Back in December 2024, a multitude of changes shook up the competitive landscape of various Constructed formats. Modern, in particular, was seriously shaken up by not just bans but a series of unbans as well. Unfortunately, while these bans did make Modern incredibly interesting, for a time, they’ve not been faultless.
Right now, Modern is dominated by the Grinding Breach combo, thanks to the unbanning of Mox Opal. Obviously, this is far from a good thing, however, the unbans weren’t all bad news. For starters, it showed that Wizards of the Coast was willing to take cards off the Modern banlist. This is a hugely exciting prospect for many players, as Modern’s banlist could certainly be trimmed somewhat.
Currently, a new ban announcement is scheduled to take place at the end of this month on March 31st. WIth this in mind, we felt it would be worthwhile to go over some of the MTG cards that could do with being unbanned. Between Modern, Legacy, and even Pioneer, there are plenty of potential targets worthy of consideration.
Modern
Over the past few years, the Modern landscape has changed drastically. Traditional creature decks took a huge hit, for the most part. This is largely because the arrival of cards like Wrenn and Six and Orcish Bowmasters provided other decks with proactive plays that punish small creatures.
Old-school archetypes like Humans and Elves completely fell by the wayside as a result. One-toughness mana dorks like Noble Hierarch barely show up anymore. As such, when looking at the Modern banlist, there are a few cards that come to mind that could provide some much-needed changes in favor of green creature decks.
Glimpse of Nature, for example, is a very strong card advantage engine that could potentially be unbanned. Most of the concern surrounding Glimpse of Nature rests with its combo potential alongside mana producers such as Heritage Druid. Glimpse definitely has a high ceiling, however, though, there are tons of tools to fight against Glimpse.
Orcish Bowmasters, for example, could easily keep Glimpse decks in deck, should this card be unbanned. Not only does Bowmasters mess with the small mana dorks Glimpse decks run but it also makes drawing extra cards a liability. Similarly, Toxic Deluge-style cards can make it tough for Glimpse decks to get to a big enough mana threshold to go off with the powerful sorcery. In this sense, Glimpse has the potential to add diversity to the format without creating a broken strategy, which is the sweet spot.
Birthing Pod is another card that can open up the door for a different style of combo deck to emerge. Birthing Pod loops involving Karmic Guide and other tools used to be deemed too strong back in the day. Nowadays, Modern is fast enough that it seems unlikely Birthing Pod would be as problematic. Instead, the unbanning of Birthing Pod could enable players to play with combo cards that see basically no play elsewhere.
Legacy
Moving to Legacy, there are a couple of cards that stick out as worthy unbans. Most of the banlist is made up of broken engines that have no business being discussed. Still, Legacy has been dominated by tempo Daze decks for years. Perhaps some unbans could bring some power elsewhere.
Recently, Legacy master and enthusiast Bob Huang took to Twitter to poll what cards the community felt should be unbanned. At the top of the list were Mind Twist and Mana Drain.
Mind Twist seems like a reasonable choice to unban, but from a gameplay perspective, doesn’t exactly improve anything about the format. In games, it’s either an absolute monster or does nothing at all. If you have fast mana and your opponent doesn’t have a counterspell, the game is basically over. This isn’t exactly the most interesting gameplay.
Mana Drain, on the other hand, has some appeal. Two-mana Counterspells are nearly nonexistent in Legacy. Instead, Force of Will, Daze, and “Blast” effects are used to keep opponents off-balance. Mana Drain getting unbanned creates some incentive for players to explore different styles of blue decks.
See, Mana Drain isn’t at its best in tempo Delver shells. Mana Drain is much better in reactive control shells that leave up mana regularly, then use the mana advantage from Mana Drain to jam a Planeswalker. There’s a chance the existence of The One Ring makes Mana Drain too good, but giving players more of a reason to play blue decks that aren’t tempo or combo-oriented is neat.
Another card that was high up in the poll was Earthcraft. Earthcraft has been banned for over two decades out of fear for its combo potential. Nonetheless, rewarding players for playing basic lands and unique combos in Legacy is cool, so unbanning Earthcraft for diversity’s sake seems perfectly reasonable.
Pauper and Beyond
Lastly, we wanted to touch on Pauper and Pioneer. Pauper and Pioneer banlists are very tight as is, and there really isn’t much room for unbanning things without causing chaos.
In Pauper, if anything were to be unbanned, it’s probably Prophetic Prism. Prophetic Prism is particularly strong in multicolor Tron decks. Yet, Tron decks have fallen by the wayside since Kuldotha burn and Glee combo emerged as frontrunners in the format.
Unbanning Prophetic Prism to pair with Energy Refractor to make Fog Tron decks more consistent is not out of the question. The recent rise in Altar Tron decklists with Pactdoll Terror makes this unban a bit more trepidatious, though.
As for Pioneer, no cards jump out as worth unbanning. One can argue the combo involving Walking Ballista and Heliod, Sun-Crowned is not “too good” for the format. Still, there’s a big risk there, and the reward isn’t huge. Besides, giving green Devotion decks a versatile monster/removal spell is far from ideal.
The next ban announcement is only a couple of weeks away. There’s no doubt changes are needed, but could bans and unbans be on the horizon? We’ll just have to wait and see.