Wizards of the Coast removed four cards from the Standard format in today’s Banned and Restricted announcement.
WotC previously announced that no bans would take place in Standard leading up to the release of Zendikar Rising. But with cards like Wilderness Reclamation dominating in high levels of competitive and ranked digital play, waiting for the fall rotation was no longer an option.
“We’re making bans targeted at weakening decks that have been strong and popular at the highest levels of competitive play and at some cards and combos that have overstayed their welcome in the eyes of much of the Standard community,” WotC said.
The four cards being removed from the Standard format via the August Banned and Restricted announcement are Wilderness Reclamation, Growth Spiral, Teferi, Time Raveler, and Cauldron Familiar. Teferi, Growth Spiral, and Wilderness Reclamation have been on the hot seat for some time due to their dominance in competitive play. And while decks using Cauldron Familiar, like Rakdos Sacrifice, were unable to compete with the other three cards, their removal from the Standard format would have likely led to an increase in Sacrifice builds.
Temur Reclamation has been a problematic build within the Standard format for some time now. Over the course of the last month, it’s dominated every competitive format. Day one of the PT finals saw 68 percent of the field playing Growth Spiral and 54 percent with Wilderness Reclamation.
Bans made during the August Banned and Restricted announcement will go into effect immediately for digital Magic platforms and tabletop.
