Magic: The Gathering Cards Banned in Historic, Modern & Pauper & Unbans 1 Card

Wizards of the Coast has made its latest Magic: The Gathering Banned & Restricted announcement to state new changes for Historic, Modern, Pioneer, and Pauper formats, and they include bannings of several cards that were previously suspended in Historic (MTG Arena's eternal Constructed format), an unbanning in Pioneer, and bannings in Modern and Pauper formats.

Here are the updates on the latest MTG Banned & Restricted announcement:

Historic

Agent of Treachery is banned (from suspended)

Winota, Joiner of Forces is banned (from suspended)

Fires of Invention is banned (from suspended)

Nexus of Fate is banned

Burning-Tree Emissary is suspended

WotC's Ian Duke explained that data showed that there had been distinct improvements in the Historic metagame with the suspended cards removed, so they decided to ban the three cards from the digital-only eternal format.

Duke explains that Nexus of Fate decks have "risen dramatically in terms of metagame share", and although they considered Wilderness Reclamation one of the two cards that enable these decks, they beleived that Nexus of Fate is the real problem since it efficiently prevents the opponent from playing at all.

Gruul aggro has been dominant in Historic, so that's why they had to suspend Burning-Tree Emissary.

Pioneer

Oath of Nissa is unbanned

Regarding its unbanning, Duke explains that the "release of new sets has added power to other archetypes and generally expanded possibilities for deckbuilding. The metagame is now in a place where we feel that unbanning Oath of Nissa is a reasonable step to take as far as adding some power back to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ramp decks and other archetypes that revolve around key creatures, lands, or planeswalkers."

Modern

Arcum's Astrolabe is banned

Arcum Astrolabe resulted in win rates that are considered "unhealthy and unsustainable for the metagame" due to how it enables multicolored decks that use it to take over the format, with "some variants approaching 55% non-mirror match win rate."

Pauper

Expedition Map

Expedition Map was banned in Pauper to reduce the consistency and popularity of Tron decks in the metagame.

Mystic Sanctuary

Mystic Sanctuary was used to create repetitive loops or lockout states in Pauper, as it's "proving to be another key contributor of negative pressure on the metagame by enabling end game loops."

I guess we'll just have to keep hoping for Splinter Twin to get unbanned in Modern.

What do you think about these changes in the latest Banned & Restricted announcement? Let us know in the comments section below.

Related:Arena Open Coming on August 1 Using the Historic Format