Announcement Date: December 16, 2024

Standard:

  • No changes

Pioneer:

  • Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.

Modern:

  • The One Ring is banned.
  • Amped Raptor is banned.
  • Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.
  • Mox Opal is unbanned.
  • Green Sun's Zenith is unbanned.
  • Faithless Looting is unbanned.
  • Splinter Twin is unbanned.

Legacy:

  • Psychic Frog is banned.
  • Vexing Bauble is banned.

Vintage:

  • No changes

Alchemy:

  • No changes

Explorer:

  • Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.

Historic:

  • No changes

Timeless:

  • No changes

Brawl:

  • No changes

Effective Date: December 16, 2024

View the list of all banned and restricted cards by format.

Welcome to the first banned and restricted announcement since we last spoke about changing the announcement cadence to align closely with the competitive seasonal offerings. We're nearing the end of a round of Pioneer Regional Championship events, a series of Eternal Weekends, and a season of Modern Regional Championship Qualifiers. In addition to gameplay on both MTG Arena and Magic Online, this gave our team substantial data to address any issues with each of the various competitive formats.

We'll continue this new cadence throughout the new year, with our next banned and restricted announcement scheduled for March 31, 2025. Without further ado, let's dive into each format and get into the changes.

As usual, we'll be on WeeklyMTG on twitch.tv/magic tomorrow, December 17, at 10 a.m. PT to discuss all of these changes.

To jump to our discussion of a particular format, click below.

Standard

Written by Dan Musser

  • No changes

Since our last announcement, Standard has seen the addition of Duskmourn: House of Horror and Magic: The Gathering Foundations. Cards from both sets have propagated their way through the Standard metagame, providing ample diversity in both color distribution and macro-archetype representation, setting up our first Spotlight Series event coming to Atlanta in early 2025.

You can dump an Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Koma, World-Eater into your graveyard with Fear of Missing Out and reanimate it with Zombify. Or perhaps you'd rather use Screaming Nemesis and Heartfire Hero paired with Burst Lightning and Lightning Strike to dispatch your foes? Or maybe a handful of Duskmourn: House of Horror's Overlords alongside Zur, Eternal Schemer is more your speed.

There's a ton to explore with Standard, and no matter your play preference, there's something for you to sleeve up and battle. We're very happy with the state of Standard.

Pioneer

Written by Arya Karamchandani

  • Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.

We have monitored the Pioneer metagame closely since our last banned and restricted announcement, and it has looked healthy and diverse. The format has a variety of macro-archetypes, and all the major decks are well within an acceptable win and play rate. While deck diversity looks good, we believe Jegantha, the Wellspring is hurting the format's diversity by reducing the pool of viable cards for many decks.

Jegantha is played in many Pioneer decks, appearing as a companion for most decks that can cast it and don't have key cards that violate its companion restriction. The value of having access to an extra card in games where resources are tight means most decks that can play Jegantha do, regardless of how it fits into their strategy.

This homogenizes the cards that these decks play, with top-end cards in particular suffering. It is hard to justify playing a personal favorite card or a metagame-specific call if it means giving up Jegantha. It is important to us that Pioneer remains a place where players can use their favorite cards from Standard, and Jegantha does a lot to prevent this, as many of our more powerful cards aimed at Standard tend to have more than one of the same mana symbol in their costs for balance. In the interest of increasing card diversity in the format, Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned in Pioneer.

Modern

Written by Dan Musser

  • The One Ring is banned.
  • Amped Raptor is banned.
  • Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.
  • Mox Opal is unbanned.
  • Green Sun's Zenith is unbanned.
  • Faithless Looting is unbanned.
  • Splinter Twin is unbanned.

Going into this announcement, it was clear that Modern needed the most help among our competitive formats. Our previous actions in August addressed the most glaring issue with the format: Nadu, Winged Wisdom. But things haven't gotten much better. We analyzed a handful of options to try and get the format into a spot that our players would enjoy and be excited about. However, we felt more was needed.

Our players are the backbone of competitive Magic. We can observe tournament results, analyze the metagame, and dig into win-rate numbers all day long. But it's all of you who are playing these formats, and at the end of the day, it is our job to ensure you're having as much fun as possible.

Modern isn't the same format it was years ago. There are several cards we banned years ago. Since then, several new sets have been released. Specifically, Modern Horizons sets have made a sizeable impact on the format. As such, we've decided it was time to set free a handful of cards. We'll start by talking through each banning. Then, we'll move on to the cards that will be unbanned.

It's no secret that The One Ring has been a large part of the Modern metagame since its introduction eighteen months ago. In the August announcement, we had stated that there wasn't a dominant One Ring deck and that it appeared in a variety of strategies, even propping up some more fringe archetypes. While it does appear in many different archetypes, it has also solidly become a part of the most dominant strategy in Modern: Boros Energy.

The opportunity cost of including The One Ring in nearly any deck is too low, and its presence in events has become tiresome for many players. Acting as a tool for self-preservation and a source of card advantage, it requires no commitment to any particular color. We believe it is clear, as it has been for many of you, that Modern would be a more enjoyable format without its inclusion. And thus, The One Ring is banned in Modern.

Removing The One Ring is certainly a hit to Boros Energy, Modern's most played and most consistently dominant deck. But it also impacts several other strategies. We'd like to ensure that we reduce the overall win and play percentages of Boros Energy directly, though we don't want to eliminate it from the format like we did most recently with Nadu, Winged Wisdom. We considered many cards in deciding how to knock Boros Energy down a few pegs, with Guide of Souls; Ajani, Nacatl Pariah; and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury among them. However, we landed on Amped Raptor.

Each of those options could reasonably be included in a few other archetypes, while Amped Raptor only appears in Boros Energy. Amped Raptor allows for some of the deck's most explosive starts, acting as an energy enabler and a payoff, and often amounting to an extra one to four mana in the early turns of the game. So, Amped Raptor is banned in Modern.

As far as banning Jegantha, the Wellspring, many of the same reasons Arya explained above apply to Modern. Ultimately, the decision to avoid cards that have more than one of the same mana symbol isn't a very interesting or fun one to make. By making a couple swaps in deck building, you can get access to a mostly free 5/5, earning you a couple of percentage points in the win column. This reduces the pool of options you might consider when building decks, which in turn makes for an overall less-diverse format.

Jegantha is clocking in at around 40% of all Modern decks, from Energy to Zoo and several more fringe strategies. To reduce the dominance of Boros Energy and increase the amount of diverse card choices available in Modern, Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.

The bans above should do a decent job of making Modern more fun and balanced. But could it be even better? When we ban cards, we tackle problems as they arise, using tournament data and community feedback to navigate the format into a better place. This combination of objective and subjective reasoning has its flaws. Namely, the more sets released into a given format, the more powerful it becomes. We've examined several cards on the banned and restricted list and reintroduced some to the Modern format.

It is worth noting that this is the beginning of a new era. Many of you have given feedback time and again about the good old days of Modern, before Modern Horizons sets started increasing the power level of the format and making iconic decks obsolete. After long consideration, we've chosen an initial list of cards to unban. We'll closely monitor how these cards impact competitive Modern events over the upcoming Regional Championship season and come March 31, 2025, evaluate how things are looking.

Did we make Modern a better place? Can we handle a wave of nostalgic and infamous cards to reenter Modern? Was there something we released that's making Modern less fun? Only time will tell, so let's get into it!

For much of Modern's history, artifact decks have been a pillar of the format, with decks like original Affinity, Krark-Clan Ironworks Combo, and even Lantern Control! But it has been a while since we've seen such a strategy be competitively viable. We took a couple shots to elevate artifact strategies in Modern Horizons 2 and Modern Horizons 3, but alas, the power simply wasn't there. Mox Opal was banned in 2020, after the introduction of Modern Horizons, which included our good friend Urza, Lord High Artificer. While opening hands containing Mox Opal can be quite explosive, it's not like we ever stopped printing strong anti-artifact cards. (Looking at you, Meltdown and Wrath of the Skies.)

Our expectations are that the reintroduction of Mox Opal will give rise to several interesting artifact strategies both new and old without adding any power to strong decks. And so, Mox Opal is unbanned in Modern.

Green Sun's Zenith has been banned in Modern since 2011. Banned during a time where green decks were too strong, the card offered a level of consistency and flexibility that was difficult to combat, often narrowing the range of cards you'd consider playing. In fact, the logic we used to ban Jegantha this time around applies to why Green Sun's Zenith was banned in the first place. But that was over a decade ago.

Today's green creature–based decks are few and far between. Even Basking Broodscale combo decks can't use Green Sun's to find its namesake. Yawgmoth Combo has basically fallen off the map, and while finding Grist, the Hunger Tide is nifty, key cards like Orcish Bowmasters; Yawgmoth, Thran Physician; and Zulaport Cutthroat are unable to be tutored.

Can Elves make a resurgence? Modern Horizons 3's new-to-Modern reprints Sylvan Safekeeper and Wirewood Symbiote might be tasty targets. Maybe old favorites like Dryad Arbor and Primeval Titan will be entering more often. To help increase metagame diversity, Green Sun's Zenith is unbanned in Modern.

Back in 2019, after Pro Tour Barcelona, it was clear that Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis was stronger than intended. One of the cards that died for Hogaak's sins was Faithless Looting. But Faithless Looting had propped up a multitude of strategies. Arclight Phoenix, Hollow One, Dredge, and even some fair midrange decks featuring cards like Young Pyromancer and Seasoned Pyromancer all played Faithless Looting.

Now, five years later, we're interested in seeing what Faithless Looting can do without a certain giant Avatar rearing its ugly head. Much like with the discussion of Mox Opal, we've introduced several anti-graveyard options into Modern since Looting's removal, namely Endurance and Boggart Trawler. Faithless Looting is unbanned in Modern.

It's a question for the ages: would Splinter Twin be strong in today's Modern? Twin was banned back in 2016 after consistently being at the top of the metagame and taking down a few Pro Tours. The fear of tapping out into three open mana and dying was real. Do you hold mana open for removal or try to progress your board state in hopes of getting the game over before they can assemble their one-two punch of Pestermite and Splinter Twin. History tells us that replacing Splinter Twin with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker doesn't cut it. So, can eight years of format evolution keep the Twin combo in check? We think it can.

Answers exist that once didn't, including several zero-mana cards that can keep you alive if the opponent decides to tap out for their four-mana enchantment. Solitude, Force of Negation, Force of Vigor, and Flare of Denial have all seen competitive Modern play, and each of them can solve the play patterns that Twin decks once exhibited.

Unlike Mox Opal, Faithless Looting, and Green Sun's Zenith, which can each support multiple different strategies, Splinter Twin only supports one strategy. But the whole point of today's reversed bans is to call back to the Modern of yesteryear. Each card was justifiably removed from Modern in the past, but times change, and we've realized that Modern isn't what it used to be. Splinter Twin is symbolic of an era of Modern that people look back on fondly, and it is now free. Enjoy the memes.

Legacy

Written by Dan Musser

  • Psychic Frog is banned.
  • Vexing Bauble is banned.

With the last announcement, we banned Grief to curb the dominance of Dimir Reanimator. We achieved that to some degree but not quite to the extent we were hoping. With Dimir Reanimator sitting at double the play rate of the next most played strategy and maintaining a strong win rate, we believe more action is needed.

Psychic Frog plays extremely well within the general shell of a reanimator strategy, providing a threat that must be answered that is also able to give you value when drawing your expensive reanimation targets. The Dimir Reanimator deck has been able to circumvent anti-graveyard technology by having an extremely efficient, fair game plan. While we believe reanimator to be a healthy archetype for Legacy, it should have its usual weaknesses. Additionally, the power of Psychic Frog narrows the range of reanimator variants, forcing players to consolidate down to a tight Dimir shell.

This same effect is seen in Dimir Murktide decklists. Psychic Frog is strong enough to prevent folks from exploring adding white, red, or green to these blue-based tempo decks. To increase the diversity among existing archetypes while not completely removing them from the format, Psychic Frog is banned.

In addition to discussing Psychic Frog, we also went over some other cards we could ban to reduce the strength of Dimir Reanimator. Specifically, Entomb and Reanimate. It was our belief that removing either would not solve the issue of Dimir Reanimator having a solid, fair game plan, as the deck leans on the threat of Psychic Frog when folks are packing graveyard hate. Also, it is possible that the removal of either Entomb or Reanimate could be too strong a blow to reanimator strategies, removing them from the metagame completely.

One of the pillars of Legacy is free counter magic. It is part of the glue that holds the format together. When certain strategies can ignore this pillar at very little cost to their primary proactive game plan, the format can begin to fall apart quickly. Decks like Mystic Forge Combo, Painter's Servant Combo, and other red Ancient Tomb decks are happy to include a one-mana artifact that can replace itself when it's no longer useful.

While the inclusion of Vexing Bauble is a rather recent development in the Legacy metagame, it has proven to be a successful and powerful one. With a concerning win rate among decks that include multiple main-deck copies of Vexing Bauble and its inherent strength against a pillar of the format, it has been banned in Legacy.

With Psychic Frog and Vexing Bauble removed from the format, several of the top decks will need to change. The recent success of Nadu variants, Cephalid Breakfast and Bant Green Sun's Zenith decks, has us keeping a close eye on Nadu, Winged Wisdom. For now, we believe today's changes should navigate the format into a more diverse and healthy position.

Vintage

Written by Dan Musser

  • No changes

In our August announcement, we restricted Vexing Bauble and Urza's Saga and have since seen the metagame share of Lurrus of the Dream-Den decks increase. Without having to worry about an abundance of colorless mana sources, many of the Lurrus shells have opted to run Psychic Frog instead, consolidating the archetype into Dimir or Esper variants. Despite Lurrus taking the largest share, there is still ample representation of other strategies, and win rates of the top strategies line within reason.

We'll be keeping an eye on how Vintage continues to evolve and monitor the success and play rate of Lurrus decks. Restricting Lurrus wouldn't accomplish anything, and the bar for being banned in Vintage is very high.

Alchemy

Written by David Finseth

  • No changes

Alchemy has seen significant changes over the last few months thanks to rebalances and new cards from Alchemy: Duskmourn. The latest round of rebalances in November shook up the metagame of Alchemy, with mono-red strategies becoming less popular while remaining an option. This opened space for new decks to flourish. Red-Green Dinosaurs has become a viable creature-focused ramp deck featuring the new Stalwart Speartail. A new Grixis Chorus deck has also emerged, featuring Hymn to the Ages and Ribald Shanty, two cards that are seeing a lot more play since the rebalances.

Lastly, we wanted to note that we are watching the White-Black Bats deck featuring Golden Sidekick. The deck has become very popular, but its win rates remain well within the band we are targeting for the format. We expect some of this play rate to drop as more cards are introduced with future sets.

Explorer

Written by David Finseth

  • Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.

Explorer will continue to match Pioneer's bans as we intend to provide a true-to-tabletop experience for the format.

Historic

Written by David Finseth

  • No changes

Magic: The Gathering Foundations and Foundations Jumpstart added many new cards to MTG Arena that Historic players have been tinkering with over the last few months. Monocolor decks have grown in popularity as a great entry point into the format. Mossborn Hydra is proving to be a strong addition, giving some additional support to green ramp strategies. Black decks are using Priest of Gix for some interesting reanimation combos. A new artifact deck is also putting up competitive numbers in the current metagame, taking advantage of Thoughtcast and the artifact lands included in Foundations Jumpstart.

These new additions are exactly what we want to see from Historic. No deck exceeds five percent of the metagame, and win rates remain within our expectations.

Timeless

Written by David Finseth

  • No changes

Like Historic, adding so many new cards in Magic: The Gathering Foundations and Foundations Jumpstart has creative Timeless players finding new ways to break things. A good example of this is Phantasmal Shieldback being used with Flare of Denial in control-oriented Dimir decks to generate additional card advantage. Artifact decks are seeing more play as they try to find their place in the metagame.

The top Timeless decks continue to keep each other in check as the format has a good balance of tempo, aggro, and combo strategies making up the most powerful games of magic you can play on MTG Arena.

Brawl

Written by David Finseth

  • No changes

We made a few rebalances targeting Brawl commanders that were proving unfun to play against. After these adjustments, Grenzo, Crooked Jailer is now in line with the power level we wanted for the card and A-Nadu, Winged Wisdom seems more balanced and fun since its update.

Foundations Jumpstart added 35 commanders to MTG Arena, and many are looking to be popular among players. As these new commanders see play, we will continue to monitor and adjust their matchmaking so that they fall into their correct brackets over time.