After weeks - perhaps months - of speculation, Wizards dropped a bombshell of a banned and restricted announcement today. The big news of the day is without a doubt the huge changes to the Standard format. This banned and restricted announcement represented the format's once-a-year opportunity to ban cards that will be sticking around following rotation with Edge of Eternities. In addition to these and other ban list adjustments, every format received some kind of analysis for the current state of their respective formats.

There is a ton to discuss so let's not waste any time and get right to it!

Standard

Perhaps most notable were the bannings of Cori-Steel Cutter, Monstrous Rage, and Heartfire Hero. The former two seemed like slam dunk choices that most players assumed would be axed thanks to the dominance and warping nature of Izzet Prowess. In addition to these bannings for Standard, it should be noted that Cori-Steel Cutter is also suspended in the Standard-adjacent Alchemy format as well pending rebalances.

Right behind Prowess, however, was Mono-Red Aggro in terms of both raw meta percentage numbers and also warranted a ban. While Monstrous Rage getting banned certainly hurt the deck, it needed a little more hit as well. Many players thought Manifold Mouse would be the most likely target. However, Heartfire Hero took the hit instead, with its extreme explosiveness cited as a core reason for the ban.

These should surprise no one following the two decks' showing at Pro Tour Final Fantasy in Las Vegas and Spotlight Series Final Fantasy in Japan. Izzet Prowess has put up dominating numbers that represent massive chunks of the metagame - upwards of 40% - with Mono-Red Aggro trailing close behind. Good riddance to all of these, I say!

Next on the chopping block was one that many people were a bit more unsure if Wizards would take action on. Azorius Omniscience combo decks are taking the format by storm and with the massive hit to aggro decks, it becomes a clear winner going into a post-rotation setting. Wizards was well aware of this and decided to take action against Abuelo's Awakening rather than leave the deck's namesake alone for the time being. There are some minor concerns that Yuna, Hope of Spira may take its role going forward, but we will need to see if this can bear out with time.

Following years of high level play in Standard, Pioneer, Legacy, and even being banned in Modern, Up the Beanstalk joins the ban list in Standard as well. The card has put up tremendous numbers over the years in the Domain shell. While several key cards from this archetype including Leyline Binding, Atraxa, Grand Unifier; and Zur, Eternal Schemer are set to rotate, many other powerful cards stick around. As such, it's expected that it will only be a matter of time until the next best Beans deck is found, and thus they'd rather ban it now than have players continue dealing with it for another year and a half.

Perhaps most shocking was the banning of Hopeless Nightmare and This Town Ain't Big Enough. Both of these cards have largely been mainstays of the Esper Pixie decks, with This Town Ain't Big Enough also showing up in decks like Izzet Prowess and Temur Otters. The big concern here was that Pixie decks were effectively pushed out of the format, making them not a big player for the time being.

Despite this, Wizards felt that they would likely begin to pose a problem once again in this new meta. Moreover, the play patterns instilled by repeatedly bouncing cards like Hopeless Nightmare over and over again - including with This Town Ain't Big Enough - proved to be a negative play pattern for many players. Couple this with one of the deck's major foils, Obstinate Baloth, leaving the format with rotation and it's arguably as good a time as any for this one to be shown the door.

This monstrous update leaves Standard completely fresh and arguably creates an entirely new format.

Pioneer

While Standard got nuked from orbit, Pioneer was left fairly untouched, which surprised some players. Despite not being a major competitive focus for paper events, the format continues to see strong digital play numbers - particularly thanks to the officialization from Explorer to Pioneer on MTG Arena. Many players hoped that changes would be made in the wake of recent events being heavily dominated by the Mice package that was just axed from Standard, but it seems to live to fight another day.

While the greater Pioneer format wasn't impacted, the best-of-one queue on Arena was. When the format was officialized as Pioneer, its ban list was matched up as well, making Tibalt's Trickery legal in best-of-one play once more. After a bit of time legal once more, it's been determined that it still presents problematic play patterns and was re-banned once more.

Modern

As noted previously, there were no ban list changes being made to Modern one way or another. However, Wizards did notice that the power outliers they were concerned with have been put in check somewhat by other newer cards like Cori-Steel Cutter and Ketramose, the New Dawn. Wizards currently seems happy with how things are playing with this format at the moment.

Legacy

Perhaps most contentious was the Legacy announcement, or lack thereof. Many Legacy players expressed the continued need for action to be taken to better the format's health. Reanimator continues to be an overwhelmingly dominant force and many have also stated that Oops, All Spells is a really bad play pattern to deal with gameplay-wise. With this lack of bans, many Legacy fans were visibly upset across social media, especially as the next update won't be until after the North American Eternal Weekend event.

Vintage

I'm far less in tune with Vintage compared to most of the other formats on this list, however there have been rumblings through the community about whether or not Lurrus of the Dream-Den should be banned in the format. This is due to the card's innate high power level that is so strong, the card was once banned outright before as it was unable to be restricted due to the nature of the companion mechanic. Thanks to the companion mechanic errata, the card was allowed to be unbanned, however continues to put up numbers that have concerned many players.

However, Wizards notes that the format has seen plenty of advancements to counteract the dominance of Lurrus decks lately. Additionally, they note the high potential for upcoming Edge of Eternities card Tezzeret, Cruel Captain to make an impact in the format. As such, they're leaving the format as is for the time being.

Pauper

A follow-up to the prior banned and restricted update was expected for Pauper thanks to the trial unbans of Prophetic Prism and High Tide. Prophetic Prism has been deemed fairly reasonable and is now to be considered fully unbanned. However, High Tide has proven to be a bit more contentious, and thus the Pauper Format Panel has decided to extend the trial unban to gather more data. As a member of the PFP myself, I personally am excited to see what Paupergeddon brings to the table next week and how impactful High Tide is in that kind of event.

A follow-up is expected to likely occur sometime in August with no other changes being needed at this time.

Historic

While most formats saw either bans or no changes, Historic saw the unbanning of Counterspell in the format. The card was previously banned when it came to the format via the Strixhaven: Mystical Archives bonus sheet. With several years behind this release, Wizards is looking to bring classic control strategies a little more to the forefront. It'll be interesting to see how the card shakes things up as the format adjusts to its addition.

Other Arena Formats

The final two formats mentioned were Timeless and Brawl. Minimal attention was given to either format. Wizards noted strong things were happening in Timeless, but the format continues to be stable and more powerful cards are expected to be added over time with the help of Special Guests. Several players expressed some concern about the lack of changes to Brawl, however, with some hoping to see powerful cards like Mana Drain removed from the format.

This wraps things up for this round of banned and restricted announcements. The article was extremely meaty with lots for players to chew on and analyze ahead of the next announcement that is coming November 24th. Additionally, it was revealed that there would be two Standard-focused ban windows prior to the next rotation which will be a little over a year and a half away at the start of 2027.

For full details of these bans, you can check out these links below:

• Banned and Restricted Announcement - June 30, 2025
• Good Morning Magic - What up with High Tide?? A Pauper Check-in!

All of these bans are now live on digital clients everywhere, so get into those trenches and start brewing in this brand new Standard environment! It's a wild west fitting of Thunder Junction and is the perfect time for you to try out your favorite weird and wacky ideas.

Good luck and have fun!

Paige Smith

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