Massive Bans are Overhauling Magic: The Gathering's Standard format
Yesterday, on June 30th, 2025, Wizards of the Coast announced what can only be described as a monumental round of Standard bans. I’m not referring to one, two, or even three cards. This ban announcement removed a whopping seven cards from the Standard format! The official announcement can be found here : Banned and Restricted Announcement – June 30, 2025.
These cards are now banned in Standard:
I can’t say that I’m surprised about the presence of Standard bans, but I am shocked by the number of cards that were removed. This has completely leveled Standard. As a competitor at the Pro Tour a week ago, I was there to witness the metagame that revolved around Azorius Omniscience, Izzet Prowess, and Mono Red Aggro. Domain Overlords I would consider the fourth best deck, after those three. All of those decks have gotten torn apart by this announcement.
Monstrous Rage and Heartfire Hero are two staples from the Mono Red Mice deck that won the Pro Tour. The Mice deck relies heavily on both the Mice and ways to target creatures, so this banning really hurts the deck in a major way.
The most played deck at the Pro Tour, Izzet Prowess, has also lost multiple cards. Cori-Steel Cutter has been making waves in Standard and even Modern ever since its printing. This equipment is extremely powerful, especially when used alongside of cantrips. Monstrous Rage and This Town Ain’t Big Enough are also part of the Izzet Prowess deck, though I would argue are more replaceable that Cori-Steel Cutter.
Azorius Omniscience is a combo deck that relies on reanimating Omniscience from the graveyard. Without the key reanimation spell (Abuelo’s Awakening) the combo isn’t possible.
Domain Overlords lost Up the Beanstalk, which is the key card advantage engine in the deck. Up the Beanstalk allowed the Domain Overlords deck to take over the game by drawing extra cards off spells like Overlord of the Hauntwoods and Leyline Binding. In my opinion, as someone who has played a lot with Domain Overlords, Up the Beanstalk was the most important card in the deck.
The last card I want to talk about is Hopeless Nightmare. While Hopeless Nightmare was not a card played in the four most popular decks, it was an oppressive card in the format, that enabled bounce decks to run the opponent out of cards and life.
This ban announcement is in my opinion meant to be all-inclusive and hit all of the top decks. I believe these bans accomplish that goal. The format has certainly been turned on its head. My prediction is we won’t be seeing the top decks (Mono Red Mice, Azorius Omniscience, Domain Overlords, Izzet Prowess, and Bounce) make their way back to the top of the metagame.
This will be a time of rebalancing, when new decks will emerge, and decks that many players had forgotten or previously overlorked, will start to look quite nice. I’m going to go over my top three choices in Standard fresh off this round of bans.
Jeskai Control
Jeskai Control is a deck that did show up at the Pro Tour, and has a strong case for being the best control variant in Standard.
This version was piloted by Arne Huschenbeth at Pro Tour Final Fantasy
This was a good deck before the bans, that hasn’t lost any cards. Stock up no longer needs to compete with Up the Beanstalk for the best card advantage card in Standard. Jeskai Control has plenty of removal options against aggressive strategies, while also playing threats like Shiko, Paragon of the Way to easily close out games.
Golgari Roots
Golgari Roots is another choice that did quite well at Pro Tour Final Fantasy, despite not being present in the top 8. While this deck is difficult to pilot, it is very powerful, taking advantage of graveyard synergy and Insidious Roots as a way to flood the board with plants that grow and make mana. Insidious Roots is a very strong two mana enchantment that is worth building a deck around.
This version was piloted by Eli Kassis
This deck is able to consistently remove creatures from the graveyard to trigger Insidious Roots, while also taking advantage of a variety of activated abilities. Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler adds a surprising element to the deck, and means that the creatures generated from Insidious Roots can immediately be used to make mana, and this allows for explosive turns.
Mono Black Demons
The last deck I want to highlight, that has not been affected by the recant bans is Mono Black Demons. This is a deck that includes Final Fantasy hits like Demon Wall and Cecil, Dark Knight, to pair with an already battle proven shell featuring Unholy Annex and Soulstone Sanctuary, for a powerful lategame. This version is from the recent Spotlight Series in Japan.
For players that like hand disruption, quality removal, and staying power in the lategame this deck checks all those boxes. Unholy Annex is one of the only good ways to try and fight Stock Up. Mono Black Demons is one of the more straightforward choices, and I expect to see quite a lot of it moving forward. There are some consideration for splashing another color here, but the Mono Black version is what I lean towards due to the manabase and consistency.
Thank you for reading!