Magic: The Gathering has a card release history spanning 30 years, and Magic has in total more than 25,000 unique cards. The constant evolution of the game means new cards sometimes end up having synergy with cards from decades ago, creating overpowered strategies that need balancing lest they take over the competitive meta completely. Here's what you need to know about the latest ban announcement in Magic.
Magic: The Gathering's competitive space exists across multiple formats with different card pools. This makes balancing somewhat difficult as a card may be incredibly weak in one format but totally overpowered in another, requiring format-by-format fine tuning. Luckily, Wizards of the Coast keeps a close eye on MTG's formats and frequently updates its ban lists accordingly.
MTG Ban Announcement March 6 2023
In an announcement released Mar. 6 on the official Magic website, WOTC banned two cards: Expressive Iteration and White Plume Adventurer. These cards are only banned in Legacy, which is an expansive format that includes nearly every card in Magic history.
In their official statement, WOTC said Expressive Iteration and White Plume Adventurer elevate two decks above all others in the format: Izzet Delver and Mono-White Initiative. According to WOTC's reasoning, Expressive Iteration provided a source of "glue" for Izzet decks, making them too consistent and mitigating their weaknesses.
"In addition to removing a generally strong card, our hope is that by removing Expressive Iteration , we reinforce Izzet Delver's historical strengths (efficient one-for-one exchanges) and weaknesses (lack of sources of card quantity) in a way that leaves the deck more vulnerable in the metagame," Ian Duke, a Magic developer, said.
Similarly, Duke said the Magic team found White Plum Adventurer to be too efficient in generating card advantage banning it for similar reasons.
The announcement concludes by asserting the health of other formats, which allow multiple strategies to be successful on a competitive level.
This article was originally published on dbltap as MTG Ban Announcement 2023: Mar. 6 Changes.