Commander is one of the more stable formats in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering’s 𒊎repertoire of formats, but that doesn’t mean that shake-ups will happen from time to time. One of the biggest changes to the format happened with the banning of four staple cards from higher levels of play.

Of those four cards, one of the most prestigious of them was Mana Crypt, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:an exceptionally powerful mana rock that has been a staple in plenty of decks over the years. If you are wondering what led to M🌠ana Crypt getting banned, we hav𒐪e all the details you need.

What Is Mana Crypt?

The infamous artifact has long been a powerful card in Commander, partly because of the long-time exclusivity of the card and the sheer power it provides.

This zero-mana artifact adds two generic mana to your mana pool, all at the cost of a little bit of life, sometimes. The big drawback of this huge mana rock is that at the start of your turn, you have to flip a coin. Losing that flip means you take three damage, while if you win you don't.

You can immediately see why Mana Crypt is so good. For literally no investment, you get to add two generic mana.

Another part of what makes Mana Crypt so valued by Commander players is that getting one, at least getting a legitimate physical copy, was incredibly difficult for years. You could not open a Mana Crypt in packs back when it was released in 1995.

The only way you could add this card to your collection was by purchasing the Magic: The Gathering Book Final Sacrifice, mailing a special coupon to the publisher, Harper Prism, and then waiting for the car🍒d to come back via mail.

Other cards from this promotion include:

• Arena and Sewers of Estark
• Windseeker Centaur
• Giant Badger

Once that promotional period was over, there was no other way of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:obtaining the exclusive promo card until it was finally reprinted in 2016’s Eternal Masters as a Mythic Rare.

Technically, it was released again in 2011 as a Judge Promo card, but those are exclusively given to Magic’s Judges and aren’t widely🍌 released.

Mana Crypt was released in the Special Guests portion of The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. You could open a regular copy or the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cosmium Neon Ink variants, which all come in fancy colors.

What Makes Mana Crypt So Good?

It's easy to see what can lead Mana Crypt to being banned. Having access to two mana before you even play your first land gives you an incredible advantage.

You can either play a land and cast a three-mana spell, or get the ma📖na out of Mana Crypt, play another mana rꦑock or two like Sol Ring or Arcane Signet, and possibly a spell while you are at it.

All this lets you untap on your second turn with anywhere between three to five mana, which is plenty of space to play any remaining cards you have left in your hand or to cast a larger Commander🌌.

The downside to Mana Crypt, and what theoretically helps to balance out this zero-mana mana rock, is that you have a 50/50 chance to hit yourself for three points of damage at the top of your turn.

Realistically though, you’ll end up taking a few points of damage, which can be nothing in a format where you start with 40 health while tak♋ing the extra mana and using it to catapult yourself several turns ahead of your opponents.

Why Did Mana Crypt Have To Be Banned?

The idea behind banning cards is to keep the game healthy, and players♏ happy, and t🎃o help players be as creative as possible with their deck building.

If there are too many cards that are considered staples in every deck, like Mana Crypt, it can lead to a narrowing of deck variance.

Mana Crypt is also an exceptionally fast card. You can fire off a ton of spells in the earliest🌃 turns of a match that might normally take three or four turns to get going.

There are few other cards like Mana Crypt in Magic, with the other similar card, Jeweled Lotus, also receiving a ban, whil💧e the more widely accepted and available Sol Ring being safe from any banninཧgs.

Okay, So What About Sol Ring?

Sol Ring is a bit of a conundrum for Magic players and the Commander Rules Committee, the organizing body behind the Commander Banlist that Wizar💙ds of the Coast follows.

As it stands, there is zero movement or discussion around banning the ever-present mana rock.

Sol Ring requires a mana commitment of one mana, and while it offers similar power by generating two generic mana when you tap it, without the pesky downside that Mana Crypt has, it has other things going for it.

Sol Ring quickly became a standout card for Commander players, both being picked for its explosive mana generation and for being just a fun card.

Removing Sol Ring from the format would be a huge blow to the identity of the game and have a huge impact on casual and competitive players alike.