News - January 28, 2013 DCI Banned & Restricted List Announcement

Announcement Date: January 28, 2013

Effective Date: February 1, 2013

Magic Online Effective Date: February 6, 2013

Modern 

Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song are banned.

Magic Online Pauper 

Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Invigorate are banned.

Standard, Extended, Legacy, Vintage 

No changes

Changes to Magic Online-only formats are now announced monthly in the Magic Online Community Group blog.

For the complete list of all banned and restricted cards by format, click here.

While the rest of the format is quite diverse, the dominance of Jund is making it less so overall. The DCI looked to ban a card. We wanted a card that top players consistently played four copies of in Jund, but ideally was less played in other top Modern decks. That would give the best chance of creating a more balanced metagame. The card that best fits our criteria is Bloodbraid Elf.

Looking at the results of games, turn-three wins are frequent for Storm, contrary to the DCI’s stated goals for the format. The DCI looked for a card that was very important to the turn-three wins but not one of the cards that make this deck unique. We decided Seething Song is the best choice. Even with no other mana acceleration, one can cast Seething Song on turn three and it gives a net acceleration of +2 mana. While there are other options for fast mana, none appear as efficient and reliable on turn three as Seething Song.