Monday, May 18th Banned & Restricted Announcement and Discussion

Hello, internet, my name is Blue, and today I’ll be discussing the B&R announcement from this past Monday. We had quite a few changes to multiple formats, so let’s get into it because we have a bit to talk about today!

Standard and Pioneer

Monday’s announcement declared no changes in either format but that doesn’t mean they weren’t part of it. Both formats have been taken over by Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Yorion, Sky Nomad as of late, so it’s interesting to see no changes here but I personally feel as if they’re both in an okay place. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, however, and I expect something to happen to one of the formats at some point. I don’t think they need it, but overall community response thinks they do and Wizards has set precedent for banning cards just because the community asked, like with Aetherworks Marvel.

Brawl

So, for the first format to get a banning, Brawl saw Drannith Magistrate and Winota, Joiner of Forces get the ax. I don’t play Brawl and I honestly feel like this announcement was Wizards reminding us the format existed, but nonetheless I feel as if these were correct decisions for the format.

Legacy

Next on the docket, Legacy was the second format to get hit with the hammer with two different Companions. Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Zirda, the Dawnbreaker were both banned in Legacy, and I feel like this was a correct decision. Again, I don’t play much Legacy but I do keep up with Grixis Delver because it’s the deck I want to play if I ever get into the format. Delver was one of the decks taking advantage of Lurrus as well as many others, and I feel like with access to cards like Lion’s Eye Diamond and other things, Lurrus wasn’t long for the format as it seemed. For Zirda, I think this was a safety ban. With Lurrus gone, Zirda was set up to dominate with Basalt Monolith and other combos and that would leave Legacy feeling more degenerate than it already is.

Vintage

While I’m not at all surprised by this, it is interesting to note that this marks the first time a card has ever been full-stop banned in vintage due to the nature of how companions work, but especially the rule-breaker himself, Lurrus once again. That’s right, Lurrus was banned in vintage due to high win percentages, a high representation of the card itself, and, according to Wizards, no clear indication that the format will be moving away from either. Similarly to Legacy, Lurrus had access to some crazy powerful shenanigans such as casting Black Lotus every turn of the game, including twice on turn 1 if you were so lucky to have your Lurrus resolve. I’m glad this happened, even though I have no foreseeable plans to play the format.

Modern

Since the announcement was put out, I’ve heard a lot of commotion about Modern and people wondering why there were no changes, so I wanted to give my thoughts on it before we wrapped it up today. A lot of people seem to think Lurrus wasn’t banned because of money; Wizards wants to sell packs so they left it alone for now until a time that Lurrus isn’t selling packs anymore, but I don’t think this is the case. Lurrus itself isn’t selling packs, it’s the thrill of the gamble that does. Due to the overall low estimated value of the set, not banning Lurrus or something else from the set, such as Yorion, wasn’t a decision based around money. I think it was because these cards aren’t all that problematic in Modern, to put it simply. Lurrus dies to all the top removal of the format, including Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, Path to Exile, and even Seal of Fire that’s seeing play almost entirely because of Lurrus. Not to mention all the graveyard hate in the format that takes care of him rather easily. Normally I don’t use the “dies to removal” argument but I think that’s exactly why he didn’t get the ax. If he didn’t die to almost every removal spell that already exists in the format, I feel like he would’ve been banned, or at least looked at a lot closer.

Potential Changes

With all of that, Monday’s announcement saw Lurrus get banned in two different formats and he’s in the discussion for Modern and Pioneer. That’s not even including the other four Companions seeing consistent play across multiple formats, so then that begs the question: what can WotC do to help fix the issue caused by Companions? There’s a lot of ways to do it. They could admit they made a mistake and ban the Companion mechanic as a whole. They could also make it where you could interact with Companions easier. I heard a suggestion the other day about putting Companions in the exile zone at the start of the game instead of keeping them in the sideboard so they could have interacted with things like the Eldrazi Processors from Battle for Zendikar. By far my personal favorite suggestion so far though is a rule change for Companions. There are a lot of things Wizards could do here but I like Jim Davis’s idea. If you’re unaware, he’s suggested that if you have a Companion, your starting hand size is reduced by one. This solves the issues of starting the game with a clear advantage over opponents that don’t have a companion and puts everyone on an even playing field, even if one of your cards is guaranteed to be one you want to have every game.

Wrap-Up

What did you think of Monday’s announcement? Do you agree with what happened? Do you think something else should’ve been banned, or did something get hit that you think should’ve stuck around longer? What do you think should happen with the Companion mechanic going forward? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @TheRealBlueMTG! While you’re there, don’t forget to check out the website’s Twitter @MTGOracle! That’s it from me today. This is Blue, signing out!