Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has released their Magic: The Gathering Banned & Restricted announcement for Monday, August 26.
Modern
- Nadu, Winged Wisdom is banned.
- Grief is banned.
Nadu summer has officially come to an end. Despite calls for emergency bans back in June, WotC opted to hold out until today’s scheduled B&R to take action against the problematic Bird from Modern Horizons 3. In today’s announcement, WotC acknowledges the poor timing of the previous B&R that lead up to Pro Tour Amsterdam and the subsequent weeks of a stale metagame dominated by Nadu.
In a somewhat surprising move, WotC has also opted to ban Grief in Modern, stating that it represents the “…least fun parts of competitive Modern events.” While Grief has seen less play in recent months, it was a pillar of many black decks that sought to punish mulligans and “scam” their opponents out of games as early as Turn 1.
Closing out Modern, WotC states that they do plan to keep an eye on The One Ring – a card which many players suspected would be getting the axe in today’s announcement. According to WotC, there isn’t one primary strategy that is employing The One Ring, as it “…helps prop up several varied strategies.” The power-level of The One Ring will certainly be something to keep an eye on as Modern moves forward without Nadu, Winged Wisdom and Grief.
Pioneer
- Amalia Benavides Aguirre is banned.
- Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is banned.
After gathering data across multiple platforms, WotC identified two major outliers among Pioneer’s dominate decks: Rakdos Vampires and Abzan Amalia Combo.
According to WotC, Rakdos Vampires had climbed to a staggering 30% of the Pioneer metagame on the back of Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Vein Ripper. The powerful combo was extremely hard for most decks to deal with, especially when backed by cards like Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Removing Sorin from the equation still allows Rakdos Midrange to thrive without the one-two punch.
Following closely behind Rakdos Vampires, Abzan Amalia Combo has been on the watch list for quite awhile. As players worked to fine-tune the deck, it became extremely resilient, but the unhealthy play patterns that often lead to draws remained. Many decks were forced to employ effects that made Wildgrowth Walker indestructible and pump effects to push Amalia beyond her 20-power trigger just to cause infinite loops that drew the game, in hopes of having a better chance at winning the next one. With the approaching Pioneer Regional Championship coming up in October, WotC decided the “…combination of power, consistency, and the ability to draw games…” has lead to Amalia getting the axe.
Legacy
- Grief is banned.
In the same way most enfranchised players anticipated Nadu would be banned in Modern, Legacy players felt the same about Grief – it was only a matter of time. Just as it did in Modern, Grief’s ability to blow up opponent’s hands very early in the game when combined with blink and reanimation effects proved to be too strong, even in one of Magic’s most powerful formats. With Grief removed from the equation, WotC expects Reanimator decks to return to a more balanced spot in the metagame while other decks look to find their footing once again.
Vintage
- Urza’s Saga is restricted.
- Vexing Bauble is restricted.
Powerful, low-cost artifacts are one of the pillars of Magic’s most historic formats, so having access to four copies of Urza’s Saga was proving to be too easy to slot into just about any deck. WotC believes that restricting Urza’s Saga to one will have it still seeing play, but with a reduced number of games being “…decided by a pair of 6/6 Construct tokens and a burst of Black Lotus mana on turns three or four.”
Albeit a new addition to Magic in Modern Horizons 3, Vexing Bauble has grown to be one of the most played cards in the format due to its ability to shut off free spells. While this effect is inherently fair as a sideboard effect in lower-power formats, Vintage is a format that encourages explosive starts and free spells, so having access to four copies of Vexing Bauble lead to many games being defined by players starting off with a Turn 1 Vexing Bauble and the opposing player being functionally cut off from doing what the format encourages them to do. In essence, Vexing Bauble being limited to one effectively keeps the spirit of Vintage alive.
General Changes
In addition to the updates to the formats above, WotC will also be changing the timing of future Banned & Restricted announcements to align with upcoming Regional Championships and RCQ seasons. They believe this change to the timing will better allow them to react to shifts in the metagames and provide the best competitive experience.
With the schedule updated, the next Banned & Restricted announcement will be held on December 16, 2024.
Read the original article from WotC.
