Secrets of Strixhaven Illuminates Need for Immediate Ban

Last updated on April 23, 2026

Stormchaser's Talent | Illustration by Christina Kraus

As Secrets of Strixhaven floods formats with juiced blue and red cards, I want to consider the role of Stormchaser's Talent across several formats. It’s a powerhouse that’s been a staple in Standard since the days of Esper Pixie. It grants various flavors of Izzet to aggressive starts, yet also works in long, grindy games. Has it been in the sun for too long?

Where Is Stormchaser’s Talent Played?

Otter | Illustration by Julia Griffin

Stormchaser's Talent sees fringe play in Modern and Legacy, but the bulk of its play is in Standard and Pioneer, where it appears in multiple decks.

Most flavors of Izzet in Standard runs Stormchaser’s Talent. This includes the formidable Lessons, Izzet Prowess, and generalist Izzet control decks. The only Izzet deck that abstains is Izzet Spellelementals, which needs an immense instant/sorcery count for Hearth Elemental. While there are variations among the decks, like Lessons adapting the Artist's Talent/Monument to Endurance package and Prowess leaning on aggro with Slickshot Show-Off, the Stormchaser's Talent/Boomerang Basics package is core to all of them.

Pioneer has less variety, with Stormchaser’s Talent predominantly played in Izzet Cutter decks that with Vivi Ornitier and Cori-Steel Cutter. Beyond the Cutter deck, it sees fringe play in Dimir or Esper Yorion, Sky Nomad decks with This Town Ain't Big Enough and the odd Izzet Lessons deck. While fewer decks feature SCT, UR Cutter is among the most played decks in the format, with MTGTop8 showing a 22% play rate, the same as Greasefang and greater than any other deck.

SCT forms the core of these powerful Izzet decks, with the Standard ones looking particularly dominate; Izzet decks are frequently represented in the top 16 of MTGO’s weekly challenges, with the entire Top 8 of April 19’s challenge being SCT decks.

Why Is Stormchaser’s Talent So Strong?

Boomerang Basics | Illustration by Tubaki Halsame

I want to start by comparing STC to other aggressive one-drops. It makes an otter with prowess, a body similar to that of Elusive Otter or Soul-Scar Mage, which see play alongside it in Standard and Pioneer, respectively. Because all flavors of Izzet run cheap removal and cantrips, the Otter typically attacks for more than 1 damage a turn. The same can be said of the other two cards, so SCT looks comparable. But the others don’t combo with Boomerang Basics.

Pretty much any SCT deck plays 3-4 copies of Boomerang Basics. The synergy is obvious: You bounce SCT basic to your hand, which makes BB draw a card. Since you can replay SCT, it’s effectively a 1-mana draw two, and it flexes into a bounce spell when necessary. This is exceptionally stronger than the other 1-drops because SCT leaves its token in play. Though SCT effectively plays like a creature, because it makes a token, it’s an enchantment, so it triggers prowess and related abilities. Few openers are as threatening as turn 1 SCT, turn 2 BB and recast it, attack for three. And, you know what? A great aggressive threat is fine. Aggro is a fair part of Magic. But SCT is a class, so the textbox keeps going.

The instant/sorcery recursion on STC doesn’t happen often with all those cantrips and Stock Up, and likely happens even less frequently with Flow State, but it still means the card gets stronger. It’s an aggressive threat that draws a card, eventually. While the last level is rarely activated, it’s still perfectly capable of winning a game, so SCT applies meaningful pressure in the early, mid, and late game.

Should Stormchaser’s Talent Be Banned in Standard?

Consider | Illustration by Brian Yuen

I want to acknowledge that Wizards of the Coast has greater access to format data than I or any other random person on the internet. This gives them a better sense of what’s good, or too good. But yes, I think Stormchaser's Talent could reasonably be banned in Standard, for two primary reasons.

The first is that its range of impact is unbalanced. Aggressive cards in Magic are balanced around being extremely strong early, but weak later in the game. Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear get to be threatening turns 1 and 2 because they aren’t good on turn 6 when you’re facing down a Parhelion II or a demon from Unholy Annex. This is a feature, not a flaw. SCT ignores this with its levels.

The second is Wizards’ stated goals for Standard. In the B&R announcement for June 30, 2025, Wizards specifically called out 1-mana spells as potentially damaging to Standard, and something to avoid:

Source: wizards.com

While SCT wasn’t and isn’t as egregious as Hopeless Nightmare, and Wizards didn't say they never wanted format defining 1-drops, Izzet's dominance suggests SCT might be an issue. It even has similar play patterns to Cori-Steel Cutter as it’s hard to profitably interact with it; you can remove the otter token, but then your opponent bounces the enchantment, or draws a card later, or both. Between being good at all points in the game, SOS introducing new tools like Flow State and Prismari Charm to juice up blue-red decks, and the ideals laid out in the article, it seems reasonable to ban Stormchaser’s Talent to try and move away from Izzet dominance in Standard.