Announcement Date: August 26, 2024

Standard:

  • No changes.

Pioneer:

  • Amalia Benavides Aguirre is banned.
  • Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is banned.

Modern:

  • Nadu, Winged Wisdom is banned.
  • Grief is banned.

Legacy:

  • Grief is banned.

Vintage:

  • Urza's Saga is restricted.
  • Vexing Bauble is restricted.

Alchemy:

  • No changes.

Explorer:

  • Amalia Benavides Aguirre is banned.
  • Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is banned.

Historic:

  • No changes.

Timeless:

  • No changes.

Brawl:

  • No changes.

Effective Date for Tabletop and Magic Online: August 26, 2024

Effective Date for MTG Arena: August 27, 2024

An Updated Banned and Restricted Announcement Cadence


Today, we're going to start off by addressing an issue we've had with the timing of our Banned and Restricted announcements. The current timing tied B&R announcements to set releases, placing the announcement on the Monday prior to the start of Duskmourn: House of Horror previews. The goal in doing so was to make sure each set had proper context for evaluating new cards and to provide fewer points where decks would change. However, this timing did not take into account the timing of our competitive play seasons, namely Regional Championships (RCs), Regional Championship Qualifiers (RCQs), and the Pro Tour.

This led to B&R announcements that occurred in the middle of competitive seasons, or, as we just saw with the most recent announcement on June 24, they can occur the week of the Pro Tour. This can make it difficult for players to have confidence in their deck selection for events they've planned for, both from a testing perspective and a logistical one.

It is clear that the timing of the June 24 Banned & Restricted announcement was poor, so much so that we notified the public ahead of time that we would not be making any changes to Modern so that players could appropriately plan for Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3. This was certainly not ideal.

Moving forward, we will be aligning our B&R announcements to the RC and RCQ seasons. This will allow us to make adjustments to our play environments to ensure the best experience possible for our competitive play pipeline. Our plan is to use the RC and RCQ season (which includes Pro Tours) to gather data and observe the evolution of how each format absorbs each new release. This also means fewer B&R announcements overall.

To that end, our next B&R announcement will be on December 16, 2024.

It is worth noting that we don't plan on changing the current Standard B&R philosophy, meaning we still only want one window per year, barring an emergency, where we consider taking action in Standard.

(Tabletop format explanations written by Dan Musser.)

Standard

Speaking of Standard … we just experienced our first rotation of the new three-year Standard format world, and things look exciting! Many of the goals of our new Standard plan are being achieved. We want players to be able to play their decks and cards for longer, and we want new sets to add content to existing decks while also creating some new strategies. The fact that we only consider Standard bans once each year has given folks higher confidence that their collections are safe and they can get the most out of their cards.

The release of Bloomburrow along with the rotation of the four oldest sets has given rise to new strategies while adding a smattering of cards to existing archetypes. The macro-archetypes of midrange, aggro, and control all have ample representation among winning strategies.

While we can't touch on everything that's going on in Standard these days, we want to point out just a couple of examples of things we like seeing after our first rotation event.

The previous year's Domain strategies, which took advantage of the Streets of New Capenna typed tri-lands (Jetmir's Garden and friends), has survived the loss of those lands, replacing them with Bloomburrow's Fabled Passage and Murders at Karlov Manor's surveil lands, while also replacing Topiary Stomper with Heaped Harvest. Players still get to play most of their Domain deck while making a few updates.

On another axis, we've seen folks trying out decks like Rakdos Lizards as a brand-new typal strategy comprised mostly of new cards from Bloomburrow. This previously under-supported creature type saw an influx of new members, including Gev, Scaled Scorch and Iridescent Vinelasher. The deck packs quite the punch as all the synergy between the Lizards puts pressure on the opponent, backed up by the consistency of untapped lands across multiple sets, specifically utilizing Cavern of Souls naming Lizard.


While Standard is going great, many of our other formats have been struggling. We're going to be highlighting the clearest issues with each and taking more action today than we have in a single B&R Announcement in quite some time.

Pioneer

  • Amalia Benavides Aguirre is banned.
  • Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is banned.

Over the past several months, we've been able to gather data and observe results from a full season of Pioneer Regional Championship Qualifiers as well as data from other tabletop events and various Magic Online leagues and challenges. The format has two clear outliers that we'll be addressing today: Vampires and Amalia.

Since Seth Manfield's Pro Tour win back in February, Rakdos Vampires has been a growing force in the Pioneer metagame. We've gradually seen the deck's metagame share grow over time, approaching levels we believe to be problematic. The deck's marquee play of a turn three Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord into Vein Ripper is so potent that many decks struggle to interact with it at all. Traditional removal needs to be backed up with a sacrificial creature for you to even target it, and in doing so, you're still facing Sorin, have lost two cards, and lost some life, while they've gained some life. It is an exchange that is difficult to come back from. And that's only if your answers and battlefield presence haven't already been picked apart by the deck's efficient Thoughtseize/Fatal Push one-two punch.

With such a large metagame share, above 30% over the RCQ season, it is clear that the deck's existence is shrinking the diversity of the metagame to a degree we deem unhealthy. While it is fairly likely that Rakdos Vampires players will be able to transition back into playing a more traditional Rakdos Midrange deck, we believe the removal of the turn three pressure event should open up the metagame a bit, giving other strategies some breathing room.

While Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord has existed in Pioneer for quite a few years without causing any problems, we have seen how the release of a single powerful top-end Vampire has brought it right to the front of the metagame. When considering which part of a two-card combo to act on, one consideration we make is how likely one of the two cards is to cause an issue with other cards in the environment or with potential future cards that may exist one day. Paying a card's printed mana cost is generally a safe and fair strategy, while being able to discount a card by several mana is sometimes too strong. For this reason, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is banned in Pioneer.

As we've stated in the previous Banned and Restricted announcement, the Amalia deck is one we've had our eyes on for a while. Creature-based combo decks are something we believe adds positive texture to a format's metagame when reasonable. Unfortunately, this particular version of a creature combo has too many problems.

The deck uses Amalia Benavides Aguirre, Wildgrowth Walker, and various ways to gain life to kick off a series of triggers that normally ends with a twenty-power Amalia, a slew of cards being drawn or milled, a large amount life being gained, and all other creatures being destroyed. And if that wasn't enough, players have found ways to give Wildgrowth Walker indestructible, causing the game to result in a draw as Amalia triggers an infinite number of times. This is not ideal as a gameplay experience and certainly was not something our team caught during playtesting The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.

In addition to a handful of situations in which the deck causes the game to end in a draw, the full package is quite resilient. Being able to recur various pieces of the combo with cards like Return to the Ranks and Extraction Specialist, while also drawing them directly from your library with Chord of Calling and Collected Company, gives the deck a degree of consistency and power that has made it one of the most successful decks in the format. The combination of power, consistency, and the ability to draw games have led us to ban Amalia Benavides Aguirre in Pioneer.

We considered other cards as well. Treasure Cruise and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker were discussed at length. Our team decided that, while each of the following formats clearly needs a change, we wanted to take an approach that would allow us to make the most important changes necessary to each format without possibly going too far (this will be a common sentiment as you read more about the changes to other formats). We're confident each of the changes to these formats makes them more fun, but how much more fun? We'd like to observe this set of changes, see how each format evolves, and then decide if more changes are necessary in the next B&R announcement on December 16.

Modern

  • Nadu, Winged Wisdom is banned.
  • Grief is banned.

As mentioned in the opening section of this article, the timing of the previous B&R announcement was poor. We believe it is important that players know when to expect changes to formats. As such, we thought it was important to stay committed to the announcement dates we promised. The date leading up to the week of the Modern Pro Tour in Amsterdam was simply too early and would have served us all better being a few weeks after that event instead. This caused the last month and half of Modern to be fairly stagnant. Players knew we were likely to ban Nadu on the next opportunity, but they also knew that the best chance to win an event was likely by playing with Nadu. It was a poor experience for players, stores, and tournament organizers.

With the changes to the cadence of the B&R announcements, we would have likely targeted the end of July, before folks started engaging in the current Modern RCQ season. While we can't go back in time and remedy that, we can learn from the past and change our approach to the future. And we can certainly take this time now to address the clear issues with the format.

Michael Majors, the lead designer for Modern Horizons 3 and resident Modern format expert, has written a few words about the origin of how Nadu came to be and why we're banning it today.

For some time now, Grief has been maligned as one of the least fun parts of competitive Modern events. Starting the game down two or three cards from the various one-mana ways it can be returned is quite brutal. Having to mulligan is already painful, but being double Griefed directly afterwards just exacerbates an already unfun experience. Even outside of mulligans, having a turn one answer to a three- or four-power menace creature after an opponent has taken away your best cards is just asking too much.

While Grief is not currently seeing as much play as it has in the past, it is still a format staple used by several decks. Mono-Black Necrodominance, Esper Goryo's Vengeance, Living End, Rakdos Midrange, and a handful of other decks are still using one-mana cards to abuse Grief's manaless evoke interaction. In the interest of making the format more fun, we are banning Grief today.

We certainly considered a few other cards to take action against in this announcement—namely The One Ring. While present in several decks, there is no clear The One Ring deck terrorizing Modern. Being a unique combination of self-protection and card advantage, it is a strong card that helps prop up several varied strategies. Ultimately, we decided not to act against The One Ring. The possible problems it may be causing for Modern just aren't as clear as Nadu and Grief. Once we see how the format evolves after this change, we will continue to observe and evaluate the health of Modern and see which future actions are necessary.

On a more positive note, despite Nadu overshadowing much of the potential of what players can explore with the addition of Modern Horizons 3, we've seen a few non-Nadu cards and strategies find success. Energy and Eldrazi decks were themes we took intentional shots at propping up. Necrodominance is the namesake card of a brand-new mono-black strategy. Psychic Frog has transformed previous Izzet Murktide decks into Dimir versions. What else will be discovered as the looming shadow of Nadu is removed?

Legacy

  • Grief is banned.

Legacy can take a lot of power. The format sees play with some of the game's most powerful cards. But regardless of how powerful your cards are, you need to be able to cast them to take advantage of them. Much like in Modern, Grief prevents players from being able to do that.

While folks in Modern use narrow cards like Malakir Rebirth or Ephemerate to take advantage of Grief's manaless evoke ability, Legacy has Reanimate and Animate Dead backed up with protective elements like Daze and Force of Will. Various flavors of Reanimator strategies have long been viable in Legacy, but they have been generally kept in check by the strongest anti-graveyard cards ever printed being widely available. Grief presents a threat that synergizes well with reanimation effects while being able to attack the hate cards opponents would traditionally present.

Simply put, Legacy has not been able to self-correct to handle the powerful combination of Grief and Reanimate. With Dimir Reanimator's ever-growing metagame share, we've decided to ban Grief in Legacy.

Again, as in Modern, we considered a handful of other cards for this round of changes. We looked at the new Eldrazi deck, featuring several Modern Horizons 3 cards, and talked a lot about Psychic Frog. However, Grief and Reanimator is such a large part of the current Legacy metagame that we wanted to make the clear and obvious change to the format before making further changes. Specifically, Grief and Psychic Frog are featured together in Dimir Reanimator. Psychic Frog also appears in various Delver shells, but it stands to reason that it should have a smaller metagame presence once Grief has been removed.

Vintage

  • Urza's Saga is restricted.
  • Vexing Bauble is restricted.

Since the removal of Lurrus of the Dream-Den from the very selective Vintage banned list in 2021, the companion has been a growing part of the Vintage metagame. As a format, Vintage tends to evolve slower than others, generally taking quite some time to show obvious signs of needing maintenance. In fact, aside from the recent banning of sticker and Attraction cards, the last few changes made to the format involved unbanning and unrestricting. This is a good sign that Vintage has been in a good spot for some time now.

Lurrus decks featuring Urza's Saga have had the top spot in the metagame over the past year or so, often with representatives taking multiple spots in Top 8s both in tabletop events and Magic Online challenges. While Lurrus Saga is widely regarded as the top strategy in Vintage, the opportunity cost of playing four copies of Urza's Saga in the format is simply too low. Nearly all decks run a suite of artifacts that cost zero or one mana. From Mishra's Workshop decks to Tinker decks, a number of strategies leverage this powerful land without narrowing their overall game plan.

As a top five most-played unrestricted card in Vintage, the restriction of Urza's Saga is unlikely to remove it from many of the strategies it is currently played in, although that will happen to a degree. Fewer games will be decided by a pair of 6/6 Construct tokens and a burst of Black Lotus mana on turns three or four. This should lead to a more diverse range of experiences for players to enjoy in Vintage. For the reasons mentioned above, Urza's Saga is restricted in Vintage.

While we're talking about some of the most-played, unrestricted cards in Vintage, let's talk Vexing Bauble. This little gem from Modern Horizons 3 was created to stop folks from using various free spells in Modern like Grief, Force of Negation, Living End, and other things you'd like not to happen. This is a reasonable goal in some formats, but not necessarily in others.

Specifically, you play Vintage to play the most powerful spells in the history of Magic! A player who goes first and can resolve a Vexing Bauble before their opponent takes a turn effectively shuts them out of playing all their cool cards after you've had the chance to play your own. Moxen, Lotuses, and Force of Wills are a major reason folks are drawn to the format. Playing with 2 to 4 of these isn't even that big of a hinderance to your own strategy, unlike something like Chalice of the Void, as you can sacrifice extra copies, resolve more zero mana spells, and then resolve another one before passing the turn. In the spirit of keeping Vintage about Vintage, Vexing Bauble is restricted.

(MTG Arena format explanations written by Dave FInseth.)

Alchemy

Rotation has refreshed Alchemy by removing several decks from the format and clearing the way for a year of exciting deckbuilding. Heist is still one of the most popular decks in the format despite having a less competitive win rate when compared to new contenders like the Mice and Rabbit decks. With the release of Alchemy: Bloomburrow, we are excited to see what new decks players brew up in this rapidly changing format.

Explorer

  • Amalia Benavides Aguirre is banned.
  • Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is banned.

Each card banned in Pioneer that is available on MTG Arena is also banned in Explorer. Explorer will continue to match Pioneer's bans as we work toward tournament Pioneer on MTG Arena. Amalia Combo is a play pattern we are happy to see leave MTG Arena as it was a challenging experience.

Historic

Since the release of Modern Horizons 3, Historic has seen a significant shift in its metagame as Boros Energy quickly took over much of the competitive play space. To adjust the format, we rebalanced three of the most powerful cards, Guide of Souls, Galvanic Discharge, and Ocelot Pride. Each of the rebalanced cards are still a competitive option but are more in line with the power level of the format. These rebalances have proven to be successful as the Boros Energy deck remains a strong, popular option in Historic but is no longer a clear standout. Without Energy dominating the metagame, Historic is back to being one of the most diverse formats on MTG Arena.

Timeless

Timeless is finally starting to settle down as a format, and we are happy with how it's shaping up after all the latest additions! Timeless has a small but passionate community of players who have challenged each other to create the most powerful decks. Boros Energy has been a healthy addition to the format by providing an aggressive answer to the otherwise control- and combo-oriented metagame. Show and Tell continues to be a strong, meta-defining card, giving rise to Dimir and Jeskai control decks.

We believe Timeless is ready for more competitive play, so we have scheduled the first Qualifier Weekend events for this format.

Brawl

As we often see from a new set release, Bloomburrow commanders have been popular since release, as players build decks around the newly introduced legendary creatures. We continue to iterate on the matchmaking for Brawl to find suitable opponents for players. The most notable recent change has been pushing Nadu, Winged Wisdom up to match against stronger decks more in line with its power level.