Magic: The Gathering Bans New Cards Across Several Formats
Magic: The Gathering's Wizards of the Coast today announced its bans and restrictions as usual, though there is a heavy emphasis on "bans" here and literally no restrictions. Additionally, while there are normally at least one or two entries for Standard, the most popular tournament format, the latest announcement includes updates to Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper instead. Most notably, the card Lurrus of the Dream-Den is banned in both Pioneer and Modern, effective today, March 7th. And they are not the first formats to see a ban of Lurrus.
"As is often the case in larger non-rotating formats, there are already strong incentives to include as many cheap and efficient cards as possible in your deck due to format speed and a variety of other pressures," the announcement states in reference to Lurrus' presence in Modern. "Lurrus compounds those incentives by providing a powerful additional resource that helps to alleviate the weakness of filling your deck with cheaper and often less impactful cards as games go on. For too many archetypes, Lurrus isn't a trade-off but purely additive."
Today's update to the Banned & Restricted list impacts Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper.
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) March 7, 2022
Learn about the update here: https://t.co/5zNsO5mckq
Broadly, the announcement also indicates that while Lurrus has been heavily targeted here, the other Companions are still considered to be in a healthy place within the metagame. That said, they continue to be monitored given their opportunity for outsized impact. The full list of bans and the like made today are collected below, taken straight from the source:
Pioneer:
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den is banned.
Modern:
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den is banned.
Pauper:
- Galvanic Relay is banned
- Disciple of the Vault is banned.
- Expedition Map is unbanned.
More generally, Magic: The Gathering's newest expansion set is Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. The next expansion set, Streets of New Capenna, is set to begin in-store prelease events on April 22nd, release in MTG Arena and Magic Online on April 28th, and then release worldwide on April 29th. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Magic: The Gathering in general right here.
What do you think about the new Magic: The Gathering bans and restrictions? Have you been playing the card game since Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was released? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!
