Wizards of the Coast has just published its latest MTG banlist update, and while Standard gets no changes, there are some major shakeups for other formats. Brawl binned a half-dozen powerful blue cards; Pauper solved its Hawkeye hangup; and Legacy axed a massively expensive MTG card, though perhaps not the one fans were hoping to see the back of
Probably the biggest story for this June 29 Magic banlist is that the infamous Antiquities card Candelabra of Tawnos got the chop in Legacy, meaning you can now only play the card in Vintage and Commander. That’s notable, not just because this is a very old card from one of the first 1994 expansions, but also because it’s a super pricey one, costing anything from $2,500 – $4,000. I hope you didn’t just pick up a playset!
Candelabra’s strength is that you can pour mana into it to untap an equal number of lands, making it very easy to achieve infinite mana. It’s part of the dominant Tron archetype which WotC has had its eye on recently. Or was I should say, since now it’s O-U-T out.
Notably, this artifact MTG card ‘only’ cost $800 this time last year, and it’s continuously risen month by month up to now. This might have had as much to do with cEDH play as its Legacy success, but it’ll be interesting to see if, and how much, it slumps now.
Absent from the legacy banlist are the controversial One Ring, a very highly played card that always causes grumbling, and Fantasticar, a new Marvel Super Heroes card that can hit an opponent for 16 damage on Turn 1!
In other banlist news, Pauper axed the older card Seeker of Skybreak rather than the new card Hawkeye’s Bow. It makes sense to remove this part of this dangerous combo, which Gavin Verhey has been talking about for the last couple of weeks, simply because Skybreak is the more troublesome design. It’s able to tap and untap itself unceasingly (it’s a wonder it doesn’t go blind), so if not dealt with here and now, it’s only a matter of time before another new card causes it to combo off.
Finally, Brawl saw the most bans of them all. The team was targeting fast mana, extra turns, and free spells, which means it’s blue that overwhelmingly lost out. The banned blue cards are Wash Away, Subtlety, Force of Will, Time Warp, and Temporal Manipulation. Meanwhile, the only non-blue card is the colorless fast land, Ugin’s Labyrinth.
Altogether, these bans should make Brawl a more casual and less horrifically sweaty format.
Check out the banlist with full explanations on the Magic website, and let us know your thoughts over on the Wargamer Discord. Are you satisfied with the changes, or were you hoping for something different?
Source: Wargamer
