Summary
Magic: The Gatheringhas finally taken the banhammer to one of the game’s most overpowered cards, with The One Ring being cast out of the game’s Modern format.
Alongside bans for both Legacy and Pioneer, the December 2024 banlist update also marks the return of Splinter Twin to Modern, after years of players asking for its unbanning.
Legacy
Pioneer/Explorer
By far the biggest changes in these announcements are the banning of The One Ring and unbanning of Splinter Twin in Modern.The One Ringhas been causing problems in multiple formats since it debuted in Tales Of Middle-earth last year, and for months has seen play in upwards of 60 percent of meta decks for the format.
Talking about the ban, Wizards explained that the decision to ban it came because of the dominance of red/white Energy decks since Modern Horizons 3 earlier this year, which uses the card heavily. Banning The One ring is something of a double-whammy, solving a long-running problem in the format while also nerfing its most-played deck.
The strength of Energy decks is why Amped Raptor, an uncommon from Modern Horizons 3, has also been banned.
Splinter Twin, on the other hand, has been banned in Modern since 2016. The introduction of free and cheap answers to it, like Force of Negation and Flare of Denial, mean it potentially isn’t as strong in the format as it once was. With it being such a popular archetype back in the day, its unbanning makes sense with Wizards’ goal of reigning Modern back to its heyday of when Splinter was playable.
The unbanning of Mox Opal is also interesting. A zero-cost artifact means we could start seeing affinity decks creep back in to Modern, which would be a nice change of pace from endless Energy decks, and Nadu decks before it.
Jegantha Is Gone From Multiple Formats
Across Modern and Pioneer, Jegantha, The Wellspring has become an immensely popular card. It’s the latest in a long line ofIkoria: Lair of Behemoth’s companionsto be banned, following Lutri, Yorion, and Lurrus, thanks to its incredibly easy companion requirement of every card in your deck only having at most one of any individual mana pip.
It’s an easy include that gives you access to WUBRG mana, making it an auto-include in just about any deck. It’s a generically good card that’s boring to play against, putting it right in the firing line for a ban.
Legacy doesn’t often ban cards, with the intention being it’s a high-power format with slightly more curation than Vintage. So for two cards from Modern Horizons 3 to be banned showed just how powerful (or, if you want to be less charitable, warping) that set was.
The banning of Psychic Frog is intended to continue the work started by therecent banning of Grief. Blue/black reanimation decks haven’t been knocked down quite enough yet, leading to the frog being punted from the format. Meanwhile, Vexing Bauble was another generically good card that can turn off an opponent’s deck with its counter ability, leading it to shoot up in the meta.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom is under close observation as the metagame adjusts to these bans, which could see it taken out of one of the just four official formats it’s still legal in.
It’s not all bad news, though. Wizards has singled out Standard as being a particularly healthy format right now, with no cards being looked at as too powerful. The format has a huge diversity of decks, with the success being pinned on Duskmourn and Foundations.
These bans and unbans come into immediate effect. The next bans won’t take place until July 09, 2025, following the launch of Aetherdrift.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
