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Today saw another Banned and Restricted update for Magic: The Gathering. This marked the fourth update of 2026, signaling the continued commitment to providing more ban windows to aid formats in problematic situations.
Though the announcement was initially slated for June 30th, it was pushed up to line up with the usual B&R announcements being made on Mondays. This was announced by Blake Rasmussen via the WeeklyMTG stream and now we get to see the changes being made.
This time, a single card was banned in Legacy and in Pauper, with a number of others banned in the Arena-only Competitive Brawl. In addition to the bans, several other formats were examined with information provided about how things are looking and why action wasn't taken at this time.
There is a ton to cover, so let's not waste any time and get right into it.
No Changes in Standard
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Many players hoped to see bans in Standard following the overwhelming dominance of various Izzet Prowess lists and Badgermole Cub-fueled decks. In addition to strong results, this was fueled by recent comments during the previous B&R announcement and follow-up WeeklyMTG stream. In both cases, speed of the format was noted as potentially problematic and some specific cards like Stormchaser's Talent and Badgermole Cub were singled out.
However, Wizards has opted to not take any action against Standard at this time.
While the speed of the format was still noted to be a continued concern, a greater emphasis was placed on the current format diversity. Even though Izzet and Badgermole Cub decks continue to dominate and put pressure on the format, a wide variety of archetypes continues to thrive.
The most notable aspect of this was the Four-Color Control variants that have popped up. These lists showcase that the format has found ways to slow down and stabilize in the face of fast aggressive threats. As a result, Wizards wants to see where the format goes from here, particularly with the introduction of new cards with Marvel Super Heroes.
No Changes in Pioneer
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Following the banning of Cori-Steel Cutter, the Pioneer format was noted to be in a fairly decent spot at this time. Very little was stated on the format past this, though it was noted there were a number of viable deck options. These include the likes of Tablet of Discovery Control lists, Badgermole Cub-fueled Midrange, Greasefang lists, and different Izzet shells.
No Changes in Modern
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Following the recent B&R update in May, Wizards has noted that they feel things are in a fairly decent spot right now. The format is adapting to recent changes, and decks using Violent Outburst and Umezawa's Jitte appear to be performing at a fairly respectable level.
Decks like Weapons Manufacturing Affinity, Boros Energy, and Jeskai Blink were each called out as on their radar for monitoring going forward. However, with the ongoing Regional Championship Qualifier season and the upcoming Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes, Wizards is not taking action at this time. Instead, they're going to continue observing where things go from here and assess the situation again on August 10th.
One Card Banned in Legacy
In Legacy, one card was banned: Candelabra of Tawnos.
This isn't the first time this card has been on the ban list, having been on the original combined Legacy/Vintage list in the early 1990s. As Carmen Klomparens notes in the announcement article, Candelabra was unbanned in 1999 with the banning of both Tolarian Academy and Time Spiral.
It would then go on to do very little until Time Spiral was eventually unbanned, leading to a variety of High Tide decks appearing at the time. For the most part, though, these High Tide decks would remain fringe players in the meta. As such, Candelabra of Tawnos was able to hang around in the format for a long time.
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With the advent of cards like Urza's Saga, Urza's Workshop, and Planar Nexus, however, Legacy soon found more and more ways to make absurd amounts of mana. As a result, this provided a perfect space for Candelabra to flourish, especially since you can tutor it off of an Urza's Saga.
It's somewhat shocking that the card would ultimately get banned. Candelabra of Tawnos is on the Reserved List and thus is extremely expensive. The combination of factors means that once it's banned, it's unlikely to ever come off of the ban list due to the accessibility issues it can cause.
Many others had hoped to see cards like The One Ring or Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar get banned. There have also been growing concerns over the powerful new vehicle The Fantasticar from Marvel Super Heroes that has some real potential to tear up the format. Wizards is going to continue monitoring all of these in this ever-evolving format and see where things go from here.
No Changes in Vintage
For now, Vintage was noted as being in a decent spot on the whole. At least that could be considered to be the case prior to the release of Marvel Super Heroes.
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All eyes are once again fixed on The Fantasticar. While the card is potentially concerning in a format like Legacy, the combos it enables can be tricky enough to pull off that it might be fine there. After all, you need a pretty solid setup of cards, including multiple instances of fast mana that can be difficult to line up, even in a powerful Legacy list.
In Vintage, however, you're able to utilize the power of Mishra's Workshop alone to put The Fantasticar into play. From there, you can cast multiple spells, including Power Nine like Black Lotus and Moxen to trigger The Fantasticar's ability. Even more notable, it's entirely possible that you can cast a Time Walk as one of your spells to win the game on the spot.
While Vintage is absolutely the format of choice for many of Magic's most powerful and broken designs of all time, this one has raised a lot of alarm bells among players. Wizards will continue to monitor this Vehicle extremely closely and has noted that they're not afraid to take action if results prove The Fanstasticar to be too strong.
One Card Banned in Pauper
One of the biggest points of discussion with regards to this B&R update has been an unexpected situation when it comes to Pauper.
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Thanks to the release of Marvel Super Heroes, a new two card infinite damage combo entered the all-Commons format via Hawkeye's Bow. This new Equipment allows you to deal a point of damage to your opponent when the equipped Creature becomes tapped. When you equip this to a Seeker of Skybreak - a card which can untap itself with its own ability - you're able to deal infinite damage.
Many players expressed concern over this combo. After all, it had shades of the Basking Broodscale combo with Sadistic Glee that was banned last year. Given the vulnerability of the combo due to Seeker of Skybreak's one point of toughness, the Pauper Format Panel - which I am a member of - opted to see how things played out for a week.
We were faced with a difficult choice. We could monitor things and make a ban based off a week of data and player feedback (among other things) or let it ride and risk some major events being overrun by this combo.
The initial results were somewhat telling, as three MTGO Challenges were won by the combo, as was a 98-player paper event. The panel and many players felt this was unlikely to change too much in the long run as players found even more optimal ways to build their lists.
Additionally, the play patterns are widely considered to be unfun since the combo can win you a game out of nowhere. Two card combos have a very Splinter Twin-like experience that leave players with a poor experience. Heuristically, this is something the PFP doesn't feel is appropriate for the Pauper format when it's as low cost and easy to execute as this has been.
As a result, we opted to ban one piece of the combo. The question was, which to ban?
We considered Hawkeye's Bow at first. The card has lots of synergies for Combo or Combo-like strategies that could enable powerful kills. However, the Panel felt that these would likely be reasonable enough to leave in the format. Additionally, Gavin has noted that there's a much higher chance of Wizards printing another card like the Bow in the future.
As a result, Seeker of Skybreak was banned from Pauper. Despite being an older and unique card, the simple fact is most untapping effects now are gated in some way to prevent you from performing unbounded tap/untap loops. It's an effect that's far more difficult to replicate. As such, banning the card here helps to ensure that an easy two-card combo like this won't easily happen again in the future.
Frankly, as a PFP member, this was easily among the most difficult decisions we've made in our time as a group. A lot of time and effort went into this with the hope that it will make Pauper the best it can be.
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That said, Gavin did also note that the PFP has been growing concerned about the increasing prevalence of Sneaky Snacker. The Panel has been monitoring this card closely and the fact that it showed up in the Seeker of Skybreak/Hawkeye's Bow decks as well has us looking at it more closely than ever.
Though we're not taking action against it now, we're going to continue monitoring it. As Gavin notes in his write-up on the B&R announcement, players can expect that we will likely discuss the card further as a part of the August 10th update. This should give the PFP not only more time to watch it, but also to see how it does at upcoming major events like Paupergeddon and the new US-based Paupergenesis in a few weeks.
Multiple Bannings in Brawl
Brawl has become one of the premiere ways to play Casual Magic on MTG Arena. With Competitive Brawl being spun off into a format all its own, Wizards has opted to remove several cards from the format today.
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Each of the following six cards were banned in the format:
Most of these changes are simple and easy to understand. Each is intended to provide the average player with a better overall experience as opposed to being pushed into feeling like they need to be more Competitive.
Force of Will and Subtlety were both banned to lessen the number of free counter-magic options, thereby allowing players to still play their cards. Ugin's Labyrinth is well known for turbo-charging games with fast mana, so by removing it the hope is to slow things down. Similarly, removing the functionally equal Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation is aimed at removing players' ability to continually go off with a sequence of hard to disrupt extra turns.
Many Commander players will no doubt be sympathetic to the reasoning here. As Brawl is meant to be a sort of equivalent to Commander for the Arena crowd, that should make all the more sense.
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Perhaps the most surprising inclusion on this list is Wash Away.
The idea is that you'll cast it for its Cleave cost and it'll be a cool Cancel variant with some potential upside in the right situations. In a format like Commander or - more importantly - a 1v1 format like Brawl, you can almost always be sure to have the one-mana counter live. This is because Commanders aren't cast from the hand, meaning it's super easy to deal with an opponent's core strategy.
For the betterment of the format as a whole, especially as one of the client's most beloved formats, all six of these cards have been banned.
No Changes in Other Digital Formats
The other main Arena exclusive formats - Alchemy, Historic, Timeless, and Competitive Brawl - each saw no changes.
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In most cases, Wizards was pretty satisfied with how each format was evolving in the wake of additional new cards entering the format. Historic and Timeless especially got big boosts from Secrets of Strixhaven's Mystical Archive bonus sheet and the goal is to continue watching it evolve.
In Alchemy, some concerns were levied against the card Omniscience. The powerful combo card has created some over-the-line decks in the past and there are worries this may be becoming the case in this format as well. For now, though, Wizards is opting to watch and wait to see how things continue to evolve.
In the case of Competitive Brawl, that format is a fairly new addition to the Arena landscape. As such, it's markedly different from normal Brawl and is still shaking out as a format. Because of this, Wizards has opted to take no action so they can see how things continue evolving as players put it through its paces in the coming months.
Conclusion
This Banned and Restricted update has proven to be an interesting one. Some of the bans were surprising, like with Candelabra of Tawnos in Legacy. Similarly, the lack of bans in formats like Standard feels perplexing for many.
Another announcement is coming on August 10th, however, and it's entirely possible that this will mark the traditional annual update window for Standard.
Tomorrow, on June 30th, Wizards will host another episode of the WeeklyMTG stream, likely around 1PM EST/10AM PST. There, they will likely bring on members of R&D involved with the updates and have them discuss the decisions made today. You'll not only hear plenty about why different cards were banned, but also the theory on why others were left alone.
Be sure to check back in for that and in the meantime, have a blast with each of the various Magic formats!
Paige Smith
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