EDIT: As several people have pointed out, Intangible Virtue is actually a good candidate for being banned in ISD Block Constructed (a format which I personally haven't been paying attention to). Given this, I now think the most likely possibility is that Intangible Virtue is getting banned in ISD Block Constructed.
In the past, we've been able to get a clue about the B&R announcement a little in advance by taking a look at the preview image. To my knowledge, in the past this method has never yielded an incorrect prediction. Here's the image for Tuesday's announcement:
That's Intangible Virtue, a card which, to my knowledge, is not on anyone's radar as a banworthy card. So what's going on? Here are some possibilities:
1. It is somehow getting banned in a major format. Perhaps something in AVR terribly breaks it.
2. There are no bans/unbans in major formats, but it's getting banned in some online format. This seems unlikely since online formats are no longer covered by the quarterly B&R announcement.
3. There are no bans/unbans and they chose it as the image for the announcement, perhaps because next week is Lord week on dailymtg.com. In the past, however, when there have been no bans/unbans the announcement hasn't been a feature article.
4. They've noticed I've been doing this and are trolling us.
If I had to guess, I'd choose the third option (no changes to the banlists) as the most likely. Any thoughts?
This is one of the latest block events, and I can assure the numbers are lower than they used to be in first weeks following the release... We had just WB tokens, WBG tokens, GW tokens and some RW...
I believe it's the kind of card they're willing to ban, not expensive, not key in any deck (those decks still work, only less efficiently), and doesn't force people to maindeck Ray of Revelion just as a meta call.
Forsythe was asked about this specific card on twitter and he responded that they're keeping their eyes on block (due to the PT in a few months.) Nice to see them getting ahead of the curve on this one.
I've played the format from three different perspectives.
1. If you're playing tokens yourself, the token deck with the first Intangible Virtue wins, unless the other guy gets 2 Intangible Virtues.
2. I've played an anti-token deck. This is disheartening because the hate cards aren't fast enough to not get ran over.
3. I've tried strange and unique strategies like Splinterfright.dec and Reanimator. None of them are viable because they just roll over and die to tokens.
I know some people will read this and say something like, "But isn't Blasphemous Act in Block? Why not just play that?" These people haven't actually played the format.
Even dedicating your deck vs tokens in block is rough because it will hurt the rare random match up and even BA cant get you there anymore since the freakin lingering souls flashes back and they can rebuild in a snap
This card or lingering souls were surely getting the ax in block and I think intangible makes more sense.
block token.dec already has lifelink, deathtouch, stacking +1/+1 counters with +1/+0 emblems. I think the +1/+1 and vigilance wasn't just over the top, but removing it alone might not be enough to shuttle tokens down. Probably still the top deck anyway.
Shaking up the format of the next Pro Tour seems reasonable, since all I see in block are tokens.
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I can definitely see this getting banned in block. Most matches are Virtue wars. It's not an exaggeration that most of the time the first person to play it wins. Any deck you build in block right now starts with 4 Intangible Virtue, Gather the Townsfolk, Midnight Haunting and some amount of either Ray of Revelation or Silverchase Fox.
Junk and Boros tokens both will survive the loss easily in my opinion. Junk will still have Sorin's emblems to rely on and Boros will probably play more Mikaeus plus Hellrider is still a win condition by himself. They won't take up 75% of the daily events winning spots anymore but they'll still be there. Dredge/Vengeance, 5CC, Zombies, Wolf Run variants, and Delver should start topping more. There's a lot of potential for a diverse format if Intangible Virtue gets banned.
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Lol, it would be a complete joke to ban something like Intangible Virtue in ISD Block Constructed. There are several ways to kill enchantments in that format, the best being Ray of Revelation, of course.. So I don't really understand how it could POSSIBLY be banned.
I have seen this card in action, and I'll agree that ISD Block is basically tokens.dec. But let's be realistic, if they didn't ban/restrict Tempered Steel in SoM Block Constructed, they won't ban this. The most reasonable thing which I would actually support would be a restriction to one in Block.
Lol, it would be a complete joke to ban something like Intangible Virtue in ISD Block Constructed. There are several ways to kill enchantments in that format, the best being Ray of Revelation, of course.. So I don't really understand how it could POSSIBLY be banned.
I have seen this card in action, and I'll agree that ISD Block is basically tokens.dec. But let's be realistic, if they didn't ban/restrict Tempered Steel in SoM Block Constructed, they won't ban this. The most reasonable thing which I would actually support would be a restriction to one in Block.
its not vintage or legacy, so no restrictions. ISD block is different from SOM block. Tokens are a lot bigger in this block than artifacts were in SOM block. The bolded is one of the reasons why they ban cards.
I have seen this card in action, and I'll agree that ISD Block is basically tokens.dec. But let's be realistic, if they didn't ban/restrict Tempered Steel in SoM Block Constructed, they won't ban this. The most reasonable thing which I would actually support would be a restriction to one in Block.
I think this is certainly a reasonable argument against it's ban, but it could also go the opposite way. They saw what happened at the SOM Block PT (GP?) in Japan, and it was almost all Tempered Steel. Maybe they're trying to limit that ahead of time.
The fact that there are answers is not an argument for it to not be banned though. There are lots of answers to Wild Nacatl in Modern, but he got the banhammer, and I can see the same line of reasoning here. Virtue come pretty close to nullifying any non-Virtue deck.
its not vintage or legacy, so no restrictions. ISD block is different from SOM block. Tokens are a lot bigger in this block than artifacts were in SOM block. The bolded is one of the reasons why they ban cards.
That's just not true in the slightest. Go back to the PT coverage and check out all the Tempered Steel decks. It was pretty stifling. Most people that didn't play it only did so because they wanted to metagame against it, but that didn't work all that well either.
I don't really understand how it could POSSIBLY be banned.
It takes over 70% of the metagame. That's not even an exaggeration. I've kept track of the daily events for the last couple of weeks and it's about 50% Junk, 25% Boros, 25% everything else.
I played against an ISD block deck token with my mono green aggro standard. Mono green aggro is not a tier 1 deck but it's still pretty good. I got smashed. Lingering Souls and Vault of the archangel with 2 intangible virtues can definitely race strangleroot geists and dungrove elders...
I don't know if it is ban worthy though.. definitely will kill the token deck though. If only Lingering Souls was not printed loool. that card is nuts.
Old OP preserved below :
EDIT: As several people have pointed out, Intangible Virtue is actually a good candidate for being banned in ISD Block Constructed (a format which I personally haven't been paying attention to). Given this, I now think the most likely possibility is that Intangible Virtue is getting banned in ISD Block Constructed.
In the past, we've been able to get a clue about the B&R announcement a little in advance by taking a look at the preview image. To my knowledge, in the past this method has never yielded an incorrect prediction. Here's the image for Tuesday's announcement:
That's Intangible Virtue, a card which, to my knowledge, is not on anyone's radar as a banworthy card. So what's going on? Here are some possibilities:
1. It is somehow getting banned in a major format. Perhaps something in AVR terribly breaks it.
2. There are no bans/unbans in major formats, but it's getting banned in some online format. This seems unlikely since online formats are no longer covered by the quarterly B&R announcement.
3. There are no bans/unbans and they chose it as the image for the announcement, perhaps because next week is Lord week on dailymtg.com. In the past, however, when there have been no bans/unbans the announcement hasn't been a feature article.
4. They've noticed I've been doing this and are trolling us.
If I had to guess, I'd choose the third option (no changes to the banlists) as the most likely. Any thoughts?
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(If it somehow does get banned, I'm going to be really angry because it will kill my token deck and I spent a lot of time putting that deck together).
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I am shocked at this. Why would they pick this art to represent no bans? It doesn't make sense.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=399504
Because the art is pretty?
I'll go in the "No bans or unbans" camp.
Almost the entirety of block is spirit token.deck right now.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/3567306
I believe it's the kind of card they're willing to ban, not expensive, not key in any deck (those decks still work, only less efficiently), and doesn't force people to maindeck Ray of Revelion just as a meta call.
If there is no bans put a picture of Avacyn out there.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=399504
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I've played the format from three different perspectives.
1. If you're playing tokens yourself, the token deck with the first Intangible Virtue wins, unless the other guy gets 2 Intangible Virtues.
2. I've played an anti-token deck. This is disheartening because the hate cards aren't fast enough to not get ran over.
3. I've tried strange and unique strategies like Splinterfright.dec and Reanimator. None of them are viable because they just roll over and die to tokens.
I know some people will read this and say something like, "But isn't Blasphemous Act in Block? Why not just play that?" These people haven't actually played the format.
Its bad, really really bad.
Banworthy for sure.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=7718699&postcount=248
This card or lingering souls were surely getting the ax in block and I think intangible makes more sense.
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Junk and Boros tokens both will survive the loss easily in my opinion. Junk will still have Sorin's emblems to rely on and Boros will probably play more Mikaeus plus Hellrider is still a win condition by himself. They won't take up 75% of the daily events winning spots anymore but they'll still be there. Dredge/Vengeance, 5CC, Zombies, Wolf Run variants, and Delver should start topping more. There's a lot of potential for a diverse format if Intangible Virtue gets banned.
I have seen this card in action, and I'll agree that ISD Block is basically tokens.dec. But let's be realistic, if they didn't ban/restrict Tempered Steel in SoM Block Constructed, they won't ban this. The most reasonable thing which I would actually support would be a restriction to one in Block.
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its not vintage or legacy, so no restrictions. ISD block is different from SOM block. Tokens are a lot bigger in this block than artifacts were in SOM block. The bolded is one of the reasons why they ban cards.
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyI think this is certainly a reasonable argument against it's ban, but it could also go the opposite way. They saw what happened at the SOM Block PT (GP?) in Japan, and it was almost all Tempered Steel. Maybe they're trying to limit that ahead of time.
The fact that there are answers is not an argument for it to not be banned though. There are lots of answers to Wild Nacatl in Modern, but he got the banhammer, and I can see the same line of reasoning here. Virtue come pretty close to nullifying any non-Virtue deck.
That's just not true in the slightest. Go back to the PT coverage and check out all the Tempered Steel decks. It was pretty stifling. Most people that didn't play it only did so because they wanted to metagame against it, but that didn't work all that well either.
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It takes over 70% of the metagame. That's not even an exaggeration. I've kept track of the daily events for the last couple of weeks and it's about 50% Junk, 25% Boros, 25% everything else.
I don't know if it is ban worthy though.. definitely will kill the token deck though. If only Lingering Souls was not printed loool. that card is nuts.
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