A leaked version of Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming ban announcement has been denounced as fake by Wizards of the Coast. It was addressed by Blake Rasmussen on MTG Weekly on Tuesday, who dismissed the rumours, but assured viewers that Monday’s announcement would be “exciting enough”.
The phoney ban announcement appeared in a post on Reddit on Tuesday, the ‘leaker’ claiming the Magic website “always gets scraped for info 7 days early, it’s happened like 5 times now”. Though some were sceptical, the post caused considerable excitement among the fanbase, presenting (what would have been) the most aggressive slate of MTG bans in years.
Not only were midrange staples like Fable of the Mirror-breaker, Reckoner Bankbuster, and Invoke Despair included on the fake banlist, cards from non-dominant decks, that might otherwise take their place at the top of the meta, were also present. Under the proposed changes, Raffine, Scheming Seer; Wedding Invitation; The Wandering Emperor; and even recent chase card Atraxa, Grand Unifier got the chop.
One reason this fakery fooled some fans is that a decent effort had been taken to replicate Wizards’ house style. The ‘leak’ explained the logic behind each ban decision, the way the company usually does when it makes a change to the MTG banlist. The leaker has now admitted it was all a ruse, and claims they were trying “to gauge the standard player base’s reaction and put pressure on WOTC”.
The true MTG ban announcement is scheduled for Monday, May 29, and will only include changes to Standard (other formats will see new bans implemented before Wilds of Eldraine is released). There is a lot of buzz around the upcoming announcement, as it will be the first time we see Magic: The Gathering’s brand new approach to card bans in action.
The new banning strategy is intended to help paper Standard, but if lots of new bans are put in place, it’ll also mean a feast of wildcards for MTG Arena players who have already crafted the best MTG Arena decks. For now though, you’ll have to rely on the existing MTG Arena codes to pick up free cards.
Source: Wargamer
