Magic Twitter user and all around legend, @Fireshoes, posted a tweet today that apparently, there’s supposed to be a Banned and Restricted Announcement tomorrow. The tweet shows a placeholder page on the Mothership, with the URL of a July 21st Banned and Restricted Announcement.
This is really big news. There aren’t any major events that have happened recently that would warrant a B&R announcement to happen, so what could be getting the axe in this announcement? The first immediate thought, and the one that’s most likely, is a Historic banning with
Brainstorm
Brainstorm
Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
and / or
Memory Lapse
Memory Lapse
Counter target spell. If that spell is countered this way, put it on top of its owner's library instead of into that player's graveyard.
. Since the release of these two cards in the Mystical Archives, they’ve been a major player in the top decks in Historic. Many people have called for their bannings as they warp the format. While Wizards of the Coast didn’t take any action against these cards after the Strixhaven Championships, they did state in their B&R that banned
Time Warp
Time Warp
Target player takes an extra turn after this one.
, that they’d be monitoring Brainstorm and other cards very closely.
I don’t think that there’s going to be any bannings in Modern since the format has leveled out quite a bit.
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.
decks have subsided in their power position in the meta. Standard is about to rotate, so I don’t anticipate anything happening there. I don’t expect anything happening with Legacy and Vintage either. It is possible that we could also see an unbanning in Historic. Of the cards that could be unbanned, the most likely would be
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Whenever a non-Human creature you control attacks, look at the top six cards of your library. You may put a Human creature card from among them onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. It gains indestructible until end of turn. Put the rest of the cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.
. I don’t think that this is likely to happen, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
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What are you thinking is going to be in the Banned and Restricted announcement tomorrow? We’ll be covering it when it drops so stay tuned for our analysis on that.