Standard
- Vivi Ornitier is banned.
- Screaming Nemesis is banned.
- Proft’s Eidetic Memory is banned.
Pioneer
- Heartfire Hero is banned.
Legacy
- Entomb is banned.
- Nadu, Winged Wisdom is banned.
Historic
- Force of Negation is pre-banned.
- Frantic Search is pre-banned.
- Mystical Tutor is pre-banned.
- Entomb is pre-banned.
- Dark Depths is pre-banned.
Brawl
- Strip Mine is banned.
- Mana Drain is banned.
- Chrome Mox is banned.
- Ancient Tomb is banned.
Pauper
- High Tide is banned.
Personally, I’m glad Nemesis and Vivi got banned but I don’t think this is even close to enough to get Standard playable again.
Standard stopped being playable or interesting to me since after EoE. The UB sets killed my interest entirely.
I think it has been in a bad spot since Bloomburrow, personally. Never really recovered from the addition of the mice and monstrous rage and by the time the cards were banned, there were too many other dominant things ready to come in and replace it.
As a format, I agree. Standard’s power balance got obliterated after Bloomburrow and Duskmourn. Still, I held hope they’d eventually get it back under control, but it’s only gotten worse since then it seems.
The format’s power level is still too high so I think you’re right. The only way to fix Standard is to systemically and deliberately lower power levels similar to what was done after Urza’s block and Mirrodin block. R&D has doubled-down on FIRE design, however, with the philosophy of “If a card gets out of hand, we can just ban it.”
Really wish I could rub their faces in MaRo’s post-Affinity ban article from 20 years ago where he talks about why bans are bad, even when they’re necessary. There’s a reason no one is playing Standard anymore. I suspect WotC is juking their stats to maintain the lie Standard events are firing in order to appease shareholders.