Summary

Effective Date: Friday August 21st, 2026
Next B&R: Monday, September 14th, 2026

Summary: As mentioned in our previous season banlist article, Baleful Oblation, Fabled Azurite Fatestone/Seiryuu, and Spirit Blade: Ascension are banned for the PRD season. Apart from this, other changes include: Removing Baby Gray Slime from Category 2, Mercenary's Blade is moved to Category 1. Being added to category 1 are Dynastic Whirlpool, Burst Asunder, Feu Awakening. Being added to Proxia's Vault is Jinzhuo, Bands of Virtue.

The watchlists only contain cards that were either previously legal in that format's watchlist or are currently legal for that format. There are currently two watchlists: Standard and Pantheon.

See the entire list of banned cards here.

Proxia’s Vault

Now introducing Jinzhuo, Bands of Virtue. This regalia is targeted to support tamer strategies around Byakko, White Tiger. With the season ban of Seiryuu's Fatestone, we wanted to allow Tamer players to have a more supported direction to build towards. With that in mind, we hope to see the continued presence of Tamer decks going into the new meta with the release of .asphodel/paradise and the start of the new season.

Seasonal Banlist

PRD Season Ban List

This category is reserved exclusively for cards that are banned in the current season. In this category, Baleful Oblation, Fabled Azurite Fatestone, and Spirit Blade: Ascension are banned. As a reminder, please refer to our PRD Season Bans Article.

Category 3

This category will contain all cards that are banned and restricted, proving to be too powerful or too impactful and limiting tournament deck diversity and meta health in Standard. Currently, Baby Green Slime, Carpsong Coda, Crystal of Empowerment, Corhazi Outlook, Dissonant Fractal, Erupting Rhapsody, Grim Pastiche, Icebound Slam, Lost in Thought, Sword of Avarice, Ranger Strides, Reckless Conversion, Rile the Abyss, and Unmake Duality are banned.

Category 2

This category contains cards that we consider very problematic and are heavily watched for potential future legality changes and category shifts. This category currently has two cards: Chalice of Blood, Crystalline Mirror.

Category 1

This category consists of cards that we don’t consider problematic in the current environment, but are unhealthy for future balance and game design space. This category currently has eight cards: Alkahest, Burst Asunder, Dream Fairy, Dynastic Whirlpool, Feu Awakening, Incandescent Reliquary, Mercenary's Blade, and Topsy Decree.

Dynastic Whirlpool sees inclusion to Category 1 this season. Water's identity, for the most part, is designed to support non-exalted advanced element strategies. As such, we see water cards, even exalted ones, in the supportive role for deck strategies. The design of water cards should favor a flow where a deck can engage with Ultimates and win conditions in the elements they support, rather than being its own focus and its own win condition. Our concern with Dynastic is that it reverses the relationship between water as a support card and advanced (non-exalted) elements, like Crux, and Astra, as the pay-off element for closing out games.

Burst Asunder also is getting added as a result of our increased attention to the issue that phantasia objects are still inherently too difficult to interact with. This is due, in part, to the granularity of Grand Archive's design. We'll keep an eye on how the potency of phantasia interaction increases with respect to Burst Asunder for future updates.

Feu Awakening is meant to be the last layer of interaction for negating other negate effects. Unfortunately, there are not enough non-negation methods to interact with Ciel's Omen theme: banishing specific cards. There are plans to introduce additional cards in Distorted Reflections Alter Edition (as well as future sets) that will cater to strategies such as those of Ciel's. Tentatively, we have good hopes that those cards will address these issues on their release.

Pantheon Watchlist

Category 3

This category will contain all cards that are banned and restricted, proving to be too powerful or too impactful and limiting tournament deck diversity and meta health in Standard. There are no cards here yet! Hooray!

Category 2

This category contains cards that we consider very problematic and are heavily watched for potential future legality changes and category shifts. There are no cards here yet! Yahoo!

Category 1

This category consists of cards that we don’t consider problematic in the current environment, but are unhealthy for future balance and game design space. There are no cards here yet! Yippee!

That's all for this B&R update! The next B&R will be on Monday, September 14th, 2026 following Ascent Melbourne.