Once Upon a Time

Standard	Rotated out on September 24, 2021
Pioneer	Banned since December 3, 2019
Modern	Banned since March 10, 2020
Legacy	Never Banned
Vintage	Never Banned
Commander	Never Banned
Pauper	Never Banned
Oathbreaker	Never Banned
Extended	Not Legal

View on Scryfall

Timeline

• October 4, 2019 - Released
• November 22, 2019 - Status changed to Banned in Standard
• December 3, 2019 - Status changed to Banned in Pioneer
• March 10, 2020 - Status changed to Banned in Modern
• September 24, 2021 - Status changed to Rotated in Standard

Rationale

Once Upon a Time has been repeatedly banned across multiple formats because of its contribution to extreme consistency and the overall dominance of green-aligned strategies. In Standard and Pioneer, its inclusion was cited as a key factor in the overrepresentation of green, providing crucial early mana fixing and high consistency that amplified the power level of green decks in relation to the restricted Standard card pool. Similarly, in Modern, the card was deemed too powerful because the consistency it offered allowed popular archetypes to reliably execute their early-game plans, thereby limiting gameplay diversity. In Historic, it was banned alongside *Oko, Thief of Crowns* and *Veil of Summer* due to its advanced power level and difficulty for the format to interact with advantageously.

This summary was generated by gemma4 on September 14, 2026. It has not yet been reviewed by a human editor and may contain some inaccuracies. Learn more.

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