Wizards of the Coast (WotC) just banned a few cards for Magic: the Gathering (MTG) today, October 10, 2022. Read on to find out about what cards and formats are affected by these bans.
Banned in Standard
The Standard metagame has seen quite a change since rotation and the introduction of Dominaria United. Players have been on the move to find new decks where the newest set's cards can mesh well with existing strategies. With the field mostly settled, we can see that black is a dominant color among the most popular decks. The color recently received new tools like Liliana of the Veil and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to go along with existing cards like Tenacious Underdog and Invoke Despair.
Despite the prevalence of black among the different decks, WotC feels that the standard meta is in a healthy spot. While there are no single cards that stand out as powerful among decks that run black, The Meathook Massacre is a strong contender. The card has been in Standard since the introduction of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt to the game last September 2021. It is an enchantment that acts as a board sweeper and allows players to stabilize against aggressive decks. It saw play in varying numbers across mainboards and sideboards. Essentially, decks that run black need some copies of this. As such, WotC has banned The Meathook Massacre in Standard. How this will impact the standard metagame has yet to be seen, but it does open the door for other strategies to make a return.
No other cards are currently banned in Standard.
Banned in Modern
Since the last Modern banned and restricted update, WotC feels that the modern metagame is in a good place. No single deck stands out, and even the most popular decks only occupy a small portion of the metagame. In-person gameplay for the format is also making a comeback. However, WotC has been eyeing a change for Modern, specifically for Yorion, Sky Nomad.
According to WotC's play data, 4-color Elemental decks have a strong win rate and are likely to see an increase in popularity. The decks run Yorion as a Companion, allowing these decks to gain value off cards “flickering”. This makes several enters-the-battlefield triggers go off at once, causing repetitive gameplay patterns and longer periods of downtime between actions. Aside from that, they have also cited physical dexterity issues. Modern's wide card pool entails a lot more deck shuffling and card searching. Yorion's Companion requirement of twenty additional mainboard cards potentially makes the deck “cumbersome” to pilot in person, with more time needed for searching and shuffling. Lastly, WotC has pointed out that they want to avoid reaching a point where players only play a deck because of its perceived strength and win rate. With that, WotC has banned Yorion, Sky Nomad in Modern to make the format more accessible to players.
Notably, Pioneer, Legacy, and Vintage are unchanged. WotC noted that these formats are currently in healthy spots, stating that they are seeing a wide range of decks. They will continue to monitor how these formats develop, especially with the introduction of several cards from the recent sets. The bans are effective immediately for both tabletop and MTG Online. The Meathook Massacre will be banned from MTG Arena Standard by October 13.
Read the full announcement for the recently banned cards here.
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