Wizards of the Coast announces a new, albeit small, ban/restricted update for Magic: The Gathering.
The changes, though, only effect one format: Competitive Brawl. According to the announcement, the following cards are to see new legality in the format:
- Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is banned as a commander.
- Spider-Man 2099 is banned as a commander.
- Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice is banned as a commander.
- Ajani, Nacatl Pariah is now only banned as a commander.
- Nadu, Winged Wisdom is now only banned as a commander.
- Oko, Thief of Crowns is now only banned as a commander.
- Old Stickfingers is now only banned as a commander.
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is now only banned as a commander.
- Rusko, Clockmaker is now only banned as a commander.
- Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student is now only banned as a commander.
- Wrenn and Six is now only banned as a commander.
- Tajic, Legion's Valor is now only banned as a commander.
- Nashi, Illusion Gadgeteer is rebalanced.
While many newer expansion cards see bans, many older expansion cards see their total bans dialed back to just being used as commanders. Of particular note is Nadu, one of the most controversial cards in recent years. In 2024, the ban hammer went down against the card pretty quickly since it was so dominant. However, the new announcement now opens it up to be used once more, including with it being paired up as a sub-commander for Derevi, which was seen as a powerful pairing at the time.
Magic devs confirmed in the announcement that the bans are just for commanders only, leaving those cards to remain legal for the other 99 cards in a deck.
"Competitive Brawl got a bit of the same impact Historic did, as previously rebalanced cards reverted to their printed form," said Jay Parker. So far, we have seen this produce a good bit of change, but we're not yet seeing anything problematic. We are continuing to monitor it closely, like Historic.
"We are clearly seeing players continue to innovate and push on different commanders, which is great to see and very healthy for the format. However, we are seeing some commanders emerge with win rates high enough to make them problematic. As such, we are banning three commanders this round and adjusting another.
"Since Nashi is a digital-only card, we are taking the opportunity to modify it slightly by removing the flash keyword to better balance the format. We don't expect to make this sort of change frequently, but this specific digital-only card has been a problem for some time, and this was a minor change to push it back in line.
"You'll also note that those commanders are only banned as a commander; they will still be legal among the 99 other cards in your deck. Now that we have the tech to enable this, we are applying it to cards banned on the grounds of being too strong as a commander."
While many fans were disappointed with no bans affecting other formats, the final ban of the year, to be announced on November 30, is expected to be large and touch on all formats.
