In today’s Banned and Restricted announcement, Wizards of the Coast has opted to ban Oko, Thief of Crowns and Nexus of Fate in Pioneer.
The Simic planeswalker has proved to be far too strong in Standard, Historic, and now Pioneer as well.
The decision to ban Oko in Pioneer came after Wizards observed decks like Simic Food having “nearly 60% non-mirror match win rate on Magic Online and has earned more than twice as many 5–0 league finishes than any other archetype.”
Nexus of Fate is also being banned in conjunction with Oko, as “Simic Nexus deck has had the second-highest win rate and a number of 5–0 league finishes among top decks” and “…Simic Food Ramp was one of the Simic Nexus deck’s only unfavorable matchups among top decks.”
In addition to the changes in Pioneer, today marks the end of scheduled Banned & Restricted announcements.
Moving forward, Wizards intends to leave the window for changes open, allowing them to be “more agile and responsive with changes when needed while respecting the needs and timelines of competitive events.”
This decision comes after previous Banned & Restricted announcements were forced to be altered in order to not “disrupt players’ travel plans and preparation for [an] event.”
Dates for the next Banned & Restricted announcement have not been set and future changes will “likely be in January” when Wizards plans to “sync up Pioneer updates with the rest of our B&R updates, and expect Pioneer changes to occur at a similar cadence to the rest of our nonrotating formats.”
Read the Pioneer announcement and formal B&R update from Wizards of the Coast.