Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has released a surprise Banned & Restricted update, impacting Standard, Historic, and Brawl.
Standard
After observing recent play data, it was clear that Four-Color Adventures and Four-Color Ramp and were the most popular decks in the format and Omnath, Locus of Creation was a key component in their success.
According to WotC, removing only Omnath would have lead to a steady rise in Adventure decks being too dominate, and thus they are ‘”…choosing to ban Luck Clover as a powerful and difficult-to-interact-with part of that deck’s engine.”
Lastly, as a way to curb the power level of ramp decks in Standard, Escape to the Wild is gone as well, citing it as being a “…unique and powerful role as a bridge between strong ramp enablers, like Lotus Cobra, and powerful payoffs, like Genesis Ultimatum and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.”
Historic
Win rates for Omnath decks are currently lower in Historic than Standard, but play patterns appear to be on the rise, especially in best-of-three game modes. WotC is also concerned that the increased quality of ramp enablers in Historic will inevitably lead to the metagame being dominated by Omnath, thus they’ve opted to suspend the multicolor powerhouse.
In previous updates, Teferi, Time Raveler and Wilderness Reclamation were suspended in Historic due to their overall power and ubiquity across top performing decks. Since being suspended, WotC has observed increased “…diversity and interactivity of the format” and “[improved] overall health and balance” and thus will be moving these cards from Suspended to Banned.
Unsuspended
After the release of Jumpstart and Amonkhet Remastered, the metagame share of Gruul Aggro in Historic has fallen off considerably, and in order to reinvigorate the archetype, Burning-Tree Emissary is now unsuspended.
Brawl
As previously observed with cards like Teferi, Time Raveler, Omnath, Locus of Creation has established itself as the most played Commander in Brawl. Despite Omnath being banned in Standard Brawl, WotC has decided to leave it legal in Historic Brawl events, but will be using a “Commander weighting system so that he will more frequently be paired against other, similarly powerful Commanders.”
Read the original article from Wizards of the Coast.