EXPLANATION OF CHANGES
There’s a lot to digest from the above announcement, so let’s take each piece one by one.
First, we announced changes to the list a week earlier than normal. When we last announced the date for this Banned and Restricted update, we posted it as January 16, 2017. However, we’ve been listening closely to community feedback, specifically on the Standard format, and while many players have found fun and inventive ways to enjoy the format, many others have pinpointed a few cards that hold the game back from being as fun as it can be. Furthermore, our data shows that White-Blue Flash unbalanced the format, stifling some of the creativity we believe can exist. Given all of that, we decided to make changes for the health of the format.
With the full set of Aether Revolt just revealed last Friday, we knew that the new cards would be evaluated in light of the current format, and players would spend a week brewing, creating decklists, and dreaming of what to do next. So, in the interest of giving players the time and context to evaluate Aether Revolt accurately, we moved the date up by a week.
Of note: The effective date remains January 20, the day Aether Revolt releases. Having it at any other time would create an odd, in-between format where Aether Revolt wasn’t yet legal, but three cards were banned. Since that would lead to widespread confusion and a strange, one-week metagame, the paper effective date was left as is.
On Magic Online, the change will be implemented on January 11, at which time we will be rotating the Standard League earlier than originally announced. Look for more information on MTGO.com today.
Second, we banned three cards in Standard—Smuggler’s Copter; Emrakul, the Promised End; and Reflector Mage—to improve and diversify the Standard environment. These changes were driven by play data that demonstrated an imbalance in Standard as well as anecdotal evidence that players found these specific cards to limit their ability to stay competitive with creative, fun, diverse decks. Let’s look at these card by card.
Emrakul, the Promised End—Created to be scarily powerful, Emrakul, the Promised End delivered on that promise too well. Emrakul faced too little resistance and ended games too easily. She was the world-ending, all-powerful monster she was in the story, which was too much for Standard.
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