Ahead of MTG Modern Horizons 3’s launch, Wizards has announced that the card Cranial Ram will be banned in the Pauper format. This Rakdos Equipment can be cast for BR and can give Creatures a huge power boost when running multiple Artifacts.
The Pauper format is beloved by many players for cutting down on the costs inherent in TCG play. Without having to constantly search for the best Rares and Mythics, Pauper makes Magic much more accessible, focusing primarily on Common cards.
As a result, Pauper’s ban list is a very different beast to that of other formats, with comparatively less powerful cards being taken into consideration.
Cranial Ram is a callback to the classic Artifact Cranial Plating. Where that card gave a power boost with an optional cost to equip at Instant speed, Cranial Ram also takes inspiration from Nettlecyst, creating a 0/0 Creature that is equipped with this card right away as it ETBs.
By combining some of the best aspects of previous Artifact Equipment, Cranial Ram is a highly powerful card, especially for common rarity, and that puts it into direct consideration for Pauper players.
So, why was the unprecedented decision to ban a card ahead of release for Pauper made? As explained by principal MTG designer Gavin Verhey, thanks to the abundance of cheap Artifacts and Artifact Lands available in multiple Magic formats, Cranial Plating has long been a menace.
All That Glitters was recently banned for having a highly similar effect, as is the case with Cranial Ram. Additionally, while Cranial Ram’s power is slightly tempered in comparison to Plating due to its increased equip cost and lack of Instant-speed equip, coming in attached to a Creature is enough to offset this and make the cards comparable in power.
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With several important Pauper events taking place shortly after Modern Horizons 3’s launch, the decision was made to enact the pre-ban and prevent the format from being so heavily weighted in Cranial Ram’s favor.
As the name suggests, Modern Horizons 3 is a set designed with the Modern format in mind. While this may be the case, a significant number of cards in each set are tailored to the ever-popular Commander format, and other forms of play like Pauper have to adapt to Horizons sets’ powerful support too.
While Cranial Ram is the only Modern Horizons 3 card to be banned in Pauper ahead of the set’s release, it’s far from the only high-power Common launching in the set.
Accursed Marauder pushes sacrifice effects forward by ignoring token Creatures and coming in for 2 mana rather than the 3 usually associated with its table-wipe effect. It’s hard to argue against accusations of power creep in Horizons sets with such a strict upgrade.
Additionally, while Modern Horizons 3 features a boatload of powerful Eldrazi cards, the easiest to break among them is the Common Basking Broodscale, being able to go infinite in a number of ways. This card relies on +1/+1 counters to generate sacrifice-based sources of mana, easily ramping you ahead of any opponent.
Cranial Ram will be kept out of Pauper players’ hands for now, but judging by the set’s other Commons, Modern Horizons 3 is going to have quite an impact on this fan-favorite format.
