EDIT: I am really shocked Jace got released but I guess with the two recent reprints I shouldn't be. This pretty much digs a permanent grave for SFM though, which is a huge bummer.
Considering they had these cards ready to print months ago, that means these unbannings were happening basically no matter what in order to help sell this product.
And even if that's an incorrect take, it feels wrong that it doesn't take much to come to that conclusion.
it does feel like this unban was to sell Masters 25 because i just can't see Jace getting unbanned before something like Stone Forge Mystic. Control decks are fine and don't need help. I believe jace will warp the format and thats not a good thing
Bloodbraid Elf could be fine tough cascading into a Death's Shadow or Tarmogoyf is quite nasty.
The format felt fine so think no bans or unbans weere needed...
Considering they had these cards ready to print months ago, that means these unbannings were happening basically no matter what in order to help sell this product.
And even if that's an incorrect take, it feels wrong that it doesn't take much to come to that conclusion.
Not so much of an incorrect take, as they literally say in the article:
"The reprint of Jace in Masters 25 will provide greater availability for our player base."
Considering they had these cards ready to print months ago, that means these unbannings were happening basically no matter what in order to help sell this product.
And even if that's an incorrect take, it feels wrong that it doesn't take much to come to that conclusion.
Look for Jace after 2/19 in the lantern control deck nearest you!
Have fun!
I will be running it as a one of. It's really a bad Lantern with the Fateseal ability, but it's a better Codex Shredder activation since it permanently rids us of a problem card.
Bloodbraid Elf is quite quarrelsome though. Not looking forward to free Abrupt Decay or Ancient Grudge. Truly unfair.
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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.
Yeah i'm boycotting master 25. I really hope this hurts Wizards in the near future because decisions like these is what makes customer lose faith on them.
Yikes. Bloodbraid is probably fine, especially in comparison to Collected Company, but JTMS is not gonna stay legal forever.
Not that it matters too much for me. This format is too expensive for me anyway on the lands alone, so I'll thankfully never have to deal with the slog that is playing against Jace in a competitive format.
I hope this doesn't mean that the reprint value of the other cards in Masters 25 was not enough to give Wizards confidence in the product, and led them to deciding to unban Jace to inflate the overall value of the set. The timing is way too coincidental to not be a move by marketing on some level.
I haven't played competitive in a long time, but I played both Legacy and Modern against Jace, The Mind Sculptor and they weren't great memories as the card has always been too expensive to attain, and in modern it was just such a game changer when it hit the board.
I guess there is more Planeswalker removal these days, but that restricts you to black and red (though I could be forgetting some cards).
- "Meeting adjourned. Bob, how's the modern format?"
- "Oh, it's the best it has been for many years. There is no clear best deck. The pros didn't even manage to break anything, the Pro Tour was incredibly diverse. It truly is a play what you want format right now."
- "Oh... Ok. Well, screw it, let's shake it up anyway."
- "Uh... But boss, if it's not broken..."
- "Shut your mouth, Bob. We have $10 booster packs to sell, and shakeups make people buy more cards becsuse they have to switch decks. Format health is secondary to profit. Alright people, good talk. "
Truly unbelievable.
Also, look at JTMS' price movement for the last few days and tell me that some people don't get inside info.
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When I hit my 3000 post mark, I'm gone for good.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
- "Meeting adjourned. Bob, how's the modern format?"
- "Oh, it's the best it has been for many years. There is no clear best deck. The pros didn't even manage to break anything, the Pro Tour was incredibly diverse. It truly is a play what you want format right now."
- "Oh... Ok. Well, screw it, let's shake it up anyway."
- "Uh... But boss, if it's not broken..."
- "Shut your mouth, Bob. We have $10 booster packs to sell, and shakeups make people buy more cards becsuse they have to switch decks. Format health is secondary to profit. Alright people, good talk. "
Truly unbelievable.
Also, look at JTMS' price movement for the last few days and tell me that some people don't get inside info.
There was a "fake" redit post in which they said MTGO unbanned jace early in beta.
- "Meeting adjourned. Bob, how's the modern format?"
- "Oh, it's the best it has been for many years. There is no clear best deck. The pros didn't even manage to break anything, the Pro Tour was incredibly diverse. It truly is a play what you want format right now."
- "Oh... Ok. Well, screw it, let's shake it up anyway."
- "Uh... But boss, if it's not broken..."
- "Shut your mouth, Bob. We have $10 booster packs to sell, and shakeups make people buy more cards becsuse they have to switch decks. Format health is secondary to profit. Alright people, good talk. "
Truly unbelievable.
Also, look at JTMS' price movement for the last few days and tell me that some people don't get inside info.
I'm gonna offer this alternative take: I would rather Wizards just say this, because we already get the feeling that's the case. They are a company. They live off of profits and need to constantly keep the pipeline full of new ways to get people to spend money. Few of us probably consider them an altruistic organization that would put anything over making money, so why not cut the BS and just tell it to us like it is: "Hi, guys. We made this decision purely off profit motivations."
Then we could have a legitimate argument about which cards they should have actually put in the set to support profit-taking, like the aforementioned fetches. Maybe that would lead to some sort of uneasy truce where the players understand that Wizards needs to make money, but Wizards understands what people really want to spend money on (as opposed to being forced to spend money on).
I'm gonna go against the grain and predict that JTMS will not break the format at all. In fact, it's only going to see play as a 1-2 of in a couple decks and most of those are underdog decks right now.
Also, look at JTMS' price movement for the last few days and tell me that some people don't get inside info.
To be fair though, JTMS and Bloodbraid have been speculation targets for unbanning for a while now. They always see some movement in the days prior to B&R announcements.
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Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 6/29/20 (Core Set 2021).
Jace, the Mind Sculptor unbanned. Bloodbraid Elf unbanned
EDIT: I am really shocked Jace got released but I guess with the two recent reprints I shouldn't be. This pretty much digs a permanent grave for SFM though, which is a huge bummer.
Would a JtMS singleton make sense in lantern control? It would speed up the game will fateseal + ultimate.
And even if that's an incorrect take, it feels wrong that it doesn't take much to come to that conclusion.
Bloodbraid Elf could be fine tough cascading into a Death's Shadow or Tarmogoyf is quite nasty.
The format felt fine so think no bans or unbans weere needed...
Not so much of an incorrect take, as they literally say in the article:
"The reprint of Jace in Masters 25 will provide greater availability for our player base."
This-^^^
And this-^^^
They were thinking: "$€LL! $€LL!"
Have fun!
I will be running it as a one of. It's really a bad Lantern with the Fateseal ability, but it's a better Codex Shredder activation since it permanently rids us of a problem card.
Bloodbraid Elf is quite quarrelsome though. Not looking forward to free Abrupt Decay or Ancient Grudge. Truly unfair.
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.
Not that it matters too much for me. This format is too expensive for me anyway on the lands alone, so I'll thankfully never have to deal with the slog that is playing against Jace in a competitive format.
I haven't played competitive in a long time, but I played both Legacy and Modern against Jace, The Mind Sculptor and they weren't great memories as the card has always been too expensive to attain, and in modern it was just such a game changer when it hit the board.
I guess there is more Planeswalker removal these days, but that restricts you to black and red (though I could be forgetting some cards).
Either way I'm glad I'm just an EDH player now.
My 720 Peasant Cube
White also has answers, but I don't think they'd be enough to mitigate Jace's impact on the format.
- "Oh, it's the best it has been for many years. There is no clear best deck. The pros didn't even manage to break anything, the Pro Tour was incredibly diverse. It truly is a play what you want format right now."
- "Oh... Ok. Well, screw it, let's shake it up anyway."
- "Uh... But boss, if it's not broken..."
- "Shut your mouth, Bob. We have $10 booster packs to sell, and shakeups make people buy more cards becsuse they have to switch decks. Format health is secondary to profit. Alright people, good talk. "
Truly unbelievable.
Also, look at JTMS' price movement for the last few days and tell me that some people don't get inside info.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
There was a "fake" redit post in which they said MTGO unbanned jace early in beta.
Twitter: twitter.com/axmanonline
Stream: twitch.tv/axman
Current Decks
Modern: Affinity
Standard: BW Control
Legacy: Death and Taxes :symw::symr:
Vintage: NA
I'm gonna offer this alternative take: I would rather Wizards just say this, because we already get the feeling that's the case. They are a company. They live off of profits and need to constantly keep the pipeline full of new ways to get people to spend money. Few of us probably consider them an altruistic organization that would put anything over making money, so why not cut the BS and just tell it to us like it is: "Hi, guys. We made this decision purely off profit motivations."
Then we could have a legitimate argument about which cards they should have actually put in the set to support profit-taking, like the aforementioned fetches. Maybe that would lead to some sort of uneasy truce where the players understand that Wizards needs to make money, but Wizards understands what people really want to spend money on (as opposed to being forced to spend money on).
To be fair though, JTMS and Bloodbraid have been speculation targets for unbanning for a while now. They always see some movement in the days prior to B&R announcements.
My 720 Peasant Cube