Banned Magic the Gathering Cards.
One key to the continued health of Magic is diversity. It is vitally important to ensure that there are multiple competitive decks for the tournament player to choose from. Why? If there were only a single viable deck to play, tournaments would quickly stagnate as players were forced to either play that deck or a deck built specifically to beat it. In addition, different players enjoy playing different types of decks. If there are plenty of viable options to play, there will be more players at more tournaments. To help maintain the diversity and health of the Magic tournament environment, a system of banned and restricted lists has been developed. These lists are made up of cards that are either not allowed at all, or allowed only in a very limited manner. It's important to note a couple of things: First, these lists apply only to Constructed formats and not Limited formats. Second, the banned and restricted lists are format-specific, so a card that is banned in Modern may still be legal to play in Standard. BANNED CARDS If a card appears on the banned list for your chosen format, then you may not include that card in your deck or sideboard. Doing so makes your deck illegal to play in any sanctioned tournaments for that format. Cards are usually banned from play if they enable a deck or play style that heavily skews the play environment. What does that mean? If the card were legal, a competitive player either must be playing it, or must be specifically targeting it with his or her own strategies. Some cards are banned because they have proven to simply be too powerful in their respective format. While hundreds of hours are spent rigorously playtesting sets before their release, the complexity of Magic makes it nearly impossible to accurately predict all the ways the new cards interact with older ones. Cards whose art, text, name, or combination thereof that are racially or culturally offensive are banned in all formats. This list is a work in progress. Click here for the list. RESTRICTED CARDS If you wish to use a card that’s on the restricted list for your chosen format, you may include only a single copy of that card, counting both your main deck and your sideboard. Currently, only the Vintage format uses a restricted list.
STANDARD BANNED CARDS The following cards are banned:
The Meathook Massacre
MODERN BANNED CARDS This format lets you dive deeper into Magic's history, allowing cards from Eighth edition to today. The following cards are banned:
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
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
Preordain
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
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Vault of Whispers
Yorion, Sky Nomad
VINTAGE BANNED AND RESTRICTED CARDS While Modern lets you play cards from as far back as 2003, Vintage lets you play cards from any set in the 20+ year history of Magic! The following cards are banned from Vintage play:
25 cards with the Card Type “Conspiracy.” Click here for list.
9 cards that reference "playing for ante." Click here for list.
Cards whose art, text, name, or combination thereof that are racially or culturally offensive are banned in all formats. This list is a work in progress. Click here for the list.
Chaos Orb
Falling Star
Shahrazad
The following cards are restricted, which means you can only have one of them in your main deck and sideboard combined:
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
Ponder
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
LEGACY BANNED CARDS The following cards are banned in legacy tournaments:
25 cards with the Card Type “Conspiracy.” Click here for list.
9 cards that reference "playing for ante." Click here for list.
Cards whose art, text, name, or combination thereof that are racially or culturally offensive are banned in all formats. This list is a work in progress. Click here for the list.
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
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
Mind’s Desire
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
Windfall
Wrenn and Six
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Yawgmoth's Will
Zirda, the Dawnwaker
COMMANDER BANNED CARDS The following cards are banned from the format:
25 cards with the Card Type “Conspiracy." Click here for list.
9 cards that reference "playing for ante." Click here for list.
Cards whose art, text, na