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WotC Announces Banned & Restricted List Update Coming Monday

Tweet states that all formats on MTG Arena will be impacted.

Omnath, Locus of Creation
Omnath, Locus of Creation, illustrated by Chris Rahn

The Magic: the Gathering Twitter account posted a notification late Sunday night confirming an update to the Banned & Restricted list impacting all formats on MTG Arena will be made Monday.

The update came about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the 2020 Season Grand Finals, where more than 70% of the field played a Zendikar Rising Standard deck built around Omnath, Locus of Creation. The Top 8 was dominated by Four-Color Adventures, with the final four players, including the champion Austin Bursavich, playing the deck. Omnath not only crushed the Standard portion of the Grand Finals, but eleven of the 32 players registered a Historic deck with the new four-color Elemental.

Speculation over what could or should be banned in Standard has been circulating since before the Grand Finals started as Four-Color Adventures continued to stifle the format even following the ban of Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath. Whether or not Wizards of the Coast (WotC) will pull the trigger on the latest set’s marquee mythic rare is the main question, while others think a wider approach for the format could be taken. Some players have pointed toward banning Lucky Clover or Escape to the Wilds to nerf the top deck without axing the key card.

https://twitter.com/jesstephan/status/1315474119144558593

The tweet states the update will impact Historic and Brawl as well, so the possibility of unbannings or bringing cards off the suspended list is also in play.