Banned MtG Cards That Completely Broke The Game in Half

The game has always seen cards get banned. From the beginning, certain creatures, spells, and artifacts have proven too strong, leading Wizards of the Coast to limit their use.

Magic: The Gathering has different ban lists depending on the game format, but some cards are famous for how problematic they were. These cards were so powerful that they needed to be removed from play quickly, or they would have seriously harmed the game.

Time Walk Gave Players An Extra Turn

When Magic: The Gathering first came out, the game was very unbalanced, with some incredibly powerful cards that would be prohibited in today’s versions. This is where the legend of the “Power Nine” began – nine notorious cards that are so strong they led to the creation of the game’s ban list.

Time Walk is considered one of the most powerful cards in the game, largely because it lets you take an extra full turn for just two mana. Its effect is straightforward, but incredibly strong and inexpensive, giving players a significant edge – especially if they can include several copies in their deck.

Vivi Ornitier Is The Black Mage Who Broke A Meta

I was shocked to see Vivi Ornitier on the ban list! Most people probably remember him as a sweet, memorable character from Final Fantasy IX, but in Magic: The Gathering, he was seriously powerful – and apparently, a little too powerful! It’s wild to think about a character being a problem in both a video game and a card game!

Vivi is a powerful asset because he generates mana throughout the game, essentially providing free resources. He also gets stronger every time his player casts a spell that isn’t a creature. Plus, he deals a small amount of damage whenever he boosts another creature, making him surprisingly strong – so much so that many fans were surprised he was even released as a playable card.

Oko, Thief Of Crowns Has A Devastating Transformation Ability

Oko, Thief of Crowns is notoriously annoying to play against in Magic: The Gathering. His power comes from his ability to transform your powerful creatures and artifacts into weak 3/3 elk with a single ability.

Oko’s power lets him turn your strongest cards into weak creatures for very little energy. If you play a powerful card, it’s likely to become useless the following turn unless you can quickly remove Oko from play.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom Gives Away Lands

When the card Nadu, Winged Wisdom was revealed, players initially believed there was a mistake in the wording. They thought the rule limiting its effect to twice per turn applied to Nadu overall, rather than to each creature it impacts.

Okay, so Nadu, Winged Wisdom was seriously broken. It was supposed to give all my allies a boost, but it did way more than that. I could get so many free lands and draw a ton of cards just because of this one creature! It gave me a massive resource advantage right from the start. With good stats and a low mana cost on top of that, it was clear Nadu needed to be banned, and quickly. It was just too powerful.

Chrome Mox Is Another OP Mystic Jewel

Chrome Mox is a powerful card with a straightforward ability. If you draw it early in the game, it can give you a big advantage. You can exile a card from your hand to put Chrome Mox into play, and then tap it to add mana to your mana pool equal to the exiled card’s mana cost – all for free!

Giving every type of deck a little extra speed turned out to be quite strong. It effectively allowed players to gain resources one turn faster than their opponents. Being able to play more powerful cards earlier gave them a significant advantage for a small investment, which ultimately led to the card being banned.

Deathrite Shaman Proves Transformation Is The Cheapest School Of Magic

Deathrite Shaman is all about getting extra value from the graveyard. This inexpensive creature only costs one mana to play, and each turn it can remove cards from any graveyard to create powerful effects. It can discard lands for free mana, sorceries or instants to damage opponents, and creatures to heal you.

Deathrite Shaman is powerful because it’s inexpensive to play and offers a variety of helpful abilities during a game, particularly against strategies that discard cards. It provides a lot of value for its cost, and using several copies together can quickly give you an advantage, potentially leading to overwhelming power.

The One Ring Ruled Them All In Magic: The Gathering

The One Ring card is understandably strong, given its central role in The Lord of the Rings. However, Wizards of the Coast may have made it too powerful, as it seems to work well in almost any deck of cards.

The One Ring shields you from all damage for one turn. After that, it gains a Burden counter each turn, costing you 1 life. You can also manually add Burden counters to the Ring by tapping it, and for each Burden counter on the Ring, you get to draw a card.

The One Ring is a very reliable card that gives you a huge advantage for its cost. The only drawback is that it makes you lose life, so it’s best not to use it when you’re already low on health. While there are many strong cards available, The One Ring demonstrates just how powerful these combinations can be.

Tolarian Academy Showed That True Power Comes From Magic Items

Okay, so Tolarian Academy is seriously one of those cards that makes you scratch your head and wonder how it ever got approved. Basically, it’s a Legendary Land that gives you extra blue mana whenever you tap it, and the amount of mana you get is based on how many artifacts you control. If you’re building an artifact deck, it’s practically free mana – a total engine for getting things done!

As a fan, I’m telling you, this card is scary when it’s built around blue! Blue decks love drawing cards, and this thing really takes off when you have extra mana. Plus, because it’s a land itself, it’s super hard to get rid of – most cards that destroy or return lands to your hand are either hard to find or cost a lot to play. It’s seriously tough to deal with!

Skullclamp Let Death Pay For Cards

Skullclamp might seem simple at first, but it’s quite powerful. This artifact costs only one mana to play, and another to attach to a creature. It gives that creature +1 power and -1 toughness. The real benefit comes when the equipped creature dies – you get to draw two cards!

The strategy revolves around attaching Skullclamp to small, 1/1 creatures. These creatures are then intentionally weakened and destroyed, allowing the player to draw two extra cards. The Skullclamp can then be moved to another creature to repeat the process, creating a continuous stream of cards. This is such a powerful advantage – getting two cards for just one mana and a single, weak creature – that the card needed to be restricted.

Black Lotus’ Power Is Worth The Price

Some of the most powerful cards are surprisingly simple. Black Lotus is a prime example – it’s an artifact that costs nothing to play, but can be sacrificed to generate three mana of any color.

The Black Lotus card is well-known as an example of how unbalanced the rules were when the card game Magic: The Gathering first came out. Being able to generate three mana for free is incredibly powerful, letting players play their strongest cards much earlier than intended, and without any limitations on what colors of cards they could use.

The Black Lotus card is legendary in the world of Magic: The Gathering, becoming the most expensive trading card ever sold – some copies have reached millions of dollars. It’s considered the most highly desired card in the game’s history.

2025-12-08 04:44