For the most part, MTG Arena is a direct analogue to the physical game. Older formats aside, any games of Standard you play on Arena could play out exactly the same in paper. Of course, the digital nature of Arena means that occasional disparities are necessary. Today, we’re seeing one such disparity put in place. Leyline of Resonance, an already-notorious combo enabler from Duskmourn, has just received a ban in MTG Arena’s Best of One format. For those sick of dying on turn two with no option to sideboard, this is a very good move indeed.
The Leyline Of Resonance Ban
- Mana Value: 2RR
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Text: If Leyline of Resonance is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only a single creature you control, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Let’s get into the Leyline of Resonance ban itself. Starting today, October 22nd, the card is now banned in MTG Arena’s Standard Best of One format. It has also been suspended in Alchemy, both Best of One and Best of Three, “pending a rebalance” according to the official announcement. This means we’ll be seeing a new, Alchemy-exclusive version of Leyline at some point down the road.
As the announcement notes, this is not a total ban for the card. It’s still legal on Arena in Standard Best of Three games, Limited, and special formats like Timeless. It’s also not a ban for the card in paper, since Best of One only exists on MTG Arena. That said, this is still a pretty major deal. Arena-exclusive bans have been relatively rare so far, with the most notable example being the banning of Nexus of Fate back in 2019. That card was banned from all Arena Standard formats, mind you, but the point remains.
For those who have already opened or crafted the card on Arena, fear not. According to the announcement, “Players who had Leyline of Resonance as part of their MTG Arena collections prior to this ban’s implementation will receive rare wildcards equal to the number of Leyline of Resonances in their collection.”
This is a pretty square deal, all things considered. A lot of players running the Leyline of Resonance combo did so within a typical Gruul Prowess shell, which could function just fine without the card even if no Wildcard refunds were offered. Getting the refunds ensures no players are left out of pocket with these bans, however.
Resonant Reasoning
So that’s the high-level overview of the MTG Leyline of Resonance ban. What’s more interesting is the reason why the card was banned, and WotC’s reasoning behind hitting it now. Anyone following MTG Standard at all will know this already, but Leyline of Resonance enables a number of extremely fast kills in the format. Since it can come down for free on turn zero, you can then play a one drop like Heartfire Hero on turn one, and follow up with two doubled combat tricks on turn two.
The result? 20 damage before your opponent has played their second land. It’s pretty obnoxious to lose to this in any game of Magic, but more so in Best of One. In regular games you have a chance to bring in cards from the sideboard to stop the quick combo. that is not the case in Best of One games.
Since Duskmourn launched, players have been coming up against this deck and, understandably, getting pretty frustrated. Calls to ban the card have been going on for weeks as a result.
“Where Nexus of Fate made gameplay unfun through a long loop that couldn’t be shortcut to the win, Leyline of Resonance has made gameplay unfun by … making it so there isn’t much “playing” involved.”
Wizards of the Coast
One way or another, games with Leyline of Resonance are over very quickly. While Magic is definitely faster than it used to be, this combo really pushed things over the (Ley)line. Looking at the data, Wizards noted that the number of Best of One games ending before turn four “essentially doubled” after Duksmourn’s release. That’s a wild statistic, but one that makes perfect sense in the context of the combo.
While many wanted the card banned before it even released, the decision to wait for the data appears to be the right one. With nearly an entire month’s worth of data under its belt, Wizards is much more comfortable banning the card now. It’s worth noting that this is still a very early ban, since the next Arena ban update isn’t scheduled until December 16th.
Good Riddance
Given that MTG players have been calling for a Leyline of Resonance ban since before the card was even out, it’s not surprising that they’re overwhelmingly happy about it now. Looking at Twitter and Reddit threads discussing the ban, pretty much all the responses are positive.
“It had to be done. I was quitting games even on ranked as soon as I saw the Leyline, it was a waste of time to play against and Mono Red is still an amazingly effective BO1 deck without it.”
JacobHarley
Plenty of other players chimed in to voice their approval, too. Exorrt noted that the ban was a “Great move from Wizards,” while arciele said “Honestly I think this was the best way to resolve it.” It’s not particularly surprising that this ban has been received well, but it’s good to see nonetheless. Positive reception should mean Wizards is more likely to be proactive like this in the future.
The timeliness of this ban has also been the subject of a lot of praise. As JaceShoes put it, “Always nice to see bans like this happen swiftly.” Spelltype agreed, saying “I wish they were as quick with bans as they were this.” Speedy bans are a difficult one, since they often serve as admissions of design failures. As we saw with Nadu, however, dragging things out can make them much, much worse. I personally think banning Leyline now is absolutely the right call.
“Standard Bo1 will probably still be an insufferable sea of Red since Rx decks can still turn 3/4 you over blockers and you’re toasted unless you hit a couple of well timed removal.”
VictorSant
An interesting point raised in the ban discussion was the fact that Mono-Red decks dominate Best of One anyway, even without Leyline. This is undeniably true. Most decks need to sideboard to stem early aggression, which makes Aggro, in general, great in Best of One. While losing to such decks is certainly frustrating, it’s not nearly as bad as losing to the Leyline combo. You get a second turn in those matchups, at least.
