Next Monday, on February 9, 2026, Magic: The Gathering fans are expecting the first Banned and Restricted announcement of the year, and on yesterday's Weekly MTG stream, host Blake Rasmussen was careful to remind viewers that this announcement will tackle the Commander format as well.
"We've been talking about [sic] the commander format committee for a while. They've come back with some recommendations and some changes, so we'll be announcing those next Monday," he announced.
Cue fevered debate about exactly what this might mean. Unfortunately, we don't even know if cards will be moving off the Commander banlist or onto it. All we actually do know is that some changes are definitely on the way.
No doubt some fans are going to take this as a sign that Jewelled Lotus, Dockside Extortionist, and Mana Crypt are getting unbanned and moved to gamechanger status. It's possible, but people seem to jump on that bandwagon at the drop of a hat, and they've been wrong every other time.
Last time we got a Commander B&R update (April 2025), five cards were unbanned, and Gavin Verhey gave us little snippets of his thoughts on other cards on the MTG banlist.
Looking at the cards which seem to have been considered a bit marginal at the time, the likely unbanning contenders are Golos Tireless Pilgrim, Biorhythmn (maybe), Iona Shield of Emeria, Lutri the Spellchaser (in the 99), Paradox Engine, Prime(val) Ti(tan)me, Rofellos Llanowar Emissary (in the 99), Sylvan Primordial, Yawgmoth's Baragin… and Jewelled Lotus.
It's probably not worth expending much effort trying to guess what's coming Monday (and it's definitely not worth putting money on it). Especially since Rasmussen did not confirm that there would be either bans or unbans on February 9 - merely 'changes'.
That means it's possible what we'll see on Monday isn't changes to the list of playable commander cards but simply alterations to the gamechangers board, a tweak to the brackets system, or a u-turn on how hybrid mana works in the format.
It is quite fun to speculate though, isn't it? Let us know your predictions in our unofficial comments section - aka the Wargamer Discord.