Wizards of the Coast (WotC) took action on the necessity of bringing sticker and Attraction decks to Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper events by banning every card that brings a sticker or an Attraction into the game in those formats.
________ Goblin proved to be good enough in Legacy that it became optimal to present sticker and Attraction decks at the start of every match for multiple reasons. Goblins needed stickers to take advantage of the card, opposing decks that could copy it needed a way to make use of it when copied, and all players lost equity when starting a match without presenting sticker and Attraction decks.
Andrew Brown wrote that the main reason the sticker and Attraction cards were legal in Legacy and Vintage was because there isn’t another way to make cards legal in Commander and not other eternal formats. The Play Design team thought the power level of these cards were low enough that it would be safe to have them in Legacy, but ________ Goblin came in over the line and forces players to interact with the sticker mechanic.
We think that this is not a healthy or fun dynamic to happen in paper or digital play, so we have decided to ban every card that creates a sticker or an Attraction card.”
Andrew Brown
Pauper
While the sticker and Attraction cards have also been banned in Pauper, the biggest impact for the format today is the banning of All That Glitters.
Gavin Verhey explained in depth on why All That Glitters had to go, mainly it being too warping of a card that can go in too many decks. It creates kills out of nowhere, forces players to hold up interaction early, and still can be problematic late in the game. Due to its power level and popularity in multiple decks, All That Glitters has been banned.
Though ________ Goblin was the primary reason for banning the sticker and Attraction cards in Pauper, Verhey pointed out that a deck called Sticker Stompy also was impacted. The deck played Chicken Troupe and Finishing Move as a creature and pump spell that brought stickers into the mix.
Lastly, Verhey warned of an upcoming common that is being printed in Modern Horizons 3 that will almost certainly need banned in Pauper. The card wasn’t named, but Verhey did say it is like a card that has been banned before.
But the result of this is that I expect we’ll be checking in very soon after Modern Horizons 3 to make any format adjustments needed. It’s worth seeing these things bear out in practice, but I expect to keep a short leash on anything problematic—we don’t want you playing a format that is broken for weeks and weeks like when, for example, Chatterstorm was released last time.”
Gavin Verhey
Verhey also provided a video explanation for the bans in Pauper on his Good Morning Magic YouTube channel.
No other formats were hit by today’s Banned & Restricted list update. And while Verhey expects to make an update to Pauper following the release of Modern Horizons 3, Brown also noted that if any changes would need to happen in Standard they would come on June 24 — the next scheduled Banned & Restricted announcement date.
The bans in Legacy, Vintage, and Pauper go in effect for tabletop and online play today.
Read the official announcement from WotC.
