Today’s scheduled Banned and Restricted list update made major changes in Modern and Legacy with a heavy emphasis on returning Modern to its glory days by banning three cards and unbanning four fan-favorites.
Modern
While many expected it, seeing Wizards of the Coast (WotC) take action on The One Ring — the most talked about card from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth — is still a relief. The powerful artifact was on the watchlist when the previous B&R update was announced and it is has only cemented itself as the most-played card in the format, including being a staple in the most-played deck — Boros Energy. Its ubiquity, play pattern, and low opportunity cost to play has finally led to its banning.
“The opportunity cost of including The One Ring in nearly any deck is too low, and its presence in events has become tiresome for many players. Acting as a tool for self-preservation and a source of card advantage, it requires no commitment to any particular color. We believe it is clear, as it has been for many of you, that Modern would be a more enjoyable format without its inclusion. And thus, The One Ring is banned in Modern.”
Dan Musser
Amped Raptor is also getting hit by the ban hammer as a way to bring the Energy deck more in line with the rest of the format. This ban compounds with the banning of The One Ring and Jegantha, the Wellspring as a three-pronged approach to make the Energy deck more manageable. The Play Design team looked at a handful of other cards from the Energy deck to ban, but settled on Amped Raptor as it was the only card not being played in other archetypes in addition to it providing too much rate for its cost.
“Each of those options could reasonably be included in a few other archetypes, while Amped Raptor only appears in Boros Energy. Amped Raptor allows for some of the deck’s most explosive starts, acting as an energy enabler and a payoff, and often amounting to an extra one to four mana in the early turns of the game. So, Amped Raptor is banned in Modern.”
Dan Musser
While Jegantha is a more minor nerf to the Energy deck, the banning of the companion has further reaches into the format as almost any deck that can cast it plays it. Jegantha homogenizes the cards played in the format and joins Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Yorion, Sky Nomad as banned companions in Modern.
On top of the bannings, four beloved cards are returning to Modern to help bring the format back to a place where players can enjoy their favorite decks. Splinter Twin is back after a lengthy run on the banned list despite Dan Musser stating it created an unfun play pattern and that it wouldn’t come off the banned list anytime soon back in 2023. Splinter Twin was one of the most successful archetypes in Modern history and regularly required players have specific interaction on the opponent’s fourth turn or risk losing the game on the spot. With the introduction of cards like Force of Negation, Solitude, and Force of Vigor, Play Design feels it is safe to bring the enchantment back into the fold.
Mox Opal and Faithless Looting, two of past combo decks’ best facilitators, are also coming back to Modern. Dredge, Izzet Phoenix, and Hollow One all have the tools to return to their fully-powered status before they were targeted for being too strong in Modern.
Green Sun’s Zenith existed in Modern for a few months before it was banned in 2011, but the toolbox and combo-enabling sorcery is finally free to roam alongside many new toys since its banning. Modern players can now GSZ for Dryad Arbor or use it to tutor up a Grist, the Hunger Tide, Primeval Titan, or basically any Elf they wish to find.
Legacy
Action is also coming in Legacy as two more Modern Horizons 3 cards warped the format considerably. Psychic Frog made Dimir Midrange and Reanimator decks far too resilient and consistent. Its strength also allowed players to forgo looking into any of the other colors to supplement their blue soup decks. Psychic Frog is being banned to keep other Reanimator decks alive while throttling the blue tempo decks.
“This same effect is seen in Dimir Murktide decklists. Psychic Frog is strong enough to prevent folks from exploring adding white, red, or green to these blue-based tempo decks. To increase the diversity among existing archetypes while not completely removing them from the format, Psychic Frog is banned.”
Dan Musser
Vexing Bauble has quickly shown how strong it can be in enabling decks that need to fight through free counterplay, a core tenet of the Legacy format, while also being able to replace itself when it has no use. This troublesome artifact joins the ranks of cards that, at first, appeared to combat unfair strategies but ultimately powered them up when put into practice.
“While the inclusion of Vexing Bauble is a rather recent development in the Legacy metagame, it has proven to be a successful and powerful one. With a concerning win rate among decks that include multiple main-deck copies of Vexing Bauble and its inherent strength against a pillar of the format, it has been banned in Legacy.”
Dan Musser
Pioneer
The last banning in today’s update is Jegantha in Pioneer. Much like in Modern, this almost free inclusion is played in any deck that can cast it to gain access to an extra creature when games drag out.
“It is hard to justify playing a personal favorite card or a metagame-specific call if it means giving up Jegantha. It is important to us that Pioneer remains a place where players can use their favorite cards from Standard, and Jegantha does a lot to prevent this, as many of our more powerful cards aimed at Standard tend to have more than one of the same mana symbol in their costs for balance. In the interest of increasing card diversity in the format, Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned in Pioneer.”
Arya Karamchandani
Jegantha is also banned in Explorer, the Pioneer equivalent on MTG Arena, as it matches the Pioneer banned list. All other formats, in paper or digital play, saw no changes.
Read the official announcement from WotC.
