The February 2026 MTG Commander Ban & Unban list has been revealed

The first Magic: The Gathering Commander bans and unbans of 2026 are here, and there isn't really a surprise in the bunch.

Social media has been abuzz for a couple of weeks now with speculation, pleas to unban some fan favourites, and hopes that long-standing staples like Rhystic Study would finally get the axe. And while some will be disappointed, today's announcements bring some balance and a little bit of spice to your pod.

Let's check out the changes and how they affect the Commander table!

MTG Commander Bans | February 9th, 2026

None. So, you know, a lot of happy EDH players rejoicing that they don't have to go too deep into their pockets to replace cards.

MTG Commander unBans | February 9th, 2026

Biorhythm

Pros for the Unban

Let’s be honest, Biorhythm is the kind of card that makes a table sit up straight.

First off, it absolutely rewards your greedy board states and punishes your opponents. Biorhythm says, “I have a cool army. How many creatures does everyone else have?” It creates real tension around creature counts and makes combat matter.

It also gives green decks a dramatic, non-infinite way to end games. Not every green win has to be Craterhoof math homework. Biorhythm is splashy, memorable, and very “big green magic” energy.

And politically? It’s spicy. The threat of Biorhythm alone can change how people play. Suddenly, that control player who keeps wiping the board has to think twice about passing with zero creatures.

Cons for the Unban

Now for the ugly part.

Commander is full of moments where one player has no creatures. Maybe they just got wrathed. Maybe they’re a spells deck. Maybe they stumbled. Biorhythm doesn’t care. It just deletes them.

That’s the feel-bad. It doesn’t win through combat. It doesn’t build to a climax. It just checks a number, and someone leaves the table.

And in green? Eight mana isn’t some unreachable dream. It’s Tuesday. That means this “oops, you’re dead” moment can happen pretty consistently.

In casual pods, especially, getting knocked out because you didn’t have a creature when someone untapped feels rough, not epic.

Lutri, the Spellchaser (still banned as a companion)

Pros for the Unban

Here’s the thing: Lutri as a card is cool. It’s a flashy little otter that copies a spell. That’s fun. That’s Izzet. That’s chaos with value attached.

In the 99, it’s totally reasonable. Three mana to Fork something with a body attached? Sweet. That’s interactive, it creates big moments, and it’s not remotely broken compared to what Commander already allows.

If Lutri were just a normal legendary creature with no companion text, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

Cons for the Unban

Now that companion is off the table, the cons are way less dramatic, but they’re not zero.

First, it’s still a very efficient, low-opportunity-cost value piece for Izzet spellslinger decks. In higher-power pods, it becomes yet another redundancy piece for combo lines that already thrive on copying spells.

Second, it doesn’t really add anything new to the format. Izzet already has Snapcaster Mage, Dualcaster Mage, Naru Meha, and a dozen copy effects. Lutri risks just being another “goodstuff” auto-include in optimized lists, not broken, just homogenizing.

And finally, there’s the perception factor. Some players still associate Lutri with its original ban drama. Even if it’s technically fine in the 99, it might create table tension simply because of its history.

So unlike Biorhythm, which can be explosive and polarizing, Lutri, as a normal card is mostly a power-level question. It probably wouldn’t break Commander… but it also wouldn’t meaningfully change it.

Now Go Update Your Decks!

One of the best things about MTG is that it is constantly evolving. New sets, bands, and revivals bring fresh takes and force change to long-standing decks and strategies.

The February 2026 MTG Commander unbans give us just one more reason to dust off some decks, make some swaps, and maybe bring an old deck back to the table for some new competition.