This morning, Wizards of the Coast banned Attune With Aether, Rogue Refiner, Ramunap Ruins, and Rampaging Ferocidon from Standard.
Temur Energy has been the best deck in Standard for almost half a year, after Brad Nelson, Corey Baumeister, and Brian Braun-Duin all made the Top 4 of Grand Prix Denver with the same 75-card Temur Energy Deck. Wizards acknowledged that the deck has been too dominant for too long and that the release of Rivals of Ixalan this week will not do enough to weaken it. They therefore banned two of the most important Energy-generating cards, Attune With Aether and Rogue Refiner, in order to weaken the deck but still maintain enough of it’s core for it to remain competitive.
While it was expected at least one ban would target Termur Energy, the other two bannings, both from the Ramunap Red deck, took many by surprise. However, Wizards revealed that Ramunap Red was actually the winningest deck in the format and that Temur Energy was the only deck keeping it in check. In order to prevent the Rivals of Ixalan Standard season from being dominated by Ramunap Red, Wizards banned Ramanup Ruins, the card that gave the deck it’s name and the most “free” late-game wins, as well as Rampaging Ferocidon, which punished the strategies that can effectively counter a mono-Red deck.
These bannings are just the latest chapter in what has been a rough year for Standard. Last January, Wizards announced the first bans in Standard since 2011, banning Emrakul, the Promised End, Smuggler’s Copter, and Reflector Mage. Wizards has since banned a total of nine cards from Standard, including the four from today’s announcement. This surpasses the total of eight cards that were banned in 2004 and 2005 from the Ravager Affinity Standard deck, which is widely seen as the lowest point in Magic’s history.
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Read Wizards of the Coast’s announcement banning Attune with Aether, Rogue Refiner, Ramunap Ruins, and Rampaging Ferocidon here.