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The June 2026 Banned Announcement crept up on the player base. With the heat of Nationals Season and the excitement going into Pro Tour Vegas and the release of Usurp, players are forgiven for letting this BnR fall off their radar.
However, cards were readded and taken away with a surprising level of grace and precision. You can read the full article on the mothership website here. This article seeks to summarise it, and give cadence as to why they banned and unbanned cards in Silver Age - notes which are always omitted on their official announcements.
June 2026 Banned Announcement
CC Unbannings
As of July 6th (so as not to mess with players still in the Nationals Season):
- ros087-electromagnetic-somersault-3-rosetta-booster (Blue Only) is Unbanned.
- Skyward Serenade is Unbanned.
- Talk a Big Game is Unbanned.
In their article, LSS cited that Zyggy Starlight was a deck that needed a little more internal cooking. This is to say that the deck in its current form is in need of one or more expansion slot cards to make it competitive in the metagame they've been testing. This is troubling, so they decided to give the deck a versatile Blue to work with big attacks like Command and Conquer or big Fragment attacks like Blink of an Eye.
Talk a Big Game was cited as a card that needed a precautionary ban off the strength of Lyath Goldmane, Vile Savant. The ability to roll over an absurd number of Might tokens could be daunting for some, but the versatile, odd Guardian deck needs something of an alternate deckbuilding direction, or some other threat to supplement its surprisingly viable fatigue gameplan.
Skyward Serenade is the head scratcher. I share the same sentiment that Sam Dando from Minmax Games shared on their Youtube Channel. A quote from the BnR where they rightly banned Serenade, and my original article about those bannings:
[...]Skyward Serenade was in fact, a printing error. It just didn’t feel right to ask players to routinely face off against a card that was doing more than we ever intended it to do. The feeling of losing to Skyward Serenade was bound to leave a sour taste in players’ mouths. This error is better left in the past.
If the decks from Omens came from design and development deliberately undercooked, that's fine. No one wants another case of 9 Golden Tipple Gravy Bones, Shipwrecked Looter or the Part the Mistveil heroes. What the player base is wondering is a card that has a deliberate misprint that greatly pushes its power level is what's needed to make a hero relevant. This feels like an unsafe measure from LSS, who show that they're willing to go back on their word.
Despite this, I believe it's a good call on LSS' part as a whole to bring back Serenade; Aurora's popularity cannot be understated, and bringing a fan favourite hero
CC Bannings
As of July 6th:
- Remembrance is Banned.
I am firmly in favour of this change. There has been a great deal of discourse about this card and the inherent power it has over a game that is designed around expending your entire deck as a resource to win the game. By healing deck damage in a selective way, that puts targeted, key cards back into deck, it has the double effect of benefiting decks that win by damaging your deck as well as insulating against that strategy.
In short, the card works in Fatigue and against Fatigue. My issue with the card is that it has been abused by Fatigue more liberally than it has been used as an anti-fatigue piece of tech. The best uses for it have been in decks that don't have repeatable damage, like Weapons. Decks like Marlynn, Treasure Hunter and other Rangers have been utilising Remembrance to shuffle key threats back in, and it's interactions with Gravy Bones' zombies is well know at this point.
The issue is also that decks like Victor Goldmane uses it to shuffle back Visit Goldmane Estate and Jarl uses it to shuffle back Oaken Old. It's more effective, in my opinion in Fatigue, rather than against it.
Fatigue is a valid way to play this game; it has been since the game's inception. But as a Judge and as a local Armory organiser, I do not like the play style. As a Judge, it usually goes to time, which is never a satisfying conclusion to Flesh and Blood games, especially given that draws are worse for your tournament record than losses. As a tournament organiser, I have to be the one to explain to the new player that you don't technically lose for having no cards in deck, but the person they're against gets to take all the turns they need to hammer you down.
A world where fatigue has to work for the game wins is needed.
Silver Age Unbannings
As of July 6th:
- Cash In is Unbanned.
- Seeds of Agony is Unbanned.
- Steelblade Shunt is Unbanned.
- Vigorous Smashup Unbanned.
LSS never puts their rationale as to why they ban or unban cards in Silver Age. With some reading between the lines, one can infer as to why they release certain cards, and some not. Some of them are just pleasant surprises.
I had honestly, truly forgotten that Cash In was a rare, and therefore Silver Age legal. It had been a pet favourite of mine in Kassai of the Golden Sand. I expect this card to be a very potent Gold payoff card in all the Silver Age decks; Kassai for one, but moreover, I see this being very potent in all the Pirates, especially Gravy Bones. I expect it was introduced as a surge of power for those particular decks.
When he came off the bench, everyone was prepared for Chane to run absolutely rampant across the format. With the bannings of Deathly Delight and [/card]Vantom Wraith[/card], the deck was dead on arrival. Briar has been overly powerful Runeblade of the format, and even then there are Guardians that can pressure her and Wizards that can race or disrupt her. Chane is nowhere to be seen. With this card spelling inevitability over the course of a long game, it's very possible that Chane looks to be an attrition deck that can perform a bloodletting strategy against mostly any deck.
Steelblade Shunt died for Decimator Great Axe's sins. When Calling London had an overwhelming presence of DGA Warriors across the field, LSS panicked and took away the deck's main defensive option and the absurdly high value Sirens of Safe Harbor. Now that the metagame has evolved into decks that can send tall damage, be it Guardian or Briar buffing a 0-for-4 twice with cards like Nimblism, a card which can cover very tall damage while also having the upside of a ping against a weapon attack is crucial. I expect this to all coincide with a lot of other powerful, low rarity cards coming in Mastery Pack Warrior.
I have a Judge friend who had suffered a severe lapse in judgment and played Tuffnut after Super Slam released. The deck was built around efficient clashes with the Smashup cards. Even with them present in the format, I don't imagine they'll make much of an impact, but it will be a fascinating one to consider, especially with Kayo coming back in September.
Wrap Up
We can expect the next Banned Restricted announcement to come on September 17th. This will come with the release of Usurp the Shadow Throne, following the World Premier in Seoul on the 11th. We can also expect the next round of Silver Age benchings to happen at this time.
Keep your eyes to fabtcg.gg for the latest in competitive Flesh and Blood news.
