This morning, Wizards of the Coast banned Gush, Gitaxian Probe, and Daze from the Pauper format.
Gush-based Delver decks had gained a stranglehold on the Pauper format over the last year, with Gush becoming a truly dominant card when Foil was downshifted to common in Ultimate Masters late last year. That change in rarity allowed for a Legacy Death’s Shadow-style deck that capitalized on “free” spells—like Foil, Daze, and Snuff Out—to protect a single Delver of Secrets or Gurmag Angler and ride it to victory.
Why Gush, Gitaxian Probe, and Daze Were Banned in Pauper
Wizards considered banning three categories of cards in order to weaken Delver decks in Pauper: recently downshifted cards, the one-mana cantrips, and the “free” Blue spells.
Both Augur of Bolas and Foil were reprinted as common instead of uncommon in the last two years and significantly strengthened Delver decks in Pauper. However, Wizards determined that neither of those cards were too powerful on their own—instead, they were only problematic in combination with Gush.
Wizards also considered banning the one-mana cantrips: Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm. They state that those cards are powerful enough to have been banned in other formats, but they want different formats to “offer different styles of play, and that many Pauper players have come to enjoy efficient card selection as one of the hallmarks of the format.”
The final category, Blue’s “free” spells, is where Wizards felt the real problem lay. Spells like Gush, Gitaxian Probe, and Daze give Delver decks strong mana-efficiency and card advantage early in games, as well as allowing players to still cast spells while all of their mana is tapped and their shields are down. Combined with the fact that these “free” spells only become more broken with the addition of new cards to the format, and Wizards decided to ban Gush, Gitaxian Probe, and Daze.