Last updated on September 25, 2024
Nadu, Winged Wisdom – Illustration by Daren Bader
Targeting five different formats, Wizards of the Coast has banned:
Pioneer
Modern
Legacy
Vintage
- Urza's Saga is restricted.
- Vexing Bauble is restricted.
Explorer
Wizards of the Coast also stated that there will be some changes to their cadence on Banned and Restricted announcements.
“It is clear that the timing of the June 24 Banned & Restricted announcement was poor, so much so that we notified the public ahead of time that we would not be making any changes to Modern so that players could appropriately plan for Pro Tour Modern Horizons 3. This was certainly not ideal,” WotC said.
They also clarified that future B&R announcements will align to the RC and RCQ seasons.
“Moving forward, we will be aligning our B&R announcements to the RC and RCQ seasons. This will allow us to make adjustments to our play environments to ensure the best experience possible for our competitive play pipeline. Our plan is to use the RC and RCQ season (which includes Pro Tours) to gather data and observe the evolution of how each format absorbs each new release. This also means fewer B&R announcements overall,” WotC said.
Nadu's Wings Clipped
After dominating Modern since Modern Horizons 3, Nadu, Winged Wisdom has finally been banned.
“As the lead designer of Modern Horizons 3, I wanted to weigh in on our decision today” Senior Game Designer Michael Majors said. “Nadu, Winged Wisdom was a design mistake.”
One major factor that contributed to Nadu's broken design was that, during playtesting, they wanted to make it better for Commander play.
“Ultimately, my intention was to create a build-around aimed at Commander play, which resulted in the final text,” Majors said. “I missed the interaction with zero-mana abilities that are so problematic. The last round of folks who were shown the card in the building missed it too. We didn't playtest with Nadu's final iteration, as we were too far along in the process, and it shipped as-is.”
“Players knew we were likely to ban Nadu on the next opportunity, but they also knew that the best chance to win an event was likely by playing with Nadu. It was a poor experience for players, stores, and tournament organizers.” WotC said.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom decks dominated the Modern Horizons 3 Pro Tour, representing around 30% of the Day 2 decks, 5 of the Top 8 decks, and all Top 4 decks. During August, Bant Nadu boasted 18% of the Modern winner's metagame share, way ahead of its competitors.
Nadu decks proved the strongest in Modern's recent memory. The Magic community saw this coming all the way back from spoilers, calling it “the Hogaak of the set,” and highly expected WotC to ban the bird today – in spite of being the format's best card, Nadu's price has steadily declined.
WotC agreed, and Nadu, Winged Wisdom is no longer Modern-legal.
The End of Grief
By and large, the Legacy community expected two bans today: Grief, and Psychic Frog. WotC identified Grief as problematic in their B&R back in May, and Psychic Frog was a powerful MH3 addition. UB Reanimator, featuring both, claimed the #1 spot in major Legacy tournaments recently, and overall more than a third of Legacy's playing field in July. And Grief's hand destruction is not just powerful, but unfun to face against.
Agreeing with these concerns, WotC has {banned Grief in both Modern and Legacy.
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord Banned in Pioneer
Rakdos Vampire was the breakout deck during the Murders at Karlov Manor Pro Tour, and in the months since then it grew to bite more than a quarter of the Pioneer metagame share on the back of two cards: Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord as the enabler, and Vein Ripper as the payoff. Today, WotC has decided that the black planeswalker was the deck's problematic card and has banned Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord from Pioneer.
“Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord into Vein Ripper is so potent that many decks struggle to interact with it at all,” WotC stated. “It is an exchange that is difficult to come back from.”
Along with Rakdos Vampires, Amalia Combo got hit by the ban hammer. WotC had mentioned in their June B&R Announcement that Amalia Combo was on their watchlist, citing Amalia's ability to draw the game as a negative experience. Since June, Amalia Combo has become the second most-played deck in Pioneer, and today WotC has banned Amalia Benavides Aguirre.
“The Amalia deck is one we've had our eyes on for a while,” WotC said. “Amalia triggers an infinite number of times. This is not ideal as a gameplay experience and certainly was not something our team caught during playtesting The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.”
Urza's Saga and Vexing Bauble Restricted in Vintage
Finally, both Urza's Saga and Vexing Bauble have been restricted in Vintage after having their share of the metagame steadily increase. WotC stated that since Vintage evolves slower than other formats, it takes longer to spot problem cards and areas where maintenance is required.
“Lurrus decks featuring Urza's Saga have had the top spot in the metagame over the past year or so … [and a] player who goes first and can resolve a Vexing Bauble before their opponent takes a turn effectively shuts them out of playing all their cool cards after you've had the chance to play your own,” WotC said. “In the spirit of keeping Vintage about Vintage, Vexing Bauble is restricted.”
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