Wizards of the Coast has announced that the overpowered Magic: The Gathering land card Field of the Dead has been banned in Historic, MTG Arena's eternal Constructed format.
In the announcement, MTG Arena director Jay Parker explained why they had to ban Field of the Dead in Historic format: "While its overall win rate is rarely at the top, its matchups are extremely polarized," Parker wrote. "In particular, its high win rate against slower decks has made the format as a whole lean more toward aggressive strategies. This effect scales with the ubiquity of Field of the Dead decks, and recent sets have given the deck several powerful additions, including Cultivate, Explore, and, most recently, Hour of Promise."
Field of the Dead was one of the most-played best-of-one Historic decks, and it's by far the most played Historic best-of-three deck. One of the main reasons WotC bans cards in an MTG format is to help bring a greater diversity to the meta, and I believe this is the right move that will encourage more Historic players to use non-aggressive archetypes more. Parker explains that this is why suspension is the "wrong approach"; Field of the Dead deserves to be banned in Historic.
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