Wizards of the Coast has banned Drannith Magistrate and Winota, Joiner of Forces in Magic: the Gathering’s Brawl format. Lurrus of the Dream-Den was also banned in Legacy and Vintage, while Zirda, the Dawnwaker was banned in Legacy.
All four cards are from Magic’s most recent set, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and were banned a month after the set released online on April 16. Its worldwide tabletop release was delayed to May 15—which was last Friday—due to the impacts of COVID-19, meaning that these cards were only available in physical Ikoria booster packs for three days before they were banned.
Drannith Magistrate
As expected, Drannith Magistrate was banned from Brawl for the same reasons that Sorcerous Spyglass and Meddling Mage have been banned: Wizards believes that “it shouldn’t be easy for a single card to completely shut down a wide class of commanders.” Drannith Magistrate clearly falls into that category, since it prevents Commanders from being played from the Command Zone, and has therefore been banned.
Winota, Joiner of Forces
Wizards said that Winota, Joiner of Forces decks in Brawl are achieving “high win rates” that are “leading to increased play rates and reduced diversity of play experiences for Brawl players.”
Winota’s ability allows players to cast her on Turn 4 and immediately attack with a number of non-Humans for the chance to put additional creatures into play—attacking, with indestructible!—for free. This ability tends to find Agent of Treachery in Standard, but given the color restrictions of the format, that card doesn’t fit into a Winota deck in Brawl. Instead, Brawl players can get (again, indestructible!) Haktos the Unscarred or Spikewheel Acrobat for free and end up attacking for approximately one million damage on Turn 4.
“While we’re generally more tolerant of win rate outliers in Brawl than in formats with a more competitive spirit behind them,” Wizards said, “we’re choosing to make a change here in order to open up more viable choices for self-expression in the Brawl metagame.”