MTG Ban List 12/16/24: YSK

Magic: The Gathering players woke up to a seismic shift in the Modern and Legacy formats with the latest Banned and Restricted Announcement. Wizards of the Coast didn’t hold back, delivering long-anticipated bans, surprise unbans, and a clear signal that Modern may be entering a bold new era.

From the removal of The One Ring to the unbanning of Splinter Twin, this update has sparked conversations about the health of the formats and the implications for competitive play. Here’s what you need to know about the December 16, 2024, changes.

The One Ring Banned in Modern: An Inevitable Move?

No card has defined Modern in the last year quite like The One Ring. Its combination of invincibility for a turn and an unparalleled card draw engine made it a staple in nearly every strategy, boasting an astonishing 60% play rate across Modern decks. Whether you were running Boros Energy, Omnath Ramp, or even artifact shells, The One Ring was an automatic inclusion.

Why Was It Banned?

• Overrepresentation: A card appearing in the majority of top-performing decks stifles innovation. Players and Wizards alike recognized the need for diversity.
• Low Opportunity Cost: The One Ring required no specific color commitment, making it too easy to include in virtually any archetype.

The community reaction to The One Ring’s ban has largely been one of relief. Many players felt that the card’s overwhelming presence in Modern had reached a breaking point, with its dominance limiting creativity and stifling deck diversity. For months, competitive events showcased a meta where The One Ring was a near-universal inclusion, forcing many strategies to adapt or fall by the wayside. Its removal is widely seen as a necessary step to allow other archetypes to flourish, opening the door for a more dynamic and balanced Modern format. For fans tired of the same decks dominating tournaments, this ban represents a much-needed breath of fresh air.

Splinter Twin Unbanned: The Meme Becomes Reality

It’s finally happened. After almost a decade, Splinter Twin is back. This iconic combo card—banned in 2016 for warping Modern with its "one-card win condition"—returns to a format vastly different from the one it left. In its heyday, Twin decks forced players to constantly fear the combo of Pestermite (or Deceiver Exarch) and Splinter Twin, often stealing games with an infinite token swarm.

Why Now?

• Answers Exist: Cards like Solitude, Force of Negation, and Flare of denial offer tools that can check Twin strategies, ensuring they don’t dominate the meta.
• Nostalgia Appeal: Many players look back fondly on the days of Twin, and its unbanning marks a return to those memorable matches.

While excitement is high, some predict Splinter Twin won’t reach Tier 1 status. With Modern evolving to include faster and more disruptive strategies, Twin might be a fun but niche archetype. Its return, however, has sparked renewed interest in blue-red control-combo decks, drawing both nostalgia-driven players and those eager to explore its potential in the current meta. Whether it becomes a staple or remains a tool for experimentation, Splinter Twin’s unbanning marks a significant moment for Modern and ensures its legacy remains alive in competitive play.

Amped Raptor: The Critical Energy Deck Ban

The decision to ban Amped Raptor in Modern comes as no surprise to many players. Amped Raptor was a linchpin of Boros Energy strategies, an archetype that had become the most dominant in Modern, leveraging the Energy mechanic to explosive effect. With its ability to generate and utilize Energy counters efficiently, Amped Raptor facilitated some of the most consistent and aggressive openings in the format, creating a dynamic that Wizards deemed unhealthy​​.

Why Was Amped Raptor Banned?

Amped Raptor’s ability to simultaneously act as both an Energy generator and a payoff card made it an essential piece of the Boros Energy engine. This dual role allowed the archetype to reliably produce massive amounts of Energy, which in turn powered other cards like Harnessed Lightning, or fueled recursive threats such as Guide of Souls.

Without Amped Raptor, Boros Energy decks lose their most efficient tool for enabling their strategy. This ban forces the archetype to adapt, likely by shifting toward more midrange builds or leaning into other Energy generators that lack the same level of explosiveness.

While Boros Energy will likely remain viable in some form, its dominance has been significantly curtailed. Wizards’ aim is to restore balance by giving other archetypes, such as Four-Color Omnath and Jund Midrange, more room to compete in the Modern meta​​.

The response to Amped Raptor’s ban has been largely positive, with many players acknowledging that the card was simply too powerful within the Energy framework. Some have expressed optimism that this change will lead to a more diverse metagame, while others question whether Boros Energy will still find ways to maintain its position near the top of the format​​.

Faithless Looting, Green Sun’s Zenith, and Mox Opal: Old Friends Return

Three cornerstone cards are back, and they couldn’t be more different in their potential impact.

Faithless Looting

This graveyard enabler is a dream for strategies like Dredge, Arclight Phoenix, and Reanimator. Once banned to curb Hogaak’s dominance, Looting returns to a meta armed with graveyard hate like Endurance and Boggart Trawler.

Excited players are celebrating the return of Faithless Looting, viewing it as a long-awaited boost for graveyard strategies like Dredge, Arclight Phoenix, and Reanimator. They argue that these archetypes, which have struggled to find consistency, now have the tool they need to compete at higher levels. On the other hand, skeptics are raising alarms, recalling how Faithless Looting previously enabled oppressive strategies and warped metas before its ban. They worry that without careful monitoring, the card’s return could lead to graveyard decks once again overshadowing more balanced archetypes. The debate highlights the fine line Wizards must walk in balancing nostalgia with format health.

Mox Opal

Long the centerpiece of artifact strategies like Affinity, Mox Opal is poised to revitalize not only established archetypes such as Urza-focused builds and Hardened Scales, but also inspire entirely new archetypes built around its zero-cost mana acceleration. The card’s unbanning brings with it the potential for explosive starts and creative synergy-driven gameplay, offering artifact players a chance to experiment with faster, more consistent strategies. However, this power doesn’t come without concerns. Wizards is relying on a variety of anti-artifact tools like Meltdown, Force of Vigor, and Wrath of the Skies to prevent Mox Opal decks from becoming oppressive. Whether these checks will be sufficient remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the unbanning of Mox Opal has opened the floodgates for a new era of artifact dominance in Modern.

Green Sun’s Zenith

A card synonymous with toolbox strategies, Green Sun’s Zenith is poised to reshape Modern by enabling consistent access to key green creatures. Its unbanning opens the door for archetypes like Green Devotion, Amulet Titan, and Green Sun Elves to thrive once again. Beyond these established decks, Green Sun’s Zenith encourages innovation in creature-based strategies, offering unprecedented flexibility for finding utility creatures or ramping into game-changing threats like Primeval Titan or Endurance.

The card’s ability to search for any green creature and put it directly onto the battlefield at instant speed has long been regarded as one of the most efficient and versatile tools for green decks. However, with this power comes concerns about its potential to overcentralize the format. The meta will likely lean heavily on interaction, with cards like Counterspell, Subtlety, and Void Mirror becoming essential checks against Zenith-fueled combos.

Despite these concerns, the unbanning of Green Sun’s Zenith signals a renewed focus on creature-centric strategies in Modern. Whether it revitalizes old archetypes or inspires entirely new decks, one thing is certain: the presence of Green Sun’s Zenith will demand creative deckbuilding and careful metagame adjustments moving forward.

Jegantha, the Wellspring and Companion Troubles

If you’ve played Modern or Pioneer recently, chances are you’ve faced a Jegantha deck. The appeal of a "free" 5/5 creature that skirts deckbuilding restrictions is undeniable. However, Jegantha’s inclusion in 40% of Modern decks homogenized deck construction, limiting the diversity of high-cost cards.

Why It Was Banned

Jegantha’s ban addresses a long-standing concern about how companions impact deckbuilding freedom. By discouraging the use of cards with double mana symbols, Jegantha forced players into rigid deckbuilding constraints, often limiting creative expression and card diversity. Many players felt this restriction homogenized deck design, as Jegantha’s payoff—a free 5/5 creature—was too good to ignore.

This ban also underscores the broader issues with the companion mechanic itself. Like Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Yorion, Sky Nomad , Jegantha’s consistent presence in top-tier decks reveals how companions can dominate metagames despite their deckbuilding restrictions. The ongoing struggle to balance the mechanic continues to raise questions about its long-term viability, leaving players and Wizards alike to grapple with its impact on format health.

Modern’s Future: A New Era or Chaos?

The December 2024 update isn’t just about removing problem cards. It’s a deliberate attempt to redefine Modern by inviting older strategies back into the fold. The unbans of Splinter Twin, Green Sun’s Zenith, and Faithless Looting hint at a willingness to revisit "banned for being too good" cards and recontextualize them in today’s power-crept Modern landscape.

What Could Modern Look Like?

The recent changes in Modern could pave the way for a variety of new archetypes. The return of Splinter Twin is already sparking innovation in Twin Control strategies, while the unbanning of Green Sun’s Zenith is likely to revive Green Sun Elves and other toolbox-style decks. Additionally, the restoration of Mox Opal has artifact enthusiasts excited to revisit classic archetypes like Affinity and to explore new artifact combo decks built around its explosive mana acceleration.

With the ban of The One Ring and Jegantha, the balance of power in Modern is expected to shift. Dominant strategies like Boros Energy may take a step back, giving midrange builds such as Four-Color Omnath the opportunity to reclaim their place at the top of the meta. These changes may also allow previously overshadowed archetypes to find their footing in the competitive landscape.

Wizards of the Coast has made it clear that these changes are part of an evolving vision for Modern’s future. They’ve committed to closely monitoring the impact of these bans and unbans, with the next Banned and Restricted announcement already scheduled for March 2025. Players can expect continued refinement of the format as the meta adjusts to this bold new era.

Legacy Changes: Psychic Frog and Vexing Bauble Banned

Legacy’s banlist saw two notable changes with the removal of Psychic Frog and Vexing Bauble, both aimed at reducing the dominance of non-interactive strategies. Psychic Frog had become a pivotal piece in Dimir Reanimator, enabling the deck to maintain consistent performance while limiting diversity in reanimation builds. Its ban weakens the archetype, allowing other strategies to compete more effectively in the format.

Vexing Bauble, meanwhile, played a crucial role in combo decks, providing disruptive value and undermining Legacy’s reliance on free counterspells like Force of Will. By mitigating counterplay and fueling fast, proactive strategies, it posed a threat to the balance of the format.

These bans have sparked mixed reactions from the community. While many agree they improve gameplay health, others feel more could have been done to address broader format issues. As players adjust, these changes are expected to open up new opportunities for innovation in Legacy.

Final Thoughts: What’s Next for MTG?

The December 16, 2024, B&R announcement represents a bold step by Wizards of the Coast to address player concerns and reinvigorate competitive formats. By banning oppressive cards like The One Ring and reintroducing nostalgic staples like Splinter Twin, Wizards has set the stage for what could be a transformative era in Modern and beyond.

What do you think of the changes? Whether you’re sleeving up Twin for the first time in years or lamenting the loss of Jegantha, the conversation is just getting started. Check out Amazing Discoveries’ events page to test these changes in tournaments, or explore our store to snag the cards you need to build your next great deck.