On June 30th, Wizards of the Coast will release the latest banned and restricted announcement for MTG. To put it lightly, this announcement has been a long time coming. Not only have we known when it’d be happening since March, but MTG players have been practically begging for changes. In particular, MTG players have long been clamoring for Standard bans.
In case you’ve not played Standard recently, Mono Red and Izzet Prowess currently reign supreme. These decks have been good for a while, but Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s Cori-Steel Cutter really supercharged the problem. Since this set was released, calls for bans have dramatically increased; however, many players remained unconvinced.
For a variety of reasons, Standard MTG bans seemed unlikely for the longest time, even if they were needed. Now, however, the tide has changed once more. Thanks to Pro Tour Final Fantasy, as MagicCon: Las Vegas, the Standard metagame looks worse than ever. It’s high time that Wizards of the Coast finally fixes this growing problem.
A Terrible Top Eight
Getting to the top eight of any MTG event, let alone a Pro Tour, is always an impressive feat. As such, the players in Pro Tour Final Fantasy definitely deserve recognition and respect for their achievements. That said, dear god, the top eight of Pro Tour Final Fantasy is depressing.
In the top eight, there are only two different archetypes, Izzet Prowess and Mono Red. These results are largely unsurprising when looking at the decks registered for Pro Tour Final Fantasy. Going into the event, 41% of decks were Izzet Prowess, 20% were Azorious Omniscience, and 11% were Mono Red Aggro.
Beyond just creating a worrying top eight, the card stats are even more concerning. Within the top eight, there are 16 copies of Cori-Steel Cutter and 26 copies of Monstrous Rage. These are the two problem cards that MTG players have been complaining about since they were first released.
Notably, while Pro Tour Final Fantasy hasn’t finished yet, the top eight decks are fairly balanced against one another. While Izzet Prowess is a spell-casting menace, Mono Red is now playing main deck Magebane Lizard. Hopefully, this should make the remaining matches interesting to watch, even if there’s a lot of Monstrous Rage being played.
Technically, thanks to the even four-four split, you could say that the top eight is balanced. While it’s not rare to have dominant decks keeping one another in check, these aggressive lists are leagues ahead of the competition. Right now, very little can compete in Standard that’s not one of these decks, which obviously isn’t a fun experience.
Time for a Change
Looking at the top eight for Pro Tour Final Fantasy, it’s clear that something needs to change. While the threshold for bans in MTG Standard is very high, it seems inevitable at this point. Bans have been up in the air for some time, but it appears that we’ve reached the tipping point.
“Ok yup I’ve been on the “they won’t do bans” for a while but this seems pretty damning.”
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Beyond bans being needed right now to keep MTG Standard interesting, it’s worth noting that rotation is coming up. While the situation around this is complicated, a few anti-aggro staples, like Temporary Lockdown, are rotating out. If left unchecked, this would allow Izzet Prowess and Mono Red to dominate Standard even more.
If, or rather when, bans happen, it’s clear that both Cori-Steel Cutter and Monstrous Rage need to go. Arguably, Vivi Orniter is a potential problem, too; however, there’s no chance that Wizards would ban this card. After all, Final Fantasy just released, and Vivi is one of the chase mythics from the set.
While it’s imperative that Wizards clips red’s wings and slows down Standard, there’s a chance more bans are needed. Azorius Omniscience is clearly a top performer, and Domain Overlords has long proven to be a potential threat. Without additional bans to keep these decks in check, we could just replace one meta menace with another.
Arguably, Wizards of the Coast may need to go even further than targeting the top four decks. Esper Pixie, Jeskai Oculus, and even Dimir Midrange have all had their time in the spotlight and could easily reemerge. Due to this, Wizards of the Coast might need a soft reset for the entire format, even with rotation coming up.
The Space Whale in the Room
Sadly, when talking about bans, it’s impossible to ignore the specter of rotation. This is scheduled to happen when Edge of Eternities becomes legal on July 25th. On this date, we’ll obviously also be getting Edge of Eternities, which could contain new staples to shake up the metagame too.
In theory, this makes bans, even needed ones, rather dubious. Thanks to Universes Beyond sets being in Standard now, we’re rarely more than two months away from a new set. While the power level of Standard sets does fluctuate, this potentially means a shake-up is always on the horizon.
As if this weren’t troublesome enough, bans in Standard are always inherently problematic. Standard is meant to be Magic’s most accessible constructed format, and bans cause an immense spike in complexity. Due to this, Wizards is very hesitant to ban anything in Standard unless absolutely necessary.
For these reasons, the doubt and “no changes” talk has been so prevalent and worrying recently. For the longest time, it has felt like Wizards could justifiably not change anything because of what’s happening soon. Thankfully, the top eight of Pro Tour Final Fantasy should change that, as the numbers are too damning to ignore.
All that said, there’s no guarantee what Wizards of the Coast will ban later this month on June 30th. That said, it’s worth noting that this ban list is supposed to affect Standard more than usual to prep for rotation. As always, we’ll just have to wait and see while hoping that Standard’s problems get fixed.
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