Magic: The Gathering Announces Shocking Ban of One of Its Most Popular Cards

Magic: The Gathering just banned one of its most powerful and popular cards in an effort to shift the balance of power in the Standard format. Since the release of the Dominaria United set, black decks, particularly black midrange decks, have dominated the format. The color's dominance is so great that decks without black cards have been all but driven out of the format. One of the key black cards has been Meathook Massacre, a powerful card that can wipe the board of creatures and set up a number of strategies by sticking around as an enchantment permanent. Meathook Massacre has been a staple of black decks since it debuted in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, but it is now banned in Standard play.

"As the [Standard] format has settled into place, the color black has proven powerful and prolific, and makes up the foundation of many of the top decks," Magic: The Gathering developer Ian Duke writes in the official banned and restricted announcement. "Despite that commonly shared color, we're seeing good diversity among competitive decks and strategies, and player engagement with the format has been healthy.

"To provide a small push against the color black's play rate among competitive decks, we're choosing to ban one black card. We discussed several different options, as no single black card stood out as a major power outlier played by all decks containing black. Ultimately, we decided that banning The Meathook Massacre was the best choice, as it's one of the most powerful black cards in the format, is especially powerful against specific archetypes (decks relying on a lot of small creatures), and has had its time to shine in Standard for over a year." He concludes by saying card in the upcoming The Brothers War set should help diversify the Standard.

Additionally, Wizards of the Coast has banned Yorion, Sky Nomad, a popular companion card from the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set, from the Modern format. This banning is in large part due to how the card slows down gameplay and creates repetitive triggers, along with the usual game-balance concerns.

"Yorion most commonly appears as a companion in Four-Color Omnath decks, which show a strong win rate and, according to our matchup data, are likely to continue to rise in popularity," Duke writes. "In addition to game-balance concerns with the deck, we're also factoring in the physical dexterity requirements of playing with a large deck for tabletop. We're wary of the metagame reaching a point where players are playing the deck because of its perceived strength and win rate despite not enjoying how cumbersome it can be to operate."

These bans are effective immediately in tabletop Magic: The Gathering and Magic: The Gathering Online. They'll go into effect on Magic: The Gathering Arena with its next update on Thursday.