Standard is in a bit of a difficult spot when it comes to bans in MTG. Obviously, as is true for all formats, the ideal situation is that bans will never be needed. While it would be great to live in this perfect reality, sadly sometimes cards can push the power envelope a bit too much. This is when the calls for bans start pouring in.
As much as MTG players may often call for bans, making them actually happen in Standard is easier said than done. Due to the format’s position as the go-to competitive format, Wizards is incredibly hesitant to ban cards. Additionally, the volume of new sets, and rotation, should, theoretically, stop any problem cards from dominating for too long.
Despite these details, many MTG players are nonetheless hoping for bans in the upcoming announcement. Scheduled to take place on March 31st, there’s a real opportunity to shake up and rejuvenate the format. Unfortunately, despite these calls coming from all over, Standard’s nature may yet stand in the way once again.
A Bannable Batch
Recently, MTG pro and Hall of Famer Brian Kibler released a 20-minute video dissecting the state of Standard. Within this video, Kibler asserted there are a “couple of cards that, if they were banned, would make the format much much better.” While they need little introduction, these problem cards are Up the Beanstalk and Monstrous Rage.
If you’ve been playing Standard recently, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have played against these cards at some point. Up the Beanstalk is one of the best value engines in modern MTG, seeing play within Domain Overlords decks. Monstrous Rage, meanwhile, is perhaps one of the best pump spells ever printed, that’s empowering Mono-Red and Gruul Aggro decks everywhere.
On their own, Standard is no stranger to having powerful cards like these within the format. As Kibler explains in their video, however, these two are so powerful, and fundamental, that they warp everything around them. If you’re playing aggro, you’ll be using Monstrous Rage, but if you’re going long, you need Up the Beanstalk.
Beyond making deck construction fairly boring, these cards are arguably deserving of bans outright. Monstrous Rage’s ability to give Trample and +3/+1 is obscene for just one mana. This makes blocking basically impossible, which is a problem when Manifold Mouse is out there giving Double Strike.
Equally, Up the Beanstalk has been pushed back into absurdity thanks to the Overlords from Duskmourn. Thanks to the mana cost of these cards, even when only paying their Impending cost, Beanstalk provides worryingly consistent draw. Considering Up the Beanstalk was banned in Modern due to a similar synergy with the Evoke elementals, there’s a precedent for it being too strong.
Easy Excuses
Unsurprisingly, given that Kibler knows what they’re talking about, many MTG players were quick to agree with them. On multiple different Reddit threads, there have been calls to ban these two cards. This Town Ain’t Big Enough has also been getting ban requests, which could certainly be necessary.
While there is definitely cause for these three cards to be banned, anything actually happening seems incredibly unlikely. For starters, Wizards of the Coast tends to hesitate on Standard bans due to the format’s position. As the go-to competitive entry point, Wizards ideally needs to make Standard as simple as possible. Subsequently, banning anything comes with a huge complexity spike for new players that, ideally, should be avoided.
As if this wasn’t enough to stop Wizards, Tarkir: Dragonstorm is just about to come out. Right now, there’s no telling how powerful this set will be, but there’s a non-zero chance it shakes up the meta. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Dragon Typal could become a real deck, at least.
Admittedly, a new Dragon-focused deck is unlikely to solve the problems within the Standard metagame. Thankfully, the rise of control decks could bring some added stability and help mix up the metagame. Should this reemerging archetype get new toys in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the meta could be well and truly shaken up.
Even if new control decks are a bust, the 2025 Standard rotation isn’t too far away now. Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that Standard rotation will happen on August 1st, 2025, alongside the release of Edge of Eternities. While this is still a few months away, a massive shake-up will nonetheless happen eventually.
If It Ain’t Broke
Through all these factors and excuses combined, Wizards has plenty of reasons not to ban anything in Standard this March. Due to this, many MTG players are expecting to hear the all too familiar words of “no changes” in a few weeks. Potentially, this could be a mistake, however, Standard arguably doesn’t need fixing right now.
Currently, while Domain Overlords won the latest Pro Tour, there’s no outright best deck in the format. Esper Pixie, Domain Overlords, Gruul Aggro, and even Azorius Control are all viable decks right now. Just behind these leading archetypes, there’s still room for experimenting and potential meta-breaking with weirder lists.
Even if things are a little bit boring and stale, Standard is hardly being plagued by problems. For as good as it is, Monstrous Rage only appears in 26% of decks, and Up the Beanstalk only appears in 17%. While these statistics aren’t the most impressive, cards have been banned for less in the past. That said, the bar for Standard bans is so high, that it still may not be enough.
For these reasons, we aren’t expecting any Standard bans come March 31st. As interesting as it might be, Wizards isn’t really in the business of shaking up Standard just for fun. That being said, bans may be a necessity sooner rather than later. Looking ahead, Standard will contain more cards than ever before, thanks to getting six sets per year.
While we can only hope that the three Universes Beyond sets each year won’t be too powerful, more cards can nonetheless cause more problems. Hopefully, this won’t happen, and the increased volume of cards will allow for more strategies, not less. Whether or not this will happen, however, remains to be seen. We’ll just have to see what Final Fantasy brings.
