Today’s planned update to the Banned and Restricted list brought major changes to Modern and Legacy, with a focus on returning Modern to its glory days by banning three cards and unbanning four fan favorites.

Modern

While many expected it, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) will be in action with The One Ring – the most talked about card The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth – is still a relief. The powerful artifact was on the watchlist when the last B&R update was announced and has only established itself as the most played card in the format, including being a staple in the most played deck – Boros Energy. Its ubiquity, pattern of play, and low opportunity cost of gambling ultimately led to its ban.

“The opportunity cost of including The One Ring in almost every deck is too low, and its presence in events has become tiring for many players. Because it acts as a tool for self-preservation and a source of card advantage, it does not require commitment to a specific color. We believe, as is clear to many of you, that Modern would be a more entertaining format without his inclusion. And that’s why “The One Ring” is banned in the modern age.”

Dan Musser

Amped Raptor is also hit by Banhammer to bring the Energy deck more in line with the rest of the format. This ban joins the ban on The One Ring and Jegantha, the Source as a three-tiered approach to make the energy deck more manageable. The play design team considered a handful of other cards from the Energy deck to ban, but chose Amped Raptor because it was the only card that didn’t see play in other archetypes and also had too high a rate for theirs costs offered.

“Each of these options could reasonably be included in some other archetypes, while Amped Raptor only appears in Boros Energy. Empowered Raptor allows for some of the deck’s most explosive starts, acting as a source of energy and gain, often providing one to four additional mana in the early turns of the game. Therefore, Amped Raptor is banned in Modern.”

Dan Musser

While Jegantha is a minor nerf to the Energy deck, banning the Companion has further implications for the format, as almost every deck that can cast it is playing it. Jegantha homogenizes the cards played in the format, joining Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Yorion, Sky Nomad as forbidden companions in Modern.

In addition to the bans, four popular cards are returning to Modern to bring the format back to a place where players can enjoy their favorite decks. Splinter Twin is back after a long time on the banned list, although Dan Musser explained that it created an unfun pattern of play and that it wouldn’t be coming off the banned list anytime soon in 2023. Splinter Twin has been one of the most successful archetypes in Modern history and regularly requires players to have a specific interaction on their opponent’s fourth turn or risk losing the game outright. With the introduction of cards like Force of Negation, Solitude, and Force of Vigor, Play Design feels it’s safe to bring enchantment back to the forefront.

Mox Opal and Faithless Looting, two of the best moderators of past combo decks, are also returning to Modern. Dredge, Izzet Phoenix, and Hollow One all have the tools to return to their full-power status before they were targeted in Modern for being too strong.

Green Sun’s Zenith existed in Modern for a few months before it was banned in 2011, but since the ban the toolbox and combo magic is finally freely available alongside many new toys. Modern players can now use GSZ on Dryad Arbor, or use it to train a Grist, Hunger Tide, Founding Titan, or virtually any elf they want to find.

legacy

Action also comes in Legacy as two more Modern horizons 3 Maps have significantly distorted the format. Psychic Frog made Dimir midrange and Reanimator decks far too resilient and consistent. Its strength also allowed players to forego searching for other colors to complement their blue soup decks. Psychic Frog is banned to keep other Reanimator decks alive while slowing down the blue tempo decks.

“The same effect can be observed in Dimir Murktide’s decklists. Psychic Frog is strong enough to stop people from adding White, Red, or Green to these blue-based tempo decks. In order to increase diversity among the existing archetypes, but not completely remove them from the format, Psychic Frog is being banned.”

Dan Musser

Vexing Bauble has quickly shown how powerful it can be to decks that need to struggle through free counterplay, a core principle of the Legacy format, while also being able to replace itself when it has no use. This annoying artifact joins the ranks of cards that initially appeared to combat unfair strategies, but ultimately gave them power in practice.

“While the addition of Vexing Bauble is a relatively new development in the Legacy metagame, it has proven to be a successful and powerful development. Given the worrisome win rate of decks that feature multiple copies of Vexing Bauble in the main deck, and its inherent strength against a pillar of the format, it has been banned in Legacy.”

Dan Musser

pioneer

The final ban in today’s update is Jegantha in Pioneer. Similar to Modern, this nearly free expansion is played in any deck that can cast it to gain access to an additional creature when games drag on.

“It’s hard to justify playing a personal favorite card or metagame-specific call if it means giving up Jegantha. It’s important to us that Pioneer remains a place where players can use their favorite cards from Standard, and Jegantha does a lot to prevent that, as many of our stronger cards for Standard tend to have more than one of the same mana symbol in their cost to equilibrium. To increase card diversity in the format, Jegantha the Wellspring is banned in Pioneer.”

Arya Karamchandani

Jegantha is also banned in Explorer, Pioneer’s equivalent in MTG Arena, as it matches Pioneer’s ban list. There were no changes to all other formats, whether paper or digital.

Read WotC’s official announcement.