While certainly not unheard of, reintroducing previously banned cards into Magic: The Gathering‘s finely-tuned ecosystem is a rare occurrence.
Indeed, Wizards of the Coast generally prefers to take the wait-and-see approach when it comes to artificially tampering with the established meta of any format, only intervening when all else fails. Cards initially printed with the intention of them being deck-defining (prominent recent examples being Oko, Thief of Crowns and Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath) and so-called ‘build around’ additions usually only pose a real risk to healthy competition when paired with several other synergistic creatures and/or sorceries.
Throw a largely directionless matchmaking system into the mix à la MTG Arena and, well, players who opt to use strategies considered exponentially stronger than others are going to cause issues through no fault of their own. It’s due to this huge gulf in power that Wizards initially opted to ban Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and Winota, Joiner of Forces from Historic Brawl, though thanks to the implementation of a new weighting system, the developer believes that it is now safe to release both Commanders from their prison.
In essence, the aforementioned algorithm means those who choose to use Golos, Winota or any other Commander with a high win rate will find themselves more frequently being matched with the same or similar opponent while those who prefer to stick with less potent decks can do so without concern for being vastly outmatched.
Wizards has said that it’ll continue to monitor the situation going forward and will make adjustments as deemed necessary. For all the latest fixtures (both current and upcoming) in Magic: The Gathering Arena, hit the link below.
