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Sorcery
Each player chooses a number of lands they control equal to the number of lands controlled by the player who controls the fewest, then sacrifices the rest. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.
Ban history
Two-mana symmetrical reset that is trivially made one-sided; restricted since 1995 elsewhere.
- Banned in Premodern
- On or before May 2018
- On earliest archived list; likely since 2012 founding
- Category
- Power
- Research
- Research confidence: Medium confidence
- First printed
- First printed in Limited Edition Alpha (5 August 1993); Premodern-legal via Fourth Edition.
Why it’s banned
Power level (no published rationale).
Official reason
No official reason published.
Community & historical context (not an official statement)
Analytical/community: with Premodern's fast mana (e.g. Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal), Balance can act as a one-sided board wipe, Armageddon and discard effect for two mana (Draftsim). It was restricted in Type 1 and Type 2 in April 1995 and was on Extended's initial 1997 ban list.[1, 2, 3]
The story
Balance debuted in Alpha (1993) and reached Premodern via Fourth Edition. Wizards restricted it in both Type 1 and Type 2 in April 1995, banned it in Type 1.5 (Legacy) and put it on Extended's opening 1997 ban list. In Premodern it has been banned on every archived list since 2018; no official reason was published, but community writers point to how easily fast mana and artifacts make its 'symmetrical' effect one-sided.
Premodern changes
- On listOn the earliest archived Premodern ban list.[4]
Other formats (Wizards)
Historical context, not Premodern decisions.
- StandardRestricted
- VintageRestricted
- LegacyBanned
- StandardBanned
- ExtendedBanned
Related cards
Sources
- Draftsim: The Premodern Ban List: All 33 Cards Banned (A.L. Walser, 2026-04-24) — community
- MTG Wiki: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline
- MTGBans.info per-card timelines (effective dates; site's AI-generated rationales NOT used)
- Wayback: premodernmagic.com/banned-watched/ 2018-05-06 (34 banned, 5 watched)
- Scryfall card data (printings, release dates)
- premodernmagic.com legal sets endpoint
Research as of 18 October 2026.
In our decks
Not in any of our curated decklists yet. Find similar cards.
Played in tournaments
Share of published Premodern decklists that play Balance (main or sideboard): 2,950 lists from paper events and MTGO in the last 90 days, through .
Not seen in any of the 2,950 tournament lists from the last 90 days. Browse the meta.
Printings (13)
Every tournament-legal paper printing (no gold-border, World Championship or oversized cards). Hover or tap a row to preview that printing.
