The much-anticipated banned and restricted update for Commander turned out to be far lower impact than some Magic: The Gathering fans were expecting. There were rumors of everything from Primeval Titan to Jeweled Lotus being taken off the Commander banlist, but on February 9, 2026 the changes were unveiled, and only two cards were actually removed (and one is not that controversial).
To cut to the chase: Biorhythm and Lutri, the Spellchaser are the two cards axed from this MTG banlist, with the former going to the gamechangers list, and the latter getting its own special designation - banned as Companion.
Lutri's unbanning makes perfect sense. It's not a busted card, except in the specific way its Companion restriction works in an already Singleton format. Honestly, it's surprising we had to wait six years since the Ikoria set came out to see this decision.
Meanwhile, Biorhythm can be deadly, but as it's an 8 mana spell, you have to jump through some hoops to cast it. Previous unbannings of Coalition Victory, Sway of the Stars, and Worldfire haven't upset the apple cart, and Biorhythm is a card that falls into the same category - high impact, high cost.
Over the last few days, loads of cards on the list were spiking in price as fans hoped to capitalize on this update. Obviously, this is bad news for most of those speculators. But it's good news for fans of cute, furry mammals!
One other change: the hated removal spell Farewell is now considered a Game Changer. Not necessarily because it's ultra-powerful, but because it can create such a big reset, forcing everyone to start rebuilding from scratch, and Wizards thinks players should have the option to opt out of that experience.
What's particularly surprising about this change is that Farewell has been featured in plenty of Commander precon decks!