ASK THE COMMITTEE: TOURNAMENTS AND ORGANIZED PLAY

Your question:

"What's your view regarding proxy cards usage in tournaments? Cards such as Candelabra of Tawnos, The Abyss or Chains of Mephistopheles are beyond what 99% people can afford so it would be interesting to have your view about this.

Thank you."

Our answer:

We are aware that some cards have become progressively extremely expensive. The problem is that the Pandora's Box of prices is tainted with subjectivity and addresses considerations that are way beyond concensus. Classifying cards by price is not possible with binary considerations ("expensive"/"acceptable" or else), but is rather a gradient of perpetually changing values, challenged against another gradient of another one. We addressed those considerations in our 2022 and 2024 panels.

What is considered expensive or not, accessible or not, reasonable or not changes over time, and depends heavily on players' social conditions (income, country of residence, sources of expenses, passion,...), much more than they depend on a game deisgn philosophy.

As for paper, we only support our game based on Magic The Gathering™ cards. The definition of such items can be found in the Tournament Rules: https://wpn.wizards.com/en/rules-documents. We follow that document, as stated in our Comprehensive Rules.

As for Duel Commander being ported on digital platforms, as mentioned in our Comprehensive Rules: the platform you use is always right. Its card pool, prices, conditions and user agreements are outside our reach. Whatever they offer, using those platforms means agreeing to their terms and conditions.