Today, Wizards of the Coast has announced the major change for the Companion mechanic as well as the two Magic: The Gathering cards they're banning in both Standard and Historic formats.
Here is the new change to the Companion rule:
"Once per game, any time you could cast a sorcery (during your main phase when the stack is empty), you can play 3 generic mana to put your companion from your sideboard into your hand. This is a special action, not an activated ability."
"Our reason for making this change is based on metagame data and play rates of companion decks across all formats, and on player feedback on repetitive gameplay patterns," R&D's Ian Duke explained. "As a group, decks using companions have too high of win rates and metagame share in Standard, Pioneer, and Modern, and have already necessitated bans in Legacy and Vintage. This trend represents a long-term problem for the health and diversity of all formats. Rather than go down the path of making several individual adjustments to the banned list for each format, we feel the better solution is to reduce the advantage gained from using a companion across the board."
This is a welcome change to various Magic formats as Companion decks have been too dominant, ruining the diversity of viable deck strategies.
That's not the only major change Wizards announced.
WotC has announced that they're banning Agent of Treachery and Fires of Invention in both Standard and Historic formats due to the dominant win rates of Fires of Invention decks. Archetypes that use Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast and Winota, Joiner of Forces to bring out Agent of Treachery directly into play, have also been dominant.
Players who have Agent of Treachery and/or Fires of Invention as part of their in-game collection on Magic Arena prior to the game update on June 4 will receive an equal number of rare Wildcards to their collection as part of the update.
These changes should help improve the meta of both Standard and Historic formats.
What do you think about the Companion rules change and the bannings of the two cards? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Related: All 2020 MTG In-Person High-Level Events Cancelled
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