Magic: The Gathering officially bans multiple cards in the August 2026 Banned and Restricted Announcement post, including a rare and valuable Mythic. Magic: The Gathering has found itself in a strange spot in recent years, as the game is getting more sets than before in one year, while also increasing the rotation period in Standard to three years total. This can create an environment where past cards suddenly become popular thanks to new combos and releases, and it can be hard for Wizards of the Coast to backtrack on these issues during development.
As such, huge bans in Magic: The Gathering are nothing new, and some can really define a format ahead of big tournaments or even new sets. An example is how MTG banned Vivi Ornitier despite its incredible popularity, as it was a meta-warping card that couldn’t be dealt with effectively and easily without changing all the other decks to counter Izzet combos. That same level of meta power has been renewed recently with different decks, and WotC decided to take action in a similar way.
Magic: The Gathering‘s Badgermole Cub, Gran-Gran, and Stormchaser’s Talent are now banned in Standard, and The Fantasticar is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. Badgermole Cub was one of the best cards from MTG‘s Avatar set, if not the single best, and it quickly became a $60 Mythic used widely in many decks in Standard and beyond. Right after the ban, the card’s average price on TCGPlayer dropped from around $55 to around $40, and the price could keep dropping. Gran-Gran was also introduced with the Avatar set, and it quickly became a good mana engine for Lesson decks. Stormchaser’s Talent was added with Bloomburrow and has since been a reliable cornerstone of Izzet decks for its 1-mana cost and strong late-game effects.
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MTG‘s Badgermole Cub was mainly used in Green decks with various variations, but it became too powerful with the new Selesnya Offense deck archetype, according to WotC’s Banned and Restricted August 2026 post. The deck was the most played overall and had the highest win percentage, something that was happening in a very similar fashion with similar numbers when the Izzet Cauldron deck dominated Standard with Vivi Ornitier. To prevent the other two best decks in Standard in MTG from taking over the power vacuum left by Green and Selesnya Offense, WotC opted to ban one card from Jeskai Lessons with Gran-Gran and one from Izzet Prowess with Stormchaser’s Talent. Wizards of the Coast maintains that these bans will benefit the long-term health of Standard.
The Fantasticar was arguably the strongest card in the new MTG Marvel Super Heroes set, as it costs three mana of any color and can create four 4/4 creatures with flying and haste by casting four spells in a turn, which is very easy with cantrips. As such, it was banned in Legacy after just one and a half months since release, and it’s also restricted in Vintage.
Some fans are unhappy with the bans, despite WotC’s reasoning. This is far from the only recent controversy for the game, though, as MTG‘s Mystery Booster Commander Edition set is virtually unobtainable, but it comes with great cards that Commander players will want to have.
