Hey all, Strickles here. We just got probably the biggest Standard ban announcement to date,
with a whopping 7 cards taken out of the format, just a month before rotation. Here is what was
banned:

Cori-Steel Cutter
Abuelo’s Awakening
Monstrous Rage
Heartfire Hero
Up the Beanstalk
Hopeless Nightmare
This Town Ain’t Big Enough

For more information and to see the reasoning you can read the article from Wizards here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/banned-and-restricted-june-30-2025

Cori-Steel Cutter was also Suspended in Alchemy, pending a rebalance.

So, how do these bans impact Standard as we head towards rotation? Let’s break it down and see
where this brand new format is going to land.

Standard

Impacted Decks

Izzet Prowess

It should be no surprise that Izzet was getting hit with a ban hammer. If you watched any content
from the Pro Tour last weekend, or any content creators discussing what could be banned this
past week, you knew that Cori-Steel Cutter was the most likely card to go.

Cori-Steel Cutter solves a problem that these prowess decks usually suffer from, which is being
weak to removal. Prowess decks have to play so many cheap cantrips to trigger prowess that they
can only afford to play a small number of threats. If you remove those threats they can be left
spinning their wheels trying to find a new one, while you advance your own game plan and
board state.

Cori-Steel Cutter made it so you needed not just a removal spell for the prowess token, but also
the artifact itself. Failing that, there was no more spinning of the wheels, every turn a new token
was attacking you.

After being over 40% of the Pro Tour meta, and being all over the Arena ladder, and warping
decks to include cards like Magebane Lizard and High Noon in the main deck, it is no surprise
that Cori-Steel Cutter was the card that took the axe.

Verdict: Izzet Prowess survives, but in a different form.

While the aggressiveness of Cori-Steel Cutter will be gone, there is no question that Vivi Ornitier
is a powerful card that we are just starting to scratch the surface of its potential. From synergies
with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, to combo turns, Vivi is here to stay. Backed up by Stock Up,
Stormchaser’s Talent, and cheap cantrips, I expect some form of Izzet to survive.

Mono-Red Aggro

Mono-Red Aggro is the real boogeyman of the format. It has been a top deck for months and continues to beat out Izzet Prowess in the head to head, including in the finals of the recent Pro Tour. Mono-Red Aggro saw two cards banned from its arsenal.

Monstrous Rage was no surprise, players have been clamoring for its banning for months, and it
was already banned in Alchemy, where the health of the format dramatically improved
afterwards.

Monstrous Rage is powerful for a couple of reasons. First, it just makes blocking difficult, as
trample can blast over most early blockers, and the plus one toughness can prevent trades.
Second, it works insanely well with the double strike provided by Manifold Mouse, making for
huge swings for 10 plus damage as early as turn 3.

Without Monstrous Rage in the format, blocking becomes a viable option again, and more
midrangy creatures (without deathtouch) can see play again. Mono-Red decks can turn to other
options for trample if they really want to, such as Dreadmaw’s Ire or Might of the Meek, but
those options do not provide the long last trample that Monstrous Rage does.

The second, and more surprising ban, was Heartfire Hero. The mouse package has been a
powerful option since it was printed, and even took over Pioneer aggro as well. The curve of
Heartfire Hero into Manifold Mouse provided a big chunk of damage right away, and set up
those huge Monstrous Rage turns on turn three.

There was some discussion around banning Manifold Mouse, because its double strike granting
pushed Monstrous Rage over the top, and it is free valiant triggers for both Heartfire Hero and
Emberheart Challenger, but it seems that Wizards would rather nerf Manifold Mouse by
removing its turn one buddy, and giving the deck less mice for it to target.

Without Heartfire Hero, you may end up cutting Manifold Mouse all together, so they kind of hit
two birds with one stone.

Verdict: Mono-Red survives, but has to drastically change.

The mouse package is likely dead, and without Monstrous Rage and Heartfire Hero, the deck
likely can’t shift back to playing Leyline of Resonance instead. Mono-Red players are going to
have to re-evaluate their options and decide what direction they want to go in.

Azorius Omniscience

Azorius Omniscience was the second most played deck at the recent Pro Tour, because it has the
control elements to stay alive against Izzet Prowess and Mono-Red Aggro early, and has turn
four combo win, so it can end the game before things get out of hand.

The card enabling this turn four combo is Abuelos’s Awakening, which returns Omniscience from
the graveyard to the battlefield for just four mana.

With the top two aggro decks nerfed in power, it was likely that Azorius Omniscience would rise
to take a greater share of the meta game, so I understand why Wizards chose to take action and
ban the deck out.

The other option was to ban Omniscience itself, but it was just printed in Foundations, and is
supposed to be legal for the next five years (at least) so I think they were wary of going that route
because they want players to be able to open and play with Foundations cards for the next
several years.

Verdict: Azorius Omniscience is dead. For now.

There aren’t other great ways to return an enchantment directly to play from the graveyard in
Standard, so if anyone wanted to keep using Omniscience they are going to have to find a
different way to cheat it into play.

I say, “for now,” because Wizards could easily print some other enchantment reanimation spell
and put us right back into this situation.

Zur Overlords/Other Ramp

Up the Beanstalk was a much hated card before the printing of Cori-Steel Cutter drove us into an
aggro hellscape.

Up the Beanstalk when combined with expensive cards that can come into play for cheap, like
Overlord of the Hauntwoods, Leyline Binding, and Ride’s End, gave otherwise clunky ramp
decks a constant stream of cards.

It could lead to very frustrating turns against those decks, when you would finally work them out
of threats and cards, only for them to have a turn where they chain two or three spells and
reestablished their board.

Up the Beanstalk represents the other end of the spectrum of “decks I don’t want ruling a
format.” On one side we have hyper aggro decks that don’t let you take a single breath, and on
the other are grindy ramp/control decks that never run out of cards and that you cannot beat once
the game goes past a certain turn.

Banning Up the Beanstalk was another preventive measure by Wizards, making sure that after
the aggro and combo decks were kneecapped, we weren’t right back into long drawn out ramp
mirror matches.

This banning should allow for Midrange decks to work their way back into the meta, as they will
be able to keep up with this types of deck on card advantage moving forward.

Verdict: Overlord ramp decks can survive, but will they? Time will tell.

The rest of the package is still a very powerful deck. We have all lost to the Zur Overlord deck in
games where they didn’t have Up the Beanstalk. I’m not sure what card plugs that hole for them,
but I’m sure that dedicated players will find a way to keep the deck going.

Orzhov/Esper Bounce

Bounce of both the Orzhov and Esper variety were hit with bans today, also in efforts to
preemptively prevent the decks from taking over the hole left by the nerfed aggro decks.
Just a few months ago these decks were the scourge of the format, and players were frequently
losing their hands, and their minds, to cards like Hopeless Nightmare being cast over and over
again.

Taking out Hopeless Nightmare slows down the deck’s gameplan quite a lot, especially for
Orzhov builds. They no longer have a generic good one mana play that they are happy to bounce
with Nurturing Pixie or Sunpearl Kirin, and the opponent is now going to have a lot more cards
to work with to answer those threats that the deck has left over.

For Esper and Dimir builds, losing This Town Ain’t Big Enough prevents the very efficient
tempo game plan of bouncing not only your permanent but an opponent’s as well, or double
bouncing your permanents for double the value.

This ban also prevents the loop with Stormchaser’s Talent, of leveling up the talent to level 2 to
return This Town Ain’t Big Enough, and then using the instant to bounce the talent to reset it and
rinse and repeat.

Verdict: Bounce decks are hit hard, but as long as the bounce creatures remain, the deck has a
chance.

Without Hopeless Nightmare, the opponents of bounce players will have so many more cards
and so much more life to work with, making it easier to compete against the deck. And without
the late game powerhouse of This Town Ain’t Big Enough, the decks would need to find a
different grind engine.

This is possible, and most of the other core cards will still be around after rotation, so I wouldn’t
sell off my copies of Nurturing Pixie just yet.

Biggest Winners

So where do we start this afternoon as we try to find the best decks for this new Standard
environment? There are a few decks that were untouched by this wave of bans.

Dimir Midrange

Dimir was once a feared archetype in the format, and with a slower format, Kaito, Bane of
Nightmares and friends could easily rise up to become the best deck in town.

Jeskai Control

Jeskai Control was a decent option before the bannings, and with a slower format the deck
should be able to thrive even more.

Golgari Roots

Golgari Roots performed great at the Pro Tour, and without Azorius Omniscience in the format it
could easily rise up to become the premiere combo deck in the format. This is definitely one to
keep an eye on.

Jeskai Oculus

While this deck has fallen out of favor, with so many top players taking hits it could be time for
it to come back as a serious player in the format.

Other

Other than that, I would keep an eye on various Midrange decks. Perhaps now they have a
chance to reemerge into a slower and less grindy format, giving Unholy Annex and friends a
window to make a mark.

Alchemy

Cori-Steel Cutter is Suspended

Izzet Prowess

Izzet Prowess had emerged as the most dominant deck in the format after nerfs a couple of
months ago to Chorus cards. The suspension of Cori-Steel Cutter will force the deck to change,
most likely to a Vivi focused build, but should give other decks some breathing room.

I was slightly disappointed that Waystone’s Guidance wasn’t hit with a nerf, because if Izzet
Prowess falls off, Mardu/Boros mobilize will rise to take its place. This means that we are
probably still looking at main deck copies of Authority of the Consulsand enchantment removal
for the foreseeable future.

At the very least there is less pressure on decks to have answers with Cori-Steel Cutter gone,
hopefully making for a more enjoyable format.

Putting it all Together

These changes to Standard are a breath of fresh air. Coupled with the upcoming rotation in early
August, Standard should be an interesting format to explore for the next couple of months.

I do think that these issues are indicative of the three year Standard format that Wizards have
created. Five of the Seven banned cards would have rotated in August if we were still on a two year schedule. That is part of why none of them are being touched in Alchemy, because they will all be leaving the format naturally in a month’s time.

This problem is likely to continue to reoccur as we continue with three year Standard, as the
mana bases remain consistent and card options remain varied and powerful. Maybe I’m wrong,
but I wouldn’t be surprised if every year they were banning a handful of cards that would have
rotated on the original two year schedule to try to keep the format fresh and fun.

For me, the change to rotation crushed my interest in Standard as a format. This big swipe at the
top decks, and banning of seven cards has given me some hope for the format moving forward,
and I think that Wizards is slowly learning how to build and maintain a bigger Standard format.

So, let’s enjoy the next two months of Standard, both post-ban and then post-rotation, and see if
the fun and innovation can continue past that.

I also am excited to dive into some matches of Alchemy and see how the format adapts to a post
Cori-Steel Cutter world.

I hope this article provided an interesting discussion on Standard and Alchemy and the impacts
of the bans. Now is the time to dust off some old favorites or brew something new!