Wizards of the Coast (WotC) banned Thassa’s Oracle in Historic just days after the Tainted Pact combo decks dominated the Strixhaven May League Weekend.
While Thassa’s Oracle has already been problematic in other non-rotating formats by showing up in decks like Dimir Inverter in Pioneer and Doomsday in Legacy, this is the first action taken against the two-drop from Theros Beyond Death. Inverter of Truths took the fall for the game-winning combo in Pioneer, but WotC is taking a more preventative approach in Historic after the resilience shown by the Dimir and Grixis Tainted Pact decks this past weekend. More than half the field in the League Weekend opted for Tainted Pact strategies and the deck still had a 60% win rate against non-mirrors.
WotC wants to prevent any other decks forming alongside Thassa’s Oracle, opting to ban it instead of Tainted Pact.
Due to the power of the two-card combination, and because we expect that Thassa’s Oracle is likely to cause problems down the road as Historic continues to add new cards, Thassa’s Oracle is banned in Historic.
The ban will go into effect on MTG Arena tomorrow.
Read the original article from WotC.