Classic Constructed

The following changes to Classic Constructed are effective from Monday, December 15, 2025:

Brand with Cinderclaw is banned.
Chart the High Seas is banned.
Orb-Weaver Spinneret (Blue) is banned.
Orb-Weaver Spinneret (Yellow) is banned.
Rootbound Carapace is banned.
Wrath of Retribution is banned.

As mentioned in our most recent Dev Talk, Classic Constructed prior to this Banned and Restricted Announcement is in an extremely healthy state. There are three decks which stand slightly above the rest in terms of metagame representation, but Cindra, Gravy Bones, and Verdance all have acceptable win rates, and none of the three have a metagame share that we would consider out of line. They have traded the title of “boogeyman” back and forth for months, all while a diverse array of new challengers stepped up on a week-to-week basis to challenge for title of best deck.

Even a well-balanced metagame can run its course though, and it feels like that is where we are at with Classic Constructed. Today’s bans are, for the most part, not designed to target unacceptably powerful cards. They intend to take away tools from the decks that currently sit atop the format in hopes of shaking up the metagame. It is important to understand that as the format evolves, it is very likely that some, if not all of these cards eventually return to the legal card pool. For the time being though, we look forward to seeing how things evolve under these new constraints during Road to Nationals season.

Brand with Cinderclaw, Wrath of Retribution

Cindra came out of the gates blazing and has only briefly taken her foot off the gas during her Classic Constructed tenure. While she posts acceptable win rates for the best aggro deck in the format, there’s no question that she often overshadows some of the other heroes that might look to fulfill that role and who also carry more easily targetable weaknesses.

During The Hunted development, we very intentionally avoided reprinting Brand with Cinderclaw into the limited environment because of how trivial it made Cindra’s quest to make her payoff cards Draconic. With the removal of Brand with Cinderclaw from Classic Constructed, Cindra will be forced to engage with other slightly weaker parts of her kit if she wants to unlock her Art of the Dragon cards. This should limit both output and disruption available to Cindra players.

Wrath of Retribution is the card on this list that probably is closest to operating at too high of a power level. The limiting factor of it being Legendary has not proven to be a satisfying salve to the burns it inflicts upon opponents. Instead, it makes games where a one-of Wrath arrives at an opportune time feel a bit too predetermined. We believe the experience of playing against Cindra will improve significantly with this card removed.

Chart the High Seas

Chart the High Seas is surely not the most powerful card Gravy Bones has access to, and when it chooses to betray its caster, it often doesn’t feel worth the cardboard it’s printed on. But when it hits, it can give Gravy Bones the tools needed to beat any opposition. That ability to high roll, combined with the ability to occasionally negate what should be a bad matchup, means that Gravy has remained a fixture of the metagame, regardless of how much decks have altered their composition to have game into the Necromancer.

There are strong tools for several classes in the coming sets that should help shore up their matchups into ally-based decks. As those arrive, it becomes more likely that the power spike of a few perfect Charts becomes a hurdle to overcome, rather than a death sentence. At that time, there’s a good chance Chart the High Seas can return to the card pool, but in respect of an epic run of dominance from Mr. Bones, we are going to offer a significant nerf at this juncture.

Orb-Weaver Spinneret (Blue + Yellow)

Acting against Arakni, Marionette may feel preemptive at this point, but a review of data shows that not only is Marionette likely to be the next hero to ascend to the top of the metagame, but there’s even a good chance they are already there. Marionette has solid matchups into most of the format’s contenders, but it also doesn’t show any notable weaknesses to other heroes currently less represented in the metagame. It simply does its thing on a game-to-game basis and asks other decks if they can keep up. The answer thus far appears to be no.

Current Marionette builds are a triumph of relentless deck-tuning that seems to have finally arrived at a near optimal approach, as lists have come to a consensus on 9x Orb-Weaver Spinneret and an aggressive cost curve that fully exploited Arakni’s “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” approach to Flesh and Blood. Having access to 9x 0-cost Graphene Chelicera makers per game is the thing that allows decks to be built in this fashion. We’d like to see Arakni work a little bit harder to keep Flick Knives a-flickin’. A color limitation on Orb-Weaver Spinneret should help achieve this goal.

Rootbound Carapace

Earth, represented by either Florian or Verdance, has had a run as a metagame threat for a long while now. While Verdance might be carrying the torch for Candlehold currently, it’s very possible that an evolving metagame would have simply thrown the door wide open for Florian. We wanted to find a ban that effectively weakened both heroes.

Rootbound Carapace was always a card that was contentious internally. Some felt decomposition should always be tied to proactive game advancement, others felt Carapace was both evocative of the Earth element and opened interesting new gameplay approaches. The truth probably lies in the middle as it so often does. Rootbound Carapace doesn’t feel inherently problematic, but it has made Earth goals much more achievable in a variety of contexts.

We feel this is a good time to explore a world without the consistent decomposition provided by Carapace, especially since both Verdance and Florian will be receiving new ways to decompose in just a few months with the arrival of Compendium of Rathe.

Silver Age

It is worth taking this opportunity to remind fans of Silver Age that the format is currently in its Early Access state. We do not intend to begin active management of the Silver Age format until after the release of Compendium of Rathe, at which time the format will be reviewed on the same cadence as Classic Constructed.

Next Scheduled Banned and Restricted Announcement

The next Banned and Restricted Announcement will be published on Monday, February 2, 2026.