Recently, Wizards of the Coast updated its Magic: The Gathering Banned and Restricted list. This list spans many different forms of play for the wildly popular card game. It also signals the start of a new approach to supporting official play going forward.
The Magic: The Gathering Banned and Restricted list update
According to an official blog post, the following cards are now banned in the associated formats in the updated Magic: The Gathering Banned and Restricted list:
- Pioneer: Karn, The Great Creator and Geological Appraiser are banned. Smuggler’s Copter is now unbanned
- Modern: Fury and Up the Beanstalk are banned
- Explorer: Karn, The Great Creator and Geological Appraiser are banned
- Pauper: Monastery Swiftspear is banned
Any formats not listed above remain unchanged. These changes will go into effect for tabletop and Magic: Online today, and on MTG: Arena December 5.
In addition, the blog post provided some clarity to Wizards of the Coast’s announcement dates and windows. The first of these is a “more flexible announcement cadence.”
First, all future announcements to the Magic: The Gathering Banned and Restricted list will occur two to five weeks after each new set’s release. This will allow the tabletop publisher to capture data from large competitive tournaments while ensuring changes can happen before the next set is previewed.
In addition, the company has a window following each main set release. The goal is to have most or all changes to the Standard format happen once per year during the Fall banned and restricted window that is associated with the new three-year rotation.
This means the next window for Standard will be around March 11, following the release of Murders at Karlov Manor.
As for Magic: The Gathering’s other formats, those can be updated during any main set release window.
Wizards of the Coast goes even further into detail regarding these changes in an official YouTube video.
Overall, Wizards states that the current state of Magic’s Standard format is in a good place. The accepted deck styles (aggro, control, combo, etc.) are still supported, and the new cards introduced from Wilds of Eldraine and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
