Obvious and Opaque Legacy Ban Considerations

Written by Tyler Goerlich

The next banned and restricted (BnR) announcement for all Magic: the Gathering (MTG) formats is on March 31, 2025. Legacy has felt several BnR updates behind for a while.

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) can change that with the big swing we have been seeking for the past few updates. What follows is my list of important bans for Legacy.

Sowing Mycospawn

The Modern Horizons 3 (MH3) monster, in all of its basic-deleting glory. Sowing Mycospawn is effectively a three-mana double Stone Rain — exiling a land and tutoring Wasteland as separate cast triggers.

While games end relatively quickly, it is a miserable play experience. It needs to go for erasing control as a macro-archetype from the meta. Sowing Mycospawn should be banned.

Troll of Khazad-dûm

This Troll has been central to the “fair” reanimator core that has ruled the metagame for the past two years. Dimir Reanimator is the most interactive combo deck available. Troll of Khazad-dûm needs a ban to bring the archetype back in line.

Why Troll of Khazad-dûm rather than anything else? Consider BR Reanimator lists — turbo combo has been viable but compatible via graveyard hate for a long time. The critical difference between combo and combo-tempo-hybrid Dimir Reanimator is Troll.

Another feature of Dimir Reanimator that makes Troll the best option to ban is the greed of the deck’s construction it enables. Consider this stock list. It plays 18 lands — four of which are Wasteland — 22 blue spells — four of which are Force of Will. To pare down the greed of the best deck in the metagame, Troll of Khazad-dûm should be banned.

Undercity Informer

Oops! All Spells pilots have solved turn one deterministic combo shell. If you have had the fortune of not playing against this archetype, its play experience is best described as “getting Vintaged.”

The consistency of Oops! must be lowered. The best method to accomplish that is to ban Undercity Informer. When compared to Balustrade Spy, Undercity Informer requires four mana to put your library into your graveyard, there is a key difference: Balustrade Spy can be interacted with by Consign to Memory, MH3’s combo-stuffing all-star. 

The One Ring

The printing of Stock Up in Aetherdrift has catapulted Blue Stompy combo lists to the upper echelons of the metagame. Similar to Eldrazi, Red Stompy, and Mystic Forge combo, these lists utilize The One Ring.

The One Ring is a singular card advantage engine that solves the inherent drawback of four-mana spells that don't affect the board with its protection from everything clause. The One Ring provides more overwhelming advantage than any interactive deck can reasonably overcome.

Of the many offenses in The One Ring's design, one of the most gobsmacking is being colorless. Ancient Tomb combo decks should have a finite number of cards to work with. Thus, The One Ring should be banned.

Atraxa, Grand Unifier

Atraxa, Grand Unifier is Dimir Reanimator's premier reanimation target. It provides card advantage, a nigh-unraceable life point swing, and pitches to every relevant color-pitch spell (i.e., Force of Will, Force of Negation, Unmask, formerly Grief, etc.).

To curtail the greed in the blue count of Dimir Reanimator, Atraxa, Grand Unifier should be banned.

Jack-o’-Lantern

Jack-o’-Lantern is a strange facet of Oops! All Spells. Jack-o'-Lantern's color-fixing enables the inclusion Memory’s Journey, which I don't advocate to ban due to functional alternatives.

The combination of Jack-o’-Lantern and Memory's Journey make it almost impossible for non-Leyline of the Void graveyard hate to prevent an Oops! from milling the entire library while protecting the key pieces of their combo.

To enable graveyard hate to interact with Oops! All Spells, Jack-o’-Lantern should be banned. 

Notable Exclusions

I don’t believe Nadu, Winged Wisdom or Orcish Bowmasters should be banned. While both are powerful cards which players have been clamoring for bans of since their printing, I believe they are not problematic within the metagame.

Nadu has folded into Cephalid Breakfast and spawned Nadu Elves — neither performs well in a highly hostile metagame filled with Blood Moon, Harbinger of the Seas, and Wasteland taxing lackluster mana.

A bevy of reactive interaction can cause Nadu combo to fumble into only a small burst of card advantage.

Orcish bowmasters has become a reason to play black, punishing blue cantripping. Despite Nadu and Orcish Bowmasters punishing interaction, they do not prevent it. This strikes a mostly-healthy balance between questions and answers.

My Expectations

I do not expect WotC to implement my or any others’ expansive suggestions. I anticipate bans of Sowing Mycospawn and Troll of Khazad-dûm.

I am hopeful we will receive a look into WotC’s Legacy philosophy, potentially including their format pillars, which would make future BnR updates less opaque.

About the Author

Tyler is a Legacy with a special place in his heart for Academy Rector and Phyrexian Dreadnought. You can find him on Bluesky.

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Featured image: Jack-o'-Lantern by Josu Hernaiz