Vivi Ornitier Likely Banned — Wizards Moves Up MTG Standard Announcement to Nov. 10
Wizards of the Coast is moving up its Standard-format banned list announcement to November 10, and senior game designer Carmen Klomparens indicates that Vivi Ornitier from the Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set is very likely to be banned for warping the format.
What happened
On the Magic: The Gathering official site, senior game designer Carmen Klomparens posted that Wizards of the Coast is moving its next banned-and-restricted announcement from November 24 to November 10. In that same post, Klomparens wrote that “We believe that we will likely take action in November,” and specifically called out Vivi Ornitier as a problematic card.
Klomparens’s post can be read on the Magic: The Gathering site, where she explains the timing change and the concerns about format balance.
Image: Wizards of the Coast
Why Vivi is being targeted
Carmen Klomparens states that Vivi Ornitier is warping the Standard format and likely needs to go. She labels the card a clear outlier and says the format has not reached an equilibrium point yet: “Vivi Ornitier is a clear outlier, but the format hasn’t reached an equilibrium point yet.”
According to the post, the specific concern is that Vivi enables outsized game states — effectively generating large amounts of mana and enabling plays that distort intended balance. Therefore, designers are treating the situation as urgent enough to move up the announcement date.
What changes to expect
The banned-and-restricted announcement window has been moved earlier in November. While Klomparens indicates action will “likely” happen in November, the post does not include an immediate, explicit ban list; instead, it signals that Vivi is a primary candidate for removal from Standard.
Importantly, Klomparens also states that the change of announcement date is not motivated by the interaction of Vivi with other specific cards, but by internal timing mistakes: “we got our banned and restricted announcement timing windows wrong during this part of the year.” Rotation schedules for Standard remain unchanged.
Context and other cards
Klomparens notes that some other decks still have space in the metagame despite Vivi’s strength. For example, she mentions Mono-Green Stompy as continuing to exist alongside Vivi-heavy strategies.
Additionally, the post suggests that Agatha’s Soul Cauldron may not be on the immediate chopping block, leaving other Izzet Cauldron builds as possible options in Standard. However, those details are framed as conditional and part of the broader monitoring of the format rather than confirmed bans.
What to watch next
Watch for the official banned-and-restricted announcement on or before November 10, when Wizards of the Coast will publish the updated list. Until then, designers have indicated they are monitoring the format and preparing to act if needed.
