The 2025 Standard Bans

Where to focus brewing post a massive shake up in Standard

Seven cards were just banned in Standard. These were seven of the most powerful cards in the format. The bans particularly focused on powerful low mana cards.

• Cori-Steel Cutter

• Abuelo’s Awakening

• Monstrous Rage

• Heartfire Hero

• Up the Beanstalk

• Hopeless Nightmare

• This Town Ain’t Big Enough

The well reasoned explanation for these bans can be read here (highly recommend).

It is hard to say if this is vindication of my call of Hopeless Nightmare as the best card in WOE, when there are two more powerful cards from WOE also on this ban list!

What does this mean for us brewers

Wait and See

The best advice is to wait and see how the meta shakes out. It is extremely hard to predict how things will change.

There is a chance the format will meaningfully slow down.

But the “pixie” decks got hit hard by this ban and they were the key deck that could efficiently keep creatures in check. And Domain, the control deck of the format, was hit even harder.

So there’s a chance the format stays fast, just in a different form.

Power Outliers that were not hit

But that is not what we do here. We brew: we brew when the meta is uncertain, and we brew with better results when the meta firms up.

Note: I will be focusing on cards that will be around post rotation

There is one stand out that was not hit: Stock Up. It’s up there with Cori-Steel, Monstrous Rage, and Up the Beanstalk in terms of above rate power and is the number one place to focus brewing.

Strong but slightly too fair

The hope is these bans do slow things down a bit and allow fair decks to breathe a bit. That means the four and five mana cards that have been staring in from the outside are worth a try.

Yuna is particularly interesting because the power is definitely there and it felt like with more time she might have found a home in the pre-ban standard. Also, Omniscience is still around and looking for a new reanimation spell.

(And lets cross our fingers that Fecund Greenshell belongs in this group, but that card is very dependent on the removal in the meta).

What are the new card advantage engines

This ban aggressively went after the efficient engines:

• Cori-Steel

• Up the Beanstalk

• Town Ain’t Big Enough (when combined with Stormchasers)

• Emberheart Challenger (Heartfire Hero ban is big hit to Emberheart)

Which efficient engines remain?

Three toughness creatures and Ward

Nowhere to Run initially suppressed this group. And then Prowess continued the suppression. Monstrous Rage also made them quite mediocre at blocking. It is time to consider these cards again, especially the ones that were still seeing play despite the hostile environment.

Where I am starting

I am a bit overwhelmed at where to start, given how big of a change this.

My plan is to test out some of the recent decks that I have had success with and see if they fair better in a post ban meta.

Then try a few Greenshell brews which had been held back by way too much one and two mana removal that deals with the turtle (Leyline Binding, Town, Flood Maw).

And then hopefully have a better sense of the format and try out some new stuff.

Good luck with your brewing into this fresh format!