Wizards of the Coast has formally banned Field of the Dead within the Magic: The Gathering Arena-only Historic Magic format. Field of the Dead was already banned in Standard and was as soon as suspended from Historic when it ran rampant following its introduction with the discharge of Magic‘s Core Set 2020. Later, after new land destruction playing cards like Ghost Quarter and Goblin Ruinblaster that may maintain the land in examine had been launched to the format by way of Historic Anthology releases, Wizards of the Coast reintroduced the cardboard into Historic play. But the addition of playing cards from the Jumpstart and Amonkhet Remastered units — with Hour of Promise being the prime wrongdoer — have made Field of the Dead nearly unattainable to take care of, as evidenced by its disproportionate illustration within the aggressive Historic Metagame. Here’s the reasoning supplied by Wizards of the Coast with the announcement on Monday:
“Field of the Dead has been a robust pressure in Historic for a lot of the format’s life. While its general win charge is never on the high, its matchups are extraordinarily polarized. In specific, its excessive win charge towards slower decks has made the format as an entire lean extra towards aggressive methods. This impact scales with the ubiquity of Field of the Dead decks, and up to date units have given the deck a number of highly effective additions, together with Cultivate, Explore, and, most just lately, Hour of Promise. As a results of this we’ve seen each the recognition and win charge of Field of the Dead decks steadily climb, and it’s at present some of the performed Best-of-One decks and, by far, the preferred Best-of-Three deck.
“Having watched the progress of this deck intently, we really feel that this pattern is unlikely to alter. We additionally really feel that Field of the Dead is unlikely to be a wholesome a part of the format anytime quickly, so suspension is the unsuitable strategy. In order to deliver a higher variety to the Historic meta, Field of the Dead is banned.”
The ban comes as Historic begins to emerge as a format showcased in main competitions, together with the upcoming Mythic Championship. Wizards of the Coast possible wished to keep away from a state of affairs just like previous Historic occasions, the place a single card has been in a position to dominate the whole event.
Historic’s meta has been in flux over the previous a number of weeks. The addition of Jumpstart launched greater than 300 new playing cards into the format, and Amonkhet Remastered did the identical not lengthy after. With the elimination of the dominant Field of the Dead, the whole Historic panorama ought to reshape itself once more.
