Another wave of Magic: The Gathering bans has come into effect, and there are a lot of changes coming to Standard format. As of today, seven cards have been banned from Standard, which is the most we’ve had at once since 2020.
Across all formats, there are ten bans today, affecting Historic, Pioneer Best-of-One, and Alchemy, on top of all the changes coming to Standard. This makes it the largest ban wave since all the way back in 2005, according to our TCG Lead Joe Parlock.
Here Are The MTG Bans Coming Into Effect Today
These are all the cards that can no longer be played in the affected formats.
Standard
- Cori-Steel Cutter
- Abuelo’s Awakening
- Monstrous Rage
- Heartfire Hero
- Up the Beanstalk
- Hopeless Nightmare
- This Town Ain’t Big Enough
Alchemy
Pioneer Best-of-One on MTG Arena
Historic
There’s a full blog post detailing why all of these changes were made, but most of the focus is on Standard, as this format is seeing the most changes. Here, we are told that these cards are being banned because they either allow for “unhealthy play patterns” or “restrict viable deck-building options”. All in all, the aim is to make Standard more fun to play until the next wave of bans in November.
“Seven is a lot of cards, even for our ‘early rotation’ window, and especially so since it has been over two years since any cards at all were banned in Standard,” says lead play designer Jadine Klomparens. “Our last banned and restricted announcement was roughly three months ago, shortly after the release of Aetherdrift. At that time, Standard was looking fun and healthy. […] The release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm in April had a dramatic effect on the Standard metagame, propelling Izzet Prowess to the top of the metagame on the wings of Cori-Steel Cutter.”
Klomparens says that this deck accounted for 40 percent of the Standard metagame at a recent event, so it’s understandable why these bans are being put in place. As the blog post explains, these cards were just getting played too much, and controlling the rest of the meta right now, as everyone else has to play around them.
However, another point our TCG Lead raises is that Vivi Ornetier has not been included in the bans, despite being part of the problem. With that said, the sheer quantity of bans in Standard does make it clear that the team is eager to shift the meta.
The next wave of bans will come later this year on November 24.
- Franchise
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Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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13+
- Length per Game
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Variable