Why Magic the Gathering Just Banned 11 Cards

Why Magic: the Gathering Just Banned 11 Cards

Contents

Magic: the Gathering just banned eleven cards, and a lot of them aren’t getting banned exclusively for power level but because 2020 is unique.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Why Magic the Gathering Just Banned 11 Cards

Wizards of the Coast recently announced one of the biggest Magic: the Gathering ban waves of all time. Eleven cards faced the ban hammer on August 8th, 2020, and unlike a lot of previous ban waves, there are more reasons other than power level for banning these cards.

2019 and 2020 has been a turbulent time for Magic: the Gathering. On top of in-person events getting cancelled, there have been more bannings and ban announcements than ever before, which has led prominent community members to speak out about some of the cards being printed. That said, this surprise banning has a lot of people talking, and there is a reason that this ban has spawned so much buzz.

There are several cards on this ban list that wouldn’t see bans in any other year than 2020, and here’s why:

Magic Cards Were Banned Despite Rotation

Why Magic the Gathering Just Banned 11 Cards

In Magic: the Gathering’s premier format, Standard, there are only ever up to 8 sets allowed for play at a time. The fall set starts a new Standard rotation and removes a lot of cards from the game, allowing other cards time to shine. 3/4 Standard bans happening on August 8th would have fallen out of Standard with the release of Zendikar Rising on September 25th. Banning them now is out of character for Wizards, who has relied heavily on cards rotating in the past.

See also  Why Cobra Kai Needs Another AllValley Tournament In Season 3

The reason given within the ban announcement is that more players are playing online now that everyone is social distancing, and players play a LOT more Magic: the Gathering on Arena than they ever did in person. People playing so many more games means that a month’s wait can mean hundreds of games instead of a couple of dozen. Cards like Teferi, Time Raveler were banned preemptively to make sure that the last months of the Standard Format were fun.

A Card Was Banned Because of Online UI Issues

Why Magic the Gathering Just Banned 11 Cards

Perhaps the most interesting ban from the full 11 cards is Cauldron Familiar, a card from Throne of Eldraine that wouldn’t be rotating out of Standard in the fall, but also wasn’t quite powerful enough to deserve a ban. Cauldron Familiar’s crime was being annoying online.

In-person Magic: the Gathering involves a lot of shortcuts in the game. An example of this is the combo of Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven. In-person players would tap Witch’s Oven and explain that they are using the combo, then both players would move on with the game. On Magic: the Gathering Area players cannot shortcut combos like that, so both players need to activate and accept four in-game actions, which takes between 20-30 seconds. It might not seem like much, but doing this every turn annoyed many players to no end.

The combo was annoying enough online that the card was banned. It was also an essential part of a popular deck, but its power was far from the only reason the ban happened.

See also  Apples Fix For MacBook Pro Notch Weirdness Isnt Really A Fix At All

Cards Were Banned Because A Format Was Dying

In late 2019 Magic: the Gathering introduced the Pioneer format, a midpoint between Modern and Standard for players who had cards from 2013 onward. The format launched with frequent bans to balance the format and make an exciting play environment for players, but over time the bans slowed down and the ‘metagame’ of Pioneer was discovered.

The metagame was Thassa’s Oracle and Inverter of Truth, a two-card combo that won the game dangerously fast. Despite several ban announcements since the combo became dominant, nothing had been done about these two powerful cards and their stranglehold on the Pioneer format. Play rates of Pioneer events were very low, and it looked like the format wasn’t going to be the replacement for Modern that a lot of players had hoped it would be. Seeing this, Wizards of the Coast pulled out the ban hammer and hit half the combo by banning Inverter of Truth. For good measure, they also banned several other Magic: the Gathering cards that were part of combo decks, making sure they never came back.

For some Magic: the Gathering players the cards which got banned on the 8th are favorites that will be missed, but whether they were loved or hated by players, these are the kind of bans that would only happen in 2020.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/magic-gathering-banned-card-list-2020-reasons/

Movies -