
Magic the Gathering Banned and Restricted Update
We were a little late to the party on this one. These announcements were made on Monday 25th January and as of the time of writing all the bans and restricted updates are already in effect.
The first place we will start with the banned cards is in Standard. There have been 3 cards banned in standard and 2 of them are from Kaldheim. These are;
All of these cards have been digitally amended to be played in Alchemy on Magic Arena. For those playing in Standard there are no longer playable.
Legacy has only had the one banning this time around. This card is from Modern Horizons 2, so it hasn't been around for that long. By Legacy's standard.
In Historic there have been a couple of changes, both banning and unbanning.
Memory Lapse has now been banned after being suspended.
Teferi, Time Raveler has been unbanned, however with a caveat. The unbanned card has been digitally amended.
Standard
We believe that the cards now banned in Standard is a fair thing to do. As much fun as it is to cast extra turn spells, which Alrund's Epiphany is, it is not always that much fun to play against. Especially if your opponent has a few copies foretold as well.
We also understand why Divide By Zero might have been banned as well. It is not the card itself that is an issue but the cards that are played along side it in the Blue Control decks. Even though the other cards in these decks could be construed as more powerful. Divide By Zero is definitely the engine that keeps the deck running.
Faceless Haven being banned is not something we totally agree with. We understand the reasoning behind the banning but there is targeted land destruction in the form of Field of Ruin. This card can destroy Faceless Haven fairly easily. Having a land that can become a creature is a powerful thing but there are plenty of them in current Standard as they were adding in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
Legacy
There is an argument to agree with Magic the Gathering on this. Ragavan is a powerful card and with it only costing one red mana it can be played very early in the game. It is mainly played in the Red/Blue decks using protective spells against your opponents. So is there an argument to ban these cards as well? The likes of Daze or Force of Will can ensure Ragavan stays on the field and creates early mana and card advantage.
The Legacy format is still being closely watched, especially the Red/Blue decks to see how this ban will change the decks but if there is not enough change we can see more bans coming.
Historic
Memory Lapse was already suspended in the format and usually when a card is suspended it is followed up with a ban. This is the case for Memory Lapse.
Teferi, Time Raveler was banned in Standard just before rotation and was banned in Historic as well. However with the introduction of Alchemy cards, Magic the Gathering can adjust these cards accordingly to fit with the current metagame. This card has been changed to reduce its power level. In a way this works but how long will it be until the Digital and Paper formats of the game are totally different games.
This is our round up of the latest announcement for Bans and Restricted cards in the Magic the Gathering formats. We will be back on top of things next time to ensure that we get the updates out as soon as they happen.