Across Magic: The Gathering's storied history, the game has featured a vast array of unique cards, with the game currently boasting more than twenty-thousand unique cards. While there have been many powerful and iconic cards printed throughout the game's history, there have been cards so powerful and oppressive that they've been banned in one or more formats.
While it isn't every day that a card gets banned in Magic, there are some egregious banned cards that serve as the game's many boogeymen for players. So today, we're going to examine the most notorious banned cards from across Magic: The Gathering's history.
10 Arcum's Astrolabe
A common released in Modern Horizons, Arcum's Astrolabe is a deceptively powerful card that is currently banned in Modern, Legacy, and Pauper. For the cost of a single snow mana, Arcum's Astrolabe is an artifact that allows its controller to draw a card when it enters the battlefield, and for the cost of one mana, may be tapped to produce one mana of any color. While this may not seem like much at first, this is an incredibly easy way to put a snow permanent into play, something that is very relevant for snow decks, while simultaneously replacing itself in one's hand. Then, once it's on the battlefield, it can be used to provide multicolored decks with mana fixing.
9 Treasure Cruise
As one of the "Power Nine," Ancestral Recall is an instant for one blue mana that is often regarded as one of the most powerful cards in the game, drawing three cards with no strings attached. Treasure Cruise is a card that was introduced in Khans of Tarkir that can draw its controller three cards for the price of eight mana.
While this price may seem steep at first, the card has delve, allowing its controller to reduce its cost through exiling cards in their graveyard. This allows the card to potentially be cast for a single blue mana like the aforementioned Ancestral Recall. Due to how easy it is for a deck to enable this cost reduction, the card was banned in Modern, Legacy, and Pauper, while being restricted in Pauper.
8 Splinter Twin
It's hard to discuss cards that are banned in Modern without bringing up Splinter Twin. A red aura for four mana, Splinter Twin allows the enchanted creature to be tapped to create a copy of that creature with haste that is exiled at the beginning of the next end step. This card is regarded for the several infinite combos it enables with cards like Deceiver Exarch. When players discuss cards to unban in various formats, Splinter Twin is often one of the first cards named.
7 Oko, Thief Of Crowns
Few cards have garnered as much ire from players in Magic's history as Oko, Thief of Crowns. A Simic planeswalker with a low mana cost, and a +1 ability to turn any artifact or creature into a 3/3 elk with no abilities, Oko can quickly diminish the value of many cards under an opponent's control. Oko is currently banned in every single format in the game, save for Vintage and Commander.
6 Prophet Of Kruphix
Two cards that see a great deal of play in the Commander format are Vedalken Orrery that allows its controller to cast all of their spells at instant speed, and Seedborn Muse, a creature that untaps each of its controllers permanents during each other player's upkeep.
Prophet of Kruphix is a Simic creature for five mana that provides each of these effects on a single card, providing a massive advantage to any commander player with blue and green in their deck. With this card's abilities paired with the multiplayer nature of Commander, Prophet of Kruphix essentially allows its controller to treat each player's turn as their own.
5 Omnath, Locus Of Creation
Few cards in Magic's history have been banned as swiftly as Omnath, Locus of Creation. A four-color creature that is each color save for black, this iteration of Omnath causes varying triggers to occur based on how many lands have entered the battlefield under its owner's control under a given turn. These abilities quickly become potent when paired with lands that sacrifice themselves to put an additional land into play, and it was only made better by other cards with landfall-based triggers like Lotus Cobra. For these reasons, Lotus Cobra is currently banned in Standard, Brawl, and Historic.
4 Cloud Of Faeries And Peregrine Drake
Cloud of Faeries and Peregrine Drake are each blue creatures with nearly identical effects that warped the entire Pauper format prior to their respective bans. A two-mana and five-mana creature respectively, each of these cards untap a number of lands equal to their converted mana cost when they enter the battlefield. With cost reduction effects, it is incredibly easy to turn these cards into a form of mana ramp, while with the right combinations of cards, they can be used in several infinite combos. In order to cultivate a healthier meta with more diverse decks, both of these cards were banned in Pauper.
3 Leovold, Emissary Of Trest
While there are very few legendary creatures that are banned in Commander, it is hard to see why the banning of Leovold, Emissary of Trest was almost universally met with cheers. A Sultai elf for three mana, Leovold is an oppressive card that prevents one's opponents from drawing more than one card each turn. When paired with cards such as Teferi's Puzzlebox that force players to discard their hands and redraw a new hand, Leovold could lock opponents out of the game, preventing them from drawing and cards and bringing the game to a screeching halt.
2 Braids, Cabal Minion
Another banned Commander, Braids, Cabal Minion is a four mana black creature that states that at the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player sacrifices an artifact, creature, or land. This allows her to serve as the perfect stax commander, like Leovold, making it easy for her controller to lock other players out of the game, and preventing them from getting any kind of foothold on the board.
1 Shahrazad
Released in Arabian Nights, Shahrazad is a sorcery for two mana that is banned in every single format. Upon being cast, Shahrazad forces the players to stop the game that they are currently playing, then starting a subgame of Magic using their decks. The loser of this game then has their life total halved. Not only is this card unnecessarily complicated, but it brings any game to a screeching halt, often more than doubling the length that a game would be. Luckily for players, they won't need to play against this effect as there aren't any formats it can be legally played in.