Competitive Magic: The Gathering players can now check out the full Banned and Restricted List update for October 2026 and see which format has the most changes.
Competitive Brawl Sees some Familiar Banned List Shakeups
Magic: The Gathering made some big changes to the Banned and Restricted list earlier this year in response to the Fantasticar dominated Vintage and Legacy tournaments, but things have been fairly quiet since then.
The release of Reality Fracture doesn’t seem to have broken Standard, Legacy, or any of the other most popular formats, which is good news. Nearly every format is seeing no changes this month, but Competitive Brawl is an exception.
For those who are unfamiliar, Competitive Brawl is a ranked Constructed format featuring most of the same rules as Brawl but with a different banned list philosophy and a matchmaking system designed to promote competitive play. Like Brawl, decks contain 100 cards and include one legendary creature, planeswalker, Vehicle, or Spacecraft as your commander.
Other than basic lands, only one copy of any given card can be in the deck (unless otherwise stated on the card) and cards must match the color identity of your commander. Players start with 25 life. Unlike the normal version of Brawl, there is no free mulligan in Competitive Brawl, like other ranked formats.
This month, Competitive Brawl is seeing its Banned and Restricted list updated to reflect the following changes:
- Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow is banned as a commander.
- Spider-Man 2099 is banned as a commander.
- Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is banned as a commander.
- Ajani, Nacatl Pariah is now only banned as a commander.
- Nadu, Winged Wisdom is now only banned as a commander.
- Oko, Thief of Crowns is now only banned as a commander.
- Old Stickfingers is now only banned as a commander.
- Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is now only banned as a commander.
- Rusko, Clockmaker is now only banned as a commander.
- Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student is now only banned as a commander.
- Wrenn and Six is now only banned as a commander.
- Tajic, Legion’s Valor is now only banned as a commander.
- Nashi, Illusion Gadgeteer is rebalanced.
Competitive Brawl got a bit of the same impact Historic did, as previously rebalanced cards reverted to their printed form.
The team had the following to say about the adjustments:
“We are clearly seeing players continue to innovate and push on different commanders, which is great to see and very healthy for the format. However, we are seeing some commanders emerge with win rates high enough to make them problematic. As such, we are banning three commanders this round and adjusting another.”
It will be very interesting to see how the community reacts to the changes and how these adjustments shift the metagame in the coming weeks.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more Magic: The Gathering news and updates.
Magic: The Gathering is available now at local game shops and digitally through Magic Arena.
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