Wizards of the Coast just rolled out one of the bigger Magic: The Gathering Banned & Restricted updates in quite some time. The pressure has been felt by players across multiple formats lately, with issues in Standard, Pioneer, and even Pauper.
For competitive players, these bans likely aren’t going to be a huge shock. Standard has long been plagued by the terror that is Final Fantasy 9’s Vivi Ornither, a massive powerhouse that became an instant staple since its release back in June 2025. Meanwhile, Screaming Nemesis, Heartfire Hero, and the terror that is Nadu, Winged Wisdom, are also on the chopping block.
Because of the rather turbulent nature that recent sets have brought to Magic, Wizards of the Coast is upping the frequency of these Banned & Restricted Announcements. The next scheduled announcement is on February 9, 2026, though, Wizards can always step in if there’s an immediate issue that needs to be addressed.
With a total of 16 cards getting banned, some preemptively before their release onto Arena, let’s take a look at all the cards getting this axe this time around.
Magic: The Gathering Standard Bans
- Vivi Ornitier is banned.
- Screaming Nemesis is banned.
- Proft’s Eidetic Memory is banned.
Looks, it’s no surprise that Standard has been dominated by one deck, the Izzet Cauldron, making it the archenemy of the format. Bringing together Proft’s Eidetic Memory, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, and Vivi together in one deck, Izzet Cauldron took synergies to a new level with all the +1/+1 counters and triggers going on.
The combo between Agatha’s Soul Cauldron and Vivi gave all your creatures access to Vivi’s zero mana ability, and though you can only use it once per turn, it really didn’t matter when you have access to multiple activations. Since Vivi seems to be one of those creatures that only gets stronger over time, it was deemed too powerful to remain in Standard. The Universe’s Beyond Final Fantasy set was incredibly successful, making Vivi’s banning a bit of a surprise.
There’s also the problem of Proft’s Eidetic Memory, a card that Wizard’s compares to another two mana enchantment, Up the Beanstalk. Given the amount of card draw in the game right now with Winternight Stories and Quantum Riddler, the enchantment was well-positioned to keep blue-red decks on top even with Vivi getting banned.
Easily the strongest card in Mono-Red decks, Screaming Nemesis is a nightmare on the battlefield. Blocking feels bad as it’ll just pick off the next biggest threat, and taking three damage every turn will quickly whittle your life away. Not to mention, it’ll lock your opponent from gaining life, negating one of the best ways to combat red decks.
Magic: The Gathering Pioneer Bans
- Heartfire Hero is banned.
Overall, Pioneer is looking pretty good! Except for one pesky Mouse from Bloomburrow. Heartfire Hero is getting removed from the format due to the prominence of Mono-Red Aggro decks. The highly aggressive deck has the best win-rate by a long shot, both in Best-of-One and Best-of-Three.
The deck is resilient enough with all sorts of efficient creatures and spells that losing the little Mouse isn’t going to ruin the deck, but will help let the format breathe a bit.
Magic: The Gathering Legacy Bans
- Entomb is banned.
- Nadu, Winged Wisdom is banned.
A ban that has been danced around for years, one of the key pieces of the Reanimator deck, Entomb, is out of the format for the foreseeable future. Dimir Reanimator has been cheating creatures into play for years, with a rather definitive version of the deck, using Entomb to put cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Archon of Cruelty, and Murktide Regent into the graveyard at instant speed, and then using Reanimate to bring out these massive creatures way ahead of their curve.
Reanimator isn’t dead in Legacy; there are other viable decks that will let you cheat huge creatures into play, but banning Entomb certainly takes the wind out of the deck’s sails.
Another ban that has been on the table for a while was Nadu, Winged Wisdom. This Modern Horizons 3 monster has been a bit of a problem for a while, with decks making the most of Nadu’s ability, through cards like Nomads en-Kor and Scythecat Cub to generate tons of power. Decks utilizing Nadu have proven themselves to be pretty resilient to most disruption, leading to Nadu getting banned.
Magic: The Gathering Pauper Bans
- High Tide is banned.
It’s only been around eight months since High Tide was unbanned in Pauper, but it’s about high time it gets back on the list. The main problem is that a strangely powerful synergy with cards that have the Splice into Arcane, like Psychic Puppetry, to get extra utility from your spells. For one blue mana you can reveal Psychic Puppetry to add its effect of tapping or untapping a permanent to any of your arcane spells.
Use this to untap your High Tide enhanced Islands, and you’ll practically never run out of mana. Since the deck is very efficient, not fun to play against, and takes a long time to complete, High Tide is out of the format again.
Magic: The Gathering Arena Historic Bans
- Force of Negation is pre-banned.
- Frantic Search is pre-banned.
- Mystical Tutor is pre-banned.
- Entomb is pre-banned.
- Dark Depths is pre-banned.
These five cards aren’t quite out on Magic: The Gathering Arena, but are getting a pre-banning to get ahead of plenty of potential issues. Entomb is a familiar face here, being banned for many of the same reasons it got kicked out of Legacy.
Meanwhile, Force of Negation is out because free counterspells are a no-go on Arena. Frantic Search is a bit of a combo-enabler, while Mystical Tutor can get any instant or sorcery, making it an exceptionally powerful combo piece as well. And Dark Depths lets players get an instant unstoppable 20/20 with Marit Lage, so it’s a no-go too.
Magic: The Gathering Arena Brawl Bans
- Strip Mine is banned.
- Mana Drain is banned.
- Chrome Mox is banned
- Ancient Tomb is banned.
There’s a bit of a trend with these Brawl bans; all the cards either deal with mana in one way or another. The overall consensus on these cards, however, is that Brawl is a more casual format for Arena, and all of these cards are much more competitive in nature.
Brawl is going to be watched a bit closer by Wizards, especially since a huge influx of new and powerful spells from Anthologies, bonus sheets, and Special Guest cards over the past year or so. WotC didn’t provide much detail on how they will be monitoring the format, but we’re sure to see more soon.