Wizards Quietly Re-Bans Multiformat Menace After Reverting Rebalances

Earlier this week, Wizards of the Coast enacted the first step in its plan to remove Alchemy from MTG Arena. Much to the delight of some, and now the dismay of others, Wizards reverted all Alchemy rebalances on paper cards. While this has been a much-complained-about topic over the years, it seems Wizards may have acted too swiftly.

A Surprise Extra Ban

• Cori-Steel Cutter Cori-Steel Cutter Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has trample and haste.
  Flurry — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 1/1 white Monk creature token with prowess. You may attach this Equipment to it. (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, the token gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
  Equip {1}{R} has been banned in Alchemy

A couple of weeks ago, following their plans seemingly being leaked early, Wizards announced that Alchemy was being shut down. Alongside this, rebalances to paper cards would be reverted on September 22nd, which caused a major ban wave. In Historic, five MTG cards were banned once these changes took place, and one was banned in Brawl.

While these bans were expected, it seems one card slipped through Wizards’ announcement, as Cori-Steel Cutter Cori-Steel Cutter Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has trample and haste.
Flurry — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 1/1 white Monk creature token with prowess. You may attach this Equipment to it. (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, the token gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Equip {1}{R} has now been banned in Alchemy, too. While it’s unfortunate that this effectively happened without warning, this ban is definitely for the better. After all, Cori-Steel Cutter is a menace that was banned in Standard, Pioneer, and briefly in Alchemy, for good reason.

Given that Cori-Steel Cutter was only let out of ban-jail after its rebalance, re-banning it now makes total sense. Realistically, this card is far too powerful for Alchemy, providing a solid body and buffs in one. Alongside additional support from Izzet Prowess spells that churned out low-cost spells, this artifact was nigh unstoppable.

With all this in mind, it’s hard to say that banning Cori-Steel Cutter again is bad; it’s just unexpected. This surprise ban, however, isn’t the only surprising thing about Alchemy’s demise, as many players are actually… mourning it?

Gone But Not Forgotten

As much as it was easy to hate on Alchemy for its many faults, it’s not all bad. Many of the rebalances that’ve happened over the years were there for good reason, after all. In fact, Alchemy rebalances were the only reason that a couple of decks in Historic were competitive in the metagame.

Thanks to repeated buffs, Izzet Wizards and Dimir Ninjas are, or rather were, genuine archetypes. The former relied largely upon the buff to Symmetry Sage Symmetry Sage Flying
Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, target creature you control has base power 2 until end of turn. , which effectively gave it an extra power and toughness. Meanwhile, Dimir Ninja decks had hugely benefited from lower Ninjutsu costs on Silver-Fur Master Silver-Fur Master Ninjutsu {U}{B} ({U}{B}, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Ninjutsu abilities you activate cost {1} less to activate.
Other Ninja and Rogue creatures you control get +1/+1. , Thousand-Faced Shadow Thousand-Faced Shadow Ninjutsu {2}{U}{U} ({2}{U}{U}, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Flying
When this creature enters from your hand, if it's attacking, create a token that's a copy of another target attacking creature. The token enters tapped and attacking. , and others.

After the removal of rebalances, both decks are effectively dead, which is hugely punishing for their players. Not only can players no longer enjoy them, but there’s no refund for rebalances, so all those invested wildcards are gone to the wind. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the issues with reverting rebalances aren’t just limited to Historic.

Over in Brawl, players were quick to mourn how their once-buffed pet decks are now basically unusable. The second ability on Krydle of Baldur’s Gate Krydle of Baldur’s Gate Whenever Krydle deals combat damage to a player, that player loses 1 life and mills a card, then you gain 1 life and scry 1.
Whenever you attack, you may pay {2}. If you do, target creature can't be blocked this turn. , for instance, used to be free, making it somewhat viable to build around. Now, however, this card is just jank, and the same is true for many once-buffed Brawl Commanders.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, MTG players are also complaining about the original Blood Artist Blood Artist Whenever this creature or another creature dies, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. returning to Arena. This buff only tweaked the card’s wording to say opponent, rather than player, which removed the need to constantly pick which player. Considering how often Blood Artist triggers in an Aristocrats deck, this change was hugely positive, but now players are back to constantly clicking.

A High Price to Pay

Given the loss of previously fun Commanders and quality-of-life features, the sudden removal of rebalances feels somewhat half-baked. Technically, removing them makes sense since Alchemy is being sunset, but the format’s unique cards aren’t being removed, too. Since these cards are still legal in Brawl, Historic, and Timeless, keeping some positive rebalances, too, wouldn’t have been the end of the world.

Unfortunately, as much as it would have been nice to keep positive changes, we’re past that point now. Unless Wizards of the Coast doubles back in a very rarely seen move, we’re stuck with the current situation. Sadly, that situation also makes Alchemy weirdly expensive, even though the format is dying soon.

Right now, if you wanted to pick up an Alchemy pack, you’re stuck paying the usual 200 Gem cost. While Wizards hasn’t promised a price reduction, MTG players are still upset, given the format’s encroaching expiration. Personally, since Alchemy cards will still be playable outside of Alchemy, I wouldn’t expect a sudden price cut, but it would have been nice.

So far, it’s difficult to say that the slow shutdown of the Alchemy format has been going great. Technically, there is a positive on the horizon as Alchemy: Reality Fracture is launching on October 13th. While this set should be fun, as Wizards is reportedly going all out, we could soon be inundated by new broken cards.

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