June 29th Banned & Restricted Announcement

Eli Weinberg 2 hours ago MTG News

Last updated on June 29, 2026

The Fantasticar | Illustration by Maxim Ruabtsev

These Banned & Restricted announcements feel like they're coming at light speed, don't they?

Candelabra of Tawnos is BANNED in Legacy
Seeker of Skybreak is BANNED in Pauper
Force of Will is BANNED in Brawl
Sublety is BANNED in Brawl
Wash Away is BANNED in Brawl
Ugin's Labyrinth is BANNED in Brawl
Time Warp is BANNED in Brawl
Temporal Manipulation is BANNED in Brawl

Table of Contents show

Seeker of Skybreak Has Gotta Go

Seeker of Skybreak has always been a troublesome card. Due to its subtly unique tap ability, it can actually untap itself infinitely.

Hawkeye's Bow pings any target for 1 when equipped creature becomes tapped. And there you have it. My knowledge of Pauper is limited, but I saw Pauper expert Andrea Mengucci say that this combo should get some room to breathe…but it probably isn’t good for the format.

Gavin Verhey has been vocal on this subkect, taking care to engage with MTG community members to get a general consensus. It’s cracked! Infinite damage to any number of targets as early as turn 2 is…too good! I think…

But it’s still no Basking Broodscale, right??

Brawl Crackdown

As you may or may not know, Arena just introduced a Competitive Brawl ladder. This is evidencing numerous commanders as problematic within the format.

Competitive Brawl is being treated as a separate format with its own banlist. Force of Will and Sublety are too strong as free interaction, Wash Away completely hoses commanders. Ugin's Labyrinth is like an Ancient Tomb with upside, and both Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation[/card[ know what they did.

This is a huge shakeup to the format, let's see how it plays out.

Canning the Candelabra

Well, Legacy is a combo heavy format to begin with, but [card]Candelara of Tawnos has finally broken it. Candelabra was on the first Legacy banlist in 1996, it was removed, and now it's back.

Easy to see how broken this one is: It's fairly simple to go mana positive with this insane artifact. Throw in an extra turn spell, and it can hardly be stopped.

The Issue With Izzet

I don’t know what they’ll do in Standard. Izzet has been too good for too long, and I don’t think banning Stormchaser's Talent will actually solve anything.

I feel as though this is just where the design of the game has gone. It just feels like anything all the other colors can do, Izzet can do better – except for Lifegain maybe? Wizards, Is Izzet too good? Wizards. Is it time to ban Izzet?

Let’s look on the bright side. Izzet Prowess is like, 22% of the meta right now. That’s objectively an unhealthy meta, from my understanding at least.

This just means that the only solution is for them to stop printing such good red and blue cards. Which…just creates a host of other problems. Because all that Green Landfall stuff is right on Izzet’s heels.