The much anticipated Standard Ban Announcement for Magic: The Gathering has apparently leaked early, confirming many players' suspicions about what problematic cards are about to be removed from the meta. The ban announcement, originally scheduled for May 29, comes in the wake of changes made to Standard rotation. Here's what we know so far.
Standard is a popular Magic format that uses only the most recent card sets in its play pool. Standard is designed for new players who can easily jump in without much familiarity with the rest of Magic's history, but is also enjoyed at a competitive level as well.
MTG Standard Ban Announcement Leaks
According to a reddit post on the main Magic The Gathering subreddit, at least one user reportedly scraped the Magic website for information relating to the upcoming Standard ban. The scrape found that the following cards would be banned:
- Wedding Announcement
- The Wandering Emperor
- Invoke Despair
- Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
- Raffine, Scheming Seer
- Atraxa, Grand Unifier
- Reckoner Bankbuster
- Plaza of Heroes
This is a significant list that targets several cards integral to the overpowered Red-Black decks currently at the top of the meta, as well as White decks that would threaten to overtake them with those nerfs. Most of the banned cards come from sets that would have ordinarily rotated with the old rules, but newer cards like Atraxa are included as well.
As with other Standard bans, players on MTG Arena should expect Wildcard "refunds" for each copy of the banned cards they already own. Keep in mind that this ban list has not been officially confirmed.
This article was originally published on dbltap as MTG Standard Ban May 29 Announcement Leaks.