Standard
Wilderness Reclamation is banned.
Growth Spiral is banned.
Teferi, Time Raveler is banned.
Cauldron Familiar is banned.

Pioneer
Inverter of Truth is banned.
Kethis, the Hidden Hand is banned.
Walking Ballista is banned.
Underworld Breach is banned.

Historic
Wilderness Reclamation is suspended.
Teferi, Time Raveler is suspended.

Brawl
Teferi, Time Raveler is banned.

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I felt Standard needed the shift, I wasn't enjoying it. I don't trust myself to articulate what's wrong with the format, but it just didn't feel fun, with many games feeling like I simply didn't have a chance (or opponent just had the T3 Teferi on the play and it was over). Wilderness Reclamation was certainly problematic so it's nice to see it gone, even though it's a card I've played a lot with. Absolutely no regrets to see Teferi go, I hate that card with a passion.

No real comments about the other formats since I'm unfamiliar with them. Still, it strikes me as odd that Reclamation is suspended in historic without Nexus being unbanned. Why not? Actually paying seven mana to cast Nexus is not easy, especially if one wants to advance the board at the same time.

Better late than never. Reclamation was overcentralizing AF for Standard, Teferi has the potential to do just the same. Not surprised to see either card being suspended in Historic either, and I am really glad Teferi is banned in Brawl.

The Pioneer bans target combo decks at large. I don't play the format at all, so I cannot comment too in-depth on these.

I would pissed if I played paper magic. Is Wizards intentionally trying to drive everyone to digital?

i would say so. That's been a long time coming tho

They did say in their announcement (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... nouncement) that in this era of social distancing, people are playing digital, which is why they're shaking up the meta. Are there any paper events at all?

"Under our usual approach, we would have allowed Standard rotation to provide a natural and predictable shift in the metagame with the release of Zendikar Rising. But in an era of social distancing, the proportion of Standard play occurring on digital platforms has increased substantially. As the rate at which players can rack up games of Standard in digital is higher than in tabletop, we believe it's correct to enact metagame change at a faster rate as well."

The New Normal

New meta is great in that I'm seeing a lot more deck diversity!

Downside: all my previous decks are RIP, which is bad, since brewing is definitely not my strong suit. I can see synergies I want to try, yet I can never bring myself to actually build the decks and take them out for a spin. Oh well.

With all these bans, Standard has never been so boring as it is now...

As boring as cat/oven was I still dont understand why they banned it and Growth spiral.

Really? Cat/Oven stops all non-trampling creatures, plus it deals direct damage, which means it will kill you eventually sans lifegain. As for Growth Spiral, it ramps by directly putting lands into play (i.e. you can't kill it like you can with mana dorks), and it's not dead late-game. It's simply the most powerful 2-mana ramp card. It's worth noting that the best deck post-ban appears to be Sultai ramp, which is saying something about how strong the card would have been since it would've slotted directly in.

Growth Spiral into Wilderness Reclamation, then finishing off with Explosion. Awesome combo.

Prior, Lukka into Agent. Very good.

Cat oven combo was super fun to play, to play against, *it was bit stressful.

Honestly, these bans haven’t contribute much b/c now it’s mostly RDW and Cycling. Went from Ferrari to Honda. Still driving around though

Fully noted. I still think they were not ban worthy.

Wilderness Rec is banned now so you can't GS into WR anymore

They banned Field of the Dead in Historic now that historic has access to Cultivate and Hour of Promise

I'd have imagined Field needed the ban sooner or later. Its very existence beats control on its own. You don't need anything else, you just need Field in your deck, and you have the late-game - since it effectively turns every single card in your deck into gas (or 2x the gas if you have 2 Fields in play). Half the time your "gas" was immune to counterspells too. Field in Standard did the same thing.

But then again, I don't play Historic and I don't intend to, so yeah.