Inspired by:

• cryptotheism’s 2024 Wizard Council Banlist https://www.tumblr.com/cryptotheism/745936127012356096/wizard-council-2024-banned-spell-list-greater
• Magic: the Gathering’s Banned and Restricted announcements https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/march-11-2024-banned-and-restricted-announcement

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Wizard Council Banned and Restricted Announcement April 1st, 2024

Written by the Format Monitoring Council.

Neoteric

• [Greater Breakfast Storm] is banned.
• [Menthol Torrent] is banned.

Classic

• [Taylor’s Swift Execution] is banned.

Peasant

• [Duplicate Crying Fire Skull] is banned.
• [Fireball by Mail] is banned.

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NEOTERIC

[Greater Breakfast Storm] is banned.
[Menthol Torrent] is banned.
[Fireball by Mail] is banned.

Previously, we banned many Exponentiate cards and were waiting to see how the Neoteric fared. So far, the format seems to be in a better place now that [Bubblegum Vape Hurricane], [Serenade of Urban Weirdoes], and the other really strong Exponentiate cards have been banned. However, a few remaining exponentiate cards are still fueling what we at the format monitoring council feel is a distortion in the format.

[Greater Breakfast Storm] is currently powering the strongest version of the Cafeteria deck, with the with a higher food production rate than other strategies. We noticed against other strong decks and in mirror matches that games were won or lost based on whether the first copy of [Greater Breakfast Storm] resolved, and whether there was anything to take advantage off of it. If there was no immediate payoff, a late [Urban Street Wyrm] would give duelists enough of a push to get them to where they would have been, had they had a more explosive start. Players seemed to notice this, too, as many users of the deck would mulligan several times to get it, sometimes down to a 3-card opening hand. For these reasons, [Greater Breakfast Storm] is banned.

While banning [Bubblegum Vape Hurricane] created a healthier environment, deck-builders replaced it with [Menthol Torrent]. While the two cards have different effects, their impact on the game was similar: slowing down any offensive that wasn’t from an Aggro deck to a crawl. Even when decks with the [Menthol Torrent] played against Aggro decks, Exponentiate helped cover most of the gaps. This was to the point that even if the Aggro player had a powerful start, a good draw, and a good play, [Menthol Torrent] wiped out almost all of the momentum as long as the [Menthol Torrent] player didn’t mulligan, or played a copy of [Transport to Antarctica]. For this reason, we are banning [Menthol Torrent].

CLASSIC

[Taylor’s Swift Execution] is banned.

Lean In / Girlboss decks continue to be dominant, even after getting rid of cards with early game Lean In abilities such as [Queen Bee’s Color Guard]. [Taylor’s Swift Execution] is both a gap-filler to maintain pace and keeps its rhythm up by Leaning In and was a necessary card to include to interrupt the perpetual advantage gained by maintaining Girlboss status. This is a severe warping of any format. While we think the more costly Lean In cards can be answered with decent play, [Taylor’s Swift Execution] made it easier for those cards to create enough momentum from an early Girlboss status to keep opposing decks just out of pace. [Taylor’s Swift Execution] is banned.

PEASANT

[Fireball by Mail] is banned.
[Duplicate Crying Fire Skull] is banned.

We noticed that many players were playing Postcard-based decks, but the its share of the metagame was declining correlated to the amount of decks using [Fireball by Mail]. [Fireball by Mail] seems to shut down the mechanic all by itself due to [Fireball by Mail]'s ability to deal damage to the Postcard user. Since [Fireball by Mail] is itself a Mail card, the first player to use it gets to punish the second player for drawing it. Many Postcard decks had to use cartomancers to attempt to block the effect, which slowed down decks to the point that the [Fireball by Mail] player would have time to implement their own strategy. For these reasons, [Fireball by Mail] is banned.

We’ve noticed a strong uptick in Crying Doppelganger decks, especially from players giving up on trying to play Postcard decks in a format full of [Fireball by Mail]. And they certainly were not being discouraged by Crying Doppelganger's excellent win rate. We took a look at what was making this deck so dominant and looked at the components: [Donut Doppelganger] to copy the chosen Crying Fire Skull; [Duplicate Crying Fire Skull] to copy a [Donut Doppelganger] in play; and [Ember of Sorrows], a usual inclusion into Crying Doppelganger decks. Between these cards, [Donut Doppelganger] is usually fine in other decks, and [Ember of Sorrows] is usually too slow to usually include in control decks. However, [Duplicate Crying Fire Skull] seemed to precisely make this combo strong enough to give its strong performances, and does little else elsewhere, and is included in fewer decks. While all 3 cards were on the table for removal, we felt that taking away [Duplicate Crying Fire Skull] would have the least impact on the format. For these reasons, we have chosen to ban [Duplicate Crying Fire Skull]. We will be keeping an eye on Peasant format to see what happens to [Donut Doppelganger] and [Ember of Sorrows].

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