Wizards of the Coast has banned from Standard play Uro, Titan’s of Nature’s Wrath, one of many format’s most dominant playing cards. Banning Wilderness reclamation and other cards ahead of the new Standard format rotation wasn’t sufficient. Today’s ban comes after the discharge of the game’s newest enlargement set, Zendikar Rising, which launched the cardboard Omnath, Locus of Creation, a strong payoff for ramp decks that make the most of Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath. While Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath has been a staple of probably the most highly effective decks in Standard because it debuted within the Theros: Beyond Death set earlier this 12 months, it is synergy with Omnath, Locus of Creation has created a transparent metagame inbalance. The Legendary Creature’s set off when getting into the battlefield, which places its controller up a card and three life, has proved exhausting to reply. That a participant can carry Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath again from the graveyard utilizing the Escape mechanic has made graveyard removing a necessity within the sideboard, if not the principle deck, of all Standard aggressive decks.
“We’ve been preserving an in depth eye on the rising Zendikar Rising Standard format over its first week of availability on Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Online,” Magic: The Gathering designer Ian Duke explains on the game’s web site. “With thousands and thousands of games having already been performed on digital platforms, early knowledge and outcomes from occasions this previous weekend have proven that multicolor ramp decks that includes Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, Lotus Cobra, and Omnath, Locus of Creation are an issue within the new post-rotation metagame.
“While Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath was a strong and contentious card within the pre-rotation Standard atmosphere, we wished to permit the metagame to adapt to the final set of Standard adjustments and the approaching rotation earlier than making a choice on whether or not to let it stay part of the atmosphere going ahead. This weekend’s occasions underscored that the Four-Color Omnath decks are dominating early play, and that even the decks constructed to attempt to beat these decks utilized the highly effective titan.
“In order to weaken these post-rotation ramp methods, we’re selecting to ban Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath in Standard. Our objective is to carry these decks right down to a degree the place they’re nonetheless interesting and aggressive, however the place pure metagame forces are sufficient to maintain them in verify. In basic, we want this strategy to overshooting the mark and eradicating an archetype from viability. However, we have definitely famous this weekend’s robust outcomes for the Four-Color Omnath deck and can proceed to observe how that technique and the general metagame modify within the coming weeks.”
Bans have become more common in Magic: The Gathering within the years since Magic: The Gathering Arena debuted, with 19 playing cards banned from Standard since 2017, after no bans going down earlier than then since 2011. The game’s reputation implies that persons are enjoying Magic greater than ever and knowledge on the metagame is less complicated than ever to gather. That’s a part of why this ban comes days after Zendikar Rising got here out for paper Magic.
“It’s uncommon for us to make a change this early into the season, however on this case we’re concentrating on a card that has proven indicators of being problematic up to now and which continued to show its dominance throughout occasions this previous weekend,” Duke writes. “Additionally, the pace at which high-level digital play assaults new codecs, significantly when digital play is the one high-level play accessible, implies that metagames advance previous the early phases far sooner than they used to. We want to make this alteration now in order that gamers can proceed to get probably the most enjoyment out of post-rotation Standard, which is likely one of the most fun occasions in Magic to discover and innovate.”
Duke additionally notes that this spherical of ban issues targeted on Standard and Historic, the one methods accessible to play in Magic: The Gathering Arena. Wizards of the Coast will monitor different codecs for future updates.
