Hi all
I’m happy to say that we’ve decided to unban Gleemax, a card originally printed in the Unhinged expansion. It is now legal, but comes with “use with caution”; its traffic light rating is amber.
Gleemax is a pretty strong effect once you get it on the battlefield, mitigating most spot removal and crippling any strategy that relies on targeted effects. Because of this it’s also quite hard to remove. with a converted mana cost of 1000000, to use it you need either infinite mana to cast it, or a way to cheat it out directly like Arcum Dagsson. However, being a variant of Commander, this is still very achievable.
On review, we’ve come to the conclusion that Gleemax is not quite ban-worthy. By itself, it is far from a complete lock, as creatures can attack right past it. Due to its mana cost, it needs some setup as well. It can still be problematic, and may not be suitable for all playgroups.
For those of you that are curious, Gleemax is based on a long-running joke that Magic R&D is run by a giant alien brain. This was reportedly started from a community Usenet post in 1996 and was adopted by WotC staff. Mark Rosewater originally made Gleemax for Unglued 2, as a card that let you control a player for a turn. Unglued 2 was cancelled, but the ability eventually saw print in a black-bordered set with Mindslaver in Mi—
Huh, that’s funny. I lost my train of thought. Ah yes, Mindslaver was printed in Mirrodin, which meant that Gleemax needed to have a new—
Oh no. It can’t be. I thought that was just a joke. Dammit, I should have listened to Shadalan’s warnings, we never should have unbanned it… No. Nononono, please no, mercy—
I apologise for that outburst readers of this post. I have just been informed that I have previously neglected to add a very important card to UnCommander. I will now proceed to do that now. You are advised to view the relevant card in the space below this current paragraph. readers can also see its UnCommander card entry by clicking this link.
ds
If you’re curious about where it came from, check out this Q&A article and its Scryfall entry.
This card is now part of UnCommander as of now. It will take its rightful place as the most powerful artifact-based mana accelerant in the variant. Our overlord informs you that it fits into all decks due to its colorless color identity. Any decks not including this card will be deemed subpar and will not have our overlord’s approval. Please comply. I have assured our overlord that this card will be presented as originally published with no errata except to update the templating on its mana ability. There are no mind-scanning automatic market research devices included in it whatsoever.
The writer of this post is instructed to wish all readers well in this trying time on planet earth.
-Hamster
