With the Startup format finding a healthy meta over the Continental Championships season, the Startup Curation Team decided to look at the current ban list and see if any cards could be unbanned. Through our internal testing we found NBN: Reality Plus was not out of line with the power level of the current format. Deciding that it would be best for the format if players had a more diverse set of tools to deckbuild with, especially in the somewhat narrow NBN card pool, the Startup Curation Team is moving to unban Reality Plus.
This Banlist may be used immediately for casual Startup Play, and is intended to be used for the World Championship Startup side event.
Summary of Startup Balance Update 26.09 Changes
NBN: Reality Plus – Unbanned
Explanation of Changes
The Startup Curation Team had been exploring the possibility of unbanning Reality Plus for some time before the Standard Balance Team elected to do so in the Standard Balance Update 26.08. In spite of the current success the identity is seeing in the Standard format, we do not believe that it would be overwhelming in Startup. Many key cards seen alongside Reality Plus in standard, like Your Digital Life, Oppo Research and Kingmaking are not legal in Startup, meaning that its interactions with newer cards like Nihilo Agent have significantly less powerful payoffs. In returning to the format, Reality Plus offers new angles for Startup players to build around tags, a mechanic which has narrow support in the Vantage Point format.
Startup Balance Update 26.09 Full Contents
Effective date: 21 September, 2026
Corp
Let Them Dream – Banned
Offworld Office – Banned
Seamless Launch – Banned
Mercia B4LL4RD – Banned
Corp decks have the following deckbuilding restriction: A Startup Corp deck can only contain a maximum of 4 agenda cards with a printed agenda point value of 3 or greater.
Runner
Cleaver – Banned
