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Thassa’s Oracle Art by Jesper Ejsing

May 19, 2021 Banned and Restricted Announcement: Thassa’s Oracle Banned

Once again, our predictions came to pass, but I don’t think this was particularly surprising to anyone. Wizards of the Coast has released their Banned and Restricted Announcement today, and as expected, half of the obscenely powerful Tainted Pact combo has been banned. The deck had extremely high representation at the last MPL/Rivals League weekend and was still the best performing deck despite everyone knowing it was the deck to beat. As a result of that and likely some consideration to how poorly the combo plays out on Arena due to the rope, this ban makes sense. Even beyond Tainted Pact, Thassa's Oracle is a very powerful payoff that is likely to cause problems with other decks in the future as more cards are added. It is very difficult to interact with in any way if Oracle resolves, because once the trigger is on the stack, its resolution will cause a player with zero cards in their deck to win the game even if the Oracle is removed in response.

On Arena, this will be effective from tomorrow, May 20th, so get crafting before the Arena client update comes out soon! Remember that anything banned will incur a wildcard refund, so you’ll get a wildcard back for any copies of Thassa's Oracle you may have in your collection.

Thassa's Oracle was the only card to be banned this time around, with no changes to any other format. It’s also interesting to note that Wizards has decided to ban Thassa's Oracle outright rather than suspending it first as they typically have done with the Historic Format. Please scroll down for the official announcement transcript with explanations provided by Ian Duke from Wizards of the Coast.

FormatCard NameChanges
HistoricThassa's OracleBanned

Current Historic Banned Card List

Card NameSuspension DateBan Date
Nexus of FateJuly 13, 2020
Oko, Thief of CrownsDecember 10, 2019March 9, 2020
Once Upon a TimeDecember 10, 2019March 9, 2020
Veil of SummerDecember 10, 2019March 9, 2020
Fires of InventionJune 1, 2020July 13, 2020
Agent of TreacheryJune 1, 2020July 13, 2020
Winota, Joiner of ForcesJune 8, 2020July 13, 2020
Field of the DeadAugust 24, 2020
Teferi, Time RavelerAugust 3, 2020October 12, 2020
Wilderness ReclamationAugust 3, 2020October 12, 2020
Uro, Titan of Nature's WrathSeptember 28, 2020February 15, 2021
Omnath, Locus of CreationOctober 12, 2020February 15, 2021
Thassa's OracleMay 19, 2021

Announcement Date: May 19, 2021

Historic:

Thassa’s Oracle is banned.

MTG Arena effective date: May 20, 2021


While Thassa’s Oracle is a powerful card that has created combo decks across multiple formats, until recently, it wasn’t a force to be reckoned with in Historic. However, with the recent printing of Tainted Pact and the fine-tuning of that archetype, we’ve seen the rise of the two-card combo in Historic to the point that half the field for the past League Weekend utilized the combo.

Due to the power of the two-card combination, and because we expect that Thassa’s Oracle is likely to cause problems down the road as Historic continues to add new cards, Thassa’s Oracle is banned in Historic.

The change will go into effect tomorrow, May 20, 2021.

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Paul
Paul

Dude from Vermont who likes to play Magic and Escape from Tarkov. Musician, writer, and gamer. Submit feedback or corrections to @Paul on the Discord.

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