Therefore, we're choosing to ban Divide by Zero to make blue control decks less effective against other mid-speed and slow decks and force them to be more intentional about which threats they choose to prepare for. The ability of Divide by Zero to cover a variety of angles of attack frequently gives these decks enough time to enact and protect a powerful endgame soft-lock state, often using Lier, Disciple of the Drowned or Hullbreaker Horror. In particular, Divide by Zero gives those decks flexible, early interaction that is especially effective against slower, more powerful spells and permanents. To create space in the metagame for more mid-speed and slow archetypes, and to address the often-frustrating play pattern of chaining extra turns, Alrund's Epiphany is banned in Standard.Įven without access to Alrund's Epiphany, our data gives us concern that other blue control decks are poised to reduce metagame diversity by shutting out certain types of strategies. While not entirely dominant throughout the MTG Arena ladders (especially in Best-of-One), Alrund's Epiphany decks have been particularly popular and successful at the highest levels of competition and in tournament play. The foretell ability of Alrund's Epiphany makes it even harder interact with, as one of the traditional answers to big spells is hand disruption. While blue decks with powerful late-game spells can sometimes do good work as natural predators of midrange decks, a deck that chains together extra turns can be particularly difficult to stop and frustrating to play against when it represents too large a portion of the metagame. Our goal is to create some churn among the current top decks, open up additional angles from which to attack the metagame, and leave room for more experimentation and innovation with the release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.Īlrund's Epiphany is a card we highlighted in the October announcement as having potential for negative impact on metagame diversity. While a good number of decks are seeing success on the MTG Arena ladders and each has strengths and weakness against the others, the most played archetypes have remained largely the same over the past months.Īs such, we have a set of changes targeted at some of the top decks, including Blue-Red Epiphany and other blue control decks, Mono-White Aggro, and Mono-Green Aggro. Since then, we've heard community feedback that there hasn't been enough change in the metagame over time. In the October 2021 banned and restricted update, we announced no changes to Standard in anticipation of Innistrad: Crimson Vow's release soon following. The list of all banned and restricted cards, by format, is here. Magic Online and MTG Arena effective date: January 27, 2022 Tabletop Effective Date: January 25, 2022 Teferi, Time Raveler has been rebalanced and unbanned.
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