WotC Confirms No Scheduled Changes in Modern Until September

Last updated on April 2, 2025

Splinter Twin | Illustration by Goran Josic

Magic's latest Banned and Restricted Announcement dropped on Monday. Pauper got the brunt of the changes, with three banned cards and two unbans. Legacy got two bans, the Modern format got Underworld Breach banned, and the rest of the MTG formats got off scot-free.

In particular, Modern's single ban was well-received on Monday, getting praise from the likes of MTG Hall of Famer Frank Karsten…

… but on Tuesday, during the WeeklyMTG stream, Wizards of the Coast revealed something else: Although the next Banned & Restricted Announcement is scheduled for June 30, WotC won't be making changes to Modern until at least the following B&R (expected in late September).

No Scheduled Changes to Modern in June

Bruvac the Grandiloquent | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

According to WotC's Blake Rasmussen during the WeeklyMTG stream yesterday, the B&R on June 30 “Will be in the middle of a Modern RCQ season, so we won't be making Modern changes.”

This comment came as a surprise for two reasons.

First, with a ban in Modern just two days ago, it's too early to tell what this Magic format will look like three months from now. “With the amount of pressure that Underworld Breach put on the format,” the B&R article notes, “We expect the format to change a good bit with its departure, especially sideboards.” If a broken deck dominates, having to wait until September won't be ideal.

And, second, there are two MTG sets that will drop in the next three months, namely Tarkir: Dragonstorm and Final Fantasy, that could bring broken cards into the format.

WotC's Senior Game Designer Carmen Klomparens – who was in charge of writing the rationale of the Modern bans in the B&R Announcement last Monday, and took part of the WeeklyMTG stream – replied to Karsten's concern, stating that: “If something new comes out and is very much broken, it's possible we would take action – the bar is just fairly high. We are still committed to creating a world in which people can confidently build and acquire cards for decks for the RCQ season.”

In other words, emergency bans are still a possibility – but given that not even Nadu, Winged Wisdom was deemed broken enough to be banned during last year's Modern season, the bar is really high.

Community Reception: This B&R Good, No Changes ‘Till September Bad

General community sentiment about Monday's Modern ban largely matches the thumbs-up from Karsten, in what was a fairly telegraphed ban. Some redditors wished WotC had unbanned some cards (and Klomparens mentioned in the MTGWeekly stream that the did consider a couple of unbans, although without saying which), but by and large this last B&R was well-received and what MTG Modern redditors expected.

Tuesday's announcement that Modern is expected to skip changes in June, on the other hand, has been largely panned.

“Why have fixed dates and you can't even use them?” wonders u/SpinifexV in the most-upvoted reply. 

“The format will inevitably be broken,” says u/Friendly-Team-8120. “This is meant to be a guarantee that you can play your deck for six months regardless of whether or not it's broken,” they add, which is basically what Klomparens admits in their reply to Karsten.

Will Tarkir: Dragonstorm or Final Fantasy Break Modern?

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

As our resident Limited expert Bryan Hohns notes: Tarkir: Dragonstorm won't have much of an impact in Standard.

And, from what we've seen from Final Fantasy, it looks like Cloud & Co. are gonna be a pretty underwhelming bunch, too.

If those Magic sets don't have what it takes to shake up Standard, it seems reasonable to expect they won't make the slightest dent in Modern (and if this is true then WotC obviously knows it, which may be why they're so confident about their B&R decision).

Only about a dozen cards from FIN have been revealed thus far, though; they certainly won't match the power of Modern Horizons 3, but may still provide the tools for a Modern deck to become dominant.

As u/KarnSilverArchon notes: “I sure hope nothing develops to be broken” by June.