Another week, another set of cards banned in multiple formats. Another single card... unbanned? Okay, sure. This past Monday, July 13th, there was yet another Banned and Restricted announcement that was hinted at last week. If you asked me how many announcements like this there have been this year, I wouldn't actually be able to tell you, because it feels like there are several per month. They have almost become more regular than new set releases, but Wizards has also ramped those up, so...

This week four individual formats were all affected by the hammer, one of which was, uh, reverse affected? Pioneer had a card unbanned, which we'll talk about in order as we get to it! Let's take a look at the latest changes that you'll struggle to keep up with until the next Banned and Restricted announcement in two weeks (I assume).

Historic

This format seems like it's getting interesting, but I still don't play it very often, and it seems like there are maybe three Tier 1 decks that are oppressing the format. If you recall, Historic on MTG Arena has the weird "suspended" system, which quite frankly, I don't even really understand. I think the point is that they can suspend something for a few months, then come back to it after that and see if the format had improved, or if the problem they were trying to remove still exists. But the thing is, can't you just so that by banning cards to begin with? Just unban them if they weren't the issue. It's as though they just created a completely new term and procedure for something that already exists in Magic.

But I digress.

Three Historic cards went from suspended to banned: Agent of Treachery, Fires of Invention, and Winota, Joiner of Forces. They also suspended another card (Burning-Tree Emissary) and banned another (Nexus of Fate). Again, since both suspending and banning of cards can be retracted, I don't really see the distinction, but nevertheless.

I admittedly don't know enough about format to really confirm whether these were good choices, but knowing what I do about Agent of Treachery, Fires of Invention, and Nexus of Fate, I can easily assume all of these were safe to permanently remove from the Historic format. I also know Gruul Midrange was one of the strongest decks in the format, meant to combat the Nexus of Fate decks. With nexus getting the axe, it only makes sense to also get rid of a component from the Gruul decks, since that would logically become one of the more powerful decks to fill the power vacuum. I also remember hearing Winota decks were everywhere in the format, so if that was the case, all of these choices are defensible.

Pioneer

I think most logical people thought that either Inverter of Truth, Thassa's Oracle, or Underworld Breach would get banned in Pioneer, due to the format seemingly absolutely dominated by combo decks.

That... was not the case. No, instead there were no bannings in the format, and Oath of Nissa was unbanned. And I'm not sure anyone really saw that coming. For those that don't recall, before Thassa's Oracle was printed, there were basically Mono-Green decks everywhere in Pioneer. It was the most powerful deck in the format by an unreasonable margin, and there were quite a few bans that were intended to weaken it a bit (Once Upon a Time, Veil of Summer, etc.). Oath of Nissa was one of them, acting as a Green Ponder that also added to your devotion. Now that the format is so combo-heavy, maybe this unbanning is an attempt to get Green decks back in the game? Interesting that Pioneer may be the one format where Green decks aren't currently crushing everything else in spades.

All that being said, I'm still absolutely shocked to not see some component from either the Dimir Inverter or Lotus Breach deck get banned. Everything is fine.gif.

Modern

Arcum's Astrolabe is now banned, marking the 245th card from Modern Horizons to be banned in a format. I love, love, love the premise of Modern Horizons as a set, injecting new cards into a format and bypassing Standard, but can we go ahead and call Modern Horizons a mistake yet? Magic was going strong for over 20 years before every single card had to be pushed to some ungodly limit, and it would likely be going stronger now if that wasn't some weird new play design philosophy. I'm actually surprised only Arcum's Astrolabe is getting the axe. If you look at recent Modern events, there are about four cards that are absolutely everywhere: Teferi, Time Raveler; Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath; Arcum's Astrolabe; and Ice-Fang Coatl. These cards practically define Modern right now, and I suppose I'm hoping along with Wizards that banning the one-mana disaster artifact will solve the problem.

In all honesty, this card was actually legal for far too long, which is comical considering it's a simple one-mana artifact that fixes your mana, costs snow mana, and draws you a card. It's really quite innocuous, and if I put a pile of Modern staples in front of you - Tarmogoyf, Thoughtseize, Cryptic Command, Lightning Bolt, etc. - along with one Astrolabe, and I asked you to point out the most powerful and oppressive card, I really doubt many people would default to the Astrolabe before it was so heavily played in Modern. It just isn't an impressive card... until you play with it, that is.

Once again, I'm hoping this makes Modern a good deal less homogeneous than it is now, and that the format becomes a little less stale. I could not be more tired of Uro, Urza, and Teferi, with Modern looking like Standard Deluxe.

Pauper

Finally, Pauper. Honestly, I don't care about Pauper (no offense to Pauper or Pauper players!), so I have no frame of reference and don't really have any vested interest in the format's health.

No changes to Standard were announced this week, but they did mention that they were keeping an eye on cards like Wilderness Reclamation and Growth Spiral-based ramp decks, and that "we agree with concerns that Growth Spiral ramp decks, in aggregate, have recently represented a larger than ideal portion of the metagame, we do see different archetypes within that larger category behaving differently in terms of strengths, weaknesses and roles in the metagame. With signs of the metagame shifting away from ramp in recent weeks, the release of Core Set 2021, and Standard with rotation coming in the fall, we've decided to allow the metagame to continue its natural evolution."

So, in other words, we just released a new set, and it rotates in a few months, so just deal with it for now. While I'm not thrilled with the result, I think one thing I am grateful for is that they actually acknowledged how Growth Spiral decks are such a huge part of the metagame, and unhealthily so. I don't see myself playing much Standard before rotation, especially since Zendikar Rising releases in about two months, and with it goes Core Set 2020, Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and War of the Spark. While it's unfortunate that cards like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath will still be present, losing cards like Teferi, Time Raveler and Wilderness Reclamation in two months sounds almost too good to be true.

So, I, for one, can't wait.

But that's about it! As always, we've come to the end, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment down below with how you guys feel about the most recent banning, how frequently bannings have been happening, and what you hoped for this round. I love you guys, I hope you're staying safe, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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