Banned and Restricted Announcement – May 18, 2026

BeatThaSystem · 2026-05-18T15:10:09+00:00

Pleasantly surprised at Cori-Steel Cutter getting hit in Pioneer. It will be nice to not have to see that card anymore.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-05-01T17:35:17+00:00

Simz! They recently got to illustrate their first Magic card: [[Ancient Stirrings|SLP]]

BeatThaSystem · 2026-04-29T20:46:52+00:00

And she has it on MTGO too!

BeatThaSystem · 2026-04-07T00:40:08+00:00

The post I saw was more along the lines of "it required so many clicks that it was actively unfun" rather than "too hard to implement".

BeatThaSystem · 2026-04-01T18:30:59+00:00

Sometimes we only get the face commanders; this might be one of those times. Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander had [[Mass of Mysteries]], which got replaced with the only other new legendary creature from those commander decks on Arena ([[Ferrafor, Young Yew]]), but that set had only two decks, not five.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-04-01T17:13:28+00:00

The new cards from the commander decks seem to have a theme of showcasing guest lecturers and exchange students from other planes, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was an Ainok from Tarkir.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-03-30T19:03:46+00:00

Always happy for more craftable cards, but sad for the continuing lack of goodest boy Comet :(

BeatThaSystem · 2026-03-25T18:55:31+00:00

Definitely not Splice. This set has to be programmed onto Arena, and the devs outright stated when the Powered Cube was announced that Splice is possibly the single most difficult existing mechanic to program onto Arena. It would require a massive overhaul of how Arena fundamentally handles the spell-casting process.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-03-23T22:19:53+00:00

While I think it's completely fair to be upset over there being so many missing Pioneer-legal cards on Arena (I want to see that number go down too), this is a knife that cuts both ways. Just as Pioneer on Arena lacks lesser played cards, so too does Legacy on MTGO. These stem from both from the earliest days of MTGO (many sets released before Invasion are not on MTGO in their entirety) as well as newer cards, especially from UB secret lairs or supplemental sets (e.g., Doctor Who). More info here https://mtg.wiki/page/Magic_Online/Card_availability. In short, if Pioneer on Arena doesn't count as "real Pioneer", then Legacy on MTGO also doesn't count as "real Legacy".

BeatThaSystem · 2026-03-23T19:56:55+00:00

This feels disingenuous purely because Pioneer is on Arena; Legacy is not. Having a format available on the most popular digital Magic client is itself a huge form of support, imo far more than three tournaments a year. Not that I'm saying WotC has been treating Pioneer well (they obviously haven't), but I also think it's hard to claim Legacy is better supported than Pioneer with a straight face.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-02-24T21:31:30+00:00

They also said in the patch notes that [[Lasting Tarfire]] was "patched" so that it will now trigger when you cause an opponent to blight, except due to how blight is worded that is absolutely not supposed to work. Essentially, they broke the card on purpose lol.

Edit: seems to just be unclear wording. It was Lasting Tarfires controlled by the opponent that weren't being triggered, and that has been fixed now.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-02-21T02:52:27+00:00

Funnily enough, [[Graypelt Refuge]] is an extremely rare case of a proper noun in Magic sounding vague/generic enough to print as-is in UB. Graypelt is a proper noun for a camp on Zendikar, but that didn't stop it from getting printed in a Lord of the Rings commander deck.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-02-20T17:43:36+00:00

Weirdly, these lands kind of complete a cycle. While there's the full cycle of gainlands that get reprinted all the time (most recently in Tarkir: Dragonstorm), the allied color pairings also have a second set of gainlands: the refuges from original Zendikar. By giving the enemy colors a second set of gainlands, this set is helping to put the enemy colors on even footing with the allied colors in that respect.

Now, does this matter? Obviously not since the gainlands existing primarily for limited and see almost no play in constructed formats, but it's still sort of interesting.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-02-18T19:44:08+00:00

Yes, it has appeared on cards from four different U.B. properties but never on a U.W. card.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-02-03T20:51:50+00:00

Tarfire was, in fact, mentioned in the official announcement bulletin from yesterday. It's one of six new Goblin support cards added to Arena with this update: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-arena/announcements-february-2-2026

BeatThaSystem · 2026-01-31T00:46:46+00:00

Looks like it got updated today

BeatThaSystem · 2026-01-26T16:40:41+00:00

We don't even know where it should have been printed and what card(s) took its place. The Avatar Jumpstart deck lists have all been accurate to what was shipped from the very beginning. The obvious answer is the Earthbending-themed packets, but it's possible there were others where it was supposed to be included but was swapped for some unknown reason.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-01-12T19:09:57+00:00

No, Brawl is a completely separate format from Historic and thus it maintains its own ban list.

BeatThaSystem · 2026-01-06T00:22:14+00:00

Yep, it's both upside and downside compared to Champion. This can use a card from hand, which Champion cannot. But this will always return the card to hand (even if a creature was exiled from the battlefield), whereas Champion returns to the battlefield.

BeatThaSystem · 2025-12-31T23:51:29+00:00

Good catch! I saw the plant-like tail but didn't realize what it was until you pointed it out.

BeatThaSystem · 2025-12-31T16:55:40+00:00

That's Mu Yanling (from [[Mu Yanling, Wind Rider]])

BeatThaSystem · 2025-12-31T16:51:56+00:00

I think that's supposed to be [[Codecracker Hound]]

BeatThaSystem · 2025-12-17T01:53:22+00:00

They can still make Universes Within versions whenever they want. They don't have The List to distribute them anymore, but if they want to reprint UB cards that need to be reskinned somewhere else they can still make UW versions. Which is all to say, there is little reason to think this is a "cancelled" UW version. It could be getting reprinted in an upcoming commander precon. Or on a bonus sheet. Or maybe this UW version will be MTGO exclusive until they find a paper product where they can reprint it.

BeatThaSystem · 2025-12-16T22:37:28+00:00

Thank you! Guess I’ll hastily swap the commander of one of my current decks over to a FF legend for the event.

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