Today’s Banned & Restricted Announcement left Standard, Pioneer, and Vintage untouched while unbanning one card each in Modern and Legacy.
Preordain Unbanned In Modern
The only change coming to Modern is the unbanning of Preordain, a beloved one-mana cantrip. According to Michael Majors, Play Design is actively interested in finding opportunities to reduce the size of the Modern banned list when it believes it will make the format more fun. This unbanning does that and adds a classic card that provides consistency to blue decks.
Despite two cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth being the most played cards at Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings, no action is being taken against The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters. Majors points out how both cards can fit in a variety of decks and the format looked healthy and interactive. There is a high bar for a card to pass to be playable in Modern at four mana or more, and The One Ring clears it while still allowing counterplay. Majors highlights Urza’s Saga finding Haywire Mite as an answer to the legendary artifact as a satisfactory level of interaction.
Both The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters will continue to be monitored as the format evolves. While Orcish Bowmasters drives the majority of one-toughness creatures out of the format, it still plays a role in multiple decks and can keep decks that draw lots of cards in check. The black two-drop suppresses the Izzet Murktide decks, but Preordain could help recharge the deck, even though it is another cantrip that gets punished by Orcish Bowmasters.
Mind’s Desire Unbanned In Legacy
Orcish Bowmasters is having a huge impact on Legacy as well, but that is considered welcome in a format dominated by Brainstorm, Ponder, and company. Mind’s Desire is coming off the ban list after two decades on the outside looking in. The format looks much different than it did 20 years ago, so the powerful storm card looks safe to return to the format.
Other Formats
No action is being taken in any other format. Standard looks good following the bans in May that removed Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Invoke Despair, and Reckoner Bankbuster from the format.
Carmen Handy wrote that Pioneer “continues to have a wide spread of play styles and archetype representation from tournament to tournament.” Handy claims that there is no top dog in the format as the format-defining decks rise and fall at a healthy clip.
Read the official announcement here.