If you're hoping to go head to head with fellow Magic: The Gathering players at a local tournament or event, you'll probably put a lot of effort into making your deck more powerful. But what if I told you your deck could be too powerful to play? Bad news: if it contains any cards from the MTG ban list, you'll have to go back to the drawing board.
Magic: The Gathering has an active community and a scene that is constantly evolving and changing. This is part of why it's one of the best card games. As part of this, if certain cards are majorly disrupting the balance of the game or producing an overreliance on a singular metagame. they can be banned in sanctioned play.
As of March 11, 2023:
Ponder is unrestricted in Vintage.
Violent Outburst is banned in Modern.
Next MTG ban list update expected May 13, 2023.
They may still be fair game in casual games with friends, but don't expect to show up to your local game store with a deck full of banned cards and get away with it.
There are particular cards which are banned across all forms of sanctioned play due to their racially or culturally offensive content but outside of these exceptions, the cards that wind up being subjected to a ban or restriction differ from format to format. Here are the full ban lists for each Magic: The Gathering format.
Magic:The Gathering Standard ban list
As a format that solely encompasses the previous three years of MTG's catalogue, Standard has a relatively short list of banned cards. This list includes:
- The Meathook Massacre
- Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
- Invoke Despair
- Reckoner Bankbuster
Magic:The Gathering Modern ban list
The Modern format allows players to construct decks with cards from Eighth Edition (released Summer 2003) onwards. However, it doesn't allow for the following banned cards:
- Ancient Den
- Arcum's Astrolabe
- Birthing Pod
- Blazing Shoal
- Bridge From Below
- Chrome Mox
- Cloudpost
- Dark Depths
- Deathrite Shaman
- Dig Through Time
- Dread Return
- Eye of Ugin
- Faithless Looting
- Field of the Dead
- Fury
- Gitaxian Probe
- Glimpse of Nature
- Golgari Grave-Troll
- Great Furnace
- Green Sun's Zenith
- Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
- Hypergenesis
- Krark-Clan Ironworks
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Mental Misstep
- Mox Opal
- Mycosynth Lattice
- Mystic Sanctuary
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Once Upon a Time
- Ponder
- Punishing Fire
- Rite of Flame
- Seat of the Synod
- Second Sunrise
- Seething Song
- Sensei's Divining Top
- Simian Spirit Guide
- Skullclamp
- Splinter Twin
- Summer Bloom
- Tibalt's Trickery
- Treasure Cruise
- Tree of Tales
- Umezawa's Jitte
- Up the Beanstalk
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Vault of Whispers
- Violent Outburst
- Yorion, Sky Nomad
Magic:The Gathering Vintage ban list
Vintage allows for almost all printed cards from Magic: The Gathering's thirty-plus year history, with the following exceptions:
- Chaos Orb
- Falling Star
- Shahrazad
All cards that have the card type Conspiracy
- Adrian's Valor
- Advantageous Proclamation
- Assemble Rank and Vile
- Backup Plan
- Brago's Favor
- Double Stroke
- Echoing Boom
- Emissary's Ploy
- Hired Heist
- Hold the Perimeter
- Hymn of the Wilds
- Immediate Action
- Incendiary Dissent
- Iterative Analysis
- Muzio's Preparations
- Natural Unity
- Power Play
- Secret Summoning
- Secrets of Paradise
- Sentinel Dispatch
- Sovereign Realm
- Summoner's Bond
- Unexpected Potential
- Weight Advantage
- Worldknit
All cards that reference "playing for ante"
- Amulet of Quoz
- Bronze Tablet
- Contract from Below
- Darkpact
- Demonic Attorney
- Jeweled Bird
- Rebirth
- Tempest Efreet
- Timmerian Fiends
Restricted cards are cards which you may only have one copy of in both your main deck and your sideboard. At it stands, Vintage is the only Magic: The Gathering format with a restricted list.
The restricted card list for Vintage consists of:
- Ancestral Recall
- Balance
- Black Lotus
- Brainstorm
- Chalice of the Void
- Channel
- Demonic Consultation
- Demonic Tutor
- Dig Through Time
- Flash
- Gitaxian Probe
- Golgari Grave-Troll
- Gush
- Imperial Seal
- Karn, the Great Creator
- Library of Alexandria
- Lion's Eye Diamond
- Lodestone Golem
- Lotus Petal
- Mana Crypt
- Mana Vault
- Memory Jar
- Mental Misstep
- Merchant Scroll
- Mind's Desire
- Monastery Mentor
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Jet
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Ruby
- Mox Sapphire
- Mystic Forge
- Mystical Tutor
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Necropotence
- Sol Ring
- Strip Mine
- Thorn of Amethyst
- Time Vault
- Time Walk
- Timetwister
- Tinker
- Tolarian Academy
- Treasure Cruise
- Trinisphere
- Vampiric Tutor
- Wheel of Fortune
- Windfall
- Yawgmoth's Will
Magic:The Gathering Legacy ban list
Like Vintage, Legacy allows for players to use cards dating all the way back to 1993. However, it has significantly more card bans. The banned cards in Legacy are:
- Ancestral Recall
- Arcum's Astrolabe
- Balance
- Bazaar of Baghdad
- Black Lotus
- Channel
- Chaos Orb
- Deathrite Shaman
- Demonic Consultation
- Demonic Tutor
- Dig Through Time
- Dreadhorde Arcanist
- Earthcraft
- Expressive Iteration
- Falling Star
- Fastbond
- Flash
- Frantic Search
- Gitaxian Probe
- Goblin Recruiter
- Gush
- Hermit Druid
- Imperial Seal
- Library of Alexandria
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Mana Crypt
- Mana Drain
- Mana Vault
- Memory Jar
- Mental Misstep
- Mind Twist
- Mishra’s Workshop
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Jet
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Ruby
- Mox Sapphire
- Mystical Tutor
- Necropotence
- Oath of Druids
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
- Sensei's Divining Top
- Shahrazad
- Skullclamp
- Sol Ring
- Strip Mine
- Survival of the Fittest
- Time Vault
- Time Walk
- Timetwister
- Tinker
- Tolarian Academy
- Treasure Cruise
- Underworld Breach
- Vampiric Tutor
- Wheel of Fortune
- White Plume Adventurer
- Windfall
- Wrenn and Six
- Yawgmoth's Bargain
- Yawgmoth's Will
- Zirda, the Dawnwaker
All cards that have the card type Conspiracy
- Adrian's Valor
- Advantageous Proclamation
- Assemble Rank and Vile
- Backup Plan
- Brago's Favor
- Double Stroke
- Echoing Boom
- Emissary's Ploy
- Hired Heist
- Hold the Perimeter
- Hymn of the Wilds
- Immediate Action
- Incendiary Dissent
- Iterative Analysis
- Muzio's Preparations
- Natural Unity
- Power Play
- Secret Summoning
- Secrets of Paradise
- Sentinel Dispatch
- Sovereign Realm
- Summoner's Bond
- Unexpected Potential
- Weight Advantage
- Worldknit
All cards that reference "playing for ante"
- Amulet of Quoz
- Bronze Tablet
- Contract from Below
- Darkpact
- Demonic Attorney
- Jeweled Bird
- Rebirth
- Tempest Efreet
- Timmerian Fiends
Magic:The Gathering Commander ban list
These cards are banned in sanctioned Commander games and can't be used a player's Commander or be present anywhere in their deck or sideboard:
All cards that have the card type Conspiracy
- Adrian's Valor
- Advantageous Proclamation
- Assemble Rank and Vile
- Backup Plan
- Brago's Favor
- Double Stroke
- Echoing Boom
- Emissary's Ploy
- Hired Heist
- Hold the Perimeter
- Hymn of the Wilds
- Immediate Action
- Incendiary Dissent
- Iterative Analysis
- Muzio's Preparations
- Natural Unity
- Power Play
- Secret Summoning
- Secrets of Paradise
- Sentinel Dispatch
- Sovereign Realm
- Summoner's Bond
- Unexpected Potential
- Weight Advantage
- Worldknit
All cards that reference "playing for ante"
- Amulet of Quoz
- Bronze Tablet
- Contract from Below
- Darkpact
- Demonic Attorney
- Jeweled Bird
- Rebirth
- Tempest Efreet
- Timmerian Fiends
Magic:The Gathering Block ban list
As each block uses different sets, each block in the Block MTG format has its own list of banned cards. These are:
Innistrad-Avacyn Restored
- Intangible Virtue
- Lingering Souls
Mirrodin
- Aether Vial
- Ancient Den
- Arcbound Ravager
- Darksteel Citadel
- Disciple of the Vault
- Great Furnace
- Seat of the Synod
- Tree of Tales
- Vault of Whispers
- Skullclamp
Masques
- Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
- Rishadan Port
Urza
- Gaea's Cradle
- Memory Jar
- Serra's Sanctum
- Time Spiral
- Tolarian Academy
- Voltaic Key
- Windfall
Tempest
- Cursed Scroll
Mirage
- Squandered Resources
Ice Age
- Amulet of Quoz
- Thawing Glaciers
- Zuran Orb
Magic:The Gathering Pauper ban list
The list of legal cards in Pauper includes cards that are of Common rarity. What it doesn't include are these banned cards:
- Aarakocra Sneak
- Arcum's Astrolabe
- Atog
- Bonder's Ornament
- Chatterstorm
- Cloud of Faeries
- Cloudpost
- Cranial Plating
- Daze
- Disciple of the Vault
- Empty the Warrens
- Fall from Favor
- Frantic Search
- Galvanic Relay
- Gitaxian Probe
- Grapeshot
- Gush
- High Tide
- Hymn to Tourach
- Invigorate
- Monastery Swiftspear
- Mystic Sanctuary
- Peregrine Drake
- Prophetic Prism
- Sinkhole
- Sojourner's Companion
- Stirring Bard
- Temporal Fissure
- Treasure Cruise
- Underdark Explorer
- Vicious Battlerager
Magic:The Gathering Pioneer ban list
Pioneer supports the use of cards from 2012's Return to Ravnica onwards, although these cards are banned in the format:
- Balustrade Spy
- Bloodstained Mire
- Expressive Iteration
- Felidar Guardian
- Field of the Dead
- Flooded Strand
- Geological Appraiser
- Inverter of Truth
- Karn, the Great Creator
- Kethis, the Hidden Hand
- Leyline of Abundance
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Nexus of Fate
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Once Upon a Time
- Polluted Delta
- Teferi, Time Raveler
- Undercity Informer
- Underworld Breach
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Veil of Summer
- Walking Ballista
- Wilderness Reclamation
- Windswept Heath
- Winota, Joiner of Forces
- Wooded Foothills
Magic:The Gathering Historic ban list
This non-rotating format is only playable on MTG Arena, and has the following cards on its ban list:
- Agent of Treachery
- Blood Moon
- Bloodstained Mire
- Brainstorm
- Channel
- Counterspell
- Dark Ritual
- Demonic Tutor
- Field of the Dead
- Flooded Strand
- Intruder Alarm
- Land Tax
- Lightning Bolt
- Memory Lapse
- Natural Order
- Necropotence
- Nexus of Fate
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Once Upon a Time
- Polluted Delta
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
- Show and Tell
- Sneak Attack
- Spreading Seas
- Swords to Plowshares
- Thassa's Oracle
- Tibalt's Trickery
- Time Warp
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Veil of Summer
- Wilderness Reclamation
- Windswept Heath
- Wooded Foothills
Magic:The Gathering Timeless ban list
Timeless is the digital-only equivalent to Vintage. As such, it has a relatively short ban list.
- Channel
- Demonic Tutor
- Tibalt’s Trickery
Magic:The Gathering Brawl ban list
This twist on Commander only allows for Standard legal cards. As well as this, the following cards are banned in Brawl:
- Agent of Treachery
- Chalice of the Void
- Channel
- Demonic Tutor
- Drannith Magistrate
- Field of the Dead
- Gideon's Intervention
- Lutri, the Spellchaser
- Meddling Mage
- Natural Order
- Nexus of Fate
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Phyrexian Revoker
- Pithing Needle
- Runed Halo
- Sorcerous Spyglass
- Tainted Pact
- Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Magic:The Gathering Explorer ban list
This MTG Arena exclusive format, like Pioneer, permits cards from as far back as Return to Ravnica. These are the cards on the Explorer ban list:
- Expressive Iteration
- Field of the Dead
- Geological Appraiser
- Karn, The Great Creator
- Kethis, the Hidden Hand
- Leyline of Abundance
- Lurrus of the Dream-Den
- Nexus of Fate
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Once Upon a Time
- Teferi, Time Raveler
- Tibalt's Trickery
- Underworld Breach
- Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
- Veil of Summer
- Wilderness Reclamation
- Winota, Joiner of Forces
Magic:The Gathering Alchemy ban list
There are currently no cards specifically banned in the Alchemy format.
