Blake Rasmussen made it clear on today’s Weekly MTG stream that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) will keep to its plan of scheduled Banned & Restricted List announcements and will not issue any emergency bans before the next update on August 26.
Despite numerous requests for off-cycle updates to the Banned & Restricted List to take action on Nadu, Winged Wisdom in Modern and Grief in Legacy, Rasmussen stated bluntly that WotC is sticking to its guns in regards to scheduled Banned & Restricted List announcements.
“I want to be very clear, we are not changing our date or issuing any kind of off-cycle ban,” Rasmussen said. “Our announced date for the next B&R is August 26 and we firmly believe sticking to our announced date and not surprising people with random dates is the best for Magic and the best for players.”
Rasmussen further reiterated the company’s philosophy on tabletop play and maintaining its scheduled announcements by pointing out that the previous system of utilizing surprise Banned & Restricted List announcements didn’t work. He said, “We want players to have confidence in their testing and deck choices and to have firm, known dates when things can change.”
While WotC is sticking with its current plan, Rasmussen said that the results of Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3 and the subsequent timing of the RCQ season have caused WotC to have a look at the timing of B&R announcements in relation the play seasons. B&R updates are currently tied to set releases with the goal of creating fewer points on the calendar where formats can change. But as we are seeing right now, this can put a B&R announcement — one where changes do seem likely — right in the middle of an RCQ season, which is not idea.
“We don’t yet know how we are going to adjust for situations like this, but we are actively discussing options for B&R announcements to make them less disruptive to play seasons and more responsive to pro tours in the future and to make sure you all know in well in advance of anything changing,” Rasmussen said. “That is the greater good here.”
Rasmussen, however, did announce that there will be digital rebalances for several cards in the Historic Boros Energy deck that dominated the most recent Arena Championship. He said MTG Arena is a different world with a different balance philosophy with formats like Historic and Alchemy having been built to be quickly adjusted via rebalances rather than bannings. More information on these changes will be available soon and they will take effect on August 6.
