Summary

Effective Date: Immediately, February 10th, 2025
Next B&R: February 17th, 2025

In preparation for the release of Abyssal Heaven on March 7th, 2025 and the upcoming Nationals Tour, we've decided to make aggressive changes to the Ban & Restricted list in hopes of shaping a more diverse and exciting meta.

With the final AMB Season Regionals just around the corner, Icebound Slam and Baby Gray Slime will be banned in the upcoming February 17th B&R update. Until then, Icebound Slam moves up to Category 2 and sits alongside Baby Gray Slime. Additional changes include Scepter of Lumina moving up to Category 2, with Lost in Thought and Polaris, Twinkling Cauldron moving up to Category 1.

Alongside these changes, a new card is being added to Proxia's Vault: Reciprocity, Dorumegia's Call.

We're hoping this gives players enough time to prepare for both Ascent Melbourne and Ascent Seattle, and we look forward to the decks players decide to bring to Nationals, and even the World Championships!

The Watchlist only contains cards that were either previously legal in the Standard format or are currently legal for Standard.

See the entire list of banned cards here.

Proxia's Vault

Introducing Reciprocity, Dorumegia's Call, a new regalia weapon card that is being added to Proxia's Vault, exclusive to Tonoris. Although synergies that involve domains scale well compared to other card types, domain strategies have had trouble generating value in the early game. While paired with Tonoris, this card aims to solve that problem by increasing the reward for the domains played earlier in the game.

About Proxia's Vault

As a reminder, Proxia's Vault is a new way we're addressing specific meta issues by releasing cards that players are allowed to proxy, even for use in competitive events. Proxia's Vault is being updated to allow cards to be proxied indefinitely as long as the card is in Proxia's Vault. The policy guide will be updated accordingly. Read about the Proxia's Vault policy here:

Baby Gray Slime and Icebound Slam to be banned on February 17th, 2025

Icebound Slam has proven to be extremely potent at both aggression and generating long-term value. In addition, it is too difficult to interact with due to how early it can be used in the game. Although Abyssal Heaven introduces a suite of cards that can interact with the value generated from Icebound Slam at various angles, we feel that a meta where players spend all their time building decks trying to counter one specific card isn't going to be exciting, especially at the start of a new format with the release of Abyssal Heaven.

There was a good chance Icebound Slam would've been banned anyway in March before the Nationals events started. However, rather than waiting and collecting additional data (primarily from Ascent Seattle), we've concluded that the data that would be collected would be based on rushed deck-building and limited access to the new set release. Because of this, we want to give players more time to build decks for the Nationals season without Icebound Slam in mind by announcing the ban on it now. Icebound Slam will be banned next week, February 17th, 2025. In the meantime, Icebound Slam is moving to Category 2.

Baby Gray Slime is also going to be banned on February 17th, 2025. This card is too potent at generating value for decks it was not intended for. It served as a decent tool for stopping the aggression of decks using Icebound Slam. Now that Icebound Slam is leaving the format, it makes sense for Baby Gray Slime to leave too.

A new card will replace Baby Gray Slime in the upcoming Re:Collection Silvie, Slime Sovereign Lite product. It will be a much more archetype-restricted version of Baby Gray Slime. It will also be found in booster packs of Mercurial Heart Alter Edition.

Watchlist

Category 3

This category will contain all cards that are banned and restricted, proving to be too powerful or too impactful, and limiting tournament deck diversity and meta health. Currently, Crystal of Empowerment, Corhazi Outlook, Erupting Rhapsody, Sword of Avarice, and Reckless Conversion, are banned.

Category 2

This category contains cards that we consider very problematic and are heavily watched for potential future legality changes and category shifts. This category currently has four cards.

Icebound Slam moves up to Category 2 as it waits to be banned in the upcoming B&R update.

Scepter of Lumina has had a considerable presence in many water decks across a wide variety of strategies. While the original intent of the design was to increase the speed of play for water decks, this had taken into consideration the card pool at the time of its conception. Now that the water element archetype is supported by many more cards than before, it does not need the extra support that Scepter of Lumina provides. As a result, we are moving Scepter to Category 2 to reflect our attention to this card's place in the meta.

Category 1

This category consists of cards that we don’t consider problematic in the current environment, but are unhealthy for future balance and game design space. This category currently has four cards.

Lost In Thought has served as a key card for the water element archetype to be able to compete with advanced element decks. We will continue to monitor Lost in Thought's potency at generating value through the new wave of cards that interact with the graveyard being released in Abyssal Heaven.

Stonescale Band is removed from Category 1 as we feel the card is in a far healthier spot in the meta and is not concerning from a balance perspective.

With the upcoming ban of Baby Gray Slime and Icebound Slam, we expect control decks such as Astra Arisanna to slowly take more of the meta share. Because of this, we are watching Polaris, Twinkling Cauldron. This card is very potent at clearing early-game threats. A balance adjustment errata is possible in order to accentuate the weakness of aggressive decks that the control archetype should have.

That's all for this B&R update! The next update will be on February 17th, 2025!