Badgermole Cub Is Finally Banned In MTG Standard With Two Other Cards

Published Aug 10, 2026, 12:29 PM EDT Niall (pronounced Ny-ul) is a UK-based writer who has been writing about Magic: The Gathering throughout his entire career, with everything from new set breakdowns and individual deck guides to offering his opinions on the state of formats and the general direction of the iconic TCG. Niall also has a rich history covering triple-A releases, sports games, and PC hardware. The Cub is dead, long live the Cub. That's right, the latest Magic: The Gathering banned and restricted announcement has revealed three Standard bans, the first since the middle of last year. Among them is Badgermole Cub, a card that has been terrorizing Standard for the entirety of 2026. It's not alone, however, as two other cards have also been banned, one of which would have rotated out of the format in a matter of months, but its exodus has been brought forward to try and curb the power of Izzet decks in the format. Cub, Otter, And Granny Get Banned In Standard Today's Magic: The Gathering banned and restricted announcement only sees four total cards banned across three formats. As expected, The Fantasticar has been banned in Legacy and Vintage. More importantly, Badgermole Cub, Stormchaser’s Talent, and Gran-Gran have all been banned in Standard play. Izzet decks have been dominating the meta, so by taking away two huge cards for most archetypes, the hope is that this power dynamic shifts away from red and blue decks. With Badgermole Cub, it has been driving the success of basically any deck using green mana, and was almost impossible to stop unless you had a hand full of responses in the early game. This ban was expected during the last banned and restricted announcement, but that one focused more on other formats, while this latest announcement focuses outright on the Standard format post-MagicCon Amsterdam. Selesnya Offense is a deck that recently topped out at a 57% win rate in MTG Arena, and this data was used to confirm the ban on Badgermole Cub. Izzet Loses Some Firepower, But Will It Matter? Stomchaser's Talent is a card that drives my current Izzet Prowess deck, so I completely understand why it has been banned, but there may be some questions over the timing. Bloomburrow is set to rotate out of Standard in early 2027, but the decision has been made to take Stormchaser's Talent away early. This one-mana enchantment class creates a 1/1 Otter token with Prowess when it enters, and can be bounced in and out of play very easily to trigger Prowess amongst your Otters and other creatures. As you upgrade it, it can return an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand, and create 1/1 Otter tokens with Prowess every time you cast a noncreature spell. Gran-Gran is the other target, another one-mana drop that can reduce the cost of noncreature spells by one colorless mana. It also lets you loot cards (draw and discard) each time it becomes tapped, which is a ton of value for just one mana. These are two key cards that sit at the heart of most Izzet Prowess decks, and while the archetype is still strong without them, the early game power has dropped considerably with these two cards no longer legal in the format. I don't expect the meta to shift too heavily away from Izzet in general, but the absence of these cards makes it less of a pain to play against. Franchise Magic: The Gathering Original Release Date August 5, 1993 Publisher Wizards of the Coast Designer(s) Richard Garfield