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In the new unset, Unstable, Spike, Tournament Grinder can tutor for any current or previously banned or restricted card from outside the game.

Spike, Tournament Grinder

Specifically this ability:

ϕϕϕϕ: Choose a card you own from outside the game that has been banned or restricted in a Constructed format, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.

Which cards are on that list, as of the last B&R announcement ( October 17, 2017 )?

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2 Answers 2

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First of all, keep in mind that all Un-set questions are always up to interpretation, and may be played different by different playgroups. Although I try to be as precise as possible, due to the lack of official rulings, no definitive answer can be given.

Currently Banned/Restricted Cards

A list of currently banned cards can be found at the official Wizards pages. This is the most readable of all the online sources I'm aware of, and should also be the one that's kept up to date most reliably.

Previously Banned/Restricted Cards in Common Formats

I'm not aware of any official list specifically composed for this purpose, but there are other sources that more or less specific for this purpose will help with the search:

Basically, you would be able to tutor for any card from these lists, provided that the list is accurate.

Previously Banned Cards in Commander and Other Formats

As the previously linked pages don't cover the Commander format, you may resort to the official changelog, which keeps track of bans, but doesn't provide any info prior to September 2009. Whichever logic you apply, going by that list will likely be the most sensible thing to do, simply because of its official origin. That said, there should be other threads you'll find, pointing you towards history further back in time, such as this one that has been suggested in the comments.

Furthermore, there are many more widely played formats (such as Tiny Leaders) I could provide a link to, but the reality is that if you include all those formats in your definition of previously banned, some person will eventually just invent a format that bans every card but basic lands, and therefore will be able to tutor all cards.

A Note on Ante Cards

Ante cards are tutorable, but due to the way they function, they won't reap you any benefits, as confirmed by Mark Rosewater:

Q: Can Spike, Tournament Grinder get ante cards?
A: Ante no longer exists, so they aren’t usable.

In other words, while you can tutor banned or restricted cards, you won't necessarily be able to use them due to the magnitude of changes to the rules over time. Then again, this would also be subject to different interpretations of Un-sets, as stated in the beginning, so your mileage may vary.

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  • 2
    One thing that "Previously Banned/Restricted Cards" section doesn't have is previously banned cards in Commander. There's a good forum post here that has a lot of that history
    – murgatroid99
    Nov 15, 2017 at 19:14
  • @murgatroid99 That's a great hint, but I think the official changelog is better suited for a quick lookup, especially since it appears to reach further back in time at a quick glance. Nov 15, 2017 at 20:25
  • The official changelog goes back to September 2009, as you said. The one I linked goes back to October 2002.
    – murgatroid99
    Nov 15, 2017 at 20:27
  • @murgatroid99: Whoa, I meant to say "even though", not "especially" in that comment... I even got it right in the edit itself O_o Nov 16, 2017 at 0:24
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    You say "if your interpretation is that Spike can tutor a card that has been banned or restricted at some point, but isn't anymore", but this isn't up for interpretation, it was explicitly stated
    – murgatroid99
    Nov 20, 2017 at 15:58
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UPDATE: Scryfall (a mtg card search tool) has recently added the search tag is:spikey. This means you can see a nicely laid out (and searchable) list of the tutorable cards here by searching on their site.

I have left the original Reddit list below as some insurance against link rot.


In addition to TheThirdMan's answer on how to actually find them, there was a list of cards that are currently or have previously been banned and restricted that has been curated by reddit in this thread.

For convenience, and in case the link breaks in the future, here are the cards as listed:

Here are all of the currently banned/restricted cards you can currently tutor up with Spike:

  • AEther Vial (Mirrodin block)
  • Aetherworks Marvel
  • Amulet of Quoz (Ice Age Block)
  • Ancestral Recall
  • Ancient Den
  • Arcbound Ravager (Mirrodin block)
  • Balance
  • Bazaar of Baghdad
  • Biorhythm
  • Birthing Pod
  • Black Lotus
  • Blazing Shoal
  • Bloodbraid Elf
  • Braids, Cabal Minion
  • Brainstorm
  • Chalice of the Void
  • Channel
  • Chaos Orb
  • Chrome Mox
  • Cloud of Faeries (Pauper Ban)
  • Cloudpost
  • Coalition Victory
  • Cursed Scroll (Tempest block)
  • Cranial Plating (Pauper Ban)
  • Dark Depths
  • Darksteel Citadel (Mirrodin block)
  • Deathrite Shaman
  • Demonic Consultation
  • Demonic Tutor
  • Dig Through Time
  • Disciple of the Vault (Mirrodin block)
  • Dread Return
  • Earthcraft
  • Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
  • Empty the Warrens (Pauper Ban)
  • Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
  • Eye of Ugin
  • Falling Star
  • Fastbond
  • Felidar Guardian
  • Flash
  • Frantic Search
  • Gaea's Cradle (Urza block)
  • Gifts Ungiven
  • Gitaxian Probe
  • Glimpse of Nature
  • Goblin Recruiter
  • Golgari Grave-Troll
  • Grapeshot (Pauper Ban)
  • Great Furnace
  • Great Furnace (Mirrodin block)
  • Green Sun's Zenith
  • Griselbrand
  • Gush
  • Hermit Druid
  • Hypergenesis
  • Imperial Seal
  • Invigorate (Pauper Ban)
  • Intangible Virtue (Innistrad-Avacyn Restored block)
  • Jace, the Mind Sculptor
  • Karakas
  • Leovold, Emissary of Trest
  • Library of Alexandria
  • Limited Resources
  • Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero (Masques block)
  • Lingering Souls (Innistrad-Avacyn Restored block)
  • Lion's Eye Diamond
  • Lodestone Golem
  • Lotus Petal
  • Mana Crypt
  • Mana Drain
  • Mana Vault
  • Memory Jar
  • Mental Misstep
  • Merchant Scroll
  • Mind Twist
  • Mind's Desire
  • Mishra’s Workshop
  • Monastery Mentor
  • Mox Emerald
  • Mox Jet
  • Mox Pearl
  • Mox Ruby
  • Mox Sapphire
  • Mystical Tutor
  • Necropotence
  • Oath of Druids
  • Painter's Servant
  • Panoptic Mirror
  • Peregrine Drake (Pauper Ban)
  • Ponder
  • Preordain
  • Primeval Titan
  • Prophet of Kruphix
  • Punishing Fire
  • Recurring Nightmare
  • Rishadan Port (Masques block)
  • Rite of Flame
  • Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
  • Seat of the Synod
  • Second Sunrise
  • Seething Song
  • Sensei's Divining Top
  • Serra's Sanctum (Urza block)
  • Shahrazad
  • Skullclamp
  • Smuggler's Copter
  • Sol Ring
  • Splinter Twin
  • Squandered Resources (Mirage block)
  • Stoneforge Mystic
  • Strip Mine
  • Summer Bloom
  • Sundering Titan
  • Survival of the Fittest
  • Sway of the Stars
  • Sylvan Primordial
  • Temporal Fissure (Pauper Ban)
  • Thawing Glaciers (Ice Age block)
  • Thorn of Amethyst
  • Time Spiral (Urza block)
  • Time Vault
  • Time Walk
  • Timetwister
  • Tinker
  • Tolarian Academy
  • Trade Secrets
  • Treasure Cruise
  • Tree of Tales
  • Trinisphere
  • Umezawa's Jitte
  • Upheaval
  • Vampiric Tutor
  • Vault of Whispers
  • Voltaic Key (Urza block)
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • Windfall
  • Worldfire
  • Yawgmoth's Bargain
  • Yawgmoth's Will
  • Zuran Orb (Ice Age block)

And here are all of the previously banned/restricted cards you can tutor up with Spike:

  • Ali from Cairo (Previously restricted in Vintage)
  • Ancestral Vision (Previously banned in Modern)
  • Ancient Tomb (Previously banned in Extended)
  • Berserk (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Beacon of Immortality (previously banned in EDH)
  • Bitterblossom (Previously banned in Modern)
  • Black Vise (Previously restricted in Vintage)
  • Braingeyser (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Burning Wish (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Candelabra of Tawnos (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Copy Artifact (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Crop Rotation (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Crucible of Worlds (previously banned in EDH)
  • Cunning Wish (previsouly Banned in Commander)
  • Dark Ritual (Previously banned in Extended)
  • Death Wish (previsouly Banned in Commander)
  • Divine Intervention (Previously banned in Vintage)
  • Dingus Egg
  • Doomsday (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Dream Halls (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Enlightened Tutor (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Enlightened Wish (Previously banned in EDH)
  • Entomb (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Emrakul, the Promised End (Previously banned in Standard)
  • Fact or Fiction (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Feldon's Cane (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Fluctuator (Previously banned in Standard)
  • Fork (Previously restricted in Vintage)
  • Gauntlet of Might
  • Goblin Lackey (Previously banned in Extended)
  • Golden Wish (previously Banned in Commander)
  • Grim Monolith (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Grindstone (previously banned in EDH)
  • Heartless Hidetsugu (previously banned in EDH)
  • Hurkyl's Recall (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Hymn to Tourach
  • Hypnotic Specter
  • Icy Manipulator
  • Illusionary Mask (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Ivory Tower (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Jeweled Bird (Previously banned in Standard)
  • Juggernaut
  • Kird Ape (Previously banned in Extended)
  • Kokusho, the Evening Star (previously banned in EDH)
  • Land Tax (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Living Wish (previously Banned in Commander)
  • Maze of Ith (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Metalworker (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Mind Over Matter (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Mirror Universe (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Mox Diamond (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind (Previously banned in EDH)
  • Orcish Oriflamme
  • Personal Tutor (Previously restricted in Vintage)
  • Protean Hulk (Previously banned in EDH)
  • Rebirth (Previously banned in Standard)
  • Recall (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Reflector Mage (Previously banned in Standard)
  • Regrowth (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Replenish (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Rukh Egg
  • Serendib Efreet
  • Staff of Domination (Previously banned in EDH)
  • Stroke of Genius (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Sword of the Ages (Previously restricted in Vintage)
  • Sword of the Meek (Previously banned in Modern)
  • Thirst for Knowledge (Previously restricted in Vintage)
  • Test of Endurance (Previously banned in EDH)
  • Underworld Dreams (Previously banned in Legacy)
  • Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle (Previously banned in Modern)
  • Wild Nacatl (Previously banned in Modern)
  • Worldgorger Dragon (Previously banned in Legacy)

Some cards merged into list based on this mtgwiki page, Commander historic bans, and the pauper ban list.

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  • Upvoted because of its undeniable usefulness for someone, but I'm not keen on this type of post in general. I may not consider Pauper a format to base my evaluation on in a constructed set because I utilize non-common cards, and I may consider Tiny Leaders (which doesn't seem to be included here) because the deck I'm building is a Commander/Tiny Leaders one. Basically, it won't solve the problem for everyone, and might obscure what might be allowed for others. I tried to emphasize the impracticality of additional sets in my answer, but also think the possibility shouldn't be concealed. Nov 20, 2017 at 16:56
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    @TheThirdMan Your answer is the better one of the two and should remain the accepted one as it shows you how to find the cards for yourself. My answer is more for the lazy who want a quick reference. When adding cards that weren't found in the original Reddit post I tried to include where they were banned so that the lazy could still make their own judgement calls on what is acceptable.
    – Malco
    Nov 20, 2017 at 17:22
  • Plus this answer is soooo bloody long, I really wish there was a better way to format this. I don't want it to be accepted as it would push your answer way down and no one would get to see it.
    – Malco
    Nov 20, 2017 at 17:23
  • Well, the problem extends beyond my answer really... this way, possible new answers will be looked at less than they normally would have. Personally, I was in favor of the code block formatting from the edit history, even though it does go against its intended use... Nov 20, 2017 at 18:51
  • @TheThirdMan I really like the scroll bars too, but code blocks wreak havoc with accessibility tools and general readability so it was ultimately decided it wasn't worth it.
    – Malco
    Nov 20, 2017 at 19:58

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