Metagame: What might be Banned on February 9

The first Banned and Restricted announcement of 2026 has a set date: on February 9th, Magic will announce another cycle of changes for the card game's main formats. As is customary in the community, the week leading up to the announcement is always filled with speculation — both gut feelings and financially motivated — about which cards might join or leave the game's banned list.

The start of the year brought some unexpected developments. For example, Lorwyn Eclipsed changed the perception of Standard and reduced the risk of a ban for Badgermole Cub — a card commonly discussed as troublesome or busted by the community. On the other end of the spectrum, Pioneer requires intervention regarding Cori-Steel Cutter to open up the competitive scene's diversity.

In the eternal formats, Modern has more potential for unbanning cards than for changes that would remove something from the format. Pauper and Legacy have low odds of bans, even with a list of cards worth considering in future announcements.

The unknown variable in this cycle is Commander. It has been confirmed by Wizards that the format will undergo changes next Monday, but its more casual and unpredictable nature doesn't make it clear where exactly these changes might occur.

For the first time in a long while, Standard will go through a Banned and Restricted announcement window without serious ban risks or the need for Wizards of the Coast to intervene.

In the week of Lorwyn Eclipsed's release, the results from Nature's Rhythm + Badgermole Cub decks amplified an existing concern from the Avatar release: like any card that generates extra mana, Badgermole Cub can be broken. It seemed poised to break and dominate the Metagame — after all, it received several powerful additions with the new set, like Formidable Speaker and Wistfulness.

Intervention, however, no longer seems necessary now. The Cub decks faced their trial by fire during the Pro Tour and posted an average win rate of 40% in non-mirror matches— a number lower than expected even when an archetype is the deck to beat in a major event. Its weakness was exposed: archetypes that take advantage of this deck's low interactivity to go off faster — Temur Harmonizer and Dimir Excruciator, two of the highlights from Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, fit this category.

There is a risk to watch for in the weeks leading up to the next B&R announcement: Badgermole Cub is pulling Standard towards a less interactive spectrum, where doing your absurd thing before the opponent secures wins. If the format remains in this state during the next season, there's a possibility that part of the community will feel dissatisfied with the Metagame's state; in that case, a ban might be necessary to keep Standard interesting and fun.

Pioneer is a victim of everything that went wrong in Standard last season, but without reaping the benefits. In the last update, Heartfire Hero was banned to slow down Mono Red Aggro and reduce the number of "non-games" in Magic Arena's Best-of-One — only to make room for another troublesome archetype.

Izzet Prowess is, today, the best deck in Pioneer by a wide margin, representing almost a quarter of the format's overall Metagame. It has been larger, lost some space, but is still the clear defining archetype of what's playable; if your list doesn't have a solid plan against Prowess, it needs to be rebuilt.

Among the many problems in the Izzet shell today, Cori-Steel Cutter is the most likely candidate for a ban in the entire format. There's a category of effects in Magic that tends to only improve with each release, and the equipment from Tarkir: Dragonstorm fits easily into it — any cheap upgrade for spellslinger strategies, any new cantrip, any cheap effect that allows casting two spells in a single turn already makes Cori-Steel a better card.

The way the red shell remains fast and efficient in Pioneer — just add a second color and focus on cheap spells — could be another motivator for banning Cori-Steel. After all, Izzet Prowess or Gruul variants may not have the same "combo-kill" provided by the combination of Heartfire Hero and Callous Sell-Sword, but they are still archetypes that promote less interactive games in Best-of-One.

Following the philosophy of "avoiding non-interactive strategies capable of winning games early" inevitably means looking at Greasefang, Okiba Boss. The Neon Dynasty legend has a two-turn kill combo with Parhelion II that has been, since its release, one of the most common strategies in the Best-of-One environment, to the point where players use targeted hate like Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace in the maindeck.

Justifying a Greasefang ban, however, has always proven problematic when the archetype didn't show a recurring level of dominance in the Metagame. Even in the recent Orzhov variants, with Monument to Endurance and discard sources as an alternative game plan, the deck continued to post solid results, but far from enough to become a threat to the Metagame.

The last few weeks have moved the archetype away from the Orzhov version back to the more traditional Abzan-colored variant — Formidable Speaker offered more consistency in assembling the combo and even provides a small toolbox of targeted answers. This addition, combined with Greasefang's already established infamy on Magic Arena, could culminate in its banning. Perhaps not in this update, but still in 2026.

Badgermole Cub can be treated as the other elephant in the room for Pioneer: combined, the archetypes that use it in the format surpass Izzet Prowess in raw numbers. The Avatar creature was also responsible for elevating Selesnya Company to Tier 1 of the format and establishing Golgari Midrange as a competitive strategy with notable results.

Unlike the other cards, Cub seems like a healthy addition to Pioneer at this moment. Yes, it can also do absurd things and considerably changed the Metagame's dynamics; it's possible that, in the absence of Cori-Steel Cutter, it becomes the next dominant card. But from the broader perspective of Pioneer's Metagame, the creature boosted various strategies that were once forgotten or even nonexistent from a competitive standpoint.

Modern players like stability, and Wizards prefers to maintain the format's status quo unless intervention proves truly necessary — except for unbannings that could positively add to the Metagame. A more drastic change seems unlikely at the moment, but there are some points of friction worth discussing.

The main one, when discussing bans, involves Quantum Riddler. Since its release in Edge of Eternities, the sphinx became the most important card of 2025 for Modern and propelled Blink and Goodstuff strategies back to the top of the format. Furthermore, Riddler also became a staple in Goryo's Vengeance and reached the point of being in 100% of lists for decks not based on Ephemerate, like Izzet Cutter, Dimir Midrange, and Grixis Oculus.

That's a lot of inclusion for a single non-generic card, and we've seen Wizards intervene in Modern before because a card was homogenizing the format too much or promoting value piles excessively. It's unlikely but possible that Quantum Riddler eventually leaves the format for similar reasons.

Unbannings are the other side of the common Modern debate. Requests range from Punishing Fire to the original artifact lands, and the unbanning of Mox Opal and Green Sun's Zenith in late 2024 shows that Wizards doesn't always plan these interventions by playing it safe. Anything not in the unthinkable category (Eye of Ugin, Arcum's Astrolabe, Skullclamp, etc.) is a possibility.

There are three cards worth considering at this point in the format. The first, Hypergenesis, seems outdated for today's power level and a bit too easy to play around even when it can put Emrakul, the Aeons' Torn into play on turn three: the spell requires more prior setup than other payoffs, Violent Outburst is banned — it's no longer possible to combo off at instant speed — and the range of answers to deal with Emrakul today is much greater than it was in 2011, when Hypergenesis was banned preemptively.

Dredge has been dead in Modern for a few years, and Bridge from Below was banned for crimes committed by Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. Unbanning the enchantment now would mean finding new innovative ways to use it in new archetypes, or the possibility of trying to bring Dredge a little back without creating too many risks for other strategies.

On the other hand, Bridge from Below is one of the worst card designs in Magic: The Gathering history — after all, it doesn't function as a normal Magic card and promotes a playstyle that deviates too much from conventional gameplay patterns — and the mere fact that it's a design mistake with poorly explored interactions and risks is enough to consider keeping it on the banned list.

On the more controversial side, Umezawa's Jitte — another card banned preemptively — is still considered one of the most powerful pieces of equipment in the game. The artifact was deemed too strong because it punished Aggro decks to the point of invalidating them due to the mix of removal, pump, and lifegain effects.

That decision, however, was made in 2011—fifteen years ago, and the quality and power level of Magic's creatures have grown immensely during that decade and a half to the point we barely have anything in Modern that can be categorized as just "a cheap threat". Combined with the nearly invisible presence of Stoneforge Mystic among Modern's top competitors today, there are good motivators to give Umezawa's Jitte a chance to prove it can be a good addition without breaking the format.

There aren't many reasons to consider interventions in Pauper if the goal isn't to shake up the Metagame once again.

The format's state today seems more diverse after the High Tide ban, but we're still in an environment of red versus blue versus artifacts versus combo — that symbiosis won't change anytime soon. Some shifts, like the resurgence of Elves as a competitive strategy or the recent rise of Gruul Storm in Leagues, are natural symptoms of this dynamic.

Despite the possible balanced state today, two cards deserve mention as possible targets in the coming months due to their progress in the competitive environment.

Sneaky Snacker started in Pauper as a payoff for Dimir Terror lists before becoming a guaranteed staple in Madness variants. Today, not only have the Madness decks evolved to the point of abandoning the black splash to play as Mono Red with Guttersnipe, but Dimir lists are also starting to play it again with Abandon Attachments.

Snacker also belongs to a category of card that tends to improve as new additions that complement its game plan arrive in Pauper — and they will arrive. There might come a time when the archetypes that benefit from it become too consistent, or the angles of attack of these strategies become so diverse that one of them needs to be undermined. When that happens, the creature from Modern Horizons 3 risks joining the long list of cards from a Horizons set to be banned from Pauper.

Balustrade Spy is criticized for reasons similar to the card's effects in other formats: its combo is very consistent and steals too many free wins, even in a scenario where there are no double-faced lands to facilitate the process. Today, its archetype revolves around a Walls shell, where it sacrifices some explosive potential for more consistency and greater ability to respond in interactive games; a natural evolution against a Metagame increasingly prepared to handle it.

Faerie Macabre became a staple because of this combo, and of all the most played archetypes in Pauper today, Spy Combo/Spy Walls is the non-interactive strategy with the best results. Today, it represents only 3 to 4% of the Metagame, but numerical performance may not be the only metric for evaluating the pros and cons of having the Spy Combo in Pauper — the gameplay experience, the limiting factors it imposes, and the amount of dedicated answers it requires also matter in the equation.

The probability of a B&R update for Legacy next Monday is low: Wizards tends to change it as little as possible for maintenance purposes, and the Metagame hasn't been in a polarized state since the Entomb ban.

The Spy Combo (known in the format as All Spells) is the current point of friction in Legacy. Players and content creators for the format claim that the deck —which uses Balustrade Spy and Undercity Informer to put the entire library into the graveyard and reanimate Thassa's Oracle — turns matches against archetypes without Force of Will into a coin flip: on the play, you have a game. On the draw, You Are Already Dead.

In the last banlist, Wizards acknowledged the risks posed by All Spells but chose not to intervene, considering the strategy part of what makes Legacy unique.

During the last WeeklyMTG, Blake Rasmussen confirmed changes for Commander in the February 9th banlist. This change could be bans or unbans, a new rule to allow hybrid cards in monocolored decks, updates to the bracket system, or anything in between — unlike other formats, Commander lacks a sense of predictability about what can be banned, except in exceptional cases like Nadu, Winged Wisdom.

Speculations range from players desperate to sell their Mana Vaults fearing another fast-mana ban being applied, to speculators in waves of price increases for cards banned in the last update, which were the target of controversy that culminated in the creation of the Commander Format Panel.

With the Bracket system, defining bans for Commander seems less necessary than ever, except when a card has a detrimental play pattern on a universal scale, as happened with Nadu, Winged Wisdom. The freedom to define power levels and work around them should create less polarized gameplay expectation experiences—and the panel's work should focus on managing the Brackets and refining them to the point where communication between players about intent is perfectly clear.

From a banning perspective, Thassa's Oracle seems like the only card with a possibility of leaving the format. It is the cheapest win-the-game effect in Magic and does so with great ease and little effort outside deckbuilding concessions that are easy to promote when used in more competitive Brackets. Such an easy win button creates more negative experiences for Bracket 4, while also reducing gameplay quality for competitive tables.

That's all for today!

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