Standard Bannings

Both Ramunap Red and Temur Energy have been dominant for a long time in standard. Temur and Ramunap Red combined made up roughly 40% of the meta-game appearing at most tournaments, with both decks having massively positive win rates against the rest of the format. Temur has easily been dominant for 5+ months now (depending on the colour and energy variants) and any attempt at weakening the archetype with rotation/new set introduction hasn’t worked. In the past it is within this time that other decks are given opportunities to try and find answers to the top tier decks, unfortunately Temur has rolled over all of them.


Historically the best deck in the format holds about 10% of the meta, however Temur holds around 20+% of the meta with 30% on magic online. This means that most tournaments will have a fifth of players playing Temur Energy, that means that every ten rounds statistically you will have faced Temur twice, in most cases though it’s definitely more. Because of the numbers that Temur has put up over the months and the devastating nature of the deck, something had to be done.

Temur Energy, in one form or another, goes into pretty much every match with at least a 45% match win rate. This may not be apparent in game one of a match up with say UW Approach or UW Cycling but significantly changes after sideboarding. At this point Temur can reconfigure and find the perfect answers to take the next two games.

Attune with Aether and Rogue Refiner gave Temur Energy a consistency that couldn’t be rivaled. The essentially free energy along side other good effects gave the deck a leg up against almost every other deck in the format. The ability to cast an Attune on turn one with Aether Hub and Servant Of The conduit on turn two into turn three Bristling Hydra (with access to activating the Hydra twice) was utterly brutal and hard for an opponent to come back from. Similarly, a turn one Attune into turn two Longtusk Cub followed by a turn three Rogue Refiner, again allowing a double activation this time of your Longtusk Cub, is a very powerful start that isn’t hard to come across. Both Attune and Rogue Refiner are very powerful in a vacuum, especially Rogue refiner. Three mana for a three power creature is already good enough and then the energy and card draw are just gravy on this already above curve creature. Both of these cards being banned will provide other decks in the format to get a foothold in the meta without setting Temur Energy back to far. The core of the archetype is still there and, with arguably the two most powerful cards in the deck gone it will force Temur players to go back to basics, running either a more concentrated two or three colour build.

Moving onto the other two cards that saw the ban hammer - Rampaging Ferocidon and Ramunap Ruins.

Ramunap Red has been the second best deck for a long time now and that’s mainly because of Temur Energy. Ramunap Red’s win rate is actually higher than Temur’s, against decks that aren’t Temur or the mirror, by up to 60+%. However the main reason for this is Temur remaining as the deck to beat and having such high popularity of play. This meant any attention on Ramunap Red dwindled in comparison, even though it beat every other deck in the format bar Temur.
Rampaging Ferocidon might seem a bit odd to ban as most Ramunap Red decks don’t want/play the full 4, yet it does give the deck an inevitability to an extent in creature match ups. With Temur taking a hit due to the bans letting Ferocidon run rampant probably wouldn’t be the best idea to welcome in a new metagame. So along side Temur getting hit, if Ramunap Red was left unscathed then it would have just created another one-deck format. Everyone switches over to the fast, red monster, rather than looking to open up the format and find something new or better positioned to keep the meta healthy.
Ramunap Ruins gave the deck an inevitability against every deck in the format, especially slower, more controlling decks. The ability to have your opponent start on a virtual lesser life total is one that most decks historically haven’t had access to. This gets even worse the later into the game you get as there aren’t many answers to the titular land, bar cards like Field Of Ruin or Disallow. Ramunap Ruins made games feel a tad unfair. Despite how skillful matches had the potential to be, a lot of the time flinging your lands at your opponent was the correct line of play. Ramunap Ruins offers so much power without much of a drawback at all, so with Temur losing its consistency it would be a bad move to have left the fastest deck in the format with its best direct damage engine.

Ultimately both Rampaging Ferocidon and Ramunap Ruins being banned means that’s Ramunap Red won’t take the poll position out of the top tier decks anymore. That’s not to say that it won’t still be up there, as it retains its immense speed and efficiency, which is also why Temur Energy could remain a top tier deck. Whatever red deck takes Ram Red’s place it’s going to carry a similar mentality but with a slight tonal shift. Both decks have a consistency about them that is hard to deny, the loss of Attune in particular however is something that can put Temur Energy back on the level of the other tier 1/1.5 decks.

In the months to come I think that more midrange and control decks will come to surface in the standard metagame. Temur wasn’t without its faults but the cards it had access to were very hard to outdo: Hydra was an above the curve power house, Glorybringer is a five turn clock with optional removal and, if in a four colour shell, The Scarab God was a board and card advantage dream. With two of the best ways to utilise those cards now banned, Temur could be a little slower and give more of a chance to control decks. On the other side of things, with Ferocidon now gone creature decks are a little more viable. That’s not to say they weren’t always an option but when your opponent has access to a cheap way of punishing you for playing creatures coming out of the sideboard, players may opt for something different. Ramunap Ruins was a big part of the deck for obvious reasons and there is a chance that it could tank and never be seen again. The shell is still there but the deck has no longevity about it anymore and may have to find something else, though I’m sure it won’t take long for players to find a replacement.