Wizards Confirm Next Banned and Restricted Announcement to be Made July 13th

Wizards of the Coast has just confirmed that the next Magic: The Gathering banned and restricted announcement will be made on July 13th, and will include changes to the Historic, Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper formats. For now, there will be no changes to Standard or Brawl – Historic is the only Arena format affected.

Announcement is now up! Click here to see what’s changed.

Speculating on some possible bans/suspensions:

• Is this finally the end of Nexus of Fate in Historic? One of the decks branded the least fun to play against on Arena by many players, which cheats on mana with Wilderness Reclamation into a combo finish that’s absurdly hard to counter, where it takes infinite turns, could soon be leaving us! Nexus is already banned in best-of-one, but most tournaments tend to be best-of-three, and the Historic Mythic Invitational is coming up in August. Nexus has been the centrepiece of one of the best Historic decks ever since the format began, so this might be a welcome change that reduces format staleness. Note that cards are generally suspended in Historic before being banned, unlike Magic’s other formats.
• Dimir Inverter has been responsible for less interest in Pioneer, with many believing the combo deck is too strong and has an unfun and overly consistent play style.
• Arcum’s Astrolabe has led to greater homogenisation of decks in Modern, mana bases that are far too consistent and can cast tough spells like Archmage's Charm and Cryptic Command far too easily, and has enabled Snow decks to become one of the best strategies, alongside buffing the power level of Urza and other artifact decks. Overall, it’s a cheap artifact that replaces itself in terms of cards and provides a ton of value at a ridiculously low investment.

Cards currently suspended in Historic

We could see any of the cards above moved onto the banned list, un-suspended, or merely left unchanged to be sorted out at a future time. If cards move from suspension to ban, players will receive wildcard refunds for them.

Discussion

• Do you think Historic needs any cards suspended?
• If so, which particular cards?
• Should any of the currently suspended cards be moved onto the banlist permanently?
• What potential bans could improve the health of the other formats mentioned, if you happen to play those?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!