Raffine, Scheming Seer

Raffine, Scheming Seer is quite a hard card to evaluate in terms of acceptability. Long has Esper ({W}{U}{B}) been a very popular color combination, well suited for the systemic changes that Magic The Gathering is taking. It always was quite a nice option, over the years, from older  Merieke Ri Berit, Sharuum The Hegemon, Zur The Enchanter, through Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, partner-based combinations, to Tivit, Seller of Secrets, or Aminatou, The Fateshifter... The list goes on.

As usual, some cards end up being over the average against a concordant range of thresholds being trespassed, like here: evasion ability through flying, self-protection on tempo through Ward {1} and 4 toughness points, hence dodging a lot of cheap removal cards, eligibility as a commander, having a minimal regular mana cost regarding its color identity, but also the fact it can actually filter a whole controlling player hand while stacking a handful of additional damage to attackers every turn, making it a quick, deadly, coverable damage win condition, while using the top protective and reactive spell colors and a decent creature toolbox with many upsides, among other factors...

Also, being dominant in the world for months, as very few decks with such a wide, distributed range of advantages also have access to most of the currently top played cards in Duel Commander (about 4/5 of top 50 most played cards in Duel Commander as this text is redacted), all those summed up characteristics ended up with the decision of pushing Raffine, Scheming Seer out of legal commanders.