Wizards of the Coast updated its Magic: The Gathering Banned and Restricted Lists on the morning of August 26. The bannings won't take effect in tournament play until August 30.

The following cards will be banned/unbanned in their respective formats:

• Standard format. Rampaging Ferocidon is unbanned.
• Modern format. Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis  and Faithless Looting are banned. Stonefore Mystic is unbanned.
• Vintage format. Karn, the Great Creator, Mystic Forge, Mental Misstep, Golgari Grave-Troll are all restricted. Fastbond is unrestricted.

The most significant part of this announcement was the long-called-for banning of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. Hogaak was released in June's Modern Horizons set, and had terrorized Modern and Legacy players on the MagicFest circuit since that point. WOTC initially tried to deal with the clearly over-powered card by banning Bridge From Below, an enabler card for Hogaak decks, but Hogaak kept putting up high win percentages at major tournaments such as Mythic Championship IV in Barcelona and MagicFest Minneapolis. The final straw was MagicFest Las Vegas over the weekend where Hogaak decks claimed five of the top eight rankings, including first place.

Hogaak was the first truly format-warping card to come out of an in-print retail set since Aetherworks Marvel in Kaladesh. WOTC has been making an active effort to make sure cards that irreparably alter the tournament metagame aren't printed in newer sets because packs with banned cards are a hard sell to players, but it was clear that Hogaak slipped through the cracks. Thus, the "Summer of Hogaak", as Modern players had referred to it, came to a close this morning.

Up until this announcement, Modern Horizons was over-performing in sales according to the Hasbro Q2 Report (see "'Magic' Sales Drive Hasbro Q2 Growth").