Ban list Update January 1 2024
Effective January 1st 2024 Jeska, Thrice Reborn is banned as commander.
It's been no secret that since we reverted the partner rules in June, Jeska has been a dominant force in the tiny meta with not just one but TWO different partners and strategies.
Aggressive decks partnering Yoshimaru have proved to be overwhelmingly successful, and value oriented decks partnering Thrasios have been seeing high success rates as well.
These have been more successful than we’re comfortable with.
We take a lot of things into account when deciding to make ban list changes. One of the biggest factors being reasonable counter-play. Could you be doing more in your deck building to avoid losing to this deck?
Often the answer to that question is yes. So we like to give players time to try and solve the puzzle and give opportunities for unclaimed niches to be filled.
Jeska however has proven to be a tougher nut to crack.
A combination of many factors (being a planeswalker, living in the command zone, having a partner) has shown that the opportunity for reasonable counter-play is greatly limited and has forced many creature based strategies out of the meta entirely.
Another major factor of bans is the consistency. Cards and strategies are allowed to be powerful in Tiny Leaders! But usually it comes with the caveat of a singleton format meaning you can’t always do it every single game. This is not true for Jeska (or for any card in the command zone really)
When we reverted the partner rule we stated we didn’t want partners to be a top force of the meta. We knew there was going to be a chance of something coming up when we did the change, and we promised we’d keep an eye on it.
When they’re too good, Partners have a habit of homogenizing gameplay and causing repetitive play patterns. Always having access to a second commander results in a lot of games going exactly the same.
Combined with the balance issues, this ban also aims to keep us in alignment with our stated format philosophy regarding partners.
All that being said, Jeska’s power comes almost exclusively from being in the command zone. Without consistent access to her, we don’t believe she’ll pose a greater threat than any other planeswalker. So for this reason we’re banning her as commander but still legal in the 49 (or 48 in her case)
Other stuff
Jeska is our only ban today, but for transparency’s sake we’d like to let you know we also have our eye on a few other things.
Food Chain combos are a rising force in the meta. We don’t currently have enough info/data on the deck to make any decisions about it but we want you to know we’re keeping a close eye on it and giving more time for players to adjust their decks to a new meta.
We'll also be watching to see if/how Red aggro decks come back to the meta now that the better red strategy isn’t forcing it out.
That's gonna be it for today. Until next time! And a reminder: You can come join the Discord server and participate in our monthly leagues! Win Prizes! Make Friends! Play Tiny Leaders! It’s all happening in the Discord so come see what's up.
Discord invite link: https://discord.gg/ukMKn2uPNf