Wizards of the Coast continues to ban its way through the
Magic: The Gathering Pioneer format as they added three more cards, Field of the Dead, Once Upon a Time, and Smuggler's Copter, to their Banned and Restricted List. The series of bannings spread out through Q4 shows a concentrated effort by WotC to attempt to balance the Pioneer format, which they unveiled in October (see "
'Magic: The Gathering' Ban Hammer Comes Down On 'Field of the Dead'", and also, "
Rolling For Initiative -- Fun with Amazon Pricing and the Reasoning Behind Pioneer Format").
WotC just added Field of the Dead, Once Upon a Time, and Smuggler's Copter to the list today, and now, the current Banned List for Pioneer is as follows:
- Bloodstained Mire
- Felidar Guardian
- Field of the Dead
- Flooded Strand
- Leyline of Abundance
- Oath of Nissa
- Once Upon a Time
- Polluted Delta
- Smuggler's Copter
- Veil of Summer
- Windswept Heath
- Wooded Foothills
Pioneer is gaining momentum heading into 2020 when the first MagicFest Pioneer events are set to occur (MagicFest Brussels in January and MagicFest Phoenix in February), and WotC is making a real effort to balance the format before these events happen. The huge marketing push Pioneer is receiving, on the premium event level, should be overall positive, and will help attract players to in-store events on the FLGS front.
WotC also announced new product line details for Ikoria: Lair of Benemoths (see "Details Revealed For 'Magic: The Gathering' 'Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths' Product Line
