WotC confirms Banned and Restricted update on March 11

Wizards of the Coast has confirmed a future update to the Magic: The Gathering Banned and Restricted list for next Monday, March 11.

While the announcement date had already been announced in November 2023, the hosts of the WeeklyMTG program announced a debate on updates to the banned list as the theme of their next episode, confirming that there will be changes to competitive formats on March 11 .

Although Wizards or the WeeklyMTG hosts have not confirmed the affected formats, the consensus in the Magic community is that the changes will occur in Pioneer and Modern, as Standard is in the middle of its RCQ season, while The Pauper Format Panel has not yet announced any changes to the Pauper format next Monday, and Legacy currently has a rather stable Metagame.

In Pioneer, players speculate Amalia Benavides Aguirre will take the ban after her combo with Wildgrowth Walker starred an unusual match in the semifinals of Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor, where Christoffer Larsen and Simon Nielsen went to Game 7 due to draws forced by infinite loops around the combo.

The likely change for Modern, according to players, is the banning of Cascade spells to reduce Temur Rhinos's consistency, whose presence in the competitive scene has grown by a wide margin since Fury was banned in the latest Banned and Restricted update, currently having over 17% of the Metagame share.

Unbans are also a possibility in Modern and Legacy, with speculation taking place around several cards whose power levels no longer keep up with the format's standards today.