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Magic: The Gathering’s latest ban and restricted announcement has knocked out two of the most-played cards in their respective formats, potentially causing a huge shakeup in their metagames.
Becoming the only banned card in the current standard is Innistrad: Midnight Hunt’s The Meathook Massacre. Meanwhile, companions continue to be a problem for Modern with Yorion, Sky Nomad joining the likes of Lurrus of the Dream-Den on the banlist.
On the official announcement for the bannings, Wizards discussed the current strength of black cards in the Standard format. Dominaria United in particular helped push black into a significantly powerful position, and The Meathook Massacre’s board-wiping, Aristocrats-powering abilities certainly helped that. Wizards describes this only as a “small push against” black’s power, though, pointing out that it expects the upcoming set The Brothers’ War to help nudge the balance away from black a bit.
Meanwhile, Modern is having the blink-focused companion Yorion, Sky Nomad booted out, joining the infamous Lurrus of the Dream-Den. Yorion has been the bane of multiple formats, due to the easy deckbuilding restriction of having at least 20 cards more than the format’s minimum and the big benefit of it blinking a permanent every turn.
Although Wizards describes Modern has being “in a healthy place”, it has decided to ban Yorion in anticipation for how the format will grow now that in-person play is increasing following the pandemic. Interestingly, it also pointed out the “physical dexterity” of playing a Yorion deck, with each turn requiring you to track multiple triggers that can involve drawing, shuffling, and tracking complex board states. There were concerns that Yorion decks, such as the popular 4C Omnath, were not just unfun to play against, but also unfun to play with despite its strength in Modern.
As for other formats, Pioneer and Legacy are both singled out as being in good places and not needing any further changes. While Wizards also says it doesn’t “anticipate the need for changes soon”, it seems less enthusiastic about where Vintage is at the moment. Tinker, Displacer Kitten, Vodalian Hexcatcher, and Boseiju, Who Endures being singled out as potential problem cards to look at in the future, but no changes have been made today.
What’s more interesting is what hasn’t been banned, as many people were anticipating that Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty’s Fable of the Mirror-Breaker would be hit in numerous formats. Since its launch earlier this year, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker has become one of the most-played cards in Standard, Pioneer, and Explorer.
Its ability to produce lots of easily sacrificed Treasure tokens, before transforming into something that can copy your other creatures just two turns later allows it to massively speed-up the black/red Rakdos Midrange decks that have become so dominant not just in Standard, but also in Pioneer and Explorer. Considering Rakdos Midrange is explicitly namedropped in the ban announcement as being a powerful deck, the fact Wizards decided not to ban a significant part of it is odd, to say the least.
It's also surprising that neither Pioneer nor Explorer received any bans to take Mirror-Breaker’s or Meathook Massacre’s place. Cards like Cauldron Familiar, Witch’s Oven, Mayhem Devil and Oni-Cult Anvil all make playing against Rakdos Midrange decks such a uninteractive slog at times that it felt almost like a done deal that something was going to be done about it.
This latest banlist update comes into effect today in both tabletop and on Magic Online, while Magic: The Gathering Arena will see it enforced from October 13.