Last updated on March 31, 2025

Underworld Breach – illus. Pyotr Dura

WotC just revealed its March 31st Banned and Restricted Announcement. The first B&R of the year is upon us. Today's bans come as a huge surprise, with several unexpected cards across formats getting hit. Let's dive in.Standard

Modern

• Underworld Breach is banned

Legacy

• Sowing Mycospawn is banned
• Troll of Khazad Dum is banned

Pauper

• Basking Broodscale is banned
• Kuldotha Rebirth is banned
• Deadly Dispute is banned
• Prophetic Prism is unbanned
• High Tide is unbanned

Standard Skipped

Despite Up the Beanstalk, Monstrous Rage, and even This Town Ain't Big Enough dominating the format, none of the “Big Three” in Standard managed to catch a ban.

WotC said that “Standard is flourishing, and there are no changes to the format with this announcement,” in their official B&R post, and that their approach to standard “remains unchanged.”

“Standard was on display at Pro Tour Aetherdrift, which showcased a rich and diverse metagame. The big three of Standard have been clearly identified, with Gruul Mice, Esper Pixie, and Domain Overlords being the most popular strategies. Despite this definition at the top of the metagame, those three decks represented only half the field, and the other half was wide open,” WotC said.

“With Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Magic: The Gathering—FINAL FANTASY on the horizon, it's going to be fascinating to watch the journey of this Standard format. I'm very excited to see what players do with these cards and what new decks and strategies emerge.”

Breach Gets the Boot

No surprises here. Temur Grinding Breach has an absurd 55% winrate in the last 2 months, It's dominating tournaments all over the world. The insanely fast Modern combo deck has been tormenting the format since Mox Opal was unbanned last year. It sweeps with overwhelmingly recursive combo potential, takes up too large a percentage of the metagame, and is widely considered one of the most broken Modern decks of all time.

The meta, took a hit when The One Ring was banned last year. Will eliminating Grinding Breach bring more dynamism to the format, or will it pave the way for Boros Energy (or Orzhov Blink!) to take the crown?

Major Surprise Pauper Bans

High Tide – Illustration by Marc Simonetti

• Basking Broodscale is banned
• Kuldotha Rebirth is banned
• Deadly Dispute is banned
• Prophetic Prism is unbanned
• High Tide is unbanned

While many of you could've guessed that Basking Broodscale and Kuldotha Rebirth were going to get nuked, it's less theorized that a Deadly Dispute ban was coming, let alone High Tide and Prophetic Prism being unbanned.

Broodscale combo was incredibly strong and consistent, and Kuldotha supported mono red decks' suprise wins, which were incredibly annoying.

Deadly Dispute was the staple of many archetypes, especially affinity with its indestructible artifact lands. That doesn‘t mean the decks that relied on it are dead, though. Still, with Prohpetic Prism unbanned, affinity goes 1 for 1, and fan-favorite Tron has something new to play with.

Now, with the Atog deck gone and burn decks muted, Tron has an incredibly strong position with ephemerate.

As for High Tide, the most obvious place for this to go is Poison Storm, or some other storm variant.

The Shape of Legacy

Sowing Mycospawn – illus. Nils Hamm

Legacy players have been up in arms about Sowing Mycospawn since it was printed in Modern Horizons 3. It already nets you a land on entry, and its cheap kicker cost allows you to exile any land an opponent controls, including basics. It's a singular piece shuts games down while ramping.

Troll of Khazad-Dum is comparably busted in the format. Landcycling for 1 allows for easy reanimation. Ramping and filling the grave is just too quick for Legacy.

But Wait…There's More

What do you think of these bans? Will they bring balance, or heartache? Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our coverage of the imminent April article regarding the Bracket system. In April, Gavin Verhey and the Commander Format Panel announced the rollout of a new system for evaluating power levels in Commander. Notably, he also mentioned the potential of unbans, and we're all on the edges of our seats.