One of Magic: The Gathering‘s most problematic cards finds itself banned from yet another format today.
Introduced with last year’s Core 2020 expansion, Field of the Dead, quickly rose to become a prominent part of many decks in the Standard meta. As is often the case whenever a single card becomes too prevalent, however, Wizards permanently banned the powerhouse a few weeks later from multiple formats. Since then, of course, the collectable card game’s digital counterpart, Arena, has received its own bespoke format in the form of Historic, which allows the use of any cards ever released.
Potent new combos made possible with the inclusion of cards such as Cultivate, Explore and Hour of Promise in recent set releases, however, have indirectly buffed Field of the Dead, to the extent that Wizards no longer considers it to be a healthy part of the Historic metagame. A heavy blow to those players who included the rare land in their own decks, then, though there is a silver lining worth making note of.
As with all cards that are banned in Arena, any existing copies in your personal collection will be refunded, so to speak, in the form of Wild Cards. These can then be used to craft any other card of the same rarity, regardless of set.
Field of the Dead is just the latest in a string of cards printed for recent sets to have been outright barred from play, of course. Companion cards introduced with this year’s Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths were considered so powerful that Wizards not only banned several within weeks of release, but rewrote the keyword’s rules.
That’s a wrap for this story, though if you’re wondering what’s left for Magic: The Gathering in 2020, both Zendikar Rising and Commander Legends are scheduled to go on sale within the next few months. See here for more details.
