A new round of bans has been announced - and Magic players are speaking out.
Earlier this week, on Nov. 10, the latest banned and restricted cards for Magic: The Gathering were announced. All told, the announcement brought forth three new banned cards in Standard, one in Pioneer, a pair in Legacy, one in Pauper, four for Braws, and five pre-bans in Historic (a MTG Arena format).
As noted in their official announcement, here is the full list:
Standard
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Vivi Ornitier is banned.
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Screaming Nemesis is banned.
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Proft's Eidetic Memory is banned.
Pioneer
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Heartfire Hero is banned.
Modern
No changes
Legacy
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Entomb is banned.
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Nadu, Winged Wisdom is banned.
Vintage
No changes
Pauper
- High Tide is banned.
Alchemy
No changes
Historic
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Force of Negation is pre-banned.
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Frantic Search is pre-banned.
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Mystical Tutor is pre-banned.
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Entomb is pre-banned.
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Dark Depths is pre-banned.
Timeless
No changes
Brawl
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Strip Mine is banned.
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Mana Drain is banned.
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Chrome Mox is banned
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Ancient Tomb is banned.
Devs in particular noted the ridiculous power of Vivi Ornitier in Standard.
"Standard has been in poor shape for the past few months. The Izzet Cauldron deck has cemented itself as the strongest deck in the format and has had unacceptably high win and play rates over a sustained duration," said Principal Game Designer Jadine Klomparens. "This deck utilizes the Izzet Proft's Eidetic Memory core that we've previously seen power decks like Jeskai Oculus, now taken to a new level with the inclusion of the Vivi Ornitier and Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo. It has dominated the tournament scene since Standard rotated with the release of Edge of Eternities, placing five or more copies into the Top 8 at all three of the Standard Magic Spotlight Series events that have occurred since then."
"To open up the Standard format for innovation and a wider variety of decks, it's clear we need to disrupt the Vivi Ornitier and Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo. That interaction is too much stronger than the rest of the format. We are opting to ban Vivi Ornitier as it is the card that's more likely to create future balance problems if allowed to remain in the format. We believe Standard will be more fun and diverse without Vivi Ornitier in it."
The re-banning of High Tide in Pauper format was another noteworthy move.
Back in March, we unbanned High Tide and Prophetic Prism as something new we called "trial unbans"—a novel and useful idea coming from the Pauper Format Panel. While Prophetic Prism went over without much discussion at all, High Tide was a much different story," explained Gavin Verhey. "Quickly, people began building decks. The best minds in Pauper converged on a decklist that used, of all things, the splice onto Arcane mechanic to generate tons of mana by splicing Psychic Puppetry repeatedly.
"We really wanted to take our time to review what happened in the format and how it evolved as time passed. Thank you for your patience as we carefully followed the format during this trial unban period. Considering a combination of strong results, the exorbitant amount of time it takes to execute the combo, the unfun play pattern, and the polarity it causes in the format, we have decided to ban High Tide again at this time. It was a great experiment, and one I'm glad we ran. However, ultimately, we do not believe High Tide being legal has an overall positive impact on the format."
Player reaction has been, overall, mostly positive. Many praised the bans to Brawl, with some calling it playable for the first time in quite a while as a result. Strip Mine was a card singled out by most commenters, who said that it ruined Brawl for them.
"Brawl just became a lot better now, I may finally play it again," said Reddit user MadCatMkV.
"I'm still hoping for an Alchemy-free version of the format, but no Drain, more limited land shenanigans, and losing Mox are still nice to see," added Reddit user PowrOfFriendship.
"Honestly love the Brawl bans. It's something at least." noted Redditer WumboWings.
"strip mine is banned in brawl! HELL YEAH!" exclaimed mattschmid1850 on Youtube.
"Honestly pretty shocked they remembered that Brawl exists." countered Redditer buyacanary.
Attention was also given to Nadu, with many players calling it one of the worst cards in modern Magic because of what it brought with it. Many even pointed out that the developers all but called it a mistake.
"Banned in Modern, banned in Commander, and now banned in Legacy—Nadu is now Vintage-only. What a goddamn fiasco of a card." said Redditer ProfPeanut.
Frost 134 agreed, adding "Right up there with Oko and Lurrus."
The Vivi ban was welcomed too.
"Hell yea, i can pick up a premium copy of vivi for a little cheaper now im sure." said Matthew Turner on Facebook.
"im especially glad about vivi, strip mine & mana drain." posted jwolves01 on Reddit.
"Legacy is saved!!!! (Sort of, they just banned the two worst matchups for Oops and forge, see you all again in a few months for bans out of those decks lol)," wrote Redditer Publius-Cornelius.
"Side note, I find it insulting how they tried to downplay the mistakes they made designing Vivi compare to the multi paragraphs we got about nemesis and Proft’s. No talk about how many things it can do, and for no mana. They’d instead like to pretend that cauldron is the only reason it was a problem, even though, they invalidate this argument by banning it instead of cauldron, because we all know what would happen if they tried this route. Maybe I’m a doomer, but I take this as confirmation that they have learned nothing and will make this mistake again in the future."
That being said, some parts were not well liked or were simply mocked. The aforementioned High Tide ban was one such target.
"Lols high tide was just unbanned earlier this summer in pauper just to get rebanned a couple months later," posted Zachary Boardman on the official announcement on Facebook.
There was also significant worry about how the increasing number of sets could lead to even more problems in the coming years, that could in turn lead to more bans and restrictions.
"Idk man, seems like releasing an exceeding number of sets each year and coupling that with a longer standard goes against the stated goal of stability," said Kamizar of Reddit. "How is the format supposed to stabilize when there's always a new set around the corner? When there's even more card interactions to double and triple check? What's more stable, walking or running?"
The bans are all effective Nov. 10. The banned and restricted announcement for Magic is due come Feb. 9, 2026.
