Marvel's Spider-Man Format Update - Ban & Watchlist Announcement
Summary of Changes
Underworld Breach – Remains on Watchlist
Ketramose, the New Dawn – Banned as Tiny Leader (Commander)
Underworld Breach - Remains on Watchlist
Since our last Ban and Watch update, Underworld Breach hasn’t really made any big waves in the meta. We could have easily taken it off the watchlist. However, with Ketramose now banned from the CZ, a deck that naturally kept Underworld Breach in check, we’ve decided to take a more cautious approach and keep it under watch a little longer.
Ketramose, the New Dawn - Banned as Tiny Leader (Commander)
Ketramose, the New Dawn first rose to prominence in the Reborn Rumble tournament series, putting three players in the top 8 of an event almost immediately after releasing. In the following months, its two main pilots never missed a Rumble top 8 until they shook hands and agreed that the deck was too miserable of a play experience to continue playing. The next time Ketramose showed up at a Rumble, it won two events back-to-back. Although it hasn’t seen as much play online, when people did choose to play Ketramose in a Discord league, the finals ended up a mirror match – Ketra vs. Ketra.
Success alone isn’t enough to make a deck bannable. However, given the extremely diverse field that Tiny Leaders Reborn supports, Ketramose’s dominance reflects a bigger issue. The deck has a tendency to make the opponent’s strategy completely obsolete. Ketramose is the only deck in the format that gets to play 20 lands, 25 pieces of interaction, and 5 pieces of maindeck graveyard hate. Graveyard-adjacent strategies like Slimefoot and Squee or Phlage struggle disproportionately against the deck, and “graveyard-adjacent” describes the majority of midrange strategies in TLR: Kroxa, Slimefoot and Squee, Grist, other Grist, midrange Phlage, and so on. Similarly, creature combo decks and creature-centric midrange decks can struggle to keep up against the barrage of exile removal that Ketramose presents, and aggro decks often fold to a 4/4 indestructible creature with lifelink.
Further accentuating the issue of Ketramose invalidating a wide swath of graveyard strategies is the fact that the deck seems impossible to tech against. From Angus Mackenzie to Acererack the Archlich to Ral, Monsoon Mage to ordinary Rograkh/Yoshimaru aggro, people have tried all sorts of strategies to beat up on Ketramose. Dismember has seen more play since the deck’s inception than it ever did before. Despite all this, Ketramose’s myriad selection of maindeckable answers to any permanent type make it very resilient to hate pieces, and it’s already playing such a slow game that recasting the commander isn’t much of an issue. Orzhov is also one of the best color combinations for sideboard cards, giving the deck access to effects like Warmth, Rule of Law/Ethersworn Canonist, and Thoughtseize, shoring up all the weak spots that the maindeck might have. In theory, Ketramose’s worst matchup should be storm; in practice, the pilot who took Ketramose to back-to-back wins in the Rumble series repeatedly beat Ral across multiple tournaments. Ketramose’s worst matchup, it seems, is Ketramose.
As if this wasn’t enough, the deck has raised repeated complaints about the miserable play experience; every turn, Ketramose just taps out to take away all of the opponent’s cards while drawing a new hand of its own. Compared to a blue control deck like Aminatou, or the mono black combo-control deck Acererak, games with Ketramose often feel like watching paint dry rather than trying to solve the puzzle of a control deck’s interaction. For these reasons, we’ve decided to ban Ketramose as commander. However, the card still has some interesting uses in the 49. When it’s not in the command zone, the card plays a much less dominant role in games, and is less likely to become a 4/4 lifelinking attacker. Currently, the card mostly sees play in Aminatou, but we look forward to seeing what else the community will brew with it.
Final Thoughts
As the format continues to grow, our focus remains on maintaining a healthy, diverse environment where every archetype has room to thrive. Banning Ketramose is not about punishing success but about ensuring that no single strategy can invalidate such a wide swath of the field. At the same time, we’re taking a careful, measured approach with Underworld Breach by keeping it on the watchlist as we continue to monitor its impact now that one of its natural predators has left the meta.
We know that every change shapes the format’s identity, and we don’t take these decisions lightly. Our goal is to keep Tiny Leaders Reborn as dynamic and enjoyable as possible, whether you’re piloting aggro, midrange, combo, or control. As always, your tournament results and feedback are an important part of this process. Keep sharing your thoughts and ideas and together, we can keep this format thriving.
Lastly, we’d like to give a special thanks to NorCal’s own DarthRainbows. She is a Reborn Rumble tournament grinder, a valued member of our Official Discord Team, and one of the format’s most prominent Ketramose pilots. Her insight was instrumental in shaping this announcement. We appreciate the time and effort she put into her write-up. Thank you!
– The Tiny Leaders Reborn Committee