Cards for other formats that ended up being busted in duel commander

Shorikai, Genesis Engine was supposed to be just a cool vehicle support card/commander printed in the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty commander precon deck. In duel commander tho, it became a very powerful azorius control commander which dodged most removal and gave you a ton of card advantage.

The biggest problem was that Shorikai was an artifact most of the time which made it immune to most removal cards in the format. The commander worked really good as a control commander since it gave you card advantage, cheap blockers and could finish the game if the opponent ran out of resources. Shorikai was actually so good at its job that many decks didn't run nearly any card draw spells as they could just rely on their commander.

Shorikai just made azorius control decks too good and was too difficult to remove resulting in it being banned as a commander not long after being released.

Commander legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate was a set full of powerful cards not only for EDH but also for duel commander. This set introduced staples like White Plume Adventurer, Gut, True Soul Zealot and the background mechanic. The one truly broken card from this set tho was Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes. 

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes offers pretty much everything you want from a card in the command zone. It pretty much does it all, deals damage, is a big threat, has good colours and gives card advantage. The planeswalker could become a problem even after a single turn on the board, Boo could soon become a 7/7 trampling beast quickly lowering your life total.

The card was so powerful that it got banned as a commander only a week or so after being released. The ban was in fact so quick that when I took a short break from duel commander I never even got to face a single Minsc & Boo deck. The card is still getting played a bit in Niv-Mizzet, Reborn decks but it will never be as powerful as it once was.

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms wasn't really the strongest set but it sure did introduce some powerful cards like Deadly Dispute, Old Gnawbone, and most importantly Maddening Hex. This enchantment originally made for EDH, punished your opponent each time they cast any noncreature spell and since you don't have any other opponents it would stay on the enchanted player for the rest of the game.

Enchantments are probably the most difficult card type to remove and any red deck could play this. It just feels bad if the game is decided on the results of random dice rolls. Getting dealt on average 3.5 damage each time you played a noncreature spell proved too powerful for the format and it got banned a few weeks after being released.

Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar is probably the most unique rakdos commander ever. She was released back in 2021 when modern horizons 2 came out. In modern she was a cool food/discard payoff and she saw a small amount of play after being released. In duel commander tho, she was a strong aggro/combo commander which crushed any other aggro list with consistent removal and synergy.

The deck could kill any deck quickly thanks to synergy pieces and cheap creatures such as Kitchen Imp, Fiery Temper and The Underworld Cookbook. Since the deck drove pretty much any other aggro deck out of the metagame and lowered the diversity of aggro decks, she got banned as a commander only in September, only a few months after her release.

I still can't say her name :/ 

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is probably the most broken 1-drop in the history of magic and it broke many formats including legacy, historic and now even brawl, but most importantly duel commander. It didn't stay long in the command zone tho as it was banned as a commander the next month after it's release. Having the most broken turn 1 play which demanded an answer every game was just too good. It was still left free to cause havoc in the format as it could be played in the 99 of any red deck tho.

Ragavan was played in pretty much any aggro deck, whether it was Klothys, Juri, or others and even got played in some control decks such as Niv-Mizzet, Reborn. The card was just so good and always demanded an answer, otherwise your opponent would gain a lot of resources. It turned the favor for the player who played it first so much that it got banned from the format entirely about a year later in May of 2022.

Author: Tomas Solovic

Prices are from the 10th of May 2023