Wizards of the Coast has banned Oko, Thief of Crowns from Magic: the Gathering’s Brawl format on MTG Arena.
While Wizards did not provide any reasoning for the ban, Oko, Thief of Crowns has been affecting every Magic format he is legal in. Ever since Brawl, which allows for players to use any Standard-legal legendary creature of Planeswalker as their Commander, was introduced on MTG Arena along with Throne of Eldraine, decks using Oko as their Commander have dominated the format. So much so, in fact, that players had started conceding on sight to opposing Oko decks.
The banning of Oko, Thief of Crowns is the second time a Commander has been banned from Brawl after the format’s creation in March 2018. The first Commander to get banned was Baral, Chief of Compliance in May 2018, which made up a huge 35% of the metagame and had a 65% win rate on Magic Online when it was banned. Additionally, Wizards said that Baral’s “counterspell-heavy play pattern…detracts from what [players] enjoy about the format, effectively nullifying many deck-building choices at too efficient of a rate.”
Sorcerous Spyglass was also banned alongside Baral due to the fact that it was a colorless artifact that could easily shut down opposing Planeswalker Commanders.
Oko, Thief of Crowns is the second card to be added to the current Brawl ban list, joining Sorcerous Spyglass, which remains banned after getting reprinted in Throne of Eldraine as Ixalan rotated out of Standard.
Oko’s ban means that he cannot be used as your Brawl Commander and cannot be included in the maindeck of any Brawl deck on MTG Arena—but only on MTG Arena, though no explanation has been given as to why the ban doesn’t apply to tabletop as well. MTG Arena users will not receive any Wildcards as compensation since Oko, Thief of Crowns hasn’t been banned in Standard. (Yet.)