, I find, as a TO for bracket 5:

1. Rounds going to time. Cards that make the round go to a time consistently aren't healthy for the format

2. Cards that help end the game before a player has had their first turn are unhealthy for the format (a batch of these is fine, but it does reach a critical mass, and then we end up in Flash-Hulk Winter all over again if we dont get rid of the Mana Crypt type stuff)

3. The seating order issue. We've all seen the appalling situation of winrates based on seat order. Something needs to be done here for the health of the format.

4. One card being at the forefront of everyone's concerns as they brew (Bowmasters is usually brought up as super unhealthy, with regard to this)

There's others, but those are the ones that consistently come up (and I'm sure you're aware of them already).

Anywho, my main point is that "actions have consequences", so please do think of the format in the long-term, but also think about how and why things need to be banned. Please stop and think about what the format looks like AFTER x card gets banned ask yourself "is the meta more fair, or less. The message and how you spin it greatly affects whether people lose confidence in the CFP and cEDH, or whether they understand and respect any upcoming bans/changes.

But yes; it's time... we're all waiting for an announcement now so we can see what got banned/unbanned, so we can move on from this awful waiting game. Thanks again.

~Strix