Twenty-seven years is a long time to hold a grudge, but that’s exactly how long it took Candelabra of Tawnos to get banned in Legacy again — and this week’s banned and restricted announcement gave us plenty else to unpack across Brawl and Pauper too. Here’s what actually matters from the last week of TCG news, and why it changes how you’ll be building decks this summer.
Legacy’s 27-Year Curse Comes Back Around
Candelabra of Tawnos was on Legacy’s very first banned list back in 1996, got unbanned in 1999, and has been quietly legal ever since. This week Wizards banned it again — and the reason is almost poetic. Paired with Time Spiral and High Tide, Candelabra powers a colorless-mana Tron shell that’s been climbing Legacy’s win rates without slowing down. Play Design specifically called out that recent Colorless Tron lists running Candelabra showed rising popularity without a corresponding drop in win rate, which is the exact pattern that triggers a ban.
The good news for Tron players: Wizards explicitly said a Candelabra-free version of the deck built around Planar Nexus untapping Urza’s Tower could still be a healthy part of the format. So this isn’t the end of colorless Tron in Legacy — just the end of the loop that made it unbeatable.
Brawl Gets a Casual Reset
The bigger structural news might be in Brawl, where six cards got the axe at once: Force of Will, Subtlety, Wash Away, Ugin’s Labyrinth, Time Warp, and Temporal Manipulation. With Competitive Brawl now standing as its own format, Wizards is explicitly repositioning regular Brawl as a slower, more casual space — cutting fast mana, free countermagic, and extra-turn spells so more commanders have room to actually do something before the game’s decided. If your Brawl deck leaned hard on any of those six, it’s rebuild season.
Pauper Moves Fast on a Nasty Combo
Pauper didn’t wait for its next scheduled update to act. Seeker of Skybreak got banned mid-cycle after players found a combo with Hawkeye’s Bow that could kill from almost nowhere. Wizards flagged it as too disruptive to let ride into a stretch of major Pauper tournaments, so the ban went out immediately rather than waiting for the next full announcement.
Around the Table: The Rest of the Week
Magic wasn’t the only game making moves. A quick rundown of what else is happening across the board:
Riftbound is deep into preview season for its fourth expansion, Vendetta, which launches July 31 with Ambessa, Mel, and Akali headlining as new champions. It’s also the first Riftbound set to launch in English and Simplified Chinese at the same time — a real milestone for how Riot is scaling the game globally.
Star Wars Unlimited‘s Ashes of the Empire releases July 17, setting its story after the Battle of Endor with over 260 new cards and a new Support keyword. The Galactic Championship follows almost immediately after in Las Vegas, July 24–26.
Gundam Card Game dropped its own banned and restricted list this week alongside the announcement of Freedom Ascension (GD05), which hits retail July 24–25 and brings Strike Freedom Gundam and Mobile Fighter G Gundam’s Shining Gundam into the card pool for the first time.
Flesh and Blood heads to Las Vegas July 16–19 for Pro Tour: Las Vegas, running Classic Constructed and Set 19 Booster Draft, right on the heels of Calling: Shinjuku this past weekend.
That’s a lot of format-shaping news for one week — from a 27-year-old ban resurfacing in Legacy to four different games either previewing or launching new sets. What’s the change you’re most excited (or annoyed) about? Come tell us on socials, or catch the rest of the week’s roundups at manariotgames.com.