Baral isn't that great. I'd rather face him than a lot of other blue generals. The rest of the bans are great, hate cheap tutors. Now we just need primetime prophet and tnn to go and the format will be great.
Baral seems like it just grinds you down with value over time, until it finds some way to kill you. Might not be as bad with Emrakul gone though.
Good to see the low-mana tutors gone, now let's see about Breya/Tynma to go.
Arcum probably isn't as silly as in the regular commander format with most fast mana rocks gone, so you can't really drop him turn 1 then sacrifice a Myr or something turn two to get going.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Baral seems like it just grinds you down with value over time, until it finds some way to kill you. Might not be as bad with Emrakul gone though.
Good to see the low-mana tutors gone, now let's see about Breya/Tynma to go.
Arcum probably isn't as silly as in the regular commander format with most fast mana rocks gone, so you can't really drop him turn 1 then sacrifice a Myr or something turn two to get going.
I'm honestly not sure whether or not unbanning Arcum is a good idea, regardless of how much slower he is to drop in 1v1.
The bans have really worked. A lot more random matches now. Those tutors should be gone in all commander formats.
Tutors are fine in multiplayer
Not in my opinion. They lead to stale board states especially since people net deck a lot. Plus no one enjoys losing to combo in multiplayer.
Combo players will still combo in multiplayer, and while tutors help with that, they also help everyone else find answers to things that need answering.
Here is the problem with Tutors in commander: They are shoe ins for when there are no existing options that fill the same role as a specific card in the deck. This sounds fine, except that it also acts as a copy of anything else in the deck as well. They are basically like Clone except for spells in general. This is fine if the cost is balanced such that the card costs equal or more on mana, since there should be a cost to having that flexibility, but because Vampiric Tutor is so cheap, it actually becomes better than simply having one more of a specific card that acts as number 2, 3, 4 of staple card XYZ. Some tutors are fine such as Worldly Tutor, as green already has a lot of ways to get creatures anyway, and something like Diabolic Tutor is definitely costed fine. The latter is actually a tad too expensive on mana, though. Cruel Tutor is probably fair.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The bans have really worked. A lot more random matches now. Those tutors should be gone in all commander formats.
I'd argue that the cheap mana rocks that produce more than 1 mana (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, etc.) should also be gone in even Multiplayer, as anyone who gets their hands on them turn 1 tends to jump ahead in the game due to the warping of the mana curve.
That one I disagree with. Fast mana isn't nearly as oppressive in multiplayer. Sure you can drop your hand on the board fast, but then you have three plus other players who can blow it all up leaving you with no hand and no board. Stuff like fracturing gust sees regular play in my meta.
Less tutors and fast mana would definitely promote more diversity. And narrows the power gap. All for it; in fact have been for most of my EDH playing years.
Less tutors and fast mana would definitely promote more diversity. And narrows the power gap. All for it; in fact have been for most of my EDH playing years.
I'd really love it if we didn't have the low cost tutors legal in the format, but getting the EDH council to actually ban something like that is basically near impossible. Fast mana is an entirely different story, though, as the problem usually isn't the mana as much as what gets ramped into. Having someone get an Ulamog with Annihilator on turn 4 can be pretty bad even in multiplayer.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
As of 10/9/17
Baral, Chief of Compliance
Demonic Tutor
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Enlightened Tutor
Imperial Seal
Mystical Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
And unbanned:
Arcum Dagsson
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
followed by
"The following generals that tutor are unbanned"
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Theres still plenty of tutors around.
But especially the 1 mana tutors result in games that turn out the very same over and over and over.
They make combo decks consistent enough and finding specific answers easier and on time.
Anything that is slow is likely not becoming a problem, as theres always an answer to slow in being faster.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Good to see the low-mana tutors gone, now let's see about Breya/Tynma to go.
Arcum probably isn't as silly as in the regular commander format with most fast mana rocks gone, so you can't really drop him turn 1 then sacrifice a Myr or something turn two to get going.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
I'm honestly not sure whether or not unbanning Arcum is a good idea, regardless of how much slower he is to drop in 1v1.
Tutors are fine in multiplayer
Not in my opinion. They lead to stale board states especially since people net deck a lot. Plus no one enjoys losing to combo in multiplayer.
Combo players will still combo in multiplayer, and while tutors help with that, they also help everyone else find answers to things that need answering.
In the meta in group is mostly used to get a silver bullet the solve the board state. Also there are more players to counter the combo player.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'd argue that the cheap mana rocks that produce more than 1 mana (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, etc.) should also be gone in even Multiplayer, as anyone who gets their hands on them turn 1 tends to jump ahead in the game due to the warping of the mana curve.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
I'd really love it if we didn't have the low cost tutors legal in the format, but getting the EDH council to actually ban something like that is basically near impossible. Fast mana is an entirely different story, though, as the problem usually isn't the mana as much as what gets ramped into. Having someone get an Ulamog with Annihilator on turn 4 can be pretty bad even in multiplayer.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar