Top Five MTG Cards that are Most Likely to be Unbanned

Today, Wizards of the Coast sent out a ban announcement that ultimately resulted in nothing getting banned in any format. This comes a little over two months after Preordain Preordain Scry 2, then draw a card. (To scry 2, look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.) was unbanned in Modern and Mind’s Desire Mind’s Desire Shuffle your library. Then exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn.) was unbanned in Legacy. This ban announcement in particular came as a big surprise to a lot of players. Part of the reason why had to do with the fact that neither The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. nor anything from Rakdos Scam in Modern were touched. On top of that, though, unbanning cards doesn’t happen super often.

Wizards of the Coast in their announcement of unbanning Preordain made it clear that they wanted to reduce the overall size of the banlist when appropriate. Preordain was unbanned, in part, to help improve blue decks like Izzet Murktide that were starting to fall out of favor, especially with the dominance of Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. . Secondly, while Preordain added a lot of extra consistency to Izzet combo decks like Storm and Splinter Twin Splinter Twin Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "{T}: Create a token that's a copy of this creature, except it has haste. Exile that token at the beginning of the next end step." combo, those decks have since seen bannings, making the unbanning of Preordain more reasonable.

It is interesting to see, though, that multiple of the unbannings in recent years, especially in Modern, weren’t outrageously impactful. For example, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf were unbanned in Modern back in 2018. Frankly, neither of those cards have completely stood the test of time. Are there other cards that could be unbanned that wouldn’t be too impactful? Today, we’re going to look at what cards we believe have the highest chance of coming off of the banlist across multiple Constructed formats. Here are the top five MTG cards that are most likely to be unbanned.

#5 Earthcraft

Earthcraft is an interesting combo piece that has been banned in Legacy since way back in 2003. It was actually banned at the same time as Entomb Entomb Search your library for a card, put that card into your graveyard, then shuffle. , which would later be unbanned and eventually help solidify Reanimator’s place in the Legacy metagame. The overall power level of cards in Legacy is extremely high, and elite reactive elements like Force of Will Force of Will You may pay 1 life and exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell. help protect players from fast combo decks.

In this sense, despite Earthcraft being a solid combo piece with cards like Squirrel Nest, the card doesn’t seem oppressively powerful when compared to other combo decks, like Dark Depths decks that utilize Crop Rotation. Earthcraft only works with basic Lands, so there’s no harm in using it to untap Gaea’s Cradle in decks like Elves, either.

Given how strong blue decks with Brainstorm Brainstorm Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order. are in the format, introducing a likely outdated, green-based combo into the format doesn’t seem to be very problematic. With the likes of Mind’s Desire having recently been unbanned, it also seems perfectly reasonable that Wizards of the Coast will continue to try to cut down on cards that have been on the banlist for decades.

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#4 Splinter Twin

Splinter Twin is another combo card, this time banned in the Modern format. Before Splinter Twin was ultimately banned, it had a pretty big stranglehold on the format. The goal of the deck was to use either Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite alongside Splinter Twin to generate infinite copies of the Enchanted Creature. There were a couple factors that made this combo so strong at the time.

First, Exarch in particular having four toughness made it a bit tough for many decks to kill. Second, the ability of Exarch or Pestermite to tap down the opponent’s Land on their end step forced the opponent to constantly leave up extra mana and play scared. This allowed Splinter Twin players to play a longer game, which it was fully capable of doing. Using Snapcaster Mage Snapcaster Mage Flash
When this creature enters, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) in conjunction with Lightning Bolt Lightning Bolt Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target. and some Counterspells was a fine way to win the game.

The reality is that, in today’s game with cards like Solitude Solitude Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand. and Force of Negation Force of Negation If it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. available, executing this four-mana combo at Sorcery speed seems much more difficult. Similarly, the backup plan of beating down with Flash Creatures is much less likely to work. While unbanning Splinter Twin soon after Preordain would be a bit odd, it wouldn’t surprise me if Splinter Twin is eventually freed in the coming years.

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#3 Walking Ballista

Walking Ballista was banned at the same time as Inverter of Truth, Kethis, the Hidden Hand and Underworld Breach Underworld Breach Each nonland card in your graveyard has escape. The escape cost is equal to the card's mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast cards from your graveyard for their escape cost.)
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this enchantment. in Pioneer. This came soon after Dimir Inverter absolutely crushed the set of Regional Pioneer Players Tours back in 2020. The thing is, the white-based Devotion decks featuring Heliod, Sun-Crowned that could give Ballista Lifelink and combo kill the opponent weren’t a huge representation of the metagame. Rather, it seemed like Wizards of the Coast was trying to make Pioneer significantly less combo heavy.

Since then, combo decks like Lotus Field combo and Rona, Herald of Invasion Rona, Herald of Invasion Whenever you cast a legendary spell, untap Rona.
{T}: Draw a card, then discard a card.
{5}{B/P}: Transform Rona. Activate only as a sorcery. ({B/P} can be paid with either {B} or 2 life.) combo have emerged as top tier archetypes. White Devotion featuring Ballista doesn’t seem significantly better than either of these combo decks. Ballista would likely see play in the sideboard of decks with Karn, the Great Creator as well, but shouldn’t alter anything drastically. Given that Heliod sees basically no competitive Pioneer play, it seems reasonable for Ballista to be unbanned at some point in hopes of diversifying the metagame.

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#2 Punishing Fire

Punishing Fire was largely banned because of how powerful it was alongside Grove of the Burnwillows. For three mana, you could kill a small Creature and return Punishing Fire to your hand. Eventually, you could recur Punishing Fire enough times to simply burn the opponent out. The problem is that this process is unbelievably slow. On a similar note, Punishing Fire costs two mana to deal two damage, plus another mana to recur it.

Modern is significantly more fast-paced than it was before Punishing fire was banned. While Punishing Fire did weaken small Creature decks a fair bit, this doesn’t seem to compare to how much Fury, Orcish Bowmasters Orcish Bowmasters Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1. and Wrenn and Six Wrenn and Six +1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
−1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.
−7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace." (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.) have done the same. Unbanning this card does sort of add fuel to the fire, but it simply seems too slow to compete in the current state of the format.

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#1 Green Sun’s Zenith

Green Sun’s Zenith is at the top of this list for a reason. Wizards of the Coast when unbanning Preordain mentioned that unbans could also be used to try to improve the health of the format in addition to chopping down on the lengthy banlist. Green Sun’s Zenith in Modern feels like one of the few cards that could actually accomplish this feat. As stated above with Punishing Fire, small Creature decks, such as those that utilize Aether Vial Aether Vial At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a charge counter on this artifact.
{T}: You may put a creature card with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this artifact from your hand onto the battlefield. , have been relatively nonexistent in Modern. The existence of Fury and Orcish Bowmaster is a big reason why.

Green Sun’s Zenith is indeed a versatile card, allowing you to find Dryad Arbor on turn one or a win condition later in the game. This is the type of card, though, that can potentially help elevate Creature-based toolbox decks or Elf typal decks that see little to no play at the moment. Given how many ways there are to keep cheap Creatures in check, the card seems very reasonable on power level in the format too.

The only concern is possibly making Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Protection from Humans
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
{B}{B}, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) combo much stronger, but the ability for Green Sun’s Zenith to only tutor for green Creatures does help a bit in that regard. Overall, these five cards seem relatively safe to unban, and the risks associated with unbanning them appear low. Unbannings may not happen super frequently, but the surprise unbannings of Preordain and Mind’s Desire showcased that they may be more likely moving forward. Only time will tell if some of these cards see the light of day again.

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