Wizards of the Coast released the date that new updates will be made to the Banned and Restricted list for Magic: The Gathering. The changes will be made later this month and will cover four different formats of the card game.
Wizards of the Coast has been updating the card formats as the company receives feedback from the Magic: The Gathering community and analyzes player statistics. Last month, the table top gaming company made a few changes to the game, nerfing the Companion mechanic introduced in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. Now, it appears that cards are going to be banned this month.
Wizards of the Coast took to Twitter to announce that there will be an update to the Banned and Restricted list later this month. According to the Official Magic: The Gathering Twitter account, the new changes will be revealed on July 13. The upcoming bans will impact four formats of the card game: Historic, Pioneer, Modern, and Pauper. While fans of the game are unsure of what these new changes entail, many are curious about a ban that will affect the Modern format as that is not very common for Wizards of the Coast to do. The company hasn't expanded on this Tweet, so fans will have to wait until next Monday to see what the changes actually are.
Even though Wizards of the Coast isn't supporting game store meet ups to play its games during the COVID-19 crisis, the company's recent release of MTG Arena for Mac have allowed many players who have the computer storage capacity to transfer their gameplay online. With online matches becoming more prevalent, Wizards of the Coast has easier access to metadata around players' games, potentially giving them more insight into what needs to be changed to improve players' experiences with Magic: The Gathering.
Wizards of the Coast banning several controversial MTG cards in the past month due to racist content or art, and while the changes announced today don't seem to be that type of ban, many are curious what card — or cards — will no longer be allowed in the game in the future.