The official announcement for MTG Standard Format ban list is here and there are three key cards that will be removed to balance the game. Here's the details on all of the included cards for Magic: The Gathering's ban list for Standard Format.
Ever since Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was released, there were a lot of amazing cards that were too powerful or too value generating for players not to play them in their deck. Most of the released cards formed the perfect Midrange Rakdos deck where most of metadecks were built. There are two notable cards that would always be in any Rakdos deck because they are too value generating to have, given their cost is not that high. Another card became so much of a staple that almost all decks involved this artifact vehicle because of the card draw it generates, otherwise in their side-deck.
Wizards of the Coast has officially released their succeeding ban list as they have seen the rise of some cards to be too overpowered in the current format. It creates too much value that is not punishable, which then makes the game easier for users of the cards to gain advantage. Now, they will be ineffective from Standard format as they will be added to the ban list effective on May 29, 2023 for Tabletop and Magic Online, and May 30, 2023 for MTG Arena.
The following cards will be banned for the current Standard format of Magic: The Gathering and Magic: The Gathering Arena.
- Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki is banned.
- Reckoner Bankbuster is banned.
- Invoke Despair is banned.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki is found in all of the metadecks involving the color Red because of how much value it gives to the player with just 3 mana. The saga provides 2 creatures and a chance to loot and dig through your deck in each of its stages. At first upon cast, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki creates a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman token with “Whenever this creature attacks, create a Treasure token.” This then ramps you immediately to your next turn of having 5 mana on curve instead of 3. With just the trigger on attack of the token, you're already getting so much value off of it, while having the turn of looting up to two cards. Last is having its flip card faced up with Reflection of Kiki-Jiki having the powerful ability of creating a token copy of anything on your board, giving it haste and sacrificing it until end of turn. Imagine all the enter the battlefield effects you can take advantage of if not removed immediately. The opponent is then forced to remove either of the two creatures generated by this card as they create so much value from just casting it with 3 mana. For these reasons, as well as the high play rate of the card across many decks, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki is banned.
Reckoner Bankbuster has been the ultimate staple card for a card-advantage engine for many decks in Standard since its release in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Having it as a colorless card, it can go to any deck possible, which would result it to being one of the highly played cards or sideboarded to get card draw. Besides the card draw, it can eventually stand on its own by generating a Pilot token, which would exactly crew it after getting the charge counters off of it, while also netting a treasure token. Most of the creatures in this meta now are also 3 power or greater with only 2-3 converted mana costs, which can immediately crew up the vehicle, getting 4 damage on the board to your opponent. Given the versatility and resource advantage it can offer, especially having multiple copies of it on the board, Reckoner Bankbuster is considered banned.
Invoke Despair is one of the most powerful cards to always include in your mono black or black-red decks as it always completes the curve given that black or black-red wants to win fast most of the time. Not only removing key components on your opponent's board by making them sacrifice 3 things, Invoke Despair also provides card advantage and direct damage if the opponent has no valid targets for it. This then makes up for Black and Black-Red's weakness of having card draw to control the game faster. Let's not forget about having 5 mana removing 3 things is incredible and there's no downside to having no valid targets because it nets you either way. Due to its power level and resource generating skill despite its color identity, Invoke Despair is banned.
These are most likely the reasons why these three cards will be taken out of the format. Most metadecks will still be playable without them but a lot of players might change their mind when running mono black or black-red decks without these in play.
For more gaming news from us, check out our Gaming frontpage.
Follow Us
Subscribe