The One Ring Modern Bans

Modern fans around the world are woke up to an early Christmas present on Monday, as the latest Banned & Restricted announcement made some huge and widely-anticipated moves to shake up the non-rotating format.

While there was some light attention paid to cards in Pioneer and Legacy, it’s clear that rebalancing Modern was the #1 priority for this ban cycle. You just don’t often see seven legality changes made to a single format in one go! The official rationale from Wizards confirmed their lofty ambition: to usher in a new era of Modern… even if that means dredging up relics of its past.

Let’s take a first look at what’s now out, what’s in, and what all of that might mean for the future of the Modern metagame.

ONE BAN TO RULE THEM ALL

We should begin with the most obvious change, or at least the one most people expected could be part of this announcement:

The One Ring is banned.

Some might say this ban could have happened months ago, or even as soon as the card showed up in set spoilers. Certainly if you look at its statistical impact on deck choices and metagame share, it seems that destroying The Ring is as paramount to the future of Modern as to that of Middle-earth!

But it still seems significant that Wizards would go through with banning such an expensive staple just 18 months after release. The One Ring was the chase rare for Tales of Middle-earth. Not only that, it was the buy-a-box promo – and of course there was the Willy Wonka-esque hubbub around trying to find the pack with that million-dollar “One-of-One Ring” card. 

Combine those facts and you can reasonably argue that demand for Rings drove a significant percentage of sales for that (extremely successful) set. Even Modern players who bought their set on the singles market have had to deal with prices inflated by that supply imbalance.

If Wizards cares at all about “damaging player trust” or similar consequences of bans devaluing premium cards and decks, then they must have really felt the balance argument against The Ring was insurmountable.

But if that is the case, why did it take this long to act on it? We’re talking about a colorless draw engine that often Time Walks opponents on ETB, requires no synergy or special deckbuilding to work, and that boasts a ratio of life/mana to cards only fractionally worse than Necropotence.

The One Ring has been the consensus Best Card In Modern since shortly after its debut, and has been core to The Best Deck In Modern (despite that being nominally an aggro deck) for several months. Surely if it was allowed to survive multiple B&R announcements before this, that meant the powers that be were ok with it?

I have to think that a lot of players, even those who doubted its future at first, had started to come around on The Ring as a long-term investment in Modern. Those who didn’t want to buy in were left with fewer and fewer options for decks to play without it… and it’s that stifling effect on deckbuilding which has now finally proven them right.

It’s hard to say precisely banning The One Ring will impact the metagame when so many different decks were bending over backwards to play it. But the biggest losers will be the clunky brews and odd-color midrange lists which were entirely dependent on The Ring’s firehose card draw to take games long.

The top-tier decks will be fine, they can go back to how they were set up pre-MH3. But for something like Martyr Control, which I wrote a blog about here just a month or two ago, there is no obvious second option which can drag the shell to competitiveness. Better to have lifegained and lost than never gained life at all, I suppose…

MINIMUM VIABLE COMPANION

If Wizards did indeed ban The One Ring for being too good and versatile to not play absolutely everywhere, then at least you can say they’re consistent:

Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned.

Another Ikoria companion is suddenly extinct, with Wizards also banning Jegantha from Explorer and Pioneer in this announcement. At this point it’s more a question of why the rest of them are still being allowed to hang around!

I say so because it is undeniably the companion mechanic itself that’s being called out here. The previously-banished Lurrus or Yorion, or even some of the remaining legal companions (Obosh) could feasibly work as force-multipliers that significantly power up your deck when called into play, but not Jegantha. This is as milquetoast a “bonus card” as you can imagine, at the equally-unsexy total cost of eight mana.

But even a card this bad is good enough to make it into 40% of Modern decks when it comes as an any-time-you-need-it bonus spell at zero in-game cost. Unless the deckbuilding condition attached to a companion is prohibitive to your archetype, it’s simply better to have one than to not.

Unfortunately for Wizards, Jegantha’s condition doesn’t really disrupt any specific part of your curve or gameplan – it just forces you to choose from among fewer options for any given slot. The evidence clearly shows it’s not slowing these decks down on the tabletop and if anything it leads deckbuilders to be less creative.

This ban will be impactful on the metagame in that many players will have to review their lists and consider what Jegantha-unfriendly spells might now be playable, but I’d be shocked if it deeply affected how people go about their business game to game.

Remember, Jegantha was apparently in 40% of Modern decks, and I doubt a single one was actually excited to cast it. What card deserves a ban more than that one?

Amped Raptor is banned

Unlike the other two ban-ees, Amped Raptor is not being dragged to the gallows solely for its own sins. It’s not the strongest card in Boros Energy (that would be The One Ring), nor is it even the best card unique to that archetype. You could make the case for any one of the Ocelot Pride/Guide of Souls/Ajani, Nacatl Pariah package packing more of a punch, and I’d agree with you.

What the Raptor does for the deck is noticeably raise the ceiling of its nuttiest draws, both in terms of fast openers and in stumbling into sudden reversals or comebacks when it seems the Boros deck’s down and out.

Therefore, Wizards deliberately considering the other signature cards for this deck and then banning Raptor tells me that it’s only those unpredictable explosive draws which go beyond the grounds of good taste. 

Do you agree it’ll be enough to slow down the current Best Deck In Modern? Boros Energy will also be losing The One Ring, but it seems like that will hurt it less than most other strategies that were playing it.

If anything it seems like Wizards have deliberately chosen not to crush the Energy deck as hard as they could. Instead, they’re looking to taper off its absolute peak while elevating some new challengers to the same level.

FAITHLESS NO MORE

By far the most surprising outcome of this announcement is actually the four un-bannings, each one representing a potential shot in the arm for some once-great Modern decks.

Faithless Looting is unbanned

Mox Opal is unbanned

Green Sun’s Zenith is unbanned

Splinter Twin is unbanned

More specifically, this looks like a lot of great Modern combo decks getting a huge nitrous boost to kickstart this new era! The first three spells are admittedly rather flexible in use, but their most iconic roles have always been in aggressive combo strategies, and I can’t see why that would be different now even five or ten years later.

Faithless Looting will be a huge winner for dredge and related graveyard abusers like Vengevine and Hollow One, though really most red lists can benefit from its awesome draw-smoothing. Mox Opal still doesn’t have old buddy Krark-Clan Ironworks free to cook with, but you can pair it up with grillmaster Urza or any other deck which cares about or can loop-cast artifacts.

Green Sun’s Zenith is a bit muddier in purpose – the creature combo decks it once fueled have shifted colors and now there are a lot of pieces in Yawgmoth or Broodscale combo that it just can’t tutor. But, now we know we have GSZ on deck, maybe that’s enough to get the meta turning towards a different combo, just like Yawgmoth combo fell off after MH3? I’ll be rooting for Enchantress, personally.

Last (and definitely least, in my opinion) is Splinter Twin. Unlike the others, this card is no generalist utility piece: it’s half a wincon, and one which defines the play patterns of the deck you put it in. Yes, I do have a lot of personal resentment towards Twin decks, but even I have to admit it’s a good time to finally say yes to the meme and unban it. We’ll see how well everyone’s instant interaction can line up with Deceiver Exarch in 2025!

GAMBLING ON A NEW EQUILIBRIUM

Usually a Modern B&R is always controversial, but this time it seems like almost everyone is excited. Even if you weren’t personally picketing Wizards HQ demanding they expunge The One Ring from history, you probably are not shedding tears over its loss.

And if you are (perhaps you speculated on a few extra copies to trade) then perhaps the sudden re-emergence of these legendary combo shells can keep you thinking positively! I would be shocked if combo didn’t really help define this “new era”, not only with all the retro builds but also because nothing was taken away from decks like Belcher, Necrodominance or Rootwalla/Scales combo.

These were already some of the fastest ways to win before, and they’ll only be (relatively) faster now with less power and less counterplay from The One Ring. I also worry that the loss of The Ring will hamstring a lot of control decks, who you would otherwise hope could step in and police the fast combo now that they don’t need to sell out to stop Energy. This is going to be a wild couple of weeks for sure – but at least this announcement has us all excited to think about Modern again!