Yesterday’s ban announcement was undeniably a massive one, causing as many cheers as it did questions. While the entire MTG playerbase recognized the need for Vivi Cauldron to be stopped, there were a lot of divided opinions on everything else that left Magic’s various formats. As usual, many of these opinions were addressed during the follow-up WeeklyMTG livestream, which definitely didn’t disappoint.
Alongside answering questions and addressing concerns regarding what wasn’t banned, Wizards also shockingly announced seven new ban windows for 2026. It’s pretty clear that 2025’s MTG ban windows didn’t work, so now Wizards is changing their philosophy.
Massive Ban Window Increase
Of the many things that went wrong with Vivi Ornitier’s era in Standard, the biggest one was how long it took to ban the prolific menace. Thanks to a series of back-to-back, competitive events, Wizards put five months between Magic’s last two ban windows for 2025. This resulted in Vivi Ornitier ruining Standard for far longer than it should have, dropping event attendance rates until it was forcibly ejected from the format.
Sadly, this has been the case for a lot of problematic decks over the last few years. Underworld Breach, as well as Nadu, Winged Wisdom, were a part of Modern for far too long. Cori-Steel Cutter even caused the same problem in Standard earlier this year. After a few too many instances of the issue, Wizards is changing things up.
For 2026, Wizards of the Coast has announced that there will be seven ban windows. Beyond just confirming this many windows will be available, Wizards has also revealed the dates for most of them. While these are tentative for the moment, it looks like we’ve got MTG ban windows at least every two months.
Unfortunately, while this shift is exciting, this solution doesn’t come without its own problems. The issues that Wizards were trying to address by lengthening ban windows will now be under scrutiny once again.
Sudden Changes that Ruin Events
One of the biggest reasons that ban windows were so far apart over the past few years was so Wizards could structure bans around competitive events. Getting bans right before a massive event, like a Pro Tour or Regional Championship, is extremely frustrating for competitors. At worst, it can cause weeks of preparation to go down the drain, and at best, it makes everything needlessly stressful.
Unfortunately, some of the tentative 2026 ban window dates are already running into this problem. Some of the dates have been confirmed to take in and around major events, such as the South American Regional Championship series. While Wizards of the Coast will try their best to be respectful of tournament play, they made it clear that they won’t be able to accommodate everyone:
Jadine Klomparens
“We will be respectful of tournaments when we can, but it is important for the overall health of the ecosystem that we have the ability to make a change.”
There’s also the issue of frequent ban windows affecting buyer confidence for players who compete in competitive formats at the LGS level. Buying an MTG deck, especially in formats like Modern, is a major investment for players, and the possibility that the entire deck might get banned weeks after building a new deck is extremely scary.
Ultimately, while Wizards is upping the number of ban windows next year, there’s no guarantee they’ll all be used. Wizards will only ban cards when absolutely necessary; after all, this 2026 ban schedule is simply giving them more opportunities for action. Ideally, there won’t be any need to ban anything throughout 2026, but given 2025’s track record, that does seem rather unlikely.