Wizards of the Coast updated their Banned and Restricted lists, for Magic: The Gathering, on November 10, 2025.
After WotC announced the bumping up the banned and restricted announcements for November (see “Banned and Restricted Announcement“), many fans had a feeling that the changes to Magic formats would be significant, especially for Standard. WotC designers banned the following cards:
- Vivi Ornitier, Screaming Nemesis, and Proft’s Eidetic Memory were banned in Standard.
- Heartfire Hero was banned in Pioneer.
- Entomb and Nadu, Winged Wisdom were banned in Legacy.
- High Tide was banned in Pauper.
None of the Standard bannings were even remotely shocking. Vivi Ornitier and Proft’s Eidetic Memory were essentially both banned to defang the Izzet Cauldron decks, which was warping the Standard format on the competitive level. Screaming Nemesis was one of the strongest cards in the mono-red deck; it was banned to tone down this deck. Also, Heartfire Hero was banned in Pioneer to slow down the top mono-red deck in that format (see “Red Problem Somehow Gets Worse?“).
The Legacy format has needed fixing for a long time now. Reanimator decks were the kings of Legacy, and banning Entomb may have finally dethroned them as players can no longer “tutor” powerful creatures into their graveyard on turn one. Nadu, Winged Wisdom, a powerful card that had flown under the radar in Legacy for quite some time, was banned for most of the same reasons it was booted out of Modern in 2024 (see “Cumbersome Combo“). Finally, High Tide was re-banned in Pauper because it combos a little too well with Psychic Puppetry.
Check out ICv2’s 2025 Magic: The Gathering product calendar for more information on future releases (see “‘Magic: The Gathering’ 2025 Release Calendar“).
Source: ICv2
