In Magic: the Gathering, cards getting banned has become something commonplace in recent history. Bannings have been used to correct problematic situations in various formats like Modern, Standard or even Historic on Magic Arena. But one thing that’s unique to Historic is the suspension system. We just had a card suspended in Historic in
Brainstorm
Brainstorm
Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
, but what’s the purpose of suspending a card versus just outright banning it?
The History
For those of you who are newer to playing Magic Arena, or who haven’t dived into the Historic format, Wizards of the Coast put a post out almost 2 years ago at this point when they first decided to suspend cards in Historic. The post was made when the Historic Ranked ladder was in its infancy, only being about 1 month old and Historic Anthology 1 had just been released.
At that time, the cards that were suspended were
Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time
If this spell is the first spell you've cast this game, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature or land card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
,
Field of the Dead
Field of the Dead
This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C}.
Whenever this land or another land you control enters, if you control seven or more lands with different names, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
,
Veil of Summer
Veil of Summer
Draw a card if an opponent has cast a blue or black spell this turn. Spells you control can't be countered this turn. You and permanents you control gain hexproof from blue and from black until end of turn. (You and they can't be the targets of blue or black spells or abilities your opponents control.)
, and
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Oko, Thief of Crowns
+2: Create a Food token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
+1: Target artifact or creature loses all abilities and becomes a green Elk creature with base power and toughness 3/3.
−5: Exchange control of target artifact or creature you control and target creature an opponent controls with power 3 or less.
. These cards were suspended because they were looking at the health of the brand new, developing format, and these 4 cards were constraining the diversity, power, and fun of the new format.
What Does Suspension Mean?
Wizards explains in that suspension was the mechanism to be able to make flexible adjustments to the Historic format as it was developing and cards were being added to it on a regular basis. Suspension acts like a ban where the card is not legal in the format while it’s suspended, but Wizards would monitor the meta afterwards for a few months and then come to a determination of whether or not the card could be reintroduced back into the format. If they determined that the card could, then they would reenable the card in the format to be played, and if not then the card would be banned.
Most of the cards that have been suspended have ultimately ended up being banned. There’s a couple that have escaped the suspension list so it is definitely possible. The only 2 cards to have escaped suspension are
Field of the Dead
Field of the Dead
This land enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C}.
Whenever this land or another land you control enters, if you control seven or more lands with different names, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
and
Burning-Tree Emissary
Burning-Tree Emissary
When this creature enters, add {R}{G}.
. Field of the Dead ended up being banned 3 months after being unsuspended, and BTE remains legal in Historic.
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Is It Time for Suspension to Go Away?
The spirit of the suspension system when it was integrated I think made sense. The format was very new, developing, and generally unexplored. Historic really needed to be a success as this was the method that was chosen to tackle cards that rotated out of Standard on Arena and giving those cards value. At that time, the card pool in Historic was relatively small.
At this point in time, almost 2 years later, the Historic format has had probably close to 2500 – 3000 cards added to the format. The format is still a “new” format, but enough time has passed that suspending cards really doesn’t make sense any more. Enough of the format’s meta has developed that using suspension as a crutch does not make sense. While I like the idea of temporarily taking cards out of the format that pose potential issues and seeing if at a later date they can be reintroduced, this can just be done with Banning. It’s functionally the same. The only difference here between banning and suspension on Arena, is Wild Card compensation that Wizards gives to players when a card is banned. From what I can see, that’s the only reason that the suspension system is still in place.
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What are your thoughts on this? Do you like the suspension system, or would you rather just have cards banned if they’re deemed to be problems by Wizrads? Let us know in the comments!