MTG November 2025 Ban List Update: Complete Format Analysis
Format Updates
MTG November 2025 Ban List Update: Complete Format Analysis
Breaking down all banned cards across Standard, Pioneer, Legacy, and more
The November 10, 2025 banned and restricted announcement has finally arrived, bringing significant changes across multiple Magic: The Gathering formats. This comprehensive update addresses format health concerns that have been building since the summer announcement, with Wizards of the Coast taking decisive action to restore balance and gameplay diversity.
According to the official announcement, these changes represent the final ban list update for 2025, with the next announcement scheduled for February 9, 2026. Wizards has also committed to increasing the frequency of ban announcements going forward to better respond to metagame imbalances.
Complete Ban Summary
Standard Format:
- Vivi Ornitier - Banned
- Screaming Nemesis - Banned
- Proft's Eidetic Memory - Banned
Vivi Ornitier was the centerpiece of the dominant Izzet Cauldron deck
Pioneer Format:
- Heartfire Hero - Banned
Legacy Format:
- Entomb - Banned
- Nadu, Winged Wisdom - Banned
Nadu, Winged Wisdom was banned for creating non-interactive gameplay
Pauper Format:
- High Tide - Banned (re-banned after trial unban)
Historic Format (Pre-bans):
- Force of Negation - Pre-banned
- Frantic Search - Pre-banned
- Mystical Tutor - Pre-banned
- Entomb - Pre-banned
- Dark Depths - Pre-banned
Brawl Format:
- Strip Mine - Banned
- Mana Drain - Banned
- Chrome Mox - Banned
- Ancient Tomb - Banned
Standard: The Izzet Cauldron Crisis
Standard has been in poor shape for months, dominated by the Izzet Cauldron deck featuring the powerful Vivi Ornitier and Agatha's Soul Cauldron combo alongside Proft's Eidetic Memory. This deck has cemented itself as the strongest strategy with "unacceptably high win and play rates over a sustained duration."
Wizards chose to ban Vivi Ornitier rather than Agatha's Soul Cauldron because Vivi is "the card that's more likely to create future balance problems if allowed to remain in the format." Proft's Eidetic Memory was banned alongside cards like Up the Beanstalk due to being "one-card game plans that provide a lot of strength over the course of a game" that are "hard to profitably interact with."
Screaming Nemesis was banned to prevent Mono-Red from becoming the dominant deck
Screaming Nemesis was banned from Mono-Red Aggro to prevent it from becoming the clear front-runner in a post-Izzet Cauldron world. Screaming Nemesis "singlehandedly removes most counterplay against Mono-Red by giving the Mono-Red deck a great game plan against two of Mono-Red's natural predators: life gain and large blockers."
Pioneer: Reducing Mono-Red's Stranglehold
Pioneer appears healthy from an outside perspective with multiple viable decks, but the core problem—especially on MTG Arena—is that too large a portion of the format consists of Mono-Red Aggro and decks built specifically to prey on it. Mono-Red Aggro has "the highest win-rate by a substantial margin" and in Best-of-One play, it sees more play than the second and third most-played archetypes combined.
Heartfire Hero is the primary culprit, creating extreme pressure on opponents to have first-turn interaction or risk dying by turn three. Wizards believes that "Pioneer is deep enough that Mono-Red Aggro should be able to comfortably adapt" and reducing this early pressure will "broaden what its players can explore."
Legacy: End of an Era for Reanimator
After years of trying to preserve the iconic Entomb and Reanimate play pattern, Wizards has finally banned Entomb from Legacy. For multiple years, Dimir Reanimator has "rested atop the Legacy metagame, surviving multiple bans, and each step has barely fazed the deck."
Banning Entomb wasn't taken lightly, but the card's design makes it "too easy to leverage high-impact threats without having to commit to the fail states that normally come with a synergistic enabler-plus-payoff combo deck." This has created "a version of Legacy that has been divisive at best and reviled at worst."
Entomb has been a staple in Legacy Reanimator decks for years
Nadu, Winged Wisdom was also banned as a "power-level outlier that's flown under the radar." In the hands of skilled players, Nadu could create games that were "non-deterministic, takes a long time to resolve, is physically difficult to represent, and can take a long time to kill the opponent despite the game effectively being decided."
Modern: A Healthy Metagame
Modern is in a great place right now. The format has seen a significant amount of competitive pressure, including Pro Tour Edge of Eternities and the first round of Modern Regional Championships. The Pro Tour featured a diverse Modern metagame with seven different decks in its Top 8.
Decks like Amulet Titan and Izzet Affinity have shown themselves as previously known forces to reckon with. While Amulet Titan has some tournament logistical issues due to its complexity, Wizards believes "Modern's ability to absorb most forms of combo decks over time" means no changes are needed at this time.
Pauper: High Tide Returns to the Banned List
High Tide was unbanned in March as part of a "trial unban" experiment suggested by the Pauper Format Panel. While Prophetic Prism went over without much discussion, High Tide proved problematic.
Players quickly developed a deck that used the splice onto Arcane mechanic to generate enormous amounts of mana by repeatedly splicing Psychic Puppetry. Considering the deck's strong results, the exorbitant time it takes to execute the combo, and the unfun play pattern it creates, Wizards decided to ban High Tide again.
Brawl: A New Philosophy for Casual Play
Brawl has undergone significant changes with four powerful cards banned. This represents "a new approach toward our stewardship of Brawl" as Wizards reexamines the format's philosophy. With many powerful cards added through Arena Anthologies, bonus sheets, and Special Guests releases, Brawl has accelerated beyond its intended casual pace.
For these bans, Wizards considered cards that satisfy three conditions: they are homogenizing (appear in many decks), efficient (high impact relative to cost), and polar (high upside with dramatic game outcomes). Strip Mine exemplifies this category—it can be included in any deck as a land, lacks deck-building costs, and can completely shut down land-light opponents or become a win condition with graveyard recursion.
Mana Drain has been controversial since its debut. While its overall win rate has never been high, it is "an auto-include in any blue deck" and creates "enormous swing in game state" when used on commanders or early spells. Players who draw a Mana Drain in their opening hand have a ten-percent higher win rate.
Chrome Mox and Ancient Tomb fall into a similar category. Both are colorless mana accelerants that ask players to pay high-polarity costs. When proactive, these costs are small relative to the mana advantage gained, but when on the defensive, they become significant liabilities.
Historic: Preventative Pre-Bans
Historic received five pre-bans ahead of cards entering the format through Arena Anthologies releases:
- Force of Negation - Pre-banned to prevent free counterspells from dominating the format
- Frantic Search - Pre-banned as a free combo-enabler
- Mystical Tutor - Pre-banned for providing dangerous redundancy for non-interactive strategies
- Entomb - Pre-banned for enabling consistently powerful reanimation strategies with Persist and Necromancy
- Dark Depths - Pre-banned due to being too consistent and non-interactive with land tutors and Thespian's Stage
While the current Historic metagame is reasonably balanced, Wizards notes an increasing "power-level delta between the most-popular decks in the lower ladder and the top-tier decks." More changes to Historic are expected as they reexamine the format philosophy and banned list in the coming months.
Looking Forward: More Frequent Updates
Wizards acknowledged that this year's cadence for banned and restricted announcements "has not been ideal and competitive Standard suffered for it, especially in the last three months." To address this, they will be "increasing the number of banned and restricted update windows" in 2026 to respond more quickly to metagame imbalances.
The next banned and restricted announcement will be on February 9, 2026. In the meantime, Wizards will discuss these changes on WeeklyMTG on November 11 at 10 a.m. PT.
Conclusion: A Healthier Magic Ecosystem
This November 2025 ban list represents a significant shift in how Wizards approaches format health across Magic's ecosystem. The announcement acknowledges past shortcomings while taking bold steps to preserve the unique identities of each format.
Standard players can look forward to a more diverse metagame without the Izzet Cauldron deck's dominance. Pioneer should see reduced Mono-Red pressure, allowing other strategies to flourish. Legacy will need to adapt to a world without Entomb, while Brawl enters a new era focused on maintaining its casual identity. Pauper returns to a more balanced state without High Tide's polarizing presence, and Historic's pre-bans should prevent format destabilization before problematic cards even enter the format.
As the Magic community looks toward February's next announcement, these changes promise healthier, more diverse metagames across all formats. Whether you're a competitive player or casual enthusiast, these adjustments aim to make Magic more enjoyable for everyone at the table.
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Discuss the bans? Share your thoughts in the comments below! How will these changes affect your favorite formats?
This article is based on the official Wizards of the Coast announcement dated November 10, 2025. All card images and logos are property of Wizards of the Coast. Scryfall links are provided for card reference and verification.
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