Last updated on November 13, 2024
Monstrous Rage | Illustration by Borja Pindado
Two notable cards – Monstrous Rage and Temporal Manipulation – have been banned in Alchemy and Historic respectively, according to the most recent MTG Arena announcements from November 11, 2024. These bans set a tone for Historic and also represent a Magic first: a ban specifically for Alchemy.
Standard players are likely familiar with Monstrous Rage, a surprisingly effective combat trick in Gruul Prowess and RDW decks. It seems as though the initial plan was to rebalance Monstrous Rage for Alchemy, similar to previous red powerhouse Dragon's Rage Channeler.
However, it seems that Wizards found it too difficult to find a meaningful balance with Monstrous Rage. According to the ban announcement:
“It is challenging to adjust Monstrous Rage without making too small a change or rendering the card unplayable,” they said.
The announcement also clarified that banning cards in Alchemy is a last resort, stating “In general, we want to avoid banning cards in Alchemy, but Monstrous Rage is a very tight design.”
Seeing as this is the first time a card has been banned for the Alchemy format specifically, it tracks that Wizards tries their best to avoid making moves like this.
In contrast, the Historic banning of Temporal Manipulation is far from an anomaly, but instead it’s a deliberate pattern of bans for the format. Put simply in the ban announcement:
“Time Warp is already banned in the format, as we believe Historic is not the place to force multiple turns in a row.”
In addition to Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation, Nexus of Fate is also banned in Historic. This makes it clear that Wizards is trying its best to tamp down on easy to cast extra-turn spells in Historic. That said, extra turns aren’t completely unheard of in the format.
While cheaper extra turn spells are banned in Historic, Alrund's Epiphany remains legal. Conditional extra turn spells like Chance for Glory have also avoided the ban hammer in the format. So, it seems like Wizards is okay with some extra turns in Historic, so long as they are a bit more difficult to pull off.
More Changes Coming to Arena
Aside from the outright bans, MTG Arena is getting some more changes in the form of rebalances which will affect Alchemy, Historic, and Brawl. Just like with Monstrous Rage, red decks seem to be a target with these changes.
It isn’t too surprising to see a rebalance for Leyline of Resonance, given that it has already been banned in best-of-one Standard formats on Arena. When paired with combat tricks and creatures like Slickshot Showoff, this card makes it possible to close out a game in just a few turns. The new rebalance forces players to pay an extra generic mana to copy your spells, significantly limiting the number of spells players can get off in a single turn.
One of Leyline of Resonance’s frequent targets, Heartfire Hero also received a significant Alchemy rebalance. Now, instead of starting as a 1/1, this mighty mouse comes in as a 0/1. While this may seem insignificant, as a Gruul prowess player I know how often a game can be decided by just a few points of damage.
After being banned in both Commander and Modern, Nadu, Winged Wisdom has now also been deemed too powerful for Brawl, at least in its original form. This rebalance caps the number of Nadu activations at two, as opposed to getting two potential activations from each of your creatures.
Wizards says this was done to “[reduce] it’s power level ceiling and the amount of game time it can monopolize.”
This tracks with their banning of easy extra turn spells in Historic, as it seems Wizards does not like the idea of matches turning into games of Solitaire. I’m sure many players appreciate these types of changes. Win or lose, we just like the opportunity to actually play.
While these are some of the most notable changes coming to MTG Arena, it’s worth checking out the full list, in case any cards you play with are being affected.
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