Banlist Update: 7 Cards Banned from Standard, No Changes for Other Formats

Wizards of the Coast announced this Monday (30) the new update of Banned and Restricted of Magic: The Gathering, with changes for Standard. Other formats did not receive any update.

Today’s bans are part of the traditional annual “early rotation” window. The decision is intended to set the stage for future release cycles and increase the diversity of the metagame, which has been dominated by archetypes considered limiting for competitive play.

The following cards are banned from Standard:

This is the largest wave of bans in Standard since the implementation of the format's three-year rotation, and comes after more than two years without changes to the banned list.

The main target of the update was the Izzet Prowess deck, which achieved over 40% presence in the Pro Tour Final Fantasy and dominated the competitive environment. Cori-Steel Cutter was identified as the central engine of the strategy and considered too powerful for the format, with a high impact also on older formats such as Modern. Its strength combined with resilience and difficulty of interaction motivated the ban.

Additionally, Wizards also sought to nerf the Azorius Omniscience, which gained popularity with the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The exclusion of Abuelo's Awakening aims to reduce the consistency of the combo and restore competitiveness to other lists in the Metagame. The card has been raising concerns because it offers a cheap and effective way to reanimate enchantments.

On the aggressive side, two key Mono-Red Aggro cards have been removed: Monstrous Rage and Heartfire Hero. The former has been one of the most efficient combat tricks in recent Standard history, while the latter offered too much aggression combined with resilience against removal. Removing both spells aims to reduce play patterns considered “non-interactive” and increase the importance of defense in the format.

Another point highlighted by Wizards was the banning of cards with high incremental value that are difficult to outgrind, such as Up the Beanstalk, used in decks like Domain Overlords. According to the company, the card repeatedly became troublesome and reduced the variety of viable strategies.

Finally, Hopeless Nightmare and This Town Ain’t Big Enough were excluded for encouraging repetitive and unhealthy play patterns. Both were core part of Bounce decks that imposed constant discard on the opponent with Nightmare, while the This Town, combined with Stormchaser’s Talent, created lock-patterns or recurring token creation while generating a lot of value on its own.

Wizards also used the announcement to reiterate lessons learned about the impact of low-cost cards and the need to pay more attention to hard-to-interact effects within the three-year Standard. The company also confirmed that there will be two early rotation windows before the next official rotation in 2027, with the first expected to be about nine months away.

Source: DailyMTG