Their lead developer is a dumbass btw, he thought the answer to Affinity standard was that they should have removed Shatter from the format so that quirky artifact decks could rise up and fight it unopposed.
...could I please get a citation here?
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
These bans give me mixed emotions. On the one hand based on what I've read here and else where it seems like Standard was in pretty bad shape (again...) and these bans might help. On the other hand, it's kind of disappointing that they can't seem to balance things well...especially with how weak everything feels sometimes...
I mean these bannings are correct but Wizards really needs to fix whatever is going wrong behind the curtens, standard bannings used to happen maybe every 5 years, now they seem to be happening every 6 months
I don't know how actively you follow their output, but you might want to look up their official output as they already announced some things happening behind the curtains - it's just that the effect will only be visible with a time delay.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
The problem I have with the bannings is that aggressive bannings won't make things better. The problem is that the format lacks certain cards to make it better and taking away options in an already limited pool of choices does not expand a format. For example, I think that banning Scorched Desert would probably have been a better attempt at balancing ramunap without killing the deck. Also Rampaging Ferocidon being banned has left me a bit divided. I see the points they are pushing, yet at the same time it was one of the few ways red had to deal with a lot of the life gain and token strategies. Energy is likely going to go Grixis now as it has the better options to run and never ran the banned cards to begin with.
Did you read the banning article? Because making sure that decks that go wide or use life gain can fight back against RR was why the card was banned. /facepalm
Yeah I did, and I don't agree that it was a wise decision to ban Ferocidon. I think something else should have been banned in place of it as despite the fact they designed it to handle a problem that never surfaced, it still acted as a SkullCrack in a format that does have a lot of options for life gain. At the same time, I understand the reasons for why they would ban it. Did you read my own post? I said I was divided on the decision, not "zomg it was the stupidest choice ever".
Case in point, mono-black aggro win percentage was around 56%. They could, as mentioned, removed Ahncrop Crasher to equal effect, removing an older card, keeping Ixalan free of banned cards, and therefore not make the set worse to open. But who knows, maybe they actually have Skullcrack coming in the next set so this was to give an underpowered vampires strategy breathing room.
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 problem I have with the bannings is that aggressive bannings won't make things better. The problem is that the format lacks certain cards to make it better and taking away options in an already limited pool of choices does not expand a format. For example, I think that banning Scorched Desert would probably have been a better attempt at balancing ramunap without killing the deck. Also Rampaging Ferocidon being banned has left me a bit divided. I see the points they are pushing, yet at the same time it was one of the few ways red had to deal with a lot of the life gain and token strategies. Energy is likely going to go Grixis now as it has the better options to run and never ran the banned cards to begin with.
Did you read the banning article? Because making sure that decks that go wide or use life gain can fight back against RR was why the card was banned. /facepalm
Yeah I did, and I don't agree that it was a wise decision to ban Ferocidon. I think something else should have been banned in place of it as despite the fact they designed it to handle a problem that never surfaced, it still acted as a SkullCrack in a format that does have a lot of options for life gain. At the same time, I understand the reasons for why they would ban it. Did you read my own post? I said I was divided on the decision, not "zomg it was the stupidest choice ever".
Case in point, mono-black aggro win percentage was around 56%. They could, as mentioned, removed Ahncrop Crasher to equal effect, removing an older card, keeping Ixalan free of banned cards, and therefore not make the set worse to open. But who knows, maybe they actually have Skullcrack coming in the next set so this was to give an underpowered vampires strategy breathing room.
If they removed Ahn-Crop Crasher, Ferocidon would still present the problem of basically hosing any token or life gain strategy while being used in a deck that would otherwise be kept somewhat in check by token and life gain strategies.
First, why is this in the Rumor Mill? Like, it's not a rumor. It happened. It's real.
But actually, why isn't this in the Standard forum?
While this particular announcement only included changes to Standard, it's still the general announcement, so any Modern changes etc. would have been in the article as well. So while there probably should be a thread on the changes affecting that format in the Standard forum, it also belongs into the main forum for general announcements.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
I called the Attune ban soooo long ago, lol. That thing was more powerful than fetchlands in standard.
Totally agree. I think people may be underestimating how smooth it makes energy decks' curve. Without it and Refiner, we're going to see Energy with a lot more clunky starts that may be enough to cost them the game.
I do not know what to say about this bans and am not qualified to actually say anything considering I don't pay any attention to Standard at all at the moment (I only vaguely know Energy being dominant), but I gave an opinion when Emrakul, Reflector and Copter were banned during Aether Revolt and the my general opinion remains the same:
Quote from Yatsufusa »
"Banning in Standard has nothing to do with power levels. Banning is a band-aid admitting R&D failed to print the relevant answers in time to remedy the format."
"If we take bans as a standard procedure, then it becomes a game of waiting attrition where what is lost is consumer confidence."
(I also commented when Felidar Guardian was banned, but the gripe was more about the ridiculousness in the timing of the announcement than anything else).
The specifics of my opinion of each card back then may have expired (I found the Copter Banning ludicrous when announced because I saw Fatal Push and Aethersphere Harvester as attempted answers printed but not given the testing chance, but I also posted that view before we knew about anything about Amonkhet's cards and let's just say upon seeing Cycling I immediately understood what information I didn't have on hand during the banning...) and as I said I don't pay attention to Standard, so they were rather uninformed and opinionated as well. As such I'm not even going to bother commenting on the individual cards this time around.
For a brief while I considered whether the awkward change between the rotation phases could have caused this, but considering even under the 6-month rotation strategy, Kaladesh would not rotate until Dominaria, so the problem would still exist.
I hate to say this, but I think the game's flagship format will probably still go through turbulent times that is the 2-set block era that started with BFZ and we might not be seeing positive results until Dominaria is the rotating set of the format, since that's when Play Design was fully active (and if that didn't work out as well, it's another whole year before the first set where Play Design had input with Vision Design). It might get a bit better when Kaladesh and Amonkhet both rotate, but considering one Ixalan card already got the axe (worthiness mileage might vary), I wouldn't say that's the brightest of omens for the upcoming rotation to stabilize things (mainly it hinges how well/bad Ixalan alone as a two-set block interacts with the new paradigm, since the 2-set blocks certainly didn't gel together well at all, especially when lacking a core set).
Like I said, I'm just drawing a general conclusion based on general patterns without looking at the individual statistics (don't want to pay attention to the format honestly) and luckily I'm entitled to do that as just a poster in the forums, so take this opinionated post with a pinch of salt (although the format probably generated a lot already )
In the case of energy it was too resilient for wizards tastes. Even if it could lose a match up, it always had a way to sideboard around the bad match ups and even as a former casual fnm player I could see that.
I just want an environment where wasteland, daze, etc are balanced options.
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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!
It seems silly to have come this far. People didn't like a combo on combo metagame, so everything better than Energy kept getting banned. Copycat, Emrakul, Marvel, Copter... and now a bunch of dorks that turn sideways and a card that fetches a land for G.
I mean, kudos to Wizards for aggressively using the ban-hammer to improve their game. That's cool. I drastically prefer this to printing weak, safe cards or issuing errata. Still, one has to wonder whether they would have been better served by letting a combo metagame exist rather than starting down this silly road.
The already barren wasteland of non firing standard FNMs would be the same and worse with cat combo still festering.
They should have banned the cat as soon as a pro printed an article making them aware of it. Which was the day after it was spoiled. They tried the wait and see and it sucked for everyone including the pros.
Just my 2 cents on Standard, the design team and the bannings:
Energy as a mechanic:
I actually agree with most about the energy design as a mechanic. I feel that it is non-interactive, but having one card destroy a whole strategy makes a non enjoyable playing experience for the player who invested the resources to produce the energy. (similar to standard during theros with the "destroy all enchantment" cards floating around in an enchantment heavy set). I feel we are all about to see what a non-interactive standard environment with approach UW decks totally crushing standard. Time will tell.
Energy
IMHO, design created cards that self-enabled the mechanic and that is where they ran into problems. Should a card like attune exist that costs energy to search your deck for a land. Yes, that is in the green pie of things. Don't make it search for the land and gain the energy. That is the problem. Should hydra give energy and make itself hex-proof. No. Should refiner give energy and draw the cards. No. Should marvel give energy and produce the free cast on the card. Hell-no. Force players to build and balance energy producers and energy consumers in there. Not have cards that do both. Make it so an energy player is actively monitoring the amount of energy they have and choose scarcely what should and should not get energy for use (which I find hilarious in that most games, players have bucket loads of energy to the point where it is not relevant if an effect needs 3,4 or even 10+ energy).
Similarly, spread the mechanics better across all the colors or give each color a unique twist on the mechanic to actually make it worthwhile to play in different colors. What if They could have had a blue card say "pay x energy, counter target spell with cmc equal or less than the energy paid" or a black spell with "take x energy from target player, lose x life for each energy taken" or obvious is the "pay 2 energy and 1 life, draw a card". Green and red have effects that were, borderline broken with energy interactions. Blue had some but not to it's best strengths (typically, drawing and counter magic) and black and white, laughable.
Bannings
As for the "printing answers" and bannings, just bring back the core sets. The one where you could rely on a doom blade or murder reprint while dealing with the watered down versions of those same cards we get in the non-core sets (Ala essence extraction, never//return, etc). It also gives you a chance to put older tried and true format correcters (cards that essentially keep us all playing and coloring in the lines) back into standard. Let cards do what there respective colors dictate them to do. Why are indestructible and hex-proof being thrown around like candy on non god cards? Why has design been so traumatized after sphinx revelation and dig through time that they stopped printing respectable, borderline broken blue draw cards since? No answers is what gives us gideon mirror standards, snek marvel standards and snek/constrictor standards and too few answers also gives us sphinx revelations, ojutai and coming soon, approach of the second suns standards.
Also, for all that is holy, please, can someone from design please understand the difference in power level between instant and sorcery. Like, seriously. By giving creatures more effective and in most cases these days, efficient effects that push themselves with etb triggers, not having an instant answer (or in some colors cases, no answer whatsoever looking at you black with no answers to enchantments) to said creature/artifact/enchantment/planeswalker is problematic.
These rounds of bans will not fix the inherent problem in standard in that creatures do all the good stuff these days. Instants and sorceries are costed for limited/draft formats versus constructed (another issue I won't get into detail about) and the colors typically with the best creatures are green, white and red. Don't print instant win clauses on cards that trigger themselves. (Look at mechanized production versus approach of the second suns. One requires extensive deckbuilding to play, one can be shoved into any Wx control shell and tada).
In Conclusion
Trolling solution: print doom blade in every set. 95% of creatures die to doom blade. Except the hydra, hazoret, gideon, carnage tyrant and scarab god. O crap, even doom blade won't save us. Maybe we are just screwed.
I don't think Standard is going to feel right until this fall when Kaladesh rotates out (and we have generic answers printed in the Core Set (the summer prior)). After that, it probably will not be perfect until September 2020, which is when Standard will be full of sets only designed in the Three-and-One model.
The problem I have with the bannings is that aggressive bannings won't make things better. The problem is that the format lacks certain cards to make it better and taking away options in an already limited pool of choices does not expand a format. For example, I think that banning Scorched Desert would probably have been a better attempt at balancing ramunap without killing the deck. Also Rampaging Ferocidon being banned has left me a bit divided. I see the points they are pushing, yet at the same time it was one of the few ways red had to deal with a lot of the life gain and token strategies. Energy is likely going to go Grixis now as it has the better options to run and never ran the banned cards to begin with.
Did you read the banning article? Because making sure that decks that go wide or use life gain can fight back against RR was why the card was banned. /facepalm
Yeah I did, and I don't agree that it was a wise decision to ban Ferocidon. I think something else should have been banned in place of it as despite the fact they designed it to handle a problem that never surfaced, it still acted as a SkullCrack in a format that does have a lot of options for life gain. At the same time, I understand the reasons for why they would ban it. Did you read my own post? I said I was divided on the decision, not "zomg it was the stupidest choice ever".
Case in point, mono-black aggro win percentage was around 56%. They could, as mentioned, removed Ahncrop Crasher to equal effect, removing an older card, keeping Ixalan free of banned cards, and therefore not make the set worse to open. But who knows, maybe they actually have Skullcrack coming in the next set so this was to give an underpowered vampires strategy breathing room.
No you asked why would they ban the card when it fights against tokens and life gain strategies when the article literally spells out why banning the card, in order to enable that angle of attack against RR, which calls into question why you would ask a question that was already answered directly by the article. Straw manning other people's posts doesn't make that any less nonsensical.
While I want to distance myself from your tone a little bit, you're right in that the current issue is how horrid answers are.
How are answers horrid? Unlicensed Disintegration destroys any creature except Hazoret or the random Rhonas that someone might be playing while Vraska's Contempt deals with anything that isn't hexproof--we might see some more Jade Guardians being played because of extra Merfolk support but there aren't many Carnage Tyrants running around. Some decks even have answers before the cards are even played--do you know how difficult it is for a God-Pharaoh's Gift deck to win after a turn 3 Dispossess has exiled all copies of the artifact? They might as well scoop.
Anyway...back to the ban announcement...Standard will become Pummeler and RDW, both of which can attain victory on turn 4 without answers in hand.
Unlicensed Disintergration is kind of servicable, but is a three-mana, two-color card, and Vraska's Contempt costs four mana. Neither are good examples of powerful removal. As Aazadan pointed out, Harnessed Lightning is a very powerful card, but only so in energy decks, that provide so much value (threats) that playing three- or four-mana 1-for-1 removal simply does not do.
It's widely known that WotC has turned down the power of answers, and that it's a problem.
What's four mana Vraska's Contempt going to do against three Rogue Refiner, a card that basically nets you like 2.5 cards? Well, sure, you kill the creature, but you get wayyy behind in both tempo and card advantage.
I just read further in the thread and noticed that at least LordOrgodemir has provided a very clear post about the issue, annnd you completely disregard him pointing out that WotC themselves know how bad removal is. Shrug. This post will meet the same fate, won't it?
Saying that removal discussion does not belong in this thread is simply not true. Many of the banned cards would be perfectly fine in previous Standard formats, since back then, stuff like Doom Blade existed. Now, I think that Doom Blade is too powerful, but there should be a middle ground.
-
To those pushing for 1-mana dorks... You're aware that they provide a significant board state, right, ie that they provide threat more than providing an answer? With removal as bad as it is now, Llanowar Elves will probably only worsen the format.
To those pushing for 1-mana dorks... You're aware that they provide a significant board state, right, ie that they provide threat more than providing an answer? With removal as bad as it is now, Llanowar Elves will probably only worsen the format.
I've added 1 cmc mana dorks to the list of things WotC has killed in order to screw up Standard.
I was listing it as one of the many things they should bring back at the same time. Sure bring back just one thing and Standard will not be fixed.
They need to bring back
-efficient Removal
-efficient Counters
-efficient Ramp
-stop over pushing creatures and mechanics
-make sure the removal is pertinent to the threats they provide
The problem I have with the bannings is that aggressive bannings won't make things better. The problem is that the format lacks certain cards to make it better and taking away options in an already limited pool of choices does not expand a format. For example, I think that banning Scorched Desert would probably have been a better attempt at balancing ramunap without killing the deck. Also Rampaging Ferocidon being banned has left me a bit divided. I see the points they are pushing, yet at the same time it was one of the few ways red had to deal with a lot of the life gain and token strategies. Energy is likely going to go Grixis now as it has the better options to run and never ran the banned cards to begin with.
Did you read the banning article? Because making sure that decks that go wide or use life gain can fight back against RR was why the card was banned. /facepalm
Yeah I did, and I don't agree that it was a wise decision to ban Ferocidon. I think something else should have been banned in place of it as despite the fact they designed it to handle a problem that never surfaced, it still acted as a SkullCrack in a format that does have a lot of options for life gain. At the same time, I understand the reasons for why they would ban it. Did you read my own post? I said I was divided on the decision, not "zomg it was the stupidest choice ever".
Case in point, mono-black aggro win percentage was around 56%. They could, as mentioned, removed Ahncrop Crasher to equal effect, removing an older card, keeping Ixalan free of banned cards, and therefore not make the set worse to open. But who knows, maybe they actually have Skullcrack coming in the next set so this was to give an underpowered vampires strategy breathing room.
No you asked why would they ban the card when it fights against tokens and life gain strategies when the article literally spells out why banning the card, in order to enable that angle of attack against RR, which calls into question why you would ask a question that was already answered directly by the article. Straw manning other people's posts doesn't make that any less nonsensical.
As someone else put it, if a Skullcrack with legs is giving someone trouble they have their own issues to deal with. Now I'm interested in seeing if mono-black aggro makes a return.
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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 problem I have with the bannings is that aggressive bannings won't make things better. The problem is that the format lacks certain cards to make it better and taking away options in an already limited pool of choices does not expand a format. For example, I think that banning Scorched Desert would probably have been a better attempt at balancing ramunap without killing the deck. Also Rampaging Ferocidon being banned has left me a bit divided. I see the points they are pushing, yet at the same time it was one of the few ways red had to deal with a lot of the life gain and token strategies. Energy is likely going to go Grixis now as it has the better options to run and never ran the banned cards to begin with.
Did you read the banning article? Because making sure that decks that go wide or use life gain can fight back against RR was why the card was banned. /facepalm
Yeah I did, and I don't agree that it was a wise decision to ban Ferocidon. I think something else should have been banned in place of it as despite the fact they designed it to handle a problem that never surfaced, it still acted as a SkullCrack in a format that does have a lot of options for life gain. At the same time, I understand the reasons for why they would ban it. Did you read my own post? I said I was divided on the decision, not "zomg it was the stupidest choice ever".
Case in point, mono-black aggro win percentage was around 56%. They could, as mentioned, removed Ahncrop Crasher to equal effect, removing an older card, keeping Ixalan free of banned cards, and therefore not make the set worse to open. But who knows, maybe they actually have Skullcrack coming in the next set so this was to give an underpowered vampires strategy breathing room.
No you asked why would they ban the card when it fights against tokens and life gain strategies when the article literally spells out why banning the card, in order to enable that angle of attack against RR, which calls into question why you would ask a question that was already answered directly by the article. Straw manning other people's posts doesn't make that any less nonsensical.
As someone else put it, if a Skullcrack with legs is giving someone trouble they have their own issues to deal with.
In a format with inefficient removal, I wouldn't be so quick to place blame on someone running a token deck for having trouble with a Dino that pings them every time they spawn a token and doesn't allow them to gain life to offset that.
...could I please get a citation here?
I don't know how actively you follow their output, but you might want to look up their official output as they already announced some things happening behind the curtains - it's just that the effect will only be visible with a time delay.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
But actually, why isn't this in the Standard forum?
Yeah I did, and I don't agree that it was a wise decision to ban Ferocidon. I think something else should have been banned in place of it as despite the fact they designed it to handle a problem that never surfaced, it still acted as a SkullCrack in a format that does have a lot of options for life gain. At the same time, I understand the reasons for why they would ban it. Did you read my own post? I said I was divided on the decision, not "zomg it was the stupidest choice ever".
Case in point, mono-black aggro win percentage was around 56%. They could, as mentioned, removed Ahncrop Crasher to equal effect, removing an older card, keeping Ixalan free of banned cards, and therefore not make the set worse to open. But who knows, maybe they actually have Skullcrack coming in the next set so this was to give an underpowered vampires strategy breathing room.
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!
If they removed Ahn-Crop Crasher, Ferocidon would still present the problem of basically hosing any token or life gain strategy while being used in a deck that would otherwise be kept somewhat in check by token and life gain strategies.
While this particular announcement only included changes to Standard, it's still the general announcement, so any Modern changes etc. would have been in the article as well. So while there probably should be a thread on the changes affecting that format in the Standard forum, it also belongs into the main forum for general announcements.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
Factions: Sleeping
Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
Read up on Red Flags & NWO
Totally agree. I think people may be underestimating how smooth it makes energy decks' curve. Without it and Refiner, we're going to see Energy with a lot more clunky starts that may be enough to cost them the game.
(I also commented when Felidar Guardian was banned, but the gripe was more about the ridiculousness in the timing of the announcement than anything else).
The specifics of my opinion of each card back then may have expired (I found the Copter Banning ludicrous when announced because I saw Fatal Push and Aethersphere Harvester as attempted answers printed but not given the testing chance, but I also posted that view before we knew about anything about Amonkhet's cards and let's just say upon seeing Cycling I immediately understood what information I didn't have on hand during the banning...) and as I said I don't pay attention to Standard, so they were rather uninformed and opinionated as well. As such I'm not even going to bother commenting on the individual cards this time around.
For a brief while I considered whether the awkward change between the rotation phases could have caused this, but considering even under the 6-month rotation strategy, Kaladesh would not rotate until Dominaria, so the problem would still exist.
I hate to say this, but I think the game's flagship format will probably still go through turbulent times that is the 2-set block era that started with BFZ and we might not be seeing positive results until Dominaria is the rotating set of the format, since that's when Play Design was fully active (and if that didn't work out as well, it's another whole year before the first set where Play Design had input with Vision Design). It might get a bit better when Kaladesh and Amonkhet both rotate, but considering one Ixalan card already got the axe (worthiness mileage might vary), I wouldn't say that's the brightest of omens for the upcoming rotation to stabilize things (mainly it hinges how well/bad Ixalan alone as a two-set block interacts with the new paradigm, since the 2-set blocks certainly didn't gel together well at all, especially when lacking a core set).
Like I said, I'm just drawing a general conclusion based on general patterns without looking at the individual statistics (don't want to pay attention to the format honestly) and luckily I'm entitled to do that as just a poster in the forums, so take this opinionated post with a pinch of salt (although the format probably generated a lot already )
I just want an environment where wasteland, daze, etc are balanced options.
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!
Absolutely this!
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Oooh Dicey:
[dice=1]100[/dice]
They should have banned the cat as soon as a pro printed an article making them aware of it. Which was the day after it was spoiled. They tried the wait and see and it sucked for everyone including the pros.
Energy as a mechanic:
I actually agree with most about the energy design as a mechanic. I feel that it is non-interactive, but having one card destroy a whole strategy makes a non enjoyable playing experience for the player who invested the resources to produce the energy. (similar to standard during theros with the "destroy all enchantment" cards floating around in an enchantment heavy set). I feel we are all about to see what a non-interactive standard environment with approach UW decks totally crushing standard. Time will tell.
Energy
IMHO, design created cards that self-enabled the mechanic and that is where they ran into problems. Should a card like attune exist that costs energy to search your deck for a land. Yes, that is in the green pie of things. Don't make it search for the land and gain the energy. That is the problem. Should hydra give energy and make itself hex-proof. No. Should refiner give energy and draw the cards. No. Should marvel give energy and produce the free cast on the card. Hell-no. Force players to build and balance energy producers and energy consumers in there. Not have cards that do both. Make it so an energy player is actively monitoring the amount of energy they have and choose scarcely what should and should not get energy for use (which I find hilarious in that most games, players have bucket loads of energy to the point where it is not relevant if an effect needs 3,4 or even 10+ energy).
Similarly, spread the mechanics better across all the colors or give each color a unique twist on the mechanic to actually make it worthwhile to play in different colors. What if They could have had a blue card say "pay x energy, counter target spell with cmc equal or less than the energy paid" or a black spell with "take x energy from target player, lose x life for each energy taken" or obvious is the "pay 2 energy and 1 life, draw a card". Green and red have effects that were, borderline broken with energy interactions. Blue had some but not to it's best strengths (typically, drawing and counter magic) and black and white, laughable.
Bannings
As for the "printing answers" and bannings, just bring back the core sets. The one where you could rely on a doom blade or murder reprint while dealing with the watered down versions of those same cards we get in the non-core sets (Ala essence extraction, never//return, etc). It also gives you a chance to put older tried and true format correcters (cards that essentially keep us all playing and coloring in the lines) back into standard. Let cards do what there respective colors dictate them to do. Why are indestructible and hex-proof being thrown around like candy on non god cards? Why has design been so traumatized after sphinx revelation and dig through time that they stopped printing respectable, borderline broken blue draw cards since? No answers is what gives us gideon mirror standards, snek marvel standards and snek/constrictor standards and too few answers also gives us sphinx revelations, ojutai and coming soon, approach of the second suns standards.
Also, for all that is holy, please, can someone from design please understand the difference in power level between instant and sorcery. Like, seriously. By giving creatures more effective and in most cases these days, efficient effects that push themselves with etb triggers, not having an instant answer (or in some colors cases, no answer whatsoever looking at you black with no answers to enchantments) to said creature/artifact/enchantment/planeswalker is problematic.
These rounds of bans will not fix the inherent problem in standard in that creatures do all the good stuff these days. Instants and sorceries are costed for limited/draft formats versus constructed (another issue I won't get into detail about) and the colors typically with the best creatures are green, white and red. Don't print instant win clauses on cards that trigger themselves. (Look at mechanized production versus approach of the second suns. One requires extensive deckbuilding to play, one can be shoved into any Wx control shell and tada).
In Conclusion
Trolling solution: print doom blade in every set. 95% of creatures die to doom blade. Except the hydra, hazoret, gideon, carnage tyrant and scarab god. O crap, even doom blade won't save us. Maybe we are just screwed.
No you asked why would they ban the card when it fights against tokens and life gain strategies when the article literally spells out why banning the card, in order to enable that angle of attack against RR, which calls into question why you would ask a question that was already answered directly by the article. Straw manning other people's posts doesn't make that any less nonsensical.
*An insular mechanic from an older set running over a format shifts attention away from new cards.
*That's a non sequitur.
Unlicensed Disintergration is kind of servicable, but is a three-mana, two-color card, and Vraska's Contempt costs four mana. Neither are good examples of powerful removal. As Aazadan pointed out, Harnessed Lightning is a very powerful card, but only so in energy decks, that provide so much value (threats) that playing three- or four-mana 1-for-1 removal simply does not do.
It's widely known that WotC has turned down the power of answers, and that it's a problem.
What's four mana Vraska's Contempt going to do against three Rogue Refiner, a card that basically nets you like 2.5 cards? Well, sure, you kill the creature, but you get wayyy behind in both tempo and card advantage.
I just read further in the thread and noticed that at least LordOrgodemir has provided a very clear post about the issue, annnd you completely disregard him pointing out that WotC themselves know how bad removal is. Shrug. This post will meet the same fate, won't it?
Saying that removal discussion does not belong in this thread is simply not true. Many of the banned cards would be perfectly fine in previous Standard formats, since back then, stuff like Doom Blade existed. Now, I think that Doom Blade is too powerful, but there should be a middle ground.
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To those pushing for 1-mana dorks... You're aware that they provide a significant board state, right, ie that they provide threat more than providing an answer? With removal as bad as it is now, Llanowar Elves will probably only worsen the format.
I've added 1 cmc mana dorks to the list of things WotC has killed in order to screw up Standard.
I was listing it as one of the many things they should bring back at the same time. Sure bring back just one thing and Standard will not be fixed.
They need to bring back
-efficient Removal
-efficient Counters
-efficient Ramp
-stop over pushing creatures and mechanics
-make sure the removal is pertinent to the threats they provide
As someone else put it, if a Skullcrack with legs is giving someone trouble they have their own issues to deal with. Now I'm interested in seeing if mono-black aggro makes a return.
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!
In a format with inefficient removal, I wouldn't be so quick to place blame on someone running a token deck for having trouble with a Dino that pings them every time they spawn a token and doesn't allow them to gain life to offset that.
My 720 Peasant Cube