This past Monday was the emergency banned and restricted announcement, and, well, see for yourself:

While folks have various misgivings about some formats right now, especially Modern and Pioneer, this is isn't entirely to be unexpected.

Wizards of the Coast recently changed their philosophy on ban windows earlier this year, stating that there would be one major ban period each year and then a small emergency ban window after each set as a "press in case of emergency" button if there was super unforeseen major issue. To quote:

So, while today's announcement may not be on the cadence we're used to, it's right in line with the expectations that Wizards of the Coast clearly laid out. You may agree or disagree with this new policy regarding the timeframe of banned and restricted announcements, but Monday's announcement is certainly by the book.

Frankly, nothing in any format is particularly in need of emergency action right now.

There's no Oko, Thief of Crowns making over half the decks in Standard Simic, Eldrazi winter forcing everyone to play Eye of Ugin or fail, or Modern decks putting 15+ power in play on turn two with alarming consistency.

Are there issues in current formats? Well today we're going to delve into that, but even if there are it looks like we're going to need to wait for changes.

Let's see where we are at with the three main formats.

Standard

Put frankly, Standard is awesome right now.

Is there a bit of Esper bias? Sure.

Is Sheoldred, the Apocalypse still a frustrating card for some archetypes to beat? Sure.

Is Atraxa, Grand Unifier a bit much for Standard and a bit of a strain on the top end of the format? Sure.

However, the reality is that there will always be "best" cards in a format, and none of these cards are really warping things around them in an unhealthy way.

There are a ton of different decks both with and without these three cards; multiple versions of Esper, a rainbow variety of midrange decks, multiple takes on big multicolored control and ramp decks, as well as a wide variety of aggressive decks like Azorius Soldiers, Mono-White Humans, Green/White Enchantments and Mono-Red Aggro. There's even some combo in the format with Agatha's Soul Cauldron, and fun fringe decks like Boros Convoke, Mardu Vampires, and Gruul Picnic Ruiner are floating around as well.

All in all, this is one of the most wide open and fun Standard formats we've seen in a long time.

When Cavern of Souls is released in the upcoming The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, my level of concern for Atraxa losing its one true weakness is high, but for now we've got a great format here.

Pioneer

Pioneer is an odd one because on the whole, it is a mostly well-balanced format with a good number of decks. Pretty much all of the major archetypes are represented, from more linear and aggressive decks to slower midrange and control decks.

However, the format has a reputation for being somewhat stale and unfun.

The top of the Pioneer metagame has remained largely unchanged for a long time now, with Mono-Green Devotion and Rakdos Midrange being the two top decks basically forever. And at the heart of each of those decks are multi-format all-stars Karn, the Great Creator and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, two cards that have been on many watch lists or already banned in a few places.

Both cards do things that push their respective decks up a notch from the rest of the format.

Karn, the Great Creator gives the Mono-Green deck a level of toolbox plus mana sink that decks rarely get, allowing what would normally be a very linear deck the ability to answer anything in Game 1 scenarios, while also proving to be a problem that will only get worse as time goes on and more artifacts are printed. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is simply one of the best cards printed in the last decade, but is especially tough for more linear decks that can't remove it well. It's almost impossible not to trade down on value with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, but getting an excellent value engine off of a card that is already so full of value is tough to compete with.

Both decks would definitely survive a ban of their key card, as the cards and shell around them is just too good not to, but it would certainly serve to level the playing field.

As such, personally I would like to see Karn and Fable banned in Pioneer.

Modern

As for Modern... oh boy.

Modern has been quite the ride since Modern Horizons 2, and more recently The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth.

The power creep is real, but it's hard to really tie it to one card in particular.

Folks are constantly finding new ways to abuse the pitch elementals, from Rakdos Scam using draft commons to double Thoughtseize and play a 4/3 on turn one, to using Up the Beanstalk to turbo-power Fury and Solitude. And that's to say nothing of Orcish Bowmasters, The One Ring, all the cascade stuff, and more. And with the full set of Triomes available as well as the monstrous payoffs like Leyline Binding and Omnath, Locus of Creation, folks can pretty much do whatever they want color-wise.

There's a soft ban in effect on one-toughness creatures, with Orcish Bowmasters, Wrenn and Six, and Fury all making trying to play small creatures a losing proposition, and value engines rule the day. Traditional creature decks are a distant memory in Modern, with only Golgari Yawgmoth being the hold out thanks to a combination of being able to combo and utilizing the raw power of Orcish Bowmasters and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

But that all being said, is this an issue that can be solved by the banlist?

Some folks are enjoying this new Modern, and aside from Rakdos Scam the format is fairly diverse with a decent amount of movement. This just is what Modern is now, a highly powered, expensive, semi-rotating format, heavily focused on new "straight to Modern" releases. In a lot of ways it has much more in common with Legacy that the Modern we knew 5-10 years ago.

Even if you wanted to ban a card from Rakdos Scam, which is the one clear breakaway deck, what do you even hit? Is banning one or two of the five marquee pitch elementals on the table? What about Orcish Bowmasters?

And it's not like you can just ban the common Scam enablers, because there are a half a dozen of them that are mostly interchangeable.

There probably should be some sort of movement on Rakdos Scam via the ban list, as it is by far the most played deck in the format, very punishing to brews, and not very fun to play against, but the question of what to do isn't an easy one to answer.

And of course, with the wild power creep of the Modern Horizons sets and the overall juiced power level in general, there's also the discussion of what to unban in Modern.

Seeing legendary relics of Modern's past like Splinter Twin reenter the format is another exciting prospect for Modern players, and after being teased with the Preordain unban earlier this year, players want more.

The Modern ban list is largely antiquated, with a bunch of cards that were problematic a decade ago that wouldn't even make a whimper in the current state of Modern.

This is a topic I already touched upon in a two-part series I dubbed "Burn It All Down? A Deep Dive On The Modern Banlist", where I went over all 47 cards on the Modern banlist one by one and picked out the ones that would do fine in current day Modern.

As for the other formats like Pauper, Vintage, Legacy, and so on, that's not really my department so I'll leave it for others to discuss.

Bans Kinda Suck

When it comes down to it, banning cards stinks.

It's an acknowledgement of a failing of the design team, and while it often needs to be done for the overall health of a format, it does feel bad to take cards that people have acquired and enjoyed playing with out of their hands. As such, it's good that it is meant to be a rare thing.

There's certainly a time and a place for the larger formats, but for now it looks like we'll have to wait. Without major events like Grand Prix or SCG Tour events happening every other weekend, Constructed Magic is just moving at a slower pace than it used to.