Here are my thoughts on the upcoming bannings of Rhystic and Thoracle, the management of CEDH in particular, and hard truths we need to realize so it can keep existing.
First off, I believe Rhystic and Thoracle are both going to get banned come January/February. I say this with confidence because I have been in communication with committee members who told me so back in April/May. The current setup seems to be vaguely asking for feedback on social channels, and then come time, they will hit both with bans. They will point to non-transparent "the community feedback told us to ban these cards" and that will be the end of it.
My personal opinion on the CAC is that they are a meat shield for WOTC and higher ups to do what they want. Additionally, I do not believe our format is being represented in any way whatsoever on the CAC.
Instead of words, we can simply look at the actions of our so called representatives, ranging from calling for the end of TopDeck (the almost sole proprietor of cedh tournaments) to endless bureaucracy in the form of groups and committee who to this day have not done a single thing.
I believe if they were actually trying to represent CEDH, the least they could do is reach across to TopDeck, to EDHTop16, and more to get some concrete data and thoughts on the format. Even if not that, some other quantifiable action would be enough for me to think otherwise.
I think it's embarassing no one on the CAC has bothered to do so, and instead there have just been vague calls for feedback on social media. Again, I think this is by design.
I don't represent this format, hell, I barely play anymore. But today I will be taking a step forward to at least counter some of what I see is going on. Later today a survey will be released on TopDeck for players who have specifically played in tournaments. We will collect your thoughts on the current "suspected" bannings on Rhystic and Thoracle, what you want to see out of the management of this format, and other issues you might want addressed. This will get us a concrete understanding of what CEDH players actually want, and something we can quantify.
I am willing to share this data with Gavin and WOTC if they ask for it, and I will be publishing the anonymized results myself in the future to hold accountability for when they inevitably ban the cards and tell us the community wanted it. I think the format needs to band together and present a unified front to get the changes and attention its asking for. Certainly, no one else has our interests in mind.
Lets finally figure out what the players want.