To some degree, the metagame has shifted toward selecting for the best Arcum’s Astrolabe deck. Search for the perfect addition to your deck. Second, multiple archetypes have recently adopted Mystic Sanctuary as another means of creating repetitive loop or lockout states. This comes from the lack of options for dealing with lands in the format. One final note on Historic suspensions: When we first introduced the mechanism in December, we emphasized the limited-time nature of suspension by linking it to the periodic availability of Ranked Historic. Announced today in a post on DailyMTG, the land’s banning comes as no surprise given how dominant it has been since its printing. Nexus of Fate is much like the cards discussed above, where its power will only grow as the Historic cardpool expands. RUG Delver is like 3-4/8 of every top 8. Arcum’s Astrolabe and Ephemerate Remain Legal in Pauper. Therefore, Arcum's Astrolabe is banned in Modern. Mystic Sanctuary is banned. Corey Baumeister tries out Azorius Stoneblade in Modern after the banning of Arcum's Astrolabe. “[W]e’ve seen three-plus-color Skred decks pick up substantial metagame share [since the release of Modern Horizons], at times representing 15–20% of the field with a win rate greater than 55%,” Wizards said. While this held true for a long time, with the deck showing strong but within-bounds play and win rates, it has now risen to a level where it is starving out other options and warping the format around itself. (Players will be receiving Wildcards as normal for these bans, per the policy announced earlier.). As a result, Arcum's Astrolabe has become one of the most played cards in Modern. We're keeping an eye on Arcum's Astrolabe in Legacy for similar reasons, although at present the play rates and win rates of Arcum's Astrolabe decks don't warrant action. “To some degree, the metagame has shifted toward selecting for the best Arcum’s Astrolabe deck,” Wizards concluded. For Pauper, the Arcum's Astrolabe ban is a solid and welcome addition to a format that doesn't get as much play but was getting unnecessarily warped around the powerful one mana artifact, and should give deck builders a lot of breathing room. We are also seeing a variety of lesser-played decks having success, which indicates that the metagame may continue to shift. Don’t miss our coverage of the banning of Field of the Dead from Standard, which occurred in the same Banned and Restricted announcement. While we agree with concerns that Growth Spiral ramp decks, in aggregate, have recently represented a larger than ideal portion of the metagame, we do see different archetypes within that larger category behaving differently in terms of strengths, weaknesses and roles in the metagame. Wizards of the Coast has banned Arcum’s Astrolabe in Pauper. It's that time of year again! "Arcum's Astrolabe is arguably the best card for Pauper in the entire set. Since Field of the Dead is a land, it can be difficult for many archetypes to interact with, further limiting the metagame’s ability to adapt. We are otherwise generally happy with the shape of the metagame in Pioneer, with the most played decks each having strengths and weaknesses against each other. Wizards of the Coast is proud to be raising funds for Extra Life, benefiting Seattle Children's Hospital—and you can help! Tabletop Effective Date: July 13, 2020. Despite that, we will be adhering to the general timeline it imposed, and any suspension will be resolved via unsuspending or banning the affected card(s) within roughly the same 2-3 month span. We suspect that Mardu knights and Blue/Green Food decks will quickly rise to prominence. The Magic community is coming together for our annual Magic Extra Life live stream charity event benefiting Seattle Children's Hospital. Make sure to follow me on Twitter for more news on games, MTG, entertainment, and more. Early in Pioneer's launch window, various green ramp decks were among the most popular and successful archetypes. Both cards were introduced into the format with the release of Modern Horizons this past June and combined to have a massive impact. Nexus of Fate is a card we have been watching closely for a long time in Historic. We will always act more quickly when we feel the data is clear, but this will act as an outer bound. Could Arcum's Astrolabe get a ban in legacy? Over the last month, decks using Nexus of Fate have risen dramatically in terms of metagame share, and it is now Historic's most-played deck. Our intent is that this combination of bans should considerably reduce the speed and consistency with which Tron decks assemble their mana engine and eventual loop or lock states, as well as reducing the amount of repetitive game play coming from various blue-based tempo decks. Players Tour Online 3 and 4 saw the overall win rates and day 2 conversion rates of the most played decks, Bant Ramp and Temur Reclamation, come down to healthier levels. “Arcum’s Astrolabe not only gives these decks a smoother multicolor mana base, but also combines with Kor Skyfisher, Trinket Mage, Ephemerate, and other enters-the-battlefield effects to grind out opponents with card advantage and efficient one-for-one removal.”, Wizards believe that removing Arcum’s Astrolabe from Pauper will dramatically improve the format. While Wilderness Reclamation is a powerful card, we are not seeing it appear in problematic decks in Historic aside from this one. As many decks would adopt Arcum’s Astrolabe purely for color fixing anyway, it becomes “free” to gain additional value from it being a cheap artifact and card-advantage engine. After considering the deck and the surrounding meta, we feel like the best card to act on here is Burning-Tree Emissary. See cards from the most recent sets and discover what players just like you are saying about them. The cheap, colorless mana-fixing and card draw was too much for Pauper. Finally, Wilderness Reclamation acts primarily to give players access to a wider array of lines of play, while Nexus of Fate acts to prevent the opponent from playing at all. However, Wizards of the Coast explain that the choice to ban this card was not based on its performance during this weekend’s tournament. on July 13, 2020. Arcum's Astrolabe makes this tradeoff come at too low of a cost, as one Arcum's Astrolabe can often mean excellent mana for the rest of the game, without costing a card. The ban comes two weeks after the previous Banned and Restricted update, when many players expected bans to address Arcum’s Astrolabe and Ephemerate in Pauper. From both a long-term health and gameplay standpoint, we feel that Nexus of Fate is the better card to act on here. In the weeks following we've seen other archetypes rise in popularity and win rate, including Mono Green Aggro, Rakdos Sacrifice, Mono Black Aggro, RW “Pawblade”, Simic Flash, and others. Wizards of the Coast has banned Arcum’s Astrolabe in Pauper.. In order to reduce the consistency of these decks, Oath of Nissa was added to the banned list early in the progression of Pioneer. Sign up for the Hipsters Newsletter for weekly updates. Over the past several months of Modern's metagame, we have seen a rise in popularity and win rate of multicolor decks using Arcum's Astrolabe, with some variants approaching 55% non-mirror match win rate. As with all suspensions, we have been carefully watching how the changes affected the Historic meta, and our data is showing it to distinct improvements with those cards removed. Gruul and Nexus are each now played more than three times as much as their closest competition in best-of-three, and Gruul has one of the highest win rates in both best-of-three and best-of-one. Arcum’s Astrolabe became a problem in Pauper because it broke one of the foundational limitations of the format: the nature of the Pauper card pool, which is restricted to commons, makes building reliable multicolor mana bases extremely difficult. While decks often only play a couple copies of Mystic Sanctuary, it is proving to be another key contributor of negative pressure on the metagame by enabling end game loops. José. We're aware of concerns among the Legacy community on this point but want to be consistent with our philosophy of only resorting to bans when a card or deck reaches problematic win rates that can't be solved by natural metagame forces. As for Arcum’s Astrolabe, this artifact was banned due to its ability to easily smooth out the mana base of multi-color decks.