Since Ranked Historic returned in late May, we have been closely watching decks using
Winota, Joiner of Forces. The early data for this deck showed it to be both popular and strong, but, since the deck was so new in the format, we wanted to allow some time to see how the rest of the field adapted. And though the field has recently shifted due to last week's announcement, the data show that this is not significantly reducing the performance of this deck. In fact, with the data now available, we see the popularity roughly doubling since its emergence and the win rate remaining problematically high. Decks using
Winota, Joiner of Forces currently represent too large a portion of the Historic metagame, and the quality of enablers and payoffs in the format means that this is unlikely to change without further action. Because of this,
Winota, Joiner of Forces is Suspended in Historic.
A NOTE ON TIMING FOR HISTORIC
We are making this suspension effective immediately, which is a change from our previously announced practice of providing one-week notice. As we have worked and learned more about how to manage Historic as a digital-focused format, we feel that the notice period is, on balance, more problematic than beneficial here. The digital nature of Historic play allows us to observe the full format much more closely, and it allows players to respond to format changes more quickly as well. For Historic only, there will be times that we feel the case is compelling enough that we should act immediately, without providing a one-week notice.
As with other formats, changes like this will not occur in any major event using the Historic format. This includes both organized play events such as a Mythic Invitational, as well as
MTG Arena-specific events geared toward high-level competitive play such as an Arena Open. The one-week notice period will remain the standard (no pun intended) for all formats other than Historic, and we will continue to work closely with both our esports organization as well as our own events team to ensure the timing on these announcements.
