Banned as part of a set of four-mana initiative creatures after the initiative mechanic from Battle for Baldur's Gate took over the format, appearing in established decks and new turbo-initiative decks. Four-mana initiative creatures were singled out because they are easy to cheat out early with Dark Ritual and snowball quickly once they take the initiative.

The Pauper Format Panel found it created polarizing games where opponents needed an early answer or risked sudden death, and it spread beyond White-Blue Affinity into Blue-Red-White Affinity and Red-White Synthesizer decks. It sped up the format and forced every viable deck to measure up against it, so it was banned instead of the artifact lands.

It had become one of the most ubiquitous cards across Pauper archetypes, providing cheap color fixing plus artifact and enters-the-battlefield synergies to a dominant family of three-plus-color Skred decks. Wizards concluded the metagame had shifted toward simply selecting the best Astrolabe deck, harming diversity.

Atog-powered Affinity was over twice as popular as the next most-played deck and warped the format around artifact hate, with fast unblockable kills from Atog plus Disciple of the Vault, Fling, or Wedding Invitation. The Pauper Format Panel judged Atog the real problem card as a free, repeatable sacrifice outlet.

With Sadistic Glee it formed the Glee combo, a loop producing boundless colorless mana and a creature that kills in one hit. The Pauper Format Panel found the combo severely restricted deck diversity and forced the metagame to warp around specific hate cards.

Storm combo decks using fast mana to power out a large Chatterstorm, often with First Day of Class, were the format's top performers. The win condition was too difficult to interact with given Pauper's limited card pool.

Blue decks used familiars to make free spells like Cloud of Faeries effectively produce mana with bounce lands, then looped Ghostly Flicker with card-advantage creatures to generate mana and mill out opponents. Wizards called it likely the most problematic card in the deck and banned it in the interest of color diversity, as blue was heavily overplayed.

Cloudpost generated large amounts of mana that, combined with free spells like Cloud of Faeries and Snap plus card-advantage creatures such as Mnemonic Wall and Mulldrifter, powered a looping deck most other strategies could not interact with. The DCI banned it alongside Temporal Fissure to break up that deck.

Banned as the only card on Pauper's initial banned list when the format became an officially supported Magic Online format; the announcement listed the ban without a card-specific explanation.

Preemptively banned a week before Modern Horizons 3 released because it compares directly to two cards already banned in Pauper, Cranial Plating and All That Glitters, leaving little doubt it would be too strong. The Pauper Format Panel acted early so major Pauper tournaments right after the set's release would not be warped by it.

Banned as part of a hit on free spells that let blue tempo decks, particularly the dominant Blue-Black Delver, cast cantrips to set up while never having shields-down moments. Wizards noted free spells lead to less interactive gameplay and would keep breaking as new cards entered the format.

With Ichor Wellspring it formed an overly efficient draw engine appearing across many top decks including Affinity, Glee, Wildfire, Pactdoll, and Gardens, with Treasure tokens making it functionally one mana while also fixing and accelerating. Its prevalence homogenized deckbuilding across archetypes.

Affinity remained dominant even after the Atog ban and gained new tools from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. The Pauper Format Panel targeted Disciple of the Vault because it had few replacements and enabled the deck's burst-damage kills.

Pauper had too few answers to storm spells, and the DCI's data showed the metagame could not support a diverse field with Storm legal - most decks' only real option was to race it. Empty the Warrens was banned along with Grapeshot to weaken the deck.

Magic Online data showed it serving as both creature removal and a card-advantage engine, pushing out aggressive creature decks and putting too much emphasis on becoming and staying the monarch before opponents could respond. It was banned to make space for aggro and reduce the monarch mechanic's early-game importance.

No ban details recorded.

It was a key card in Black-Red Storm, which after gaining Experimental Synthesizer had become the format's strongest deck by a large margin. The Pauper Format Panel judged the deck quick, powerful, and difficult to interact with, and intervened proactively.

Banned in the free-spells sweep because it let decks play fewer lands and replace them with spells while powering up other cards on the list. Wizards also cited free spells leading to less interactive gameplay, fewer shields-down moments, and less bluffing.

Pauper had even fewer answers to Grapeshot than to Empty the Warrens, and the DCI found the answers available were statistically insufficient to support a diverse competitive metagame against Storm decks. It was banned alongside Empty the Warrens.

Wizards identified Gush as the fundamental issue in problematic free-spell combinations (notably with Foil), letting decks play fewer lands and lean on synergies with creatures like Augur of Bolas and Delver of Secrets. It was banned with Gitaxian Probe and Daze as the free spells most likely to keep breaking as the format grew.

The High Tide combo deck warped the metagame with extremely polar matchups, and its combo turns could take ten to fifteen minutes while the opponent sat idle. Wizards cited the miserable play experience, tournament time issues, and the deck preying on midrange as reasons for the ban.

When Pauper became an officially sanctioned tabletop format, cards printed at common in paper became legal, and Hymn to Tourach was one of three cards preemptively banned to manage that influx of newly legal cards.

Infect decks won as early as turn three, and the free-to-cast Invigorate provided four of the ten poison counters needed to win while protecting infect creatures from damage-based removal even when the Infect player was tapped out. The DCI banned it to allow a more diverse metagame.

Mono-Red had excessive game 1 dominance against much of the format, forcing heavy sideboard commitments across the board. Kuldotha Rebirth specifically enabled explosive Goblin Bushwhacker finishes that made stabilizing nearly impossible.

The Pauper Format Panel cited Mono-Red's polarizing feast-or-famine matchups - dominant in game 1 and forcing opponents to devote many sideboard slots - with Swiftspear kicking off the red influx, synergizing with Wrenn's Resolve-style card draw, dodging two-toughness removal, and producing the most explosive draws. The ban aimed to keep Mono-Red viable but less warping.

Multiple archetypes adopted it to create repetitive loop or lockout states, and Wizards called it a key contributor of negative pressure on the metagame by enabling end-game loops. It was banned alongside Expedition Map to slow Tron's mana engine and reduce repetitive play from blue-based tempo decks.

Izzet Drake was the format's strongest performer, and after Kaladesh its presence and performance grew further, significantly harming competitive diversity per Magic R&D. The ban was implemented quickly since Pauper was a Magic Online-only format at the time.

Banned preemptively because its combo with Hawkeye's Bow could kill extremely quickly, and Wizards did not want the deck to play out through July and impact upcoming large Pauper tournaments.

When Pauper became an officially sanctioned tabletop format, cards printed at common in paper became legal, and Sinkhole was one of three cards preemptively banned to manage that influx of newly legal cards.

Banned to increase metagame diversity: Affinity's overall performance was manageable, but it preyed heavily on less-represented decks. Removing this card lowered the deck's consistency without fundamentally changing how it plays.

Banned as part of a set of four-mana initiative creatures after the initiative mechanic from Battle for Baldur's Gate took over the format, appearing in established decks and new turbo-initiative decks. Four-mana initiative creatures were singled out because they are easy to cheat out early with Dark Ritual and snowball quickly once they take the initiative.

In the Cloudpost-powered Temporal Wall deck, Temporal Fissure bounced the opponent's board while recasting card-advantage creatures in a loop that most decks could not interact with, and Storm has few answers in Pauper. Left legal after the earlier Storm bans, it ended up narrowing the competitive metagame and was banned alongside Cloudpost.

Treasure Cruise decks grew more efficient over several months and the Pauper metagame became significantly less diverse. Wizards identified it as the card most strongly tied to the loss of diversity and banned it to restore a healthy metagame.

Banned in the initiative sweep after the mechanic from Battle for Baldur's Gate took over the format; as a 5/3 menace that quickly becomes a 7/5 via the Undercity dungeon, it was deemed too powerful alongside the four-mana initiative creatures that could be cheated out with Dark Ritual.

Banned as part of a set of four-mana initiative creatures after the initiative mechanic from Battle for Baldur's Gate took over the format, appearing in established decks and new turbo-initiative decks. Four-mana initiative creatures were singled out because they are easy to cheat out early with Dark Ritual and snowball quickly once they take the initiative.