A total of eight cards across five formats have had their status changed in Magic: The Gathering's latest banned and restricted update including two that could shake up the game's Modern format.
Modern saw changes to four cards in total as Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Lotus Field are now banned and Violent Outburst and Umezawa's Jitte have become unbanned.
Phlage was banned as a way to slow the role of Boros Energy decks -- especially those that take advantage of the synergy between Phage and Arena of Glory. Lotus Field was banned as a means to lower the power level of the top-tier deck Amulet Titan as it allows the deck to operate using fewer resources than those at Wizards of the Coast feel it should.
As for the unbanning of Umezawa's Jitte, which as been banned in Modern for some 15 years, the company states: "Magic has changed a lot since 2011. We've also seen players happy to play with the card in formats like Legacy and Cube. We hope that this unban will inspire people to try out more combat-oriented decks or breathe new life into Stoneforge Mystic decks that have been on the fringes of Modern for a few years now."
Violent Outburst was banned in Modern a little more than two years ago when the format was a very different beast. As such, Wizards has decided to allow the card back into the format.
"We want Modern to be a place where people can fall in love with archetypes, master them, and find success," they say. "Unbanning Violent Outburst is certainly risky given the recency of its ban, but we believe there are very clear upsides to these sorts of decks existing in Modern and are happy to take a calculated risk here."
As for Magic's other formats affected by this latest ban/restricted announcement:
- Pioneer saw the banning of the ultra-aggro equipment card Cori-Steel Cutter;
- Legacy saw Undercity Informer, a key card in the "Oops! All Spells" deck being banned;
- Pauper saw the banning of Bonder's Ornament, and;
- The MTG Arena format Alchemy saw the banning of the card Sewer-veillance Cam.
