Avatar: The Last Aibender - Ban & Watchlist Announcement
Summary of Changes
Underworld Breach – Remains on Watchlist
Edric, Spymaster of Trest - Unbanned & Watchlisted
Metalworker - Unbanned & Watchlisted
Underworld Breach - Remains on Watchlist
Underworld Breach remains on the watchlist. While it hasn’t made any major waves in recent events, we want to see if the results of this Fall’s SCT tournament has any influence on its future performance. Nearly half of the SCT field is on some form of combo or combo-adjacent strategy, and Breach has historically played a role in enabling those styles of decks.
That said, the combos represented were diverse:
- Ral, Monsoon Mage - Storm
- 2x Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer - Food Chain
- Acererak, the Archlich
- Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice - Auras/Voltron
- Kemba, Kha Enduring - Hammer Time
- Saint Traft and Rem Karolus - Jeskai Ascendancy/Intruder Alarm
The current Tiny Leaders meta is healthy and fun, and we want to make sure that continues. With so much change happening in the format, taking a cautious approach with Underworld Breach feels appropriate.
Re-Evaluating the Banlist
Over the past few months, the committee has been in ongoing discussions about re-evaluating the state of the Tiny Leaders banlist. Tiny Leaders: Original (TLO) is now more than a decade old, and Tiny Leaders: Reborn (TLR) has been around for nearly eight years. When TLR launched, it adopted the original TLO banlist as its foundation. But Magic design has changed dramatically since those early years and many cards on the current banlist no longer feel as clearly warranted as they once did.
The most difficult part of this process has been in reaching a consensus on which cards should be reconsidered, which cards can be safely tested, and how to prioritize them. There are also some practical questions to answer, such as . . .
- How many cards do we unban at once?
- What order should we evaluate them in?
- Which ones fill gaps in the meta?
- Which open new strategies?
- Which cards support underrepresented colors?
While many of us know the format deeply and understand its nuances, discussion and theorycrafting can only take us so far. Our instincts and experience give us clues about which cards might strengthen existing archetypes, enable new strategies, or help underplayed colors. But the other half of the work is developing a testing process capable of validating, or disproving, those instincts.
Recently, Laglaunt, organizer of the Reborn Rumble series, has been spearheading this testing effort and has recruited several community members to assist. The process we currently have isn’t final and is still being evaluated for effectiveness, but what follows represents the outcome of its first phase and iteration.
Edric Spymaster of Trest - Unbanned & added to Watchlist
Edric was originally banned in Tiny Leaders due to the massive amount of repeated card draw he could generate. This would result in an insurmountable advantage over an opponent. The classic pattern was to play a couple of cheap creatures and then counter everything your opponent did for the rest of the game.
After more than a decade, the game has changed dramatically. Card advantage is stronger, removal is stronger, and threats are stronger. With that in mind, we decided to take another look at Edric under modern design standards.
In the 49, Edric is not better than Uro or Nadu. While he can theoretically draw more cards than either Nadu and Uro, he requires more setup, more creatures, and he is easier to kill.
In the command zone, Edric’s issue is that Simic lacks strong removal. Most answers are temporary (bounce spells) or inefficient (Pongify, Reality Shift), and a single blocker can significantly reduce Edric’s combat-based draw engine.
The old play patterns still exist, but they are less consistent than before. We want Simic to have more interesting and aggressive options in the command zone, especially since many of its strongest legends remain banned for being too powerful at the helm. Edric offers a new angle for the color pair without pushing too far.
Edric will be Watchlisted as we monitor how these patterns show up in practice.
Metalworker - Unbanned & added to Watchlist
Going into testing, the big question on a lot of the tester’s minds was if Metalworker was even useful. The answer, surprisingly, was “Yes”.
Metalworker proved to be useful in slower artifact-based decks such as Emry. During testing, we saw some interesting results. While Metalworker can generate a lot of mana, it is also extremely easy to remove and it isn’t always the first target for removal. Equipping it with Lightning Greaves can be explosive, but the deck needs a very high artifact count to make that happen consistently.
Fast decks like Tezzeret, Cruel Captain don’t benefit as much from Metalworker. Tezzeret’s strength lies in its explosiveness, and going bigger introduces consistency issues that those builds don’t really want.
Metalworker’s been banned since the start of Tiny Leaders, and when digging for information as to why, Charlotte, the creator of the format, couldn’t recall exactly why. It may have simply been inherited from early Duel Commander banlists. At the time, cards like Walking Ballista, Retrofitter Foundry, or Hangarback walker didn’t even exist.
With this unban, we hope to improve affinity-style decks and open the door for new creative brews built around generating large amounts of mana. Still, it’s possible Metalworker will end up back in obscurity. We’ll be watching closely to see how players use it.
Metalworker will also be added to the Watchlist so we can monitor any unexpected interactions.
Final Thoughts
As Tiny Leaders keeps growing and changing, our main goal is still about keeping the format healthy, fun, and full of variety. This update isn’t just about Edric, Metalworker, or Underworld Breach, it’s also part of a bigger effort to take a fresh look at a banlist that’s more than ten years old. Magic design today is wildly different from when the original Tiny Leaders list was created, and it just makes sense to re-evaluate things with modern eyes.
The testing process we’ve started, led by Laglaunt and supported by several dedicated community members, is helping us turn our instincts and theorycrafting into actual data. Unbanning Edric and Metalworker while placing both on the watchlist is a perfect example of that approach. We want to open up new strategies and support underplayed colors, but we also want to keep an eye on things as the meta adjusts. And with so many moving parts in the format right now, keeping Underworld Breach on the watchlist still feels like the right call.
Every change we make has an impact on the format’s identity, and we don’t take that lightly. Your feedback, your decks, and your tournament results help shape where Tiny Leaders goes next. And, were incredibly grateful for the passion this community brings.
We’d also like to give a big thank you to Committee Consultant Adri, aka TinyUrza, aka TinyMishra’s Evil Twin, for his help with this write-up. His insight, feedback and attention to detail were invaluable.
Thanks again for being part of Tiny Leaders Reborn. Have a great day and Stay Tiny!