In a surprise announcement this morning, Wizards of the Coast banned Inverter of Truth, Kethis, the Hidden Hand, Walking Ballista, and Underworld Breach from Magic: the Gathering’s Pioneer format. Each of those cards was a key components to one of the format’s four most popular combo decks: Dimir Inverter, Kethis Combo, Mono-White Devotion, and Lotus Breach.
Don’t miss today’s other bannings in Standard, Historic, and Brawl.
These bans came three weeks after Wizards decided against removing any cards from Pioneer and instead unbanned Oath of Nissa. That “wasn’t intended to be a major update to the format or an alternative to other changes,” Wizards said, “but rather what we viewed as a relatively safe unban in the context of a metagame that was looking healthy by many metrics.”
However, a lot of “community discussion followed that update, prompting us to take a further look at the need for change in Pioneer.”
A Balanced Format Isn’t Always a Fun Format
The result of a second look at the format led Wizards to the conclusion that, while Pioneer had a balanced metagame, it was dominated by combo decks that were having a negative impact on players enjoyment of the format.
“Although we continue to see many different decks have success in Pioneer, and no decks with problematic win rates against the field, we do see that combo decks as a group make up a large portion of the competitive metagame,” Wizards said. “While win rate data may not point to change being needed, a different, more important set of data does: player participation.”
It turns out that, in spite of a balanced metagame, the number of people playing Pioneer had been dropping. “We’ve heard feedback that the frequency at which one finds themselves facing an opposing combo deck restricts deck-building options and can make play experiences unenjoyable,” they continued, and “we’ve also seen a decline in Pioneer play rates on Magic Online throughout the course of the year.”
Wizards concluded that “[i]t’s clear that many players who have been, or could be, interested in Pioneer are ready for a change. Ultimately, how much fun players are having with the environment is the most important driving force behind B&R updates, and so we’re choosing to ban four cards to shake things up and push the competitive metagame away from combo decks.”
Creating a New Metagame
To that end, Wizards decided to ban a key card from each of the most popular combo decks: Inverter of Truth from Dimir Inverter, Kethis, the Hidden Hand from Kethis Combo, Walking Ballista from Mono-White Devotion, and Underworld Breach from Lotus Breach.
“Our intent is to dramatically reduce instances where players risk losing to a combo kill when tapping out in the early- to mid-game,” Wizards said. “This should open up the field for more traditional midrange and control decks and put less pressure on aggressive decks to also focus on hand disruption and counterspells.”
“We understand that this represents a large change to the Pioneer environment, and, frankly, that’s the intent,” they continued. “We want to ensure that Pioneer can deliver an enjoyable play experience to players who are looking for an accessible, nonrotating format that’s closer to Standard in power level and offers a variety of archetypes and decks to choose from.”
Inverter of Truth
Inverter of Truth was the linchpin (and namesake) of the Dimir Inverter deck that debuted at Players Tour Series 1. The deck’s goal was to combine and Inverter of Truth with a relatively empty graveyard in order to dramatically reduce the size of their library. It would then win the game by playing either a Thassa’s Oracle or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries in the next turn or two.
While Inverter of Truth was the headline card out of the Dimir Inverter deck, many players believe that Dig Through Time was the deck’s most important enabler. Despite being banned in Modern and Legacy, as well as restricted in Vintage, Dig Through Time will live to see another day in Pioneer.
Pioneer Dimir Inverter
| Creatures (9) 2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy 3 Thassa’s Oracle 4 Inverter of Truth Planeswalkers (3) 3 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries Spells (24) 1 Cling to Dust 4 Fatal Push 4 Opt 4 Thoughtseize 2 Censor 2 Eliminate 1 Thought Erasure 2 Hero’s Downfall 4 Dig Through Time | Lands (24) 2 Choked Estuary 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Fabled Passage 2 Fetid Pools 6 Island 2 Swamp 4 Watery Grave Sideboard (15) 1 Collective Brutality 1 Damping Sphere 2 Negate 2 Cry of the Carnarium 3 Mystical Dispute 2 Narset, Parter of Veils 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 1 Languish 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Muse 1 The Scarab God |
Kethis, the Hidden Hand
Kethis, the Hidden Hand was the namesake card of the up-and-coming Kethis Combo deck, which had been ported from Standard to Pioneer after the legendary cards from Dominaria rotated last fall.
The deck’s main goal was to mill itself with Diligent Excavator and Emry, Lurker of the Loch in order to fill its graveyard with legendary permanents. It would then use Kethis, the Hidden Hand to repeatedly cast cheap legends like Mox Amber from its graveyard and switch the target of the Diligent Excavator triggers to its opponent in order to mill them out and win the game.
Pioneer Kethis Combo
| Creatures (24) 3 Gilded Goose 4 Hope of Ghirapur 4 Diligent Excavator 3 Lazav, the Multifarious 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch 4 Kethis, the Hidden Hand 2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den Planeswalkers (6) 4 Teferi, Time Raveler 1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries 1 Tamiyo, Collector of Tales Artifacts (5) 4 Mox Amber 1 Terrarion Enchantments (4) 4 Oath of Nissa | Lands (21) 4 Blooming Marsh 4 Botanical Sanctum 1 Godless Shrine 4 Hallowed Fountain 4 Mana Confluence 2 Temple Garden 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Watery Grave Sideboard (15) 3 Fatal Push 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 3 Thoughtseize 1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper 1 Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath 2 Vraska, Golgari Queen 2 Urza’s Ruinous Blast 1 Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering |
Walking Ballista
Mono-White Devotion, while not a pure combo deck, included the two-card infinite combo of Walking Ballista plus Heliod, Sun-Crowned. Heliod would give the Walking Ballista lifelink with its activated ability, the Ballista would do one damage to the opponent and get another +1/+1 counter thanks to Heliod’s static ability, and then the Ballista would do one more damage and get one more counter, and on and on.
Pioneer Mono-White Devotion
| Creatures (24) 4 Walking Ballista 4 Thraben Inspector 2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit 2 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun 4 Knight of the White Orchid 4 Heliod, Sun-Crowned 4 Arcanist’s Owl Planeswalkers (3) 3 Gideon of the Trials Enchantments (8) 2 Baffling End 2 Stasis Snare 3 Gideon’s Intervention 1 Elspeth Conquers Death | Lands (25) 1 Castle Ardenvale 4 Idyllic Grange 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 16 Plains Sideboard (15) 2 Isolate 2 Baffling End 4 Damping Sphere 3 Rest in Peace 1 Gideon of the Trials 1 Stasis Snare 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar |
Underworld Breach
Like Dimir Inverter, the Lotus Breach deck broke out at Players Tour Series 1. It’s goal was to ramp to three lands as quickly as possible and then abuse Lotus Field with multiple untap effects like Hidden Strings and Pore Over the Pages. It would then use Underworld Breach to combo off and combine multiple untaps in one turn to draw tons of cards and eventually cast a lethal Expansion // Explosion.
Pioneer Lotus Breach
| Creatures (12) 4 Arboreal Grazer 4 Fae of Wishes 4 Vizier of Tumbling Sands Spells (20) 1 Blink of an Eye 4 Hidden Strings 1 Shimmer of Possibility 4 Strategic Planning 4 Sylvan Scrying 1 Drawn from Dreams 4 Pore Over the Pages 1 Expansion // Explosion Enchantments (3) 3 Underworld Breach | Lands (25) 2 Blast Zone 4 Botanical Sanctum 1 Breeding Pool 1 Forest 4 Lotus Field 1 Sheltered Thicket 4 Temple of Mystery 4 Thespian’s Stage 4 Yavimaya Coast Sideboard (15) 1 Tome Scour 1 Blink of an Eye 1 Displacement Wave 2 Ratchet Bomb 1 Underworld Breach 2 Wilt 1 Anger of the Gods 2 Mystical Dispute 1 Necromentia 1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries 1 Thought Distortion 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon |
A Surprise Announcement
For the last few months, Wizards has taken the approach of announcing Banned and Restricted updates a week ahead of time. But Wizards decided not to give any advanced notice for today’s bans.
“Because of the increased focus on digital play environments during this time period, we’re choosing to forgo that advanced notice and roll out these changes as soon as possible,” Wizards said, rather than creating one-week lame duck formats. “This isn’t necessarily indicative of how we’ll announce and implement in the future, and we’re continuing to look at how we balance giving players advance notice versus staying agile with respect to changing metagames.”
While the return to unannounced Banned and Restricted updates was certainly unexpected, especially on the Monday after a major tournament, the surprise was magnified by the large number of cards banned and formats affected. Four cards were banned in Standard, four in Pioneer, one in Brawl, and two were suspended in Historic.