Since the announcement of the Pauper Format Panel last week from Wizards of the Coast, players had anticipated a new Banned and Restricted announcement for the much loved format. Well, the new panel got to quick work to drum up a brand new B&R for Pauper, hot off the presses! Let’s take a look at what got hit!
Atog
Atog
Sacrifice an artifact: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
is BANNED
Bonder’s Ornament
Bonder’s Ornament
{T}: Add one mana of any color.
{4}, {T}: Each player who controls a permanent named Bonder's Ornament draws a card.
is BANNED
Prophetic Prism
Prophetic Prism
When this artifact enters, draw a card.
{1}, {T}: Add one mana of any color.
is BANNED
There are some spicy hits here, so let’s talk about them.
Atog
First up, we have
Atog
Atog
Sacrifice an artifact: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
getting banned. Atog is one of the most beloved cards in Magic‘s history, and was a powerhouse in the Affinity decks. Reason behind this banning, was that Affinity was a major problem deck in the format from the data and play patterns. Atog was one of the main ways that the deck won the game, allowing for a free sacrifice of the many artifacts. Couple this with
Disciple of the Vault
Disciple of the Vault
Whenever an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may have target opponent lose 1 life.
, and you have a recipe for a quick and unfun game.
While the PFP thought about hitting Disciple instead, the free sacrifices was the issue, and Disciple would be replaced with more cards like
Fling
Fling
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
Fling deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to any target.
to close the game out.
Bonder’s Ornament and Prophetic Prism
Next up,
Bonder’s Ornament
Bonder’s Ornament
{T}: Add one mana of any color.
{4}, {T}: Each player who controls a permanent named Bonder's Ornament draws a card.
and
Prophetic Prism
Prophetic Prism
When this artifact enters, draw a card.
{1}, {T}: Add one mana of any color.
are both banned. Both of these cards were major players in Tron, which with the Atog ban, could have taken over the new problem deck. Why are these two cards banned? Well, Tron was able to do too much. Yes they’re playing 12 colorless lands in the Tron lands themselves, but at the same time, they are going still able to play the best spells. But it doesn’t stop there.
While there’s plenty of other cards that can make any color of mana (
Manalith
Manalith
{T}: Add one mana of any color.
etc), the problem with these two cards is that they replace themselves. Prism draws and card when it enters, and Bonder’s can generate an endless amount of cards over the course of the game, as Tron has access to so much mana. Prism was also a card that showed up in Affinity as well, so this is a double whammy for that card as well.
Moving Forward
The team has stated here that this is only the first set of actions that they’ll possibly take. They don’t want to do any preemptive bannings and guess at what the metagame would look like. Rather, they’ll be closely monitoring the format throughout the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty preview season to see how things settle. If they decide to make any changes, it will most likely come in March, which gives the format time to adjust and to see if Kamigawa has any major impact on the format as well.
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This is very cool, and hopefully the Pauper format will be in a much healthier state than is was with these changes. What are your thoughts? Is there anything else you’d want to see banned or looked at? If so, let us know in the comments, but also feel free to reach out to the PFP members with suggestions!