MtG: The Pioneer Banlist, Explained

Pioneer is one of Magic's youngest formats, and it's rapidly evolving—including its banlist. Here is a guide to all of Pioneer's banned cards.

As one of Magic the Gathering's youngest formats, Pioneer is changing and growing at an accelerated pace. Evolving alongside the meta of the format is the banlist, which was created to regulate the format. Some things were banned early on to help shape Pioneer's identity uniquely to differentiate between itself and Modern. Other things were banned as it was found they hurt the competitive diversity of the format or were simply too strong. Each card has its own reason, so being able to quickly reference Pioneer's dynamic banlist is helpful for MtG players.

Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Felidar Guardian

November 4, 2019

Felidar Guardian is part of a two card combo with Saheeli Rai that produces functionally infinite Felidar Guardian copies that can attack the enemy for lethal. The two card combo is relatively easy to assemble and was considered too fast and easy to win for this format, so Felidar Guardian was banned.

Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Nexus of Fate

December 16, 2019

Nexus of Fate was banned at the same time as Oko, Thief of Crowns was banned in the format to ensure that the Nexus deck wouldn't dominate with the absence of Oko. However, another consideration was that Nexus could lead to very long games and in general wasn't a very popular card due to how long it took to win.

Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Inverter of Truth

August 3, 2020

Inverter of Truth was part of a two card combo with Thassa's Oracle which won the game on the spot. It was hard to interact with without some form of countermagic, so Wizards decided to ban it alongside other key pieces of major combo decks.

Balustrade Spy

February 15, 2021

Balustrade Spy was part of the Oops All Spells deck, which played no lands, so the creature could mill the deck's entire library and win from there. Wizards felt the deck was too hard to interact with and had a too large share of the metagame.

Undercity Informer

February 15, 2021

Undercity Informer was another part of the Oops All Spells deck, which Wizards felt was taking up too much of the meta and was too hard to interact with. Both Informer and Balustrade Spy were banned in the same announcement.

Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Underworld Breach

August 3, 2020

In an attempt to reduce the number of early game combo decks, Wizards banned several cards in August targeting some of the faster combos in the format. Underworld Breach was one such card banned for its pivotal role in combo decks of the same name.

Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Leyline of Abundance

November 4, 2019

The Leyline was banned due to its interactions with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and how it created a large amount of mana for free, as Leyline can be cast for free if it is in your opening hand.

Veil of Summer

November 11, 2019

In the follow-up to Leyline of Abundance being banned, Wizards still felt that the green ramp decks were overrepresented in the format's meta and so decided to hit Veil of Summer, a key piece that shuts down interaction against those decks.

Once Upon a Time

December 2, 2019

Once Upon a Time allowed for too much free consistency and showed up in many green decks. The banning was also part of Wizard's initial smoothing out of the format, along with Smuggler's Copter and Field of the Dead.

Wilderness Reclamation

February 15, 2021

When Teferi was banned in the format, Wizards also banned Wilderness Reclamation, as there was some concern that the Wilderness Reclamation decks would go out of control without Teferi to keep it in check.

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Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Smuggler's Copter

December 2, 2019

Ubiquitous in aggro and midrange decks, Smuggler's Copter was a powerful card and was banned because of its effect on metagame diversity, as nearly every aggressive deck was playing it.

Walking Ballista

August 3, 2020

Walking Ballista has been an enabler that turns infinite mana or +1/+1 counter combos into one turn kills ever since it was released. Specifically, Wizards wished to nerf the Heliod, Sun Crowned decks that used the god to grant the Ballista lifelink and generate infinite +1/+1 counters.

Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Oko, Thief of Crowns

December 16, 2019

Oko was banned as it is an exceptionally powerful card, one of the most dominant printed in recent memory. It had something close to a 60% win rate with barely any poor matchups. It was simply too powerful for the format to handle.

Teferi, Time Raveler

February 15, 2021

Banned partially because of its power in Niv to Light decks, Teferi is also very often a game-defining card, especially in control matchups. Wizards noted Teferi as a card that had "overstayed its welcome" in standard previously.

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

February 15, 2021

Uro was banned due to its power level being too high for the format and the card itself being too dominant for a dual-colored creature. Wizards decided to get rid of the card in the interest of competitive diversity.

Lurrus of the Dream-Den

March 7, 2022

While Pioneer was not hit as hard by Lurrus as other formats like Vintage, Modern, and Legacy, Wizard decided to ban the card in Pioneer just to be safe. The concern was that as more sets were added to Pioneer, Lurrus would only become better and the card's presence would emphasize only the most efficient cards, which Wizards said in the B&R announcement is not what they want for the format. Lurrus being a companion also factored into its power.

Winota, Joiner of Forces

June 7, 2022

Winota was banned due to the fact that the Winota deck was too powerful and played too much. Winota effectively allowed players to get nigh on insurmountably ahead on board very quickly, meaning it forced the opponent to have removal or lose on the spot.

Expressive Iteration

June 7, 2022

Expressive Iteration is an extremely efficient cantrip, allowing players to effectively draw two cards and dig three cards deep into their library for only two mana. Unwilling to ban the delve cards in a format like Treasure Cruise, Wizards decided to hit Expressive Iteration to lower Izzet's power.

Kethis, the Hidden Hand

August 3, 2020

Kethis, the Hidden hand was part of several bans aimed at hitting key combo decks in the format. Using Mox Ambers and Dilligent Excavators, the Kethis deck aimed to mill themselves out to win with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.

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Card

Card Name

Date of Ban

Reason for Ban

Flooded Strand

October 21, 2019

The fetchlands were banned in general from Pioneer at the inception of the format in the interest of making sure it had a separate identity from Modern, which is defined by fetchland manabases.

Polluted Delta

October 21, 2019

See Flooded Strand

Bloodstained Mire

October 21, 2019

See Flooded Strand

Wooded Foothills

October 21, 2019

See Flooded Strand

Windswept Heath

October 21, 2019

See Flooded Strand

Field of the Dead

December 2, 2019

Field of the Dead was considered too strong in ramp decks for the format. Field of the Dead's deckbuilding cost is far less than the value it gives nearly for free.

Born in Hong Kong, Ross Lombardo moved to the US for university. He graduated from Ithaca College in 2021 with a Batchelor of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting and History. A fan of comics, video games and TV. He has worked as a freelance writer for several websites writing about television and games.