Tarkir: Dragonstorm is now right around the corner. Story chapters for the set are already being revealed this week, and we’ve even had an early spoiler because of it. Officially, the set’s spoiler season isn’t due to start until March 18th. However, that’s not far away now. Unfortunately, while there’s plenty to be excited about, this spoiler season is going to be somewhat difficult…
Not only is this spoiler season expected to be incredibly busy, thanks to Tarkir: Dragonstorm having five Commander decks, but proper card assessment may be troublesome. Thanks to upcoming bans on the horizon, we might have to rule out one format entirely, in fact. Obviously, this situation is far from ideal, however, there’s no easy way to escape this bad situation.
Bad Ban Timing
Last year, on December 16th, Wizards of the Coast delivered the latest competitive-focused Banned and Restricted announcement. During this, as usual, Wizards confirmed exactly when the next MTG bans would be taking place. This has been standard practice for a while now, so players don’t have to panic about out-of-the-blue changes.
Following the introduction of the fixed ban schedule in 2023, everything has been going smoothly. We’ve been getting smaller ban windows shortly after the release of each major set, and one big announcement before rotation time. These announcements were all balanced around competitive events too, ensuring that in-progress tournaments weren’t disrupted.
Unfortunately, while things have worked well so far, things have fallen apart in 2025. Currently, the next bans are scheduled to take place on March 31st. Notably, this is after the entire spoiler season for Tarkir: Dragonstorm has concluded. To put it lightly, this is a problem, as it may make assessing cards appropriately incredibly difficult.
Until the bans happen, there is no guarantee that existing archetypes won’t be disrupted before Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s release. Admittedly, it does seem that major changes are unlikely for most formats, but nothing in life is certain. Should This Town Ain’t Big Enough get banned as previously theorized, Standard’s competitive order could be thrown into disarray.
Thankfully, it now seems rather unlikely that such a ban is going to happen anytime soon. That being said, many MTG players have been calling for various bans for quite some time. In theory, this could make things rather difficult, however, hopefully, things won’t be too bad.
No Changes Are Good Changes
While there’s no telling what Wizards may be planning, Standard is in a fairly solid spot right now. Esper Pixie has appeared recently, empowered further by Aetherdrift, but it’s by no means dominant. As mentioned, requests for This Town Ain’t Big Enough to be banned were quashed following a disappointing Pro Tour performance.
Now that control is back on the menu too, it seems Standard doesn’t need any emergency bans. Doing so before the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm certainly seems premature, as that should mix up the metagame. The only reason any card should be banned in Standard is if it’d create a devastating synergy, something akin to an ultra-fast combo once Tarkir: Dragonstorm releases.
Outside of Standard, it also seems that Pioneer isn’t in dire need of bans either. While Rakdos Demons is the most popular archetype according to MTGDecks, the metagame is still fairly varied. Potentially, Tarkir Dragonstorm could shake things up here too. However, that’s slightly less unlikely. At the very least, no cards are sticking out as obviously needing a ban right now.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for Modern. While MTG players have been flocking to this format since December, it’s not perfect. Grinding Breach can dish out devastatingly fast combos and Energy decks threaten to rule the roost in Breach’s absence. Players have long been calling for bans to both these archetypes, and potentially even more to maintain balance.
Currently, Modern feels like it’s in a weird state. The metagame appears diverse and healthy, but there are problems beneath the surface. Due to this, and the requests for bans, assessing Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards for Modern may be rather difficult. The only saving grace is that Standard-legal cards rarely break the Modern metagame.
No Right Answer
Even if most MTG formats don’t desperately need bans right now, this inopportune timing isn’t good news. While far from perfect, it seems Wizards is making the best of a bad situation, at least. Looking at the current competitive calendar for MTG, there isn’t really anywhere else this banning could go.
Since Pro Tour Aetherdrift happened on February 24th, there have been major MTG tournaments happening every single week. Regional Championships, Super Series Finals, and even the Magic Spotlight: Modern are all happening in the next two weeks. This current tournament cycle finishes on March 17th, so the next available announcement date would be the 24th.
Unfortunately, this date is slap bang in the middle of the Tarkir: Dragonstorm spoiler season, which really isn’t ideal. Subsequently, Wizards made the sensible decision to push it a week until the 31st. As unexciting as it may be, these continued competitive events following Aetherdrift’s release are why we’re in this sticky situation.
Sadly, now that we’re here, there isn’t an easy way out of the situation we’re in. Bans before Tarkir: Dragonstorm simply isn’t feasible, and delaying the bans wouldn’t be great either. At the moment, however, anything would be preferable to the uncertainty we have going into Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s spoiler season.
As a potential solution, Wizards of the Coast could confirm early which formats are being affected by the upcoming banning. This way, Standard, Pioneer, and maybe even Modern players can know what to expect before Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Unfortunately, this only works if Wizards has already made up their minds, and there’s no telling if that’s the case.
We’re Stuck With It
Ultimately, while there is the potential for some new brews to be struck down, or empowered, this isn’t the biggest problem in MTG. Since it appears that most MTG formats won’t be getting any bans or unbans, we can, hopefully, ignore this issue during spoiler season. At worst, we’ll just have to reassess cards in the time between bans and Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s release.