The Most Banned Year in Magic is still 1993
We mapped every card currently banned for power in a major format — 184 of them — to the year it debuted. Thirty-two years of design later, nothing has out-banned 1993: 21 cards and 5.7% of everything Alpha-era Magic designed. The same founding-year pattern we found in Yu-Gi-Oh. Snapshot of today’s lists; no market data.
Today’s ban lists, by birth year
Bar = cards from that debut year currently power-banned in any major format. Right column: the rate against that year’s new designs.
Every famous design disaster is visible: Combo Winter’s twin nines (1998-99), Mirrodin’s artifact block (2003, 11), the FIRE year (2019, 18), and the Nadu summer (2024, 13). So are the quiet ones: 2008 and 2015 printed nothing that any major format bans today.
Who does the banning
Legacy police the largest museum; Modern manages the biggest active metagame; Commander’s list carries the curiosity of banning the Power Nine socially rather than competitively. And Vintage — the format where Black Lotus is legal — bans zero cards for power. Its entire banned list is the two dexterity cards (Chaos Orb, Falling Star) and the 7 cards removed for offensive content in 2020, which is exactly why we used it as the non-power filter.
| Format | Power-banned cards |
|---|---|
| Legacy | 70 |
| Modern | 52 |
| Commander | 39 |
| Pauper | 33 |
| Pioneer | 31 |
| Standard | 10 |
| Vintage | 0 |
Method & sources
- Every card currently banned in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Pauper or Commander via the open Scryfall API; each card’s debut year from its earliest printing; deduplicated across formats.
- Non-power bans excluded mechanically: conspiracies, Un-set cards, ante cards, and the entire vintage banned list (dexterity + 2020 content removals) — vintage bans nothing for power, so its list is the filter.
- Snapshot of today’s lists, not ban history — older cards had more time both onto and off the lists. Rates use the Reprint Ratio study’s new-design denominators. No market data. Valued 2026-07-07; reproducible from the open API.
FAQ
How many Magic cards are banned?
184 unique cards are currently banned for power in at least one major format (Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Pauper or Commander). Legacy carries the longest list (70), then Modern (52) and Commander (39). Vintage carries ZERO power bans — it restricts instead; its banned list is only the two dexterity cards (Chaos Orb, Falling Star) and the 7 cards removed for offensive content in 2020.
Which year produced the most banned cards?
1993 — by both measures. 21 of its cards are power-banned somewhere today (Ancestral Recall, Black Lotus, Balance, Channel, Bazaar of Baghdad...), and against its ~366 new designs that is 5.7% — roughly four times the rate of any later year. The modern spike is 2019 (18 cards, the FIRE-design year: the Oko era, Arcum's Astrolabe, Field of the Dead, Dockside Extortionist), followed by 2024 (13, the Nadu year) and Mirrodin's 2003 (11, the artifact lands).
Has any year produced no banned cards?
Two: 2008 and 2015. Everything printed in those years remains legal in every major format today — a fun benchmark for the design-safety debate on either side of them.
How was this measured?
Every card currently banned in each major format via the open Scryfall API, mapped to its debut printing (current format ban lists + debut printings via the open Scryfall API, valued 2026-07-07). Non-power bans are excluded mechanically — conspiracies, Un-set cards, ante cards, and everything on the vintage banned list, because vintage bans nothing for power (its list is exactly the dexterity pair plus the 2020 content removals), which makes it a perfect filter. Snapshot of today's lists, not ban history: older cards had more time both onto and off the lists. Denominators come from our Reprint Ratio study's new-design counts.
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Related research
The Ban Rate (Yu-Gi-Oh)
The sibling study: Yu-Gi-Oh's founding era is also its most banned — 2003 leads after 23 years.
3→4What does 2 mana buy?
The design side of 2019's FIRE spike: the whole creature curve repriced.
16,322The Reprint Ratio
The denominators behind the rates: Magic's new-design output by year.
Cite or embed this study
Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Paste the embed on your site for the chart card + a link back, or grab the plain citation.
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</p>Foilio (2026-07-07). The Most Banned Year in Magic is still 1993. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/mtg-ban-rateThe big picture, across every game we measure: The Chase Multiple · The Price Census · The Promo Premium · The Foil Premium