Wizards of the Coast has updated its Magic: The Gathering ban list. The tabletop publisher routinely updates this list, affecting many different play formats for the popular card game, to help maintain a healthy competitive community. But the newest ban includes an iconic item from Middle-earth: The One Ring.
The Magic: The Gathering Ban List Update
In an official blog post, Wizards of the Coast informed players about the upcoming Magic: The Gathering ban list update. For those that play Standard, Vintage, Alchemy, Historic, Timeless, and Brawl format, no changes have happened.
As for Modern players, a number of cards have been added and removed from the ban list. Wizards of the Coast state that Modern needs the most help. This is fair considering the last major shake-up happened in August with the banning of Nadu, Winged Wisdom.
This latest Magic: The Gathering ban list includes the popular card, The One Ring from the Universes Beyond set, Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.
The reason for this is the precious card has been used in a wide number of deck strategies in the competitive scene. It's a colorless artifact, allowing to work with any color deck, provides creature protection and the ability to draw cards, providing a card advantage. Finally, it synergizes well with the current dominant strategy of Modern: Boros Energy.
In addition to one of fantasy's most iconic artifacts hitting the ban list, Amped Raptor and Jegantha, The Wellspring are banned from Modern play. The reason for these bans all relate to making Boros Energy strategies less viable in the current meta.
But some cards are coming off the ban list with this decision. Four cards will return to Modern: Mox Opal, Green Sun's Zenith, Faithless Footing, and Splinter Twin.
According to Wizards of the Coast, the competitive scene of the game has changed so much, the strategies leading to these cards bans aren't as viable anymore. Hopefully, this leads to continued health in the current meta.
