MTG Formats
Banned Magic Cards
Every Magic format keeps its own banned list, so a card can be banned in Modern and legal in Commander at the same time. Here is how many cards each format bans, which cards are banned everywhere, and what got the famous ones banned.
Counts and legality checked against Scryfall's format data on October 2, 2026. Ban lists change several times a year, so check the official banned and restricted list before an event.
How Many Cards Each Format Bans
The size of a list says more about the format than about how broken its cards are. Standard's list is short because old sets rotate out and take their problem cards with them. Legacy's is long because it allows almost every card ever printed, so the strongest ones have nowhere to go.
| Format | Banned | What the list is for |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 13 | The newest sets only, so most problem cards rotate out on their own and the list stays short. |
| Pioneer | 31 | Sets from Return to Ravnica forward. The fetch lands were banned on day one to keep the format apart from Modern. |
| Modern | 52 | Sets from Eighth Edition forward. Bans target whatever deck has started winning too often or too fast. |
| Legacy | 171 | Almost every card ever printed. The list includes the Power Nine and the fast mana Vintage restricts. |
| Vintage | 101 + 52 restricted | Almost every card ever printed. Few bans, because Vintage restricts powerful cards to one copy instead. |
| Pauper | 76 | Commons only. The list targets the commons that are too efficient once nothing rarer can answer them. |
| Commander | 83 | Its own list, built for four-player, 100-card singleton games. See the Commander banned list guide. |
Counts from Scryfall on October 2, 2026. The Legacy, Vintage, Pauper and Commander counts include whole categories of cards that are banned for reasons other than power, covered below.
Banned vs. Restricted
A banned card can't be in your deck at all. A restricted card can, but only one copy. Vintage is the only format that still uses a restricted list, and it held 52 cards on October 2, 2026, including all of the Power Nine: Black Lotus , the five Moxen, Ancestral Recall , Time Walk and Timetwister .
Restriction is why Vintage has so few outright bans. The format's premise is that you can play the most powerful cards in Magic's history, so instead of removing them it limits them to one copy each. Legacy makes the opposite choice and bans most of the same cards, which is why Sol Ring is restricted in Vintage and banned in Legacy. Timeless, Arena's restricted format →
The Cards Banned in Every Format
On October 2, 2026, 44 cards were banned in Vintage, Legacy and Commander alike, and none of them is there for being too strong. They fall into a few groups.
- Ante cards. Early Magic had an optional rule where each player bet a card from their deck on the game. Cards like Contract from Below only work when you play for ante, and sanctioned play stopped allowing ante decades ago.
- Dexterity cards. Chaos Orb and Falling Star ask you to flip the card onto the table and see what it lands on. That can't be judged fairly at a tournament.
- Subgames. Shahrazad makes the players stop and play a whole game of Magic inside the current one, which breaks tournament time limits.
- Conspiracy cards. Cards from the Conspiracy draft sets that start the game in a special zone, such as Backup Plan . They were made for drafting with friends and are banned in constructed play.
- The 2020 removals. On June 10, 2020, Wizards banned seven cards from all sanctioned play for racist imagery or text: Invoke Prejudice, Cleanse, Stone-Throwing Devils, Pradesh Gypsies, Jihad, Imprison and Crusade.
Some cards from Unfinity that use stickers or Attractions are banned in Legacy, Vintage and Pauper as well. They need extra components that tournament play doesn't support.
Famous Bans
These are the bans players still bring up, with what each card does and where it stands today. The history is fixed; the status line under each card is the snapshot date and can change.
Memory Jar ↗
Each player swaps their hand for seven new cards for a turn. It received Magic's first emergency ban, effective April 1, 1999, a few weeks after Urza's Legacy became tournament legal, because combo decks built around it were winning almost before opponents could play. On October 2, 2026: banned in Legacy, restricted in Vintage.
Skullclamp ↗
One mana: equipped creature gets +1/-1, and you draw two cards when it dies. Put on a 1-toughness creature, it reads "pay one mana, draw two cards", over and over. Banned in Standard in 2004. On October 2, 2026: banned in Modern and Legacy.
Oko, Thief of Crowns ↗
A three-mana planeswalker that turns any opposing threat into a vanilla 3/3 Elk. Banned in Standard on November 18, 2019, about six weeks after release, then in Pioneer in December 2019, Modern in January 2020 and Legacy in 2021. On October 2, 2026: banned in Pioneer, Modern and Legacy.
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis ↗
An 8/8 trampler you cast for no mana, using convoke and delve, straight from your graveyard. Modern graveyard decks built around it took over the format in 2019 until it was banned that August. On October 2, 2026: banned in Modern.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom ↗
Gives your creatures a card or a land each time they are targeted, twice a turn. Cheap repeatable targeting turned it into an engine no format wanted. On October 2, 2026: banned in Modern, Legacy and Commander.
Mana Crypt ↗
Zero mana for two colorless mana every turn, at the cost of a coin flip. Banned in Commander on September 23, 2024, alongside Dockside Extortionist, Jeweled Lotus and Nadu, to cut down on games where one player jumps far ahead on mana in the first two turns. On October 2, 2026: banned in Legacy and Commander, restricted in Vintage.
Why Cards Get Banned
Most bans come down to one problem: a card or deck wins too often, or too fast, for anyone else to play. When one deck takes a large share of top finishes at tournaments, or wins before opponents can interact, Wizards usually bans the piece that makes it work rather than the deck's supporting cards. Hogaak and Oko are both examples.
Commander bans have a different shape, because the format is four players and a long game. A card can be banned there for producing too much mana in the first two turns, as Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus were, even though it is not winning every game. The Commander list is covered in its own guide. The Commander banned list, explained →
Your playgroup is not bound by any of this. In casual play, Rule 0 lets a table agree to allow a banned card, or to ban one the official list allows, before the game starts. How to have the Rule 0 conversation →
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean when a Magic card is banned?
A banned card can't be included in a deck for that format, in the main deck or the sideboard. A ban applies to one format only: a card banned in Modern can still be legal in Legacy, Vintage or Commander. Each format keeps its own list.
What is the difference between banned and restricted?
A restricted card can be played, but only one copy per deck. Vintage is the only format that uses a restricted list today; every other format either allows a card or bans it outright. That is how Black Lotus and the rest of the Power Nine stay legal in Vintage while being banned in Legacy and Commander.
Are there cards banned in every format?
Yes. Ante cards, dexterity cards such as Chaos Orb, Shahrazad's subgame, the Conspiracy cards made for drafting, and seven cards Wizards removed in 2020 for racist depictions are banned in every sanctioned format. Some Unfinity cards that use stickers or Attractions are banned in the eternal formats too.
Who decides which Magic cards are banned?
Wizards of the Coast, for every sanctioned format. Commander was the exception until late 2024: its list was kept by the volunteer Commander Rules Committee, and Wizards took it over that year with a format panel of players and creators advising.
Can a banned card be unbanned?
Yes, and it happens regularly. Wizards unbans cards when the format changes around them, and Commander has unbanned several cards since 2025. Always check the official banned and restricted list before an event, since any count on this page is a snapshot.
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