Magic: The Gathering Has Officially Banned Three New Cards but Unbanned Another

Yesterday was a big day for Magic The Gathering players who play the Commander format (like myself) and Modern format, when news broke that the Rules Committee officially unbanned one card and banned two others from Commander. Paradox Engine and Iona, Shield of Emeria are now banned, and Painter’s Servant has been unbanned. This was the first ban/unban update since 2017. For Modern players, the card Bridge from Below was banned.

Commander:

Banned:

Paradox Engine {5}
Legendary Artifact
Whenever you cast a spell, untap all nonland permanents you control.
“One look at this glorious item convinced me that Kaladesh deserved my full attention. Sure enough, my time here has yielded exquisite fruit.” —Tezzeret
Illustrated by Christine Choi

Iona, Shield of Emeria {6}{W}{W}{W}
Legendary Creature — Angel
Flying
As Iona, Shield of Emeria enters the battlefield, choose a color.
Your opponents can’t cast spells of the chosen color.
“No more shall the righteous cower before evil.”
7/7
Illustrated by Jason Chan

Officially unbanned:

Painter’s Servant {2}
Artifact Creature — Scarecrow
As Painter’s Servant enters the battlefield, choose a color.
All cards that aren’t on the battlefield, spells, and permanents are the chosen color in addition to their other colors.
It gathers hues from the twilight mist so that its master can paint a better world.
1/3
Illustrated by Mike Dringenberg

Modern:

Banned:

Bridge from Below {B}{B}{B}
Enchantment
Whenever a nontoken creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, if Bridge from Below is in your graveyard, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
When a creature is put into an opponent’s graveyard from the battlefield, if Bridge from Below is in your graveyard, exile Bridge from Below.
Illustrated by Daarken

As always, these changes have gotten a lot of eye rolls from players, because the banned list is always kind of controversial since, for many, it never gets rid of something that is too broken and only limits play. I mean, imagine if you just spent money buying these cards for play only to find out, whomp whomp, it’s no longer playable. As of this writing, Paradox Engine is still $34 new, and Iona is between $15 and $16. I did own an Iona, and while it’s not a total loss, I did organize my deck with a certain amount of synergy so that each card in my Angel deck would make it stronger.

Painter’s Servant is currently out of stock on Card Kingdom (my go-to), and I’m sure that the price will go up as people find ways to break it in and turn it into a force to be reckoned with. Magic players are nothing if not resourceful.

Bridge from Below was banned, according to Magic publishers Wizards of the Coast, because it was part of the “Hogaak Bridgevine” deck, and its initial overall win rate on Magic Online was over 60%. The Deck was centered around the combination of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis; Altar Of Dementia; and Bridge from Below. This combination had “a high overall win rate, fast wins, and few unfavorable matches. It’s warped the metagame around itself, forcing other decks to adopt especially high numbers of anti-graveyard cards to keep pace.” Ergo, BfB was taken out to make this combo less aggressive to other players.

According to the Magic site, the next Banned and Restricted announcement will be: August 26, 2019.

Magic fans what do you think of these changes?

(via The Commander’s Quarters, image: Jason Chan/WoTC)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—