Wizards of the Coast has banned Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Reckoner Bankbuster, and Invoke Despair in Magic: The Gathering’s Standard format.
The bans are the second step Wizards has taken to try and revitalize Standard. The move comes just two weeks after the announcement that Standard would be moving to a three-year rotation cycle—from the traditional two-year cycle—which would be accompanied by a new once-yearly scheduled Banned and Restricted update.
All three cards banned today were printed as a part of the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty expansion in February 2022 and have featured prominently in Standard for much of the last year since the set’s release. Not only were all three cards from the same set, but they also form the backbone of the same deck: the powerful Black/Red shell that dominated the last month of Standard tournaments at Pro Tour March of the Machine and Arena Championship 3.
Today’s announcement is not the once-yearly Banned and Restricted list update for 2023. The next update, which is set for August 7, 2023, will be the first example of the one-yearly scheduled announcement.
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
Fable of the Mirror-Breaker has clearly been one of the best cards in Standard “for the entirety of its tenure in Standard,” Wizards said. “Its ability to generate resources, card flow, and be a must-kill threat is unmatched at its level of efficiency” and while there are a few answers in the format, they “frequently cost much more than three mana, and it is especially difficult to beat on the draw.”
Wizards hopes that removing Fable of the Mirror-Breaker from Standard will bring down the power level of the Black/Red decks that are currently dominating the format. They also want players to “make deck-building choices for these strategies more meaningful as to whether they want a threat, card selection, or the ability to enable reanimation” rather than to be able to just play Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to do all three.
Reckoner Bankbuster
Like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Reckoner Bankbuster has been a Standard staple over the last year. However, due to the fact that it is colorless, it can be played in any deck and has thus managed to become a bit more ubiquitous than Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.
In fact, 23 copies of Reckoner Bankbuster were played across seven of the Top 8 decks at Pro Tour March of the Machine, while 20 copies of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker were played in five of the Top 8 decks!
“As a colorless card, it has been effortless to slot into a wide variety of colors and strategies,” Wizards said. “Its general ubiquity and strength have pushed out other card-advantage options too much as a colorless card.”
They are also worried about the pressure it has had on the creatures players can put in their decks. Wizards said that it “put stress on creature sizing, as creatures that can crew Reckoner Bankbuster have been more favored than others” when constructing decks, thus forcing out other viable creatures in favor of those with three or more power.
Invoke Despair
The banning of Invoke Despair, a five-mana sorcery requiring four Black mana, might come as a surprise to some. But the card’s strength lies in the fact that it does two things very, very well. It is “powerful for managing the battlefield and generating card advantage,” Wizards said. But that alone isn’t uncommon for a Black card—the fact that it is also “excellent for shoring up some of Black’s weaknesses” is what puts it over the top.
“Traditionally, playing a wide variety of permanent types is strong against decks with a lot of one-for-one removal,” Wizards noted. Card types like enchantments and Planeswalkers usually provide good counterplay to removal-heavy strategies (especially enchantments since Black has historically struggled to answer that card type) but Invoke Despair manages to address both of those counters. When combined with the fact that it also provides card advantage at the same, time, Wizards decided that Invoke Despair was too strong to stay in Standard.
Deck Lists
Check out the decks that won the last two major Standard events, Pro Tour March of the Machine and Arena Chamipionship 3. Both decks played all three of the cards banned today.
Nathan Steuer's Standard Rakdos Midrange (1st at Pro Tour March of the Machine)
| Creatures (9) 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 4 Bloodtithe Harvester 2 Graveyard Trespasser Planeswalkers (2) 2 Chandra, Hope’s Beacon Instants (8) 4 Go for the Throat 3 Cut Down 1 Abrade Sorceries (7) 4 Invoke Despair 1 Light Up the Night 2 Duress Artifacts (4) 4 Reckoner Bankbuster Enchantments (4) 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker | Lands (26) 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance 4 Haunted Ridge 10 Swamp 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 4 Sulfurous Springs 1 Mountain Sideboard (15) 2 Liliana of the Veil 1 Abrade 1 Rotten Reunion 2 Lithomantic Barrage 2 Duress 1 Cut Down 2 Razorlash Transmogrant 2 Glistening Deluge 1 Obliterating Bolt 1 Soul Transfer |
Benjamin Broadstone's Standard Rakdos Breach (1st at Arena Championship 3)
| Creatures (9) 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse 1 Etali, Primal Conqueror 2 Graveyard Trespasser 4 Bloodtithe Harvester Planeswalkers (2) 2 Chandra, Hope’s Beacon Sorceries (7) 2 Breach the Multiverse 2 Duress 3 Invoke Despair Artifacts (3) 3 Reckoner Bankbuster Enchantments (4) 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker Instants (10) 2 Cut Down 3 Go for the Throat 2 Abrade 3 Big Score | Lands (25) 2 Mountain 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance 4 Haunted Ridge 1 Ziatora’s Proving Ground 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 8 Swamp 4 Sulfurous Springs Sideboard (15) 1 Breach the Multiverse 2 Lithomantic Barrage 1 Reckoner Bankbuster 2 Obliterating Bolt 1 Etali, Primal Conqueror 2 Duress 2 Cut Down 2 Razorlash Transmogrant 2 Gix’s Command |