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Magic: The Gathering's Krark-Clan Ironworks Finally Banned in Modern


Wizards of the Coast

Krark-Clan Ironworks combo decks have been dominating Magic: The Gathering's Modern meta in recent months, thanks to its insane power level and popularity but now, Wizards of the Coast have announced that the card Krark-Clan Ironworks is officially banned from Modern.

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Wizards of the Coast

It's been nearly a year since any changes were made to the Modern banned list. Krark-Clan Ironworks decks have posted more individual-play Modern Grand Prix Top 8 finishes than any other archetype, and with the recent Modern Grand Prix results, it looks like the deck has no signs of slowing down.

"Ironworks decks require detailed rules knowledge and careful practice to master, resulting in a high win rate among pro players and other experienced pilots at the highest levels of play," WOTC's Ian Duke explained "In contrast, for quite some time, we hadn't seen Ironworks be as popular or as winning in less competitive play environments. With Ironworks's interactions being difficult to execute on Magic Online, it's been more challenging to gather data reflective of its win rate in the hands of a practiced pilot in tabletop play."

Duke went on to explain how they determined that KCI decks pose a long-term threat to Modern: "With these challenges in mind, we've taken additional time to watch the environment evolve. By now, we've gathered sufficient data to conclude that Ironworks poses a long-term threat to the health of competitive Modern play. This is the right time to make a change. While the primary reasons for banning a card from the Ironworks deck are its raw win rate and high GP Top 8 conversion rate, we also considered its highly polarized Game 1 (pre-sideboard) win rate, sometimes long turn length, and difficult rules interactions as secondary factors.

Wizards of the Coast also considered banning Ancient Stirrings and Mox Opal but since they're important cards for other viable Modern decks that are no considered broken, they're considered "generally healthy" to the Modern meta.

Even the Krark-Clan Ironworks master Matt Nass agreed to ban it in this video from Channelfireball:

Are you happy that Krark-Clan Ironworks is now banned in Modern?

Ravnica Allegiance will be released on January 25.

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