Banned Cards List

Change history

The committee publishes a format announcement every two months, on the first Monday of even months.

1. Update 5 October 2026 by Comité PDC

   Banned

   Sailors' Bane Speedball, New Warrior Crackling Drake Campfire

   Made legal

   Bastion Protector * (experimental)

   * Experimental change.

   Details

   Sailors' Bane comes down early, is very hard to deal with, shrugs off graveyard hate and can always be recast for 2 mana. The gameplay it creates is very linear and makes games less interesting in terms of decision-making. For all these reasons, Sailors' Bane is now banned.

   Speedball is the second card on this ban list that is very hard to interact with. On top of that, it has access to the Izzet colour pair, which has a very good arsenal to protect itself from the few cards that would trouble it. For these reasons, Speedball, New Warrior is now banned.

   Crackling Drake: one of the few difficulties of Izzet control decks can be closing out games, but not with Crackling Drake. A huge body, card advantage, it makes the most of the Izzet colours and is unaffected by graveyard hate. The various tournaments, few as they are, show the deck's dominance. For all these reasons, Crackling Drake is now banned.

   Campfire slots very easily into every deck and no longer lets aggressive decks apply the pressure they should. The card considerably lengthens games and harms the health of the format. For this reason, Campfire is now banned.

   Bastion Protector: mono-white creatures are not well represented in the format, and we are giving Bastion Protector room to be played, in the same spirit as the Lieutenant creatures (see the previous ban list of 3 August 2026). For this reason, and on an experimental basis, Bastion Protector is now legal.

2. Update 9 September 2026 by Ivinos

   Banned

   Price of Progress

   Details

   Zeta set: the release of this new set changes the rarity of some cards. The committee naturally aligns with the Pauper ruling and therefore takes the new rarities into account.

   Price of Progress is banned outright. It deals far too much damage for two mana, and it reinforces an already strong red while penalising three-colour-and-up builds that are already slow. Note that the Pauper Format Panel made the same call: the formats differ, granted, but the logic remains similar.

   No other card is banned for now, so as to leave plenty of freedom with these new toys. Some are of course still being watched, Raffine to name but one, and the committee will not hesitate to ban others if needed.

3. Update 3 August 2026 by Na-O-H

   Banned

   Treasure Cruise

   Made legal

   Loyal Drake * (experimental) Loyal Guardian * (experimental) Loyal Subordinate * (experimental) Loyal Unicorn * (experimental)

   * Experimental change.

   Details

   Treasure Cruise needs no introduction. Banned in nearly every format, an auto-include in nearly every blue deck, it shows a real power-level gap with every other card in the format and often swings the game, especially in the control mirror. For all these reasons, Treasure Cruise is now banned.

   Lieutenant mechanic: it was first considered problematic because of how it turns on. We are nonetheless giving all of these cards a chance to exist (except Loyal Apprentice), for several reasons: mono-colored decks — mono-white in particular — will be easier to field; and these decks were never really tested, since they were banned so quickly, so we lacked the data for a clear opinion — their ban was collateral damage from banning Loyal Apprentice, whose power level is very different. If these changes prove harmful to the format we will not hesitate to reverse them; but for all these reasons, Loyal Drake, Loyal Guardian, Loyal Subordinate and Loyal Unicorn are now legal.

4. Initial ban list 12 December 2025 by LofiBlue

   Banned

   Aarakocra Sneak Avenging Hunter Goliath Paladin Stirring Bard Underdark Explorer Vicious Battlerager Trailblazer's Torch Fall from Favor Imprisoned in the Moon Oubliette Bastion Protector Loyal Apprentice Loyal Drake Loyal Guardian Loyal Subordinate Loyal Unicorn Bloodboil Sorcerer Feywild Caretaker Passageway Seer Rilsa Rael, Kingpin

   Details

   Framing the format. After running this “new” format wide open for a while, we're back with the first round of changes, drawn from the first two tournaments, our own games and feedback from regular players.

   “Take The Initiative” mechanic: like the Monarch, the Initiative is a status that passes from player to player. It acts as a pay-off for many decks, makes winning far easier when the status isn't traded away (and trading it is hard), and cannot be interacted with. We have therefore decided not to include this mechanic in the format.

   “Become the Monarch” mechanic: close to Take The Initiative, but it feels less oppressive. The card advantage it grants is quickly offset by the format's low overall power level. We're keeping an eye on it, as it could end up favoring some colors too much.

   Command Zone: after discussion, we chose not to restrict it. Creatures — legendary or not — printed at least once at uncommon are eligible as commanders, and so are Vehicles and Spacecraft. We are nonetheless making targeted bans to keep it as balanced as possible.

   Ban details. The “Take The Initiative” cards are banned both in the deck and as commanders. On the Monarch side, Fall from Favor is banned: only blue has a mana-value-3 card to seize the monarchy, which shuts down a way of taking it back far too quickly. Imprisoned in the Moon and Oubliette are banned because they wipe out the use of the Command Zone (even preventing some game mechanics outright) and stay nearly unmanageable for several colors.

   Command Zone — targeted bans. The Lieutenant mechanic and self-sufficient commanders (Bastion Protector, Loyal Apprentice, Loyal Drake, Loyal Guardian, Loyal Subordinate, Loyal Unicorn) are banned, along with the “Take The Initiative” commanders (Bloodboil Sorcerer, Feywild Caretaker, Passageway Seer, Rilsa Rael, Kingpin).

   Cards on our watch list. In the Command Zone: Baleful Strix (how it behaves once TTI is gone), Wilson, Refined Grizzly and Esior, Wardwing Familiar (their ability to protect themselves), plus commanders that could abuse the tax. In the deck: Treasure Cruise, Campfire and Cranial Plating.