Wizards Suddenly Announces 6 MTG Bans Due to Format Shutdown

This morning, players heard whispers that MTG Arena is shutting down the extremely controversial Alchemy format. Wizards of the Coast has since confirmed it and added more details to mull over.

Once Reality Fracture’s Alchemy set is released, the format will no longer be supported in future releases. If that weren’t enough, Wizards of the Coast will remove the Alchemy format from MTG Arena entirely on February 2nd, 2027. Digital cards will, notably, stick around after Alchemy is officially sunset, and could even continue to receive buffs and nerfs in the future.

The same, however, is not true for paper MTG cards that saw digital changes. With Alchemy being retired, MTG Arena is reversing all digital-only changes to paper cards on September 22nd, 2026. Of course, this means that a fair few MTG cards will now be too powerful for some formats, causing a wave of bans.

MTG Nadu, Winged Wisdom

• Nadu, Winged Wisdom Nadu, Winged Wisdom Flying
  Creatures you control have "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. This ability triggers only twice each turn." is banned in Historic and Brawl on September 22nd

Among the cards being banned in this digital reversal change, Nadu, Winged Wisdom is the only one being banned twice. As arguably the biggest design mistake that Wizards of the Coast ever made, the Bird Wizard hardly needs an introduction. While intended to be a powerful Commander card, Wizards missed that Nadu quickly becomes an issue with cards like Shuko Shuko Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Equip {0} ({0}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.) .

Triggering the bird an ungodly amount of times for free, this creates a nondeterministic combo line that generally draws your entire deck. Sadly, because it’s nondeterministic, you can’t really shortcut this combo either, causing extremely long, played-out turns that will generally end the game anyway. Between its ridiculous power level and awful gameplay patterns, Nadu has already been banned in tons of MTG formats, including Commander, Modern, Legacy, and more.

Until now, Nadu’s Alchemy nerf kept the card in check, stopping the card from comboing with Shuko-esque effects. Now, however, since all digital changes are being reversed, Nadu will once again be broken, prompting its preemptive removal from Historic and Brawl. Notably, this card is still legal in Timeless, where it is surprisingly weak thanks to the absence of cards like Shuko Shuko Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Equip {0} ({0}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.) and Nomads en-Kor Nomads en-Kor {0}: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to this creature this turn is dealt to target creature you control instead. .

MTG Guide of Souls

• Guide of Souls Guide of Souls Whenever another creature you control enters, you gain 1 life and get {E} (an energy counter).
  Whenever you attack, you may pay {E}{E}{E}. When you do, put two +1/+1 counters and a flying counter on target attacking creature. It becomes an Angel in addition to its other types. is banned in Historic on September 22nd

Thanks to Modern Horizons 3 coming to MTG Arena, the entire core of Modern and Legacy’s Boros Energy decklist is available on the client. Revolving around the absurd synergy between Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride Ocelot Pride First strike, lifelink
Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.)
At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, create a 1/1 white Cat creature token. Then if you have the city's blessing, for each token you control that entered this turn, create a token that's a copy of it. , these two creatures can easily take over a game on their own. Between creating dozens of cat tokens and granting them Flying, Historic couldn’t keep up with this duo, causing them both to see a digital nerf.

Now that these nerfs are being undone, Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride are bound to be far too powerful for the format once again. To break up this combo, Guide of Souls will leave Historic, but that still leaves an unnerfed Ocelot Pride for players to try.

While it’s not nearly as strong as Guide, players could try cards like Hinterland Sanctifier Hinterland Sanctifier Whenever another creature you control enters, you gain 1 life. to keep this combo alive. Whether this becomes a problem remains to be seen, but Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride are certainly too strong for Historic when kept together.

MTG Galvanic Discharge

• Galvanic Discharge Galvanic Discharge Choose target creature or planeswalker. You get {E}{E}{E} (three energy counters), then you may pay any amount of {E}. Galvanic Discharge deals that much damage to that permanent. is banned in Historic on September 22nd

As one of the most efficient removal cards ever printed, Galvanic Discharge sees play in Energy shells in formats far more powerful than Historic. The ability to kill off massive creatures for cheap, or just bank the Energy for a bigger payoff like Wrath of the Skies Wrath of the Skies You get X {E} (energy counters), then you may pay any amount of {E}. Destroy each artifact, creature, and enchantment with mana value less than or equal to the amount of {E} paid this way. , offers an unreasonable amount of flexibility.

While Guide of Souls, one of the main enablers of this card, is leaving Historic, Galvanic Discharge is plenty powerful on its own. With how big of an issue Boros Energy was in the format, it makes sense that Wizards of the Coast is playing it safe here.

MTG Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord

• Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord +1: Target creature you control gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn. If it's a Vampire, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
  +1: You may sacrifice a Vampire. When you do, Sorin deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life.
  −3: You may put a Vampire creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. is banned in Historic on September 22nd

While MTG Arena will be reversing its digital changes to existing cards on September 22nd, the digital cards themselves aren’t going anywhere. This means that Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Saint Elenda, a combo that dominated Historic for months, will be back at full power. With the ability to build a board, draw cards, and even remove a wide variety of threats, Saint Elenda is far too powerful for Historic at three mana.

With this in mind, it’s no wonder that Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord will be leaving Historic, but fans of this combo don’t need to be disappointed. This combo remains in Timeless as something for players to do, and is strong enough to see competitive play there.

MTG The One Ring

• The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
  When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
  At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
  {T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. is banned in Historic on September 22nd

Another extreme power outlier from a direct-to-Modern MTG set, The One Ring wreaked massive havoc on Historic before being nerfed. Between giving you a turn of immunity and drawing tons of cards, competing with this artifact once resolved is an absolute nightmare. Free spells have also been added to Historic since this card’s banning, allowing The One Ring to fuel some of the most powerful hate cards in the format.

Between effortlessly enabling Endurance Endurance Flash
Reach
When this creature enters, up to one target player puts all the cards from their graveyard on the bottom of their library in a random order.
Evoke—Exile a green card from your hand. and Force of Vigor Force of Vigor If it's not your turn, you may exile a green card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Destroy up to two target artifacts and/or enchantments. , The One Ring could erase entire Historic archetypes from existence. Considering this, with its digital nerf reversed, it only seems right to remove the artifact from Historic.

200+ Cards Realigned With Paper MTG

While these bans address the most egregious power outlier changes coming to Historic, they are far from the only MTG cards benefiting from this change. Tons of powerful metagame menaces, like Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes When Minsc & Boo enters and at the beginning of your upkeep, you may create Boo, a legendary 1/1 red Hamster creature token with trample and haste.
+1: Put three +1/+1 counters on up to one target creature with trample or haste.
−2: Sacrifice a creature. When you do, Minsc & Boo deals X damage to any target, where X is that creature's power. If the sacrificed creature was a Hamster, draw X cards.
Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes can be your commander. , Vivi Ornitier Vivi Ornitier {0}: Add X mana in any combination of {U} and/or {R}, where X is Vivi Ornitier's power. Activate only during your turn and only once each turn.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Vivi Ornitier and it deals 1 damage to each opponent. , and Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. will be back to full power. Of course, this also means that some cards that saw digital buffs, most notably Historic Phoenix’s Demilich Demilich This spell costs {U} less to cast for each instant and sorcery spell you've cast this turn.
Whenever this creature attacks, exile up to one target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard. Copy it. You may cast the copy.
You may cast this card from your graveyard by exiling four instant and/or sorcery cards from your graveyard in addition to paying its other costs. , will also be seeing nerfs.

It’s no exaggeration to say this will cause absolute havoc for the Historic format, especially since a fair few power outliers may be getting overlooked. Fortunately, if something does break Historic by accident, players won’t have to wait long, as the next MTG ban window is on October 12th.

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