Magic The Gathering Has Banned 13 Cards Across 4 Formats

The latest Banned and Restricted list for Magic The Gathering has been released by Wizards of the Coast, detailing 13 different banned cards across four formats. Most notably, Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, has been banned in multiple formats due to the card’s domination of the meta.

As detailed in a news update, Uro has been banned in three different formats: Pioneer, Historic, and Modern. “Decks built around Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath are the most played in Historic and have been for a while now. While other decks have contested for that position, the steady dominance of Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath shows it is too powerful for the format,” the ban decision for Uro in Modern reads.

The post also indicates that Uro is “one of the most dominant creatures in Pioneer,” and “has become a dominant fixture across many of the top Modern decks.” The bans in all three formats hope to encourage more variety in the formats’ metagames.

In the Legacy format Oko, Thief of Crowns has been banned, joining existing bans in four other formats. “Over time, we’ve seen Oko continue to remain a major metagame presence and a contributor to lower diversity,” the decision reads.

The new update has also unbanned Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Vintage format, as well as adding a rule change for Cascade. The new Cascade rule reads as follows:

“702.84a. Cascade is a triggered ability that functions only while the spell with cascade is on the stack. ‘Cascade’ means ‘When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card whose converted mana cost is less than this spell’s converted mana cost. You may cast that spell without paying its mana cost if its converted mana cost is less than this spell’s converted mana cost. Then put all cards exiled this way that weren’t cast on the bottom of your library in a random order.'”

The full list of bans and unbans can be found below:

Historic:

• Omnath, Locus of Creation is banned (from suspended).
• Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath is banned.

Pioneer:

• Balustrade Spy is banned.
• Teferi, Time Raveler is banned.
• Undercity Informer is banned.
• Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath is banned.
• Wilderness Reclamation is banned.

Modern:

• Field of the Dead is banned.
• Mystic Sanctuary is banned.
• Simian Spirit Guide is banned.
• Tibalt’s Trickery is banned.
• Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath is banned.

Legacy:

• Arcum’s Astrolabe is banned.
• Dreadhorde Arcanist is banned.
• Oko, Thief of Crowns is banned.

Vintage:

• Lurrus of the Dream-Den is unbanned.

The changes are effective as of February 15 for traditional play, while the rules will update in Magic Online on February 17.