Oko, Thief of Crowns is taking over Magic: The Gathering in sanctioned formats like Standard and Modern—and it’s unlikely that he’ll be banned until after Mythic Championship VI.
In the last two weeks, beginning with Mythic Championship V via MTG Arena, Oko has been a dominating force in Standard and Modern. And his takeover of competitive level formats became official after this past weekend’s tournaments following the Field of the Dead ban.
William Jensen (Bant Food) won the MPL Ruby Division Eldraine split last week, despite WotC making an exemption that allowed players to use Field of Dead after it had been banned. And in the MTG Arena Mythic Qualifiers (Oct. 26 to 27), almost all of the decks who finished in the top-16 (qualifying for MCVII) used Oko.
But Oko’s takeover isn’t just in Standard. Five of the top-eight decks at the Oct. 27 Atlanta Star City Games Open (Modern format) played the planeswalker. The Modern deck Simic Whirza finished in second, third, and fourth place.
An emergency ban on Oko, however, is unlikely. Deck lists for the upcoming tabletop Mythic Championship VI in Richmond (Standard format) are due in a week. WotC waited to ban Field of the Dead until after MCV and it’ll probably do the same for MCVI.
Related: Oko, Thief of Crowns is breaking Brawl in MTG Arena
The next scheduled Banned and Restricted announcement is Nov. 18. And until then, it seems like Oko will continue to steal any hopes of an adjusted meta in competitive Magic formats.
