It’s easy to forget, given how fast MTG has been moving lately, but a ban announcement is coming soon. On Monday, October 12th, Magic will announce its next ban list update, giving Wizards a chance to address any problematic cards that have crept up over the last month.
While the previous big bad, The Fantasticar, is now evicted from multiple MTG formats, other problems have arisen across a few different places. A fair few formats now need to consider bans or restrictions, which could make this coming Monday surprisingly busy. Here’s what we think needs to change.
MTG Modern
Of all the formats that arguably need a ban, Modern is the most discussed right now. Since Regional Championship Baltimore,
Basking Broodscale
Basking Broodscale
Devoid (This card has no color.)
{1}{G}: Adapt 1. (If this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, you may create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
Combo has emerged as an outlier, putting up stronger results than the rest of the field. After Regional Championships Japan and Canada, Broodscale kept its positive win rate up despite the big target on its back, suggesting that bans will be needed to stop it.
However, MTG players can’t agree on what exactly needs to be banned. Six cards in this deck are hotly debated for different reasons, and there’s no clear consensus on which ban is correct.
Among the cards up for debate,
Kozilek’s Command
Kozilek’s Command
Choose two —
• Target player creates X 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature tokens with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
• Target player scries X, then draws a card.
• Exile target creature with mana value X or less.
• Exile up to X target cards from graveyards.
is the one most players think needs the ban hammer. As an absolutely incredible instant-speed Swiss Army knife for colorless decks, Kozilek’s Command has been considered a power outlier since the last Modern Pro Tour. Its ability to dig through your deck, ramp tons of creatures, remove opposing threats, and even shut down graveyard strategies is absurdly powerful. I do think banning Kozilek’s Command could eliminate Eldrazi from Modern entirely, however, so I think there are better bans to pursue.
Outside of Command, many players are also looking at
Eldrazi Temple
Eldrazi Temple
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add {C}{C}. Spend this mana only to cast colorless Eldrazi spells or activate abilities of colorless Eldrazi.
as a potential ban target. This card is at the core of what makes Eldrazi strategies unfair, giving the Typal deck a Sol Land and letting it pull ahead on mana. Notably, Kozilek’s Command is a Kindred Instant, so Eldrazi Temple works for that, too. If Wizards wants to kill Eldrazi as an archetype in Modern, this is likely the ban to go after, but I don’t think that’s necessary.
Personally, the ban that appeals to me for the Eldrazi suite is
Sowing Mycospawn
Sowing Mycospawn
Devoid (This card has no color.)
Kicker {1}{C} (You may pay an additional {1}{C} as you cast this spell.)
When you cast this spell, search your library for a land card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
When you cast this spell, if it was kicked, exile target land.
. Banned in Legacy, this card plays a major role in burying midrange matchups like Esper Blink and significantly accelerates the clock toward Emrakul.
When kicked, it’s also extremely taxing on
Consign to Memory
Consign to Memory
Replicate {1} (When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you paid its replicate cost. You may choose new targets for the copies.)
Counter target triggered ability or colorless spell.
, the best card against Eldrazi strategies, since the card has two backbreaking cast triggers. This card is undeniably a core support piece for Eldrazi in Modern, but as Legacy has proven, Eldrazi may survive without it. Sadly, I do expect something else to go.
In my opinion, the most likely ban this coming Monday is
Emrakul, the Promised End
Emrakul, the Promised End
This spell costs {1} less to cast for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
When you cast this spell, you gain control of target opponent during that player's next turn. After that turn, that player takes an extra turn.
Flying, trample, protection from instants
to fix the Basking Broodscale combo issues without hurting Eldrazi’s viability in Modern. This would completely kill the Broodscale deck in its current form, since its grindy Plan B would be entirely made redundant.
While I think this is the ban we’re most likely to see, I don’t necessarily think it’s the right one. Instead of banning Eldrazi, the real culprit behind Broodscale’s power might be the deck’s non-Eldrazi cards.
Are Eldrazi Actually the Problem?
Beyond Eldrazi, the bans discussed for this archetype go even further. As some players have pointed out, Basking Broodscale Combo takes advantage of a powerful suite of cards that have created multiple problem decks in the past.
Malevolent Rumble
Malevolent Rumble
Reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a permanent card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. Create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
,
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
, and
Shifting Woodland
Shifting Woodland
This land enters tapped unless you control a Forest.
{T}: Add {G}.
Delirium — {2}{G}{G}: This land becomes a copy of target permanent card in your graveyard until end of turn. Activate only if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.
appeared in Nadu Combo, Underworld Breach Combo, Amulet Titan with
Lotus Field
Lotus Field
Hexproof
This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, sacrifice two lands.
{T}: Add three mana of any one color.
, and Broodscale, the most problematic decks Modern has seen in the past few years.
With that in mind, leaving these cards alone could cause another problem, so there’s a strong incentive to act against something in this package. When I spoke with more established players on competitive teams at the Canadian RC this past weekend,
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
was the power outlier they identified on multiple occasions. The land’s ability to create a powerful Plan B in the Constructs it creates, combined with its ability to search out combo pieces like
Shuko
Shuko
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
Equip {0} ({0}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
or
Blade of the Bloodchief
Blade of the Bloodchief
Whenever a creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on equipped creature. If equipped creature is a Vampire, put two +1/+1 counters on it instead.
Equip {1}
, makes it the definitive best card in Modern.
That said, banning Saga has downsides, the biggest being that many other Modern decks would become unplayable. Affinity, Amulet Titan, and other 8-Mox decks would become far weaker than they currently are, potentially dropping out of the format entirely. This could cause significant format churn in Modern, which has caused issues at casual levels in the past. If that isn’t a concern, however, Saga is the clear power outlier in the format, and banning it could improve format health.
Malevolent Rumble
Malevolent Rumble
Reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a permanent card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. Create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
, on the other hand, does feel like a power outlier that could leave the format without making any archetype unplayable. This card is a massive consistency enabler for Broodscale, finding core cards, dumping card types into the grave for Emrakul, and even offering some additional ramp. The Eldrazi Spawn is fantastic for going off with Basking Broodscale, too, since sacrificing it starts the combo chain. I think banning Rumble also makes it much harder for combo decks to get cards into the graveyard, which would go a long way toward balancing
Shifting Woodland
Shifting Woodland
This land enters tapped unless you control a Forest.
{T}: Add {G}.
Delirium — {2}{G}{G}: This land becomes a copy of target permanent card in your graveyard until end of turn. Activate only if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.
and
Emrakul, the Promised End
Emrakul, the Promised End
This spell costs {1} less to cast for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
When you cast this spell, you gain control of target opponent during that player's next turn. After that turn, that player takes an extra turn.
Flying, trample, protection from instants
on its own.
For that reason, to avoid crippling other Modern decks and to keep Eldrazi playable, I’d ban both
Sowing Mycospawn
Sowing Mycospawn
Devoid (This card has no color.)
Kicker {1}{C} (You may pay an additional {1}{C} as you cast this spell.)
When you cast this spell, search your library for a land card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
When you cast this spell, if it was kicked, exile target land.
and
Malevolent Rumble
Malevolent Rumble
Reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a permanent card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard. Create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
. That said, I also wouldn’t be sad to see
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
or
Emrakul, the Promised End
Emrakul, the Promised End
This spell costs {1} less to cast for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
When you cast this spell, you gain control of target opponent during that player's next turn. After that turn, that player takes an extra turn.
Flying, trample, protection from instants
go. Once again, however, I expect Wizards of the Coast to ban Emrakul, the Promised End, but not necessarily this coming Monday.
Because we’re in the middle of a Regional Championship season, banning something now could screw over a lot of time and testing for events that haven’t occurred yet. Because of this, Modern will likely be addressed in the December announcement instead of October, but the format definitely needs something to change.
As a small side note, I think the new 7-Chant Control deck might be an elephant in the room that everyone’s ignoring. This could become the real problem deck in MTG Modern, but since it’s so new and under the radar, I don’t think anything from it will get banned.
MTG Pauper
Thanks to the extremely controversial legality reversal on The Zeta Set, MTG Pauper unexpectedly got a ton of powerful cards injected into the format. These quickly impacted the format and have caused their fair share of concern for Pauper players, but they honestly seem ok for now. While
Baleful Strix
Baleful Strix
Flying, deathtouch
When this creature enters, draw a card.
and
Dispatch
Dispatch
Tap target creature.
Metalcraft — If you control three or more artifacts, exile that creature.
have given Affinity a massive boost, current Pauper results suggest that Mono-Red Madness remains a massive power outlier, even after Zeta.
Built around the recurrable
Sneaky Snacker
Sneaky Snacker
Flying
When you draw your third card in a turn, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
, Mono-Red Madness combines burn, Madness cards like
Fiery Temper
Fiery Temper
Fiery Temper deals 3 damage to any target.
Madness {R} (If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
, and looting effects like
Faithless Looting
Faithless Looting
Draw two cards, then discard two cards.
Flashback {2}{R} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
to create a blisteringly fast strategy that keeps presenting threats. Despite the new Zeta additions, Mono-Red Madness won a massive Pauper event in France this past weekend, and dominated other bigger tournaments.
As the strategy’s core card, and one the Pauper Panel has been watching, Sneaky Snacker seems like a card that needs to leave MTG Pauper. That said, once this card goes, other power outliers could fill the void thanks to the new Zeta cards. As a result, multiple cards could leave MTG Pauper on Monday, but we think Sneaky Snacker has finally outstayed its welcome and is heading to greener pastures.
MTG Timeless
While it isn’t discussed much, MTG Timeless is probably the worst constructed format at the time of writing. Having played in the recent Arena Qualifier Weekend for Timeless, the format seems to largely center around two decks: Turbo Reanimator and Frog Reanimator. Contending against Frog Reanimator seems to be largely impossible for a majority of the format, while Turbo Reanimator beats everything that isn’t Frog Reanimator.
Between these two decks, the
Entomb
Entomb
Search your library for a card, put that card into your graveyard, then shuffle.
and
Reanimate
Reanimate
Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. You lose life equal to that card's mana value.
package is the common denominator, often creating game-ending sequences for just two mana. In Turbo Reanimator, it’s common to present a turn one win with
Force of Will
Force of Will
You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell.
or
Pact of Negation
Pact of Negation
Counter target spell.
At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay {3}{U}{U}. If you don't, you lose the game.
backup. Heck, there’s a reason that every best-of-one Timeless deck seems to play four
Leyline of the Void
Leyline of the Void
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
.
With that in mind, I think Restricting Entomb would do a lot of good for Timeless, making early Reanimator plays much less consistent. Frankly, with so many tutors in the format, this might not be good enough, but it would be a step in the right direction.
MTG Commander
According to discussions held by the Commander Committee, we may be due for a Commander ban announcement update this coming Monday. What will change, if anything, however, is a completely different question.
While I don’t expect any Commander changes this coming Monday, unbans are possible.
Sylvan Primordial
Sylvan Primordial
Reach
When this creature enters, for each opponent, destroy target noncreature permanent that player controls. Search your library for up to X Forest cards, where X is the number of permanents destroyed this way, put those cards onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
notably got an oracle text update with the release of Reality Fracture, which could indicate a potential unban, but this is purely speculation. While the card seems in line with current-day Commander power levels, Sylvan Primordial doesn’t exactly lead to pleasant play patterns, either.
Personally, I wouldn’t expect anything to get banned in MTG Commander, either.
Rhystic Study
Rhystic Study
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays {1}.
, which has taken the cEDH metagame by storm, is probably the closest, but even this doesn’t feel like it’s ruling cEDH with an iron fist.
While all of these are possibilities, I want to reiterate that I do not expect any big changes this Monday. That said, bans in this format are impossible to predict with no notice, so anything, or nothing, could happen.
The Rest
Of all the formats that could be addressed on Monday, Modern, Pauper, and Timeless seem most likely. Other formats could appear, but they all seem unlikely for various reasons.
Since
The Fantasticar
The Fantasticar
Flying
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may have The Fantasticar become an artifact creature until end of turn.
Whenever you cast your fourth noncreature spell each turn, you may sacrifice The Fantasticar. If you do, create four 4/4 colorless Construct artifact creature tokens with flying and haste.
left Legacy and Vintage, the formats seem much more balanced. While Dimir Tempo seems to be the best play in Legacy by some margin, it doesn’t necessarily look broken. Most notably, with Eternal Weekend right around the corner for these formats, making changes now seems unlikely.
Historic could see some ban adjustments because of the reversal of MTG Arena’s recent digital changes, but we’re not sure what they would be. With data still thin for the format, it’s tough to know what is problematic right now. The potential problems, however, are quite plentiful.
While Standard has a few standout archetypes in Landfall, Spellementals, and Jund Sacrifice, they don’t seem problematic enough to warrant a ban. With the recent Regional Championship season focusing on Modern, Standard hasn’t faced much competitive pressure, either. As a result, giving the format time to develop seems reasonable.
Pioneer is in a similar boat, with tons of viable decks routinely doing well in events. While plenty of decks could be potential issues, the format hasn’t seen any competitive pressure yet. Unless there’s a deck that’s absolutely dominating MTG Arena that we cannot see, bans here feel unreasonable.
Of course, at the end of the day, this is all just speculation. Magic is routinely impossible to predict, as multiple past ban announcements have proved, so anything can realistically happen. Honestly, as long as the issues in Pauper and Modern are addressed, even if no action is taken against them, I will be happy with the upcoming ban announcement.
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