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Magic: The Gathering October 2019 Ban & Restricted Announcement Will Disappoint Standard Players


It's that time of the year again when Magic: The Gathering players become either frustrated or relieved with whatever Wizards of the Coast decides in the latest ban and restricted announcement. Today, Wizards announced that there are no changes in any Magic formats, and that could be a huge problem to many MTG players who think that Standard decks that use "Field of the Dead" and "Golos, Tireless Pilgrim" are too dominant in the metagame right now.

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Here are some reactions, failed predictions, and demands to ban this card on Twitter:

It's easy to see why many Stanard players want to ban "Field of the Dead" or "Golos, Tireless Pilgrim" in Standard With the format rotating out the cards from older sets and the new Magic set Throne of Eldraine already released, players are figuing out the best and most consistent builds for the Standard format with the new fairy tale-themed cards, and based on recent results, it looks like Golos variants (Sultai, Bant, 4-Color) are the decks to beat thanks to their consistent power to make an army of zombies using "Field of the Dead" while gaining mana and card advantage with Golos and other cards. I even played the Bant version recently (You can watch below), and found the deck to be powerful in the format but I don't think it's unbeatable.

There are still other competitive archtypes in Standard that delivered great results in recent MTG tournaments recently. Standard decks like Simic or Bant Midrange (with the new "Questing Beast" and "Oko, Thief of Crowns") , Mono-Red or Rakdos Aggro, Fires of Invention, and the spicy Esper "Dance With The Manse" decks (watch our video below) are still making Top 8's but many would agree that Golos decks are the dominant in Standard.

Standard is still a diverse format, and Throne of Eldraine was just released last Friday, so the format will most likely shift and adjust based on which decks are most dominant. We'll probably see more Mono-Red decks aimed to beat Golos decks fast before they can build a legion of zombies or we might see spicy new brews like what Twitter user Nsane G00n shared, a spicy "Temur Alliance" deck that he says went 10-0 on Magic Arena and has a "good Golos match up". It uses the new "Improbable Alliance" from Throne of Eldraine to make many fairy tokens to attack the opponent in the air, over the zombies, while having ways to kill the zombies with "Flame Sweep". Check out the list:

With these decks in mind, I think Wizards of the Coast made the right decision not to ban "Field of the Dead" or "Golos, Tireless Pilgrim" in Standard, at least not yet at this time. MTG players are still figuring out the newly-rotated format with the new Thorne of Eldraine cards, and there are still other Standard decks that have the power to beat Golos and his army of the dead.

What do you think about the latest MTG B&R announcement? Do you think they should ban "Field of the Dead" and Golos in Standard? Or any other cards in other formats? Or maybe you think they should have unbanned Splinter Twin? Feel free to share your opinions in the comments section below.

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