The Gathering Banlist makes major changes to Arena's Commander format

The latest lane list update for Magic: The Gathering contains six cards that are banned from the Brawl format, which is the primary way Commander is played Arena. The track list includes some of Magics most powerful staple cards, such as Force of Will and Time Warp.

While Magic: The Gatherings online client does not support the formally recognized Commander format, Arena has its own spin on the Commander formula. Brawl has special deck-building restrictions similar to Commander, where players choose a legendary creature as their commander and build 100-card decks with no more than one copy of each card in the deck, except for Basic Lands. Arena however, has some notable differences from Commander, with players only starting at 25 Life and allowing Planeswalkers to be used as commanders in Brawl. Now, Magic: The Gathering makes some big changes to the Brawl format.

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Heritage

Candelabra of Tawnos is forbidden.

Pauper

Seeker of Skybreak is banned.

Fraction

Force of Will is prohibited.
Subtlety is forbidden.
Wash Away is prohibited.
Ugin's Labyrinth is off limits.
Time Warp is prohibited.
Temporal manipulation is prohibited.

Wizards of the Coast officially announced the latest change to their banned and restricted list on June 29th. Brawl easily saw the biggest changes of Magic: The Gatherings major format with the update, banning a total of six cards from the format. The ban list includes several free counterspell cards Magics Brawl format, which beats Force of Will and Subtlety, citing the need to remove some of the most powerful options. Extra-turn cards were also the focus of Wizards of the Coast's ban on Brawl, which removed both Time Warp and Temporal Manipulation. The tracklist also followed attempts by Wizards of the Coast to curb free mana acceleration in Brawl by removing Ugin's Labyrinth, following earlier bans on Ancient Tomb and Chrome Mox.

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While Brawl saw the biggest changes from Magics new lane, it wasn't the only format to see changes, though others only saw minor tweaks. Magics Legacy format saw a ban with the release of the June 2026 update, which removed powerful mana ramp cards Candelabra from Tawnos from the format. The budget Pauper format also saw a change due to a card being released with Marvel Super Heroes crossover, banning Seeker of Skybreak after an interaction with Hawkeye's Bow allowed players to repeatedly trigger its burn. Magic: The GatheringThe next lane list update will be on August 10.

The latest changes follow the latest release of the latest 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 anything before Magic set. The Marvel set introduced several superhero-themed mechanics, including the Teamwork mechanic that allows creatures to work together for stronger effects and Power-Up abilities that give 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 for the rest of 2026. Wizards of the Coast will follow up Marvel Super Heroes with the launch of another long-awaited crossover in August, with a plethora of cards based on The Hobbit. The card game will debut another set in-universe later in the year in Reality Fracture, and Wizards of the Coast will end 2026 with a Star Trek cooperation. Magic: The Gathering fans should have a lot to be excited about for the rest of the year, with new cards, crossovers and more coming soon.