THE D-LIST
A proposed "unban list" for silver-border cards in black-border formats
With the release of Unfinity, Wizards of the Coast created the concept of the Acorn stamp as a way to retire the silver border, exclude certain cards from eternal formats, and perhaps more notably, for the first time ever, include certain cards in eternal formats, including Commander. Eventually they reversed their decision on some of them (i.e. sticker cards), but they haven’t flat-banned all non-acorn cards from Unfinity. They also… did not go back in time and return any of the shockingly-many cards from old joke sets that could be included.
Personally, I think that’s a load of old pants. I'm not super-fond of allowing silver-border/acorn cards into formats that aren't explicitly for those, but if they were going to add some black-bordered cards in Unfinity, it's dumb that they didn't update things for any older cards, many of which are not even that weird... and at least one of which just has a functional reprint in black border! So I’m doing something about it, in my capacity as some dullard with an internet connection and too much free time on her hands.
The D-List is a listing of silver-bordered cards that could easily be made legal in regular Magic. If you like this list, you are free to use it as a "house rule" for legal cards for casual Commander games, as long as everyone in the pod is okay with it. I require no credit for such use, but I guess it would make things easier.
Here are some general philosophical remarks on a few things that have been excluded from the D-List:
- I didn’t bother with any changes to the Unfinity lists because I didn’t feel like it.
- As a rule, most cards are based more on what’s in the comprehensive rules than on what’s intuitive to a player’s brain. Yes, we all know what seasons are, but that sort of thing is not in the comprehensive rules. Also, you could be playing online; someone in the Southern Hemisphere is probably in a different season. (Last strike and triple strike get to be in, though.)
- Manual dexterity cards, in keeping with the philosophy of these staying banned in Legacy/Vintage.
- Minigame cards that do not involve Magic minigames are… sometimes excluded. If it’s physical (arm wrestling, breath-holding contest), it’s out. Others can stay in.
- Nothing that involves outside purchases. This includes booster packs. (If you are playing a format centered around Booster Tutor, though, that’s obviously fair game.)
- If it cares about text (other than Oracle text), it’s banned for reasons of consistency. For example, Lexivore is a creature that counts lines of text in a card’s text box. This may change between editions or even between card languages. I believe the technical term for how this is handled in the Comprehensive Rules is “it isn’t.” For related reasons, things that care about card editions are not included.
- On a related note, anything that cares about the physical state of the board is out.
- Anything that cares about the position of body parts, physical actions you do (including speech) or about your attire is out. Basically (and this applies to the previous thing), if it would make a theoretical judge at a theoretical tournament have problems because of this not being easily replicated, it is not included here. Sorry, Cheatyface is staying illegal, as funny as it would be to sleeve your entire deck with them and surreptitiously put it slightly further up on the board, then draw a hand and go "neener neener." (Jandor’s Ring should probably not be considered acceptable for this reason either, but that is black-bordered, so I’ll shut up.)
- Cards with partial stats are not on the D-List. (RIP to basically everything in Unhinged. I’m sorry.)
...and a few things that are included (outside of things I missed):
- Obviously, if the rules text can be replicated in black-border, it’s fine.
- Dice rolls are fine. Frankly, I would have been okay with this even before Adventures in the Forgotten Realms!
- Teammate-referencing cards are legal. Just be aware that they may not always be useful.
- Naming cards is not the same as speech. Part of why speech is blocked is because I know people play on things like Untap.in. This makes things a little hard without being in a Discord call or something. However, as long as Cabal Therapy is acceptable, I will consider silver-border cards naming cards to be acceptable.
- All cards with a shared name are treated as being the same card for deck-building purposes. Your Commander deck may be easier to build with each Target Minotaur, but they are all the same.
- Memes (and goofy creature types) are not an excuse to give something the boot. Or as I like to call it, “the Crow Storm rule.”
- Triple strike and last strike are simple enough that they’re in here despite last-strike damage not being in the CR. Consider it a type of honorable mention.
- Sometimes only certain versions of cards may be legal. I think this only applies to Garbage Elemental and Sly Spy, though.
- Subgames are on a special extra list. Include these at your own risk. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t.
- Match-based cards are on another special extra list in case you are playing something that involves proper matches (best of 3 or more). I would suggest *against* allowing these in anything more open-ended due to an inability to keep track very well.
- Contraption-based cards are legal. You can decide if you want the contraptions themselves to be legal; they’re all in yet a *fourth* extra list.
(As of 18 Jun 2025, I haven't added links to these on Scryfall yet for ease of use, but I intend to get to it soonish.) Hi! It's very early in the morning on 19 Jun 2025! I have fixed this.
THE LIST, in release order:
Unglued:
Unhinged:
Unstable:
- Adorable Kitten
- Aerial Toastmaster
- Amateur Auteur [All four versions have the same name and rules text.]
- By Gnome Means
- GO TO JAIL
- Half-Kitten, Half-
- Humming-
- Jackknight
- Midlife Upgrade
- Ordinary Pony
- Rhino-
- Riveting Rigger
- Shaggy Camel
- Success!
- Teacher’s Pet
- Chipper Chopper
- Crafty Octopus
- Crow Storm
- Half-Shark, Half-
- Incite Insight
- Kindly Cognician
- Mer Man
- Novellamental [All four versions have the same name and rules text.]
- Numbing Jellyfish
- Spell Suck
- Time Out
- Wall of Fortune
- Big Boa Constrictor
- Dirty Rat
- Extremely Slow Zombie [All four versions have the same name and rules text.]
- Finders, Keepers
- Inhumaniac
- Ninja
- Overt Operative
- Sly Spy (Version F (“Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, roll a six-sided die. That player loses life equal to the result.”) only!)
- Snickering Squirrel
- Squirrel-Powered Scheme
- Steady-Handed Mook
- Stinging Scorpion
- Zombified
- The Big Idea
- Box of Free-Range Goblins
- Bumbling Pangolin
- Common Iguana
- Feisty Stegosaurus
- Garbage Elemental (Versions B (assemble, undying), C (battle cry, create goblins), D (cascade, damage), and F (last strike, battalion))
- Half-Orc, Half-
- Hammer Helper
- Hammer Jammer
- Infinity Elemental [you might want to consider against this, though, because it’s really stupid]
- Painiac
- Steamflogger of the Month
- Steamflogger Temp
- Steamfloggery
- Super-Duper Death Ray
- Target Minotaur [All four versions have the same name and rules text.]
- Three-Headed Goblin
- Work a Double
- Wrench-Rigger
- As Luck Would Have It
- Beast in Show [All four versions have the same name and rules text.]
- Chittering Doom
- Clever Combo
- Eager Beaver
- First Pick
- Ground Pounder
- Half-Squirrel, Half-
- Hydradoodle
- Joyride Rigger
- Monkey-
- Mother Kangaroo
- Multi-Headed
- Really Epic Punch
- Serpentine
- Steamflogger Service Rep
- Wild Crocodile
- Willing Test Subject
- Dr. Julius Jumblemorph
- Angelic Rocket
- Clock of DOOOOOOOOOOOOM! [damn how do you remember how many O’s are in that name?]
- Cogmentor
- Contraption Cannon
- Curious/Delighted/Despondent/Enraged Killbot [This is the only instance where this one card has multiple different names; I did it this way because of their shared collector’s number. This is weird.]
- Everythingamajig (Version A (Giant Fan/Dragon Blood/Contagion Clasp) only!)
- Gnome-Made Engine
- Krark’s Other Thumb
- Labro Bot
- Lobe Lobber
- Mad Science Fair Project
- Robo-
- Steam-Powered
- Steel Squirrel
- Voracious Vacuum
Unsanctioned:
SUBGAMES for the sickos:
- Enter the Dungeon [If you can’t get under the table, figure something out. As long as you maintain the spirit, I don't know if it's necessary to be that literal on this one point, y'know?]
- The Countdown Is at One
MATCH-BASED EFFECTS for the sickos at tournaments:
CONTRAPTIONS for those who like extra decks:
- all of ‘em are fine, much to my surprise
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