Several high-level Magic: The Gathering events have taken place the past two weeks – both SCG Richmond and Philadelphia, as well as Players Tours Nagoya, Brussels, and Phoenix – and the results from these events had many convinced a Banned & Restricted Announcement for Pioneer was in order.
Cards such as Dig Through Time, Inverter of Truths, Thassa’s Oracle, Underworld Breach and Lotus Field were all subject to scrutiny, however Wizards of the Coast (WotC) appears to be not putting much stock in these claims.
In WotC’s tweet, the first sentence makes it clear there would be no Banned & Restricted announcement any time soon, but it’s the second sentence that’s now drawing controversy.
For future updates, expect a notice for when the B&R announcement is coming to plan accordingly.
Rather than just holding announcements as needed, WotC now intends to notify players an undetermined amount of time before it happens, which could cause turbulence for competitive play. Beyond that, it appears to just be straight-up confusing for players.
Despite the confusion and uncertainty, Pioneer continues to be a rapidly evolving format, which for many, is a large part of the appeal.
Since its inception, no single archetype has dominated the format for more than a few weeks, but moving forward, it’s unknown how long Dimir Inverter and Lotus Breach will be allowed to define the Pioneer meta.