These Seven Magic The Gathering Cards Are About To Be Banned In Standard Play

Wizards of the Coast is banning a whopping seven cards in Magic: The Gathering Standard as part of its mid-year banned and restricted update for 2025, setting the format up for a dramatic change. While one dominant card tops the list, another six have been banned for fear of them taking a similar role.

The main offender being banned is Cori-Steel Cutter, a card that has become so dominant in the Standard meta that Wizards says the card would meet the threshold for banning even outside its once-per-year window for Standard. The card made up the backbone of the Izzet Prowess deck, which has noticeably dominated the metagame since the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm in April, making up a whopping 40% of Standard play at the recent Pro Tour MTG--Final Fantasy tournament.

While Cori-Steel Cutter is a no-brainer for the ban list, Wizards explains that it is trying to avoid seeing another card rise up and take its place at the top, which is why there are six other cards joining it on the ban list.