Ban list day!
Modern forum
Posted on Aug. 7, 2023, 11:24 a.m. by Icbrgr
Anyone else excited for this? I am hoping to see Blazing Shoal return to modern (even though I doubt it will do anything) and want to see Violent Outburst gone!
We shall see what happens! Im about to be spamming the *Refresh button lol.
Unbanned:
Banned:
- No changes
Well... okay... I mean I wasn't really expecting The One Ring/Grief to get banned... but I was hoping for a little bit more than this... really had hopes about Violent Outburst though.
In terms of relevant decks... idk maybe izzet murktide...it clashes with cascade so I doubt it would go into Living End/Crashing Footfalls...
Maybe it's something good for oldschool Storm style decks but I honestly am very unfamiliar with that deck and not very sure if it does anything to help it out from obscurity.
August 7, 2023 2:50 p.m.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/deck-evolutions-modern-storm
Here's a history of Storm circa 2017. Basically, it's overloaded with rituals and card draw (many of which are still banned, like Seething Song, Gitaxian Probe, Ponder, and Rite of Flame) to cast all the spells, finishing with Grapeshot or Empty the Warrens. So Preordain has a home there, but a lot of the deck's core isn't available.
August 7, 2023 3:37 p.m.
I'm disappointed, but not surprised by the announcement.
They had a lot of opportunity to make the format healthier in my opinion, and definitely missed on it. Clearly the replaying of The One Ring is the "unforeseen loophole" that makes the card too powerful and unfun to play against. It was a huge missed opportunity to make it the first restricted card of the format (yes, it's unprecedented I know, but I think it would make sense, since the opportunity to die to your ring instantly becomes very real).
I also feel like they could have hurt the MH2 elementals a bit by limiting them to 2 copies, removing the unhealthy consistency of a turn 1 overpowered beater that decimates your opponents resources in the process. Anything under 7 copies is a little difficult to reliably get in an opener, especially if it's only half of the combo. 3 colored elemental decks like that aren't super viable, since you need the correct colored card to exile for them.
A semi-restriction like this would eliminate the abuse of the MH2 elementals, while keeping them as powerful tools, instead of just outright banning them. I think it would help to keep the cards' initial intent while removing the consistency of what many (including myself) see as the degenerate side of them. Pitching 2 cards for the effect is fair enough to me, but then getting a beater for an extra mana is just absurd value. This turn one play often ends games, especially with a card like Grief which trades 2 cards (their worst card) for 2 (your 2 best cards) and gives a 4 power beater with evasion for 1 mana. In that context, the card sounds insanely broken, and it really is, that's why Scam is the #1 played deck.
As far as unbans go, lots of missed opportunities there I think. I feel that the artifact lands could be safely removed if we had a "restricted" slot, since having access to 20, enough to make your entire manabase artifacts was the problem. 5 total would be fine, and a fair trade-off to being more susceptible to hate cards.
If the goal is to really move to a more interactive format, why not unban Deathrite Shaman? the "1 CMC Planeswalker" would definitely help in making the format more interactive, giving those midrange control type of decks a much needed tool.
Punishing Fire is another slower toolbox card that could probably be unbanned. The modern of today is far too fast, and giving some tools back to control players may actually shift us away from the Aggro/Combo meta to a bit of a slower format with a more equal spread between Aggro/Combo/Control.
Splinter Twin is potentially safe enough to unban in today's modern. Modern has become such a removal heavy format, that Splinter Twin could probably be policed well enough to not completely dominate the format. There are cards like Force of Negation that keep me hesitant of unbanning it though, so not sure if I would actually unban this particular option, but it is getting close to a reasonable power level in today's meta. If Force of Negation wasn't a card, I think this would be able to be unbanned, but with Force of Negation + Subtlety existing, I just can't get completely behind it. If they were limited down to less than 4 copies, I think it would be reasonable to unban.
Umezawa's Jitte is another option that could potentially be unbanned, but I'm also not sure about it. There's not too much it brings to the metagame, so it may be better to just leave it banned. It may give the smaller creature decks too much of a toolbox that it becomes a jitte vs. jitte format, that pushes other creatures out of the format. There's already enough aggro decks running around, so I don't think we need to give them more tools currently.
August 7, 2023 7:15 p.m. Edited.
@nbarry223 As a Yugioh player I have such a "love/hate" feeling towards the idea of limiting and or semi-limiting cards in addition to outright banning cards. I personally feel that if WOTC moved in that direction I think it would do more harm than good... rather than punish power creep I think it would encourage more busted designed cards with subtle word changes... in the same way we have Opt, Ponder, Preordain, Consider, Serum Visions ect ect I think we will eventually find ourselves with similar but ever so different busted cards over time.... almost looking like how burn decks look in terms of just throwing together the best 1-2 mana versions of Lightning Bolt in a deck.... or theoretically in Amulet Titan decks Primeval Titan goes to 2 copies and then you put in a similar enough in function to fill that gap.
It's great in theory but if Modern horizons/Universes beyond sets keeps going the way they have been so far then i predict established decks will just chase cards for redundancy/consistency ontop of new decks emerging out of whatever new cards come out.... thats my fear about it anyway.
August 7, 2023 8:49 p.m. Edited.
wallisface says... #7
I’m also disappointed, but not surprised.
I would’ve really loved The One Ring banned, but i gut why Wotc are reluctant to do so while they’re still getting profit from it (and will continue to in November dump).
I like that they’ve taken a cautious approach with unbans -there’s a lot of people clamouring for multiple cards being unbanned, but imo it’s healthier to do those unbans one-at-a-time, to see how the format handles them.
From the announcement explanation, it seems Wotc are very aware that The One Ring is a problem card, and i’d be willing to bet that they ban it the second they’re no longer making money from it.
legendofa says... #2
That's... underwhelming. I haven't played competitive Modern for a while, but I've been tracking it and keeping in touch with people, and this isn't what I was expecting. For me, personally, I was getting ready to juice up my Modern banlist deck with some spicy new tech. Instead, the deck gets... nerfed? Preordain -> Ponder? What will this unbanning accomplish, exactly?
August 7, 2023 2:13 p.m.