It's time for another Banned and Restricted update.

Following last year's long gaps between ban announcements, Wizards committed to releasing them more regularly. Each of the seven updates for 2026 corresponds with a major set release, with today's following the release of Secrets of Strixhaven.

The announcement article landed earlier today and took many players by surprise. While there was an expectation of no changes to Standard, major shakeups in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, and Pauper shocked and excited several Magic: The Gathering fans.

Let's take a look at every format and examine all of the changes that have impacted them.

No Changes in Standard

Standard is in a bit of a weird spot right now.

Looking at the format from the outside, you'd think it looks quite diverse. There are multiple Blue-Red (Izzet) decks, but there's a good amount of variation between them. The same is true for both Landfall and Control decks. Additionally, you have stuff like Dimir Excruciator, Ouroboroid decks, Golgari Midrange, Kona Omniscience, and Five-Color Elementals.

Many players have been somewhat critical of the gameplay, with games playing out extremely fast in unexciting ways. This has led to a feeling of a format that is diverse and yet feels unhealthy. Comparisons have also been made to formats like Pioneer, Modern, and Old Extended in terms of the play patterns of these decks.

So why no changes?

Wizards cites the churn and diversity of the format as reasons to not make any changes at this time. Specifically, the shifts that came about with Pro Tour Secrets of Strixhaven seemed to show the meta still had some evolution left to it and they would evaluate again once Marvel Super Heroes released.

To many players, it seems most noteworthy that there are still numerous Regional Championship events coming up in the next few weeks. As Standard is the RC format currently, it was never likely that bans would happen this time around. As a result, many are expecting bans of some nature to come over the summer during the usual Standard B&R window.

One Card Banned in Pioneer

Unlike Standard, Pioneer did have one card get banned.

Cori-Steel Cutter was banned thanks to the power of Izzet Prowess decks. If you're familiar with Prowess decks in Standard over the past year or so, you probably are quite familiar with the Pioneer builds as well. They have a lot of crossover and look very similar to the Cutter Prowess builds from last year.

What truly sets it apart, though, is the adoption of the Lessons/Learn package. This package turns the card Academic Dispute into a devastating powerhouse, acting as an effective removal spell that also tutors up another one out of the sideboard. This can include finding copies of cards like Boomerang Basics, Iroh's Demonstration, and Firebending Lesson.

Given the card's prior dominance in Standard and continued play in Modern thanks to the Izzet Prowess lists there, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see it banned here.

Two Bans and Two Unbans in Modern

Speaking of Modern, the real meat of this update comes from the game's premier non-rotating format.

Two cards were banned in Modern: Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Lotus Field.

Phlage was banned in an attempt to bring down the power of the Boros Energy decks that have been plaguing the format for some time. Not only does this impact that deck, but also other powerful archetypes like Jeskai Blink and Domain.

The powerful combination of this card with Arena of Glory was cited as being a bit too backbreaking. As cards like Scion of Draco and Quantum Riddler could still have interesting play with the Arena, Phlage was the card shown the door.

Lotus Field was the more interesting one if you haven't been paying as much attention to the format lately. Amulet Titan has been an extremely prevalent deck for many years and has largely stuck around thanks to its complexity. The deck's difficulty to play tends to keep it in check.

Ever since the printing of both Aftermath Analyst and Shifting Woodland, however, the deck has been able to do some silly, powerful things. By using Amulet of Vigor, you could make tons of mana off a single Lotus Field while also sacrificing itself. Then, you turn Shifting Woodland into an Aftermath Analyst, sacrifice it, and bring itself back to the battlefield with its own ability.

Doing this with enough mana and/or multiple Amulets allows you to do things like make infinite mana and make infinite Primeval Titans with Mirrorpool. You could even repeatedly use bounce lands to endlessly use Channel lands like Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City to wipe out your opponent's board.

This ban hopes to try lowering the complexity of the deck without removing it from the format entirely.

In addition to the two bans, there were two somewhat surprising unbans.

The first of these was Violent Outburst, a card banned in early 2024 thanks to the power of the Rhinos and Living End archetypes. The B&R article notes that the card was banned in a different era, and newer tools that keep it in check, like Consign to Memory and Vexing Bauble, are extremely present in the format.

As a result of these new tools, a different format, and the recent hype behind the fresh innovations to Living End, Wizards is willing to give the card a shot again. They do note that it is a bit dangerous to unban, so they'll be keeping a close eye on how it performs from here.

The second unbanning was Umezawa's Jitte, a notoriously powerful Equipment from Betrayers of Kamigawa. The card was outrageously powerful in its original Standard environment which led to Wizards putting it onto the original Modern ban list in 2011.

However, times change. We're now nearly 15 years removed from when the format was announced with Jitte on the list. There are many answers and ways to deal with this powerful threat today. Several players have felt the card could come off of the ban list without worry and it seems that Wizards agrees and is willing to give it a shot once again.

These changes have made up some of the biggest points of discussion from players. Some are lamenting the loss of the powerful cards banned while others are thrilled to see how things shake out. This latest batch of changes is sure to make for a very interesting season of Regional Championship Qualifiers in the coming weeks.

One Card Banned in Legacy

Legacy also saw one card banned: Undercity Informer.

This ban happened thanks to the powerful Oops, All Spells deck that has been a massive thorn in the side of Legacy players for a long time. This deck plays no Lands, allows you to flip your deck over into the graveyard with either Undercity Informer or Balustrade Spy. Doing so puts copies of Narcomoeba onto the battlefield and allows you to sacrifice them to a Dread Return. If unanswered, this would let you put a Thassa's Oracle into play and win the game on the spot as early as turn one.

Many have felt this was an extremely unhealthy play pattern that wasn't great for the format. Others have contended that it provides players with an affordable way to get started in Legacy.

What tipped Wizards' hand was the apparent rise in win rates. As a compromise, the decision was made to ban only one of the two self-mill outlets. As a result, this continues to allow the deck to exist, but in a much more fragile way that keeps it as a player, but a much less prevalent one.

No Changes in Vintage

Vintage was once again noted as being a rather diverse format. Several classic and powerful archetypes continue to be major players at a competitive level.

Both Flow State and Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers were noted as being recent players in different lists. This shows the continued evolution of the format in a fun and healthy way that has many excited to keep playing. As a result, no changes happened in Vintage this time around.

One Trial Unban in Pauper

Hey, it's my wheelhouse once again. I'm one of the seven members of the Pauper Format Panel and had a hand in the changes brought to Pauper today.

Only one card was impacted this time around. Bonder's Ornament has been unbanned in a trial capacity much like what happened with Prophetic Prism and High Tide last year.

This little mana rock may seem innocuous if you're newer to the format or to Magic as a whole, but it was backbreaking at the time of banning. Flicker Tron decks would take advantage of the card alongside Prophetic Prism to take over games and drown opponents in card advantage. Certain other decks, like Jeskai Ephemerate, also made strong use of it. As a result, it was rather omnipresent at high levels of play.

The format of 2022, when it was originally banned, was a much different beast than the one we have today in 2026. The format is significantly faster and, thus far, it has been shown that decks like Flicker Tron can be a player while still being outmatched by many of these faster decks.

The hope is that the unbanning of Bonder's Ornament can make some of these Control decks a bit more relevant once again. In the event that it proves to be too much, like the first time around, then it'll be banned once again on August 10, 2026. However, player feedback has been positive in regards to the idea of a trial unbanning of this card for some time. We on the PFP are hopeful that it'll be good to have it back in the format.

One Ban in Alchemy

If you've been paying attention to some non-rotating formats, you may have noticed a little card from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles popping up here and there.

Sewer-veillance Cam has become a rather powerful combo piece in formats like Modern and Legacy, allowing players to get up to some real shenanigans. Surprisingly, though, the first place it is seeing a ban is in the MTG Arena-exclusive format Alchemy.

The notable interaction here is that the rebalanced version of Vivi Ornitier is still legal in Alchemy. The key difference is that the mana generation ability requires you to tap Vivi rather than pay once per turn like before. The Sewer-veillance Cam was noted as being a powerful way to untap Vivi alongside Boomerang Basics.

This deck had some serious dominance in best-of-three play, and as such Wizards has opted to ban it.

No Changes to Other Digital Formats

Each of the other Arena exclusive formats - Historic, Timeless, and Brawl - saw no changes.

Historic and Timeless were both noted as seeing a ton of new decks popping up thanks to the Mystical Archive cards coming from Secrets of Strixhaven. There is a ton of innovation happening and they think things look generally balanced at this time. They are, however, monitoring the digital-exclusive card Hydroponics Architect in Timeless for its powerful interaction with Daze.

Brawl was noted as not needing bans, though it was stated that there would be changes coming to the matchmaking queue on May 19th. This shows a commitment to finding new ways to experiment with and improve the state of the format for the players who enjoy the experience.

Conclusion

This banned and restricted announcement had a little something for everyone.

Love it or hate it, several formats got some major changes. If you're a fan of Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper especially, there are all kinds of new things to try out and explore. With luck, these adjustments will help bring about a fun and interesting new set of metagames for players to enjoy.

The next Banned and Restricted announcement will be on June 30th (previously announced as June 3rd on accident). This will follow the release of Marvel Super Heroes. It will be interesting to watch and see how the various formats shake out until then.

I personally am very excited to play lots of Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper right now thanks to these changes. Hopefully I'll see you in the trenches soon enough!

Paige Smith

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