New Magic: The Gathering Banlist Makes Big Changes to Arena's Commander Format

The newest banlist update for Magic: The Gathering includes six cards being banned from the Brawl format, which is the primary way to play Commander on Arena. The banlist includes some of Magic‘s most powerful staple cards, like Force of Will and Time Warp.

While Magic: The Gathering‘s online client does not support the formally recognized Commander format, Arena features its own spin on the Commander formula. Brawl features special deck-building restrictions similar to Commander, with players choosing a Legendary Creature as their Commander and building 100-card decks with no more than one copy of each card in the deck, aside from Basic Lands. Arena does feature some notable differences from Commander, however, with players only starting with 25 Life and allowing Planeswalkers to be used as commanders in Brawl. Now, Magic: The Gathering is making some big changes to the Brawl format.

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Magic: The Gathering Announces New June 2026 Banlist Updates

Legacy

Candelabra of Tawnos is banned.

Pauper

Seeker of Skybreak is banned.

Brawl

Force of Will is banned.
Subtlety is banned.
Wash Away is banned.
Ugin’s Labyrinth is banned.
Time Warp is banned.
Temporal Manipulation is banned.

Wizards of the Coast officially announced the newest change to its Banned and Restricted list on June 29. Brawl saw easily the biggest changes out of Magic: The Gathering‘s major formats with the update, banning a total of six cards from the format. The list of bans includes multiple free counterspell cards in Magic‘s Brawl format, hitting Force of Will and Subtlety, citing the need to remove some of the most powerful options. Extra-turn cards were also a focus of Wizards of the Coast’s bans for Brawl, removing both Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation. The banlist also followed efforts from Wizards of the Coast to curb free mana acceleration in Brawl by removing Ugin’s Labyrinth, following previous bans of Ancient Tomb and Chrome Mox.

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While Brawl saw the biggest changes from Magic‘s new banlist, it was not the only format to see changes, though others only saw minor adjustments. Magic‘s Legacy format saw one ban with the release of the June 2026 update, removing powerful mana ramp card Candelabra of Tawnos from the format. The budget Pauper format also saw a change due to a card released with the Marvel Super Heroes crossover, banning Seeker of Skybreak after an interaction with Hawkeye’s Bow allowed players to repeatedly trigger its burn damage. Magic: The Gathering‘s next banlist update will arrive on August 10.

The recent changes follow the recent release of the newest crossover set to hit the Wizards of the Coast card game. Magic: The Gathering officially launched its Marvel Super Heroes expansion on June 26, with the Marvel crossover set introducing more unique cards to the game than any previous Magic set. The Marvel set introduced several superhero-themed mechanics, including the Teamwork mechanic allowing creatures to work together for stronger effects and Power-Up abilities giving a one-time boost to Marvel’s Hero and Villain creatures.

Magic: The Gathering looks to have plenty of exciting new sets on the way throughout the rest of 2026. Wizards of the Coast will follow up Marvel Super Heroes with the launch of another highly-anticipated crossover in August, adding a plethora of cards based on The Hobbit. The card game will debut one more in-universe set later in the year in Reality Fracture, and Wizards of the Coast will close out 2026 with a Star Trek collaboration. Magic: The Gathering fans should have plenty to be excited about throughout the rest of the year, with new cards, crossovers, and more coming soon.