I have to say, in 1 vs. 1, crucible of worlds + strip mine is still really really unfair. The reason why I like banning strip mine over crucible is that crucible is really good with fetchlands and is just a more fun card with way more deck design space.
The problem is, Crucible can just start abusing Wasteland / Dust Bowl recursion and continue to cause the same problems.
Any time you have a degenerate combo, you ban the actual engine to insure that the combo is dead. Wizards learned this lesson the hard way with Necropotence.
Except those cards only kill non-basics. The fact that strip mine kills basics is the problem. If, as you say, people started killing your land with dust bowl, you could just run a few more basics like the players in standard when dust bowl was played. In my opinion, it's having a way to repeatedly kill broken non-basics like academy ruins is the thing that makes crucible good for the format. If you banned crucible, you could only ever kill academy ruins once a game, witch is bad for multiplayer where up to five opponents can have one, and an un-answered one can mean an auto lose with mindslaver. Offensively, you can kill a maze of ith. Not to mention that even if you banned crucible, there are still other ways to recurse an academy ruins. But the main issue is, Strip Mine + Crusable is not broken in multiplayer, only 1 vs 1. Becuase you can play around it in multipalyer. You can't keep everyone off lands, just one player, if a player starts landoing someone to death, kill that guy. Dust Bowl + Crusible of Worlds can be played around even in single player and espeshally in multiplayer. Just don't play your non-basics. You cannot play around strip mine + crusible of worlds in 1 vs. 1. You just die. The other problem is having a seperate banned list for 1 vs. 1 and multiplayer is ungainly and inconvienient. If you have to take out your strip mine before a single player game, but it's kosher for multiplayer, that gets annoying pretty quick.
I am petitioning for the removal of mythic rarity. Sig this to join the cause!
Famliy Guy Emperor Says,
"Something, something something, DARK SIDE!
Something, something, something COMPLETE!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHiUitciuJ8
:symrw::symrw::symrw::symrw::symrw::symrw: SPIKE GAYMER: not just a beatdown, a beatdown sung to the tune of "I Feel Pretty"!
Even mono colored decks aren't safe from Wasteland and Dust Bowl. The vast majority of mono colored decks I've seen are loaded down with all sorts of utility lands.
I agree that Wasteland/Dust Bowl lock isn't as devastating as Strip Mine lock. The thing is, why not just ban the card that actually causes the lock in the first place and not risk anything problematic in the future? Just because Crucible synergizes well with fetchlands and other cool utility lands doesn't detract from the fact that it can lock out decks with Strip Mine and to some extent Wasteland and Dust Bowl (especially against 2+ color decks).
Even if Crucible is banned, you wouldn't be restricted to killing Academy just once a game. Dust Bowl is multiple Wastelands in one card. Tectonic Edge is like Wasteland #2-3. Red decks will definitely be packing conventional LD.
Worse comes to worse, if seeing Academy Ruins getting recurred is a problem when you can't recur your Wastelands for some reason, just play more graveyard hate. I've always advocated that most decks just don't run sufficient graveyard hate.
Additionally, having Strip Mine gives decks another option at destroying Tolarian Academy as well as blowing up multicolored lands against a sensitive mana base.
Strip Mine isn't the card that is the problem. It's the actual engine of the lock, Crucible.
I don't understand why recurring nightmare is banned. It doesn't seem to be nearly as powerful as the other BL cards. Am I missing something?
Yes, it is actually very broken. It can't be destroyed by disenchant effects, even Krosan Grip, and the common usage would be to loop ETB creatures. Say something like Sundering Titan + [insert any creature here]. With stuff like Bloodghast or Nether Traitor you can loop all your creatures back into play given enough time. Strangely enough I was checking the Online Commander banned list and along with Limited Resources is not on the ban list. I do not have either card so haven't tested to see if you can in fact play with these cards. It is also pretty good with Sneak Attack.
Strip Mine isn't the card that is the problem. It's the actual engine of the lock, Crucible.
Spot on. Crucible is a P.I.A card to deal with one on one, not the lands. let's not even mention the several other land cards folks would just LOVE to get back over and over again.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Thanks, Heroes of The Planes! You guys are great!
Actual Truth:
"You heard it here folks:
Anyone who disagrees with "Jack from NC" is an idiot."-The Dead Weatherman
There are plenty of ways to replay lands without crucible. So I could see banning it. Allthough I haven't seen crucible abused nearly to the extent that I have seen power artifact. I'm so sick of grim monolith/basalt monolith-power artifact. Its rediculous. I vote that both be banned from the format.
While there ar plenty of ways to pump out infinate mana, power artifact is by far the easiest and fastest to pull off. Mana reflection is fine. It costs 6 and is generally a late game play. Turn 4 or 5 kill everyone in edh is a little absurd.
I think that Mana Crypt and Sol Ring are just way over powered. I didn't read the middle pages of the thread so I don't know if there's a reason that no one is bringing up these cards. There are just completely over powered in 1v1 and still broken in Multiplayer. It seems unusual to me that they have banned Time Walk, but they didn't ban the colorless counterparts. Honestly, I haven't lost a game that I untapped with either in play after playing them T1, and they are still BROKEN on turn 8... That's just not right. I play them in every EDH deck I have, and I love powering out unfair cards as much as anyone but they only time I have ever seen them make the game interesting is when someone is at low life and controls a Mana Crypt.
Channel is way too good. Every single deck that has access to green should play Channel + Emrakul and probably Ulamog and Kozilek. How is that card fair? I guess you can only activate it 39 times so there's a limit to it's brokenness?
Strip Mine has to get banned. People undervalue basics and it's easy to pray on the decks that play non-basics. However, Strip Mine ignores intelligent deck design (not playing a million non-basics) and just wrecks everyone.
Crucible is not a problem. Dust Bowl is not a good card, and Crucible doesn't really make it much better. You have to be doing other stuff as well for it to be even marginally playable. You have to have at least 7+ mana to have multiple effects going on. Crucible is good on it's own and only broken with Azusa/Exploration/Oracle of Mul Daya. You have to make your deck to do that though. And even then you can just kill crucible. Only blue and black can't destroy artifacts, but they can counter any of it or kill/bounce Azusa/Oracle. Or play all the million colorless GY hate cards wizards prints 18 times a set.
Necropotence is the dumbest card. It's just too good. 7 cards in hand every turn is in no way fair, and you can just play Whammer to balance out life loss if you have to. This card has always been too good.
Uril can't be unfair as a general. Just play Thraximundar as a general, any edict effect in B, disenchants in G/W, mass damage in R, and counterspells in U. The only colors this card is a problem for is R b/c there isn't a ton of ways to kill it in those colors. Of course you could just block it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Accomplishments:
1800+ in Limited
3-0ing after drafting 17 non-basics in Cube
I really think people need to play more EDH before they start banning random cards.
I also think that 1 v 1 EDH is kind of boring. There are obviously decks that are just BETTER at 1 v 1 and there would have to be HUGE ban lists in order to make it a level playing field for all colors.
In multiplayer EDH most of these cards are not an issue. For instance, if you play a felidar sovereign and are going to win from it, this usually results in the game quickly turning to 3 v 1 and is likely to end in you geting a magister sphinx played on you followed by a banefire. It could also just end in your sovereign getting blasted by more removal than you could possibly deal with. If all three people you are playing against can't deal with it in some way, then you probably diserve to win because you did a bunch of other things to gain that much control over the board.
Similar situations for almost all of these cards that are banned and are not on the original EDH banlist.
IF your isssue with this sort of thing is price, however, then you may want to set up a league with a price limit. There plenty of articles out there on <$50 EDH decks that are blast to play with. This can be a very fun way to get a nice casual gaming group together.
One last thing to note: I think the only way a card should be banned in EDH is if it either for sure sucks the fun out of a game. Or wins the game without trying (see coalition victory). The former is simply because EDH is ment to be fun. The latter is because if you happen to be in a group that isn't playing any counter spells (possibly because none of them are using blue), then coalition victory is pretty much an auto-win on very early turns.
I really think people need to play more EDH before they start banning random cards.
I also think that 1 v 1 EDH is kind of boring. There are obviously decks that are just BETTER at 1 v 1 and there would have to be HUGE ban lists in order to make it a level playing field for all colors.
In multiplayer EDH most of these cards are not an issue. For instance, if you play a felidar sovereign and are going to win from it, this usually results in the game quickly turning to 3 v 1 and is likely to end in you geting a magister sphinx played on you followed by a banefire. It could also just end in your sovereign getting blasted by more removal than you could possibly deal with. If all three people you are playing against can't deal with it in some way, then you probably diserve to win because you did a bunch of other things to gain that much control over the board.
Similar situations for almost all of these cards that are banned and are not on the original EDH banlist.
IF your isssue with this sort of thing is price, however, then you may want to set up a league with a price limit. There plenty of articles out there on <$50 EDH decks that are blast to play with. This can be a very fun way to get a nice casual gaming group together.
One last thing to note: I think the only way a card should be banned in EDH is if it either for sure sucks the fun out of a game. Or wins the game without trying (see coalition victory). The former is simply because EDH is ment to be fun. The latter is because if you happen to be in a group that isn't playing any counter spells (possibly because none of them are using blue), then coalition victory is pretty much an auto-win on very early turns.
I think if a card is format warping then you need to consider banning it. Sol ring for example. If you want your deck to be competitive... (competitive EDH LOL) you need to run one, Mana Crypt as well.
That said, stuff that is too easily abused is also suspect to me. Channel for example. You have to much life for this to matter... so it basically has no drawback, at least not in EDH.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Heterological" is heterological if and only if "heterological" is autological
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
Uril can't be unfair as a general. Just play Thraximundar as a general, any edict effect in B, disenchants in G/W, mass damage in R, and counterspells in U. The only colors this card is a problem for is R b/c there isn't a ton of ways to kill it in those colors. Of course you could just block it.
Mass damage as the Red player's answer for Uril? Trust me, I play Red. There aren't enough reliable red spells on turn six (or sometimes turn five) to combat Uril. Chump blockers are great, if you can keep them coming, or until the opponent drops Rancor, Eldrazi Conscription, or *shudder* Runes of the Deus. You wanna know the best answer I have for Uril in Red?
Anyway, I love EDH, and there are a few cards I would ban-
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (again)
Emrakul the Aeons Torn
Armageddon
All non-specific tutors
Here's my thoughts on tutor cards, just so I don't have 300 posts about how tutor are good following my post. This is EDH. It should never be a sanctioned, competitive event because it is supposed to be a fun, casual variant where crazy and sometimes epic plays happen and everyone around the table gets a laugh or two. I hate playing against the guy who stacks his 99 cards with tutors to seek out the same pieces every single game. Oh, ramping for Tooth and Nail again for Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite? Big surprise. It saps the fun from the game really quickly. I like the random factor of 100 card singleton, I don't want to play the same game over and over. (If you do, play Standard, Extended, etc.) Like I said, I'd ban non-specific tutors. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystic Tutor, etc. The Harbinger cycle from Lorwyn block is a good example of ones I would keep. They search for specific creatures, but are a lot more limited as to what they could find. Thanks for reading, great thread here!
As annoying as a deck loaded down with tutors can be, I don't want the EDH ban list to turn into the normal Highlander ban list.
The problem that stems from tutors is what you're tutoring *for*. If you're tutoring for a Maelstrom Nexus and want it every game, I don't have a problem with that at all. It's a different story when you want to tutor for Grim Monolith/Power Artifact for the umpteenth time.
Don't forget, you can fight back against tutor-reliant strategies. Aven Mindcensor is a ball-breaker due to his flash as well as the instant-speed Shadow of Doubt. Mindlock Orb is also very powerful. Also remember preemptive removal cards as well, mainly Cap effects such as Sadistic Sacrament and Nightmare Incursion. I am not hesitant to pull the trigger on a non-kicked Sadistic Sacrament and disable up to three different combos or critical cards from someone's deck.
@SC: I generally agree about tutors being fine, though I have a question (likely because I am reading too much into your statement). Do you want to see Power Artifact banned, or are you just calling 2-card combos lame? If the first, I think it would have interesting implications on the format.
Emrakul (and the other titans) are not getting banned. If anything, they are flagships of the format; giant creatures that are unplayable elsewhere that get to wreck some face. The problem with all of them is actually being able to cast them early in the game (as cheated into play, they are all fairly vulnerable). To this end, Channel needs to go (and should have been banned from the outset of the format, really. How is freaking Sway of the Stars ban-able but "GG: add up to 39 to you mana pool" isn't. [/rant]) and maybe even Jhoria, though I am less sure of her, and the RC seems hesitant to ban generals in any case.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"There's no such thing as a good play. There's the right play, then there's the mistake" -Jon Finkel
Emrakul (and the other titans) are not getting banned. If anything, they are flagships of the format; giant creatures that are unplayable elsewhere that get to wreck some face.
Stepping in here: The Eldrazi Titans (and Emrakul in particular) are seeing play in both Standard and Extended. If the rumors about either UrzaTron or Cloudpost being reprinted in Scars of Mirrodin are true, they will be seeing ten times as much play.
And IIRC, Oath of Druids is still viable in 1.5. Guess which creature goes in that deck automatically?
@SC: I generally agree about tutors being fine, though I have a question (likely because I am reading too much into your statement). Do you want to see Power Artifact banned, or are you just calling 2-card combos lame? If the first, I think it would have interesting implications on the format.
I honestly could care less if Power Artifact gets banned or not. I'm just saying that if your sole goal playing tutors is to insure an infinite combo by turn 4-5, then that starts to wear out a bit on me when I'm not playing competitive EDH. I'm not complaining about the combo itself or combos in general (because I know how to adjust one of my decks to deal with a certain problem if need be), but the behavior of a player aggressively assembling a table-killing combo as people are just getting their feet off the floor.
@ Sinfire Titan: Oath is still banned in Legacy, unless you're talking about Vintage.
Stepping in here: The Eldrazi Titans (and Emrakul in particular) are seeing play in both Standard and Extended. If the rumors about either UrzaTron or Cloudpost being reprinted in Scars of Mirrodin are true, they will be seeing ten times as much play.
And IIRC, Oath of Druids is still viable in 1.5. Guess which creature goes in that deck automatically?
Emrakul is a terrible oath creature in Vintage because Iona and Terastodon exist and are just better. Past that, Emrakul is seeing play in standard as a Polymorph target, which as far as I can tell is a fringe deck. No actual deck's plan is "Imma cast some Eldrazi!"
Without going into speculation on scars, if some form of big-mana land is printed, and it doesn't have a huge drawback, then yes, the Eldrazi will become more playable. In a similar note, adding a positive number to 0 results in a positive number, though in this case we don't even know if the number exists. Until we do, I stand by my point.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"There's no such thing as a good play. There's the right play, then there's the mistake" -Jon Finkel
OK well I have some input on the Emrakul debate after playing a few EDH matches last weekend. Basically he is broken in EDH when combined with rofellos + Power Glove. In 2 games I saw Emrakul HARDCASTED T5 and I was on the receiving end both times. Now I dunno if Rofellos is the problem here or if Emrakul is the problem but with a couple of cards that can double land's mana output, this could result in some nasty fast games in both 1v1 (Which is being discussed here) and multiplayer (Which I was playing at the time it happened.) I know in a third game he managed to cheat Emrakul out via a ramped Tooth and Nail, which is not as bad but still not fun when it happens T4 >.<
@Tanarin: So, combined with a broken general (that somehow multiple people couldn't kill, no less) and a really strong mana producer, an early fatty ended the game. Somehow, I think that if the table couldn't deal with a 2/1, any of the Annihilator creatures would have gotten there. Emrakul has a lot going for him, for sure. 15/15 is huge. Annihilator 6 is massive. The time walk is nice. But... he costs 15. To have him see play early, it took Rofellos and a mana doubler. I have not played with or against Rofellos since the printing of the Titans, which is why I didn't list him in my post earlier. Honestly, even without the titans Rofellos is pushing the acceptable power level (and "funness") of a general. I think the elf is quite clearly the problem there, and not the tentacle monster (if there even is a problem, and it just wasn't the case of a finely tuned deck going against several less tuned ones).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"There's no such thing as a good play. There's the right play, then there's the mistake" -Jon Finkel
Limited Resources is on the official ban list. If someone gets it down really early, or finds ways to ramp up mana, you can lock out everyone else from playing lands at all. If you play targeted land removal like Numot, then you can get everyone else with 0 land and you with all 10 basically locking the game. I don't think it is banworthy just because of the possible ability to lock the game, but because of the "unfun" factor by someone playing it turn one in a 4 or 5 player game limiting most players to just 2 lands. Its a super powered Gaddock Teeg really.
Being unfun is a terrible criteria for banning cards because, as has been said a million times by a million people, fun is subjective. Some people, somewhere, get a thrill out of casting Armageddon and its ilk (and I confess to being one of them). That said, Limited Resources is probably too powerful in a multiplayer format. B2B is close, but it does let everyone use their lands at least once, has no impact on basic lands (so 1-2 color decks are safe) and it doesn't come down until people have had a few turns to actually play stuff.
Regarding Rofellos, have fun casting a 6 mana answer to him after he has had 4 turns of unmolested gigantic mana advantage.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"There's no such thing as a good play. There's the right play, then there's the mistake" -Jon Finkel
I was wondering the same thing. ^
Why is Yawgmoth's Bargain banned but not Necropotence?
Not that neither bother me, just purely out of curiosity. Because unless I'm missing something totally relevant, they're both identical. Only that bargain can draw cards whenever, as opposed to necropotence. But still, the ends are still the same.
The problem is, Crucible can just start abusing Wasteland / Dust Bowl recursion and continue to cause the same problems.
Any time you have a degenerate combo, you ban the actual engine to insure that the combo is dead. Wizards learned this lesson the hard way with Necropotence.
Famliy Guy Emperor Says,
"Something, something something, DARK SIDE!
Something, something, something COMPLETE!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHiUitciuJ8
:symrw::symrw::symrw::symrw::symrw::symrw:
SPIKE GAYMER: not just a beatdown, a beatdown sung to the tune of "I Feel Pretty"!
I agree that Wasteland/Dust Bowl lock isn't as devastating as Strip Mine lock. The thing is, why not just ban the card that actually causes the lock in the first place and not risk anything problematic in the future? Just because Crucible synergizes well with fetchlands and other cool utility lands doesn't detract from the fact that it can lock out decks with Strip Mine and to some extent Wasteland and Dust Bowl (especially against 2+ color decks).
Even if Crucible is banned, you wouldn't be restricted to killing Academy just once a game. Dust Bowl is multiple Wastelands in one card. Tectonic Edge is like Wasteland #2-3. Red decks will definitely be packing conventional LD.
Worse comes to worse, if seeing Academy Ruins getting recurred is a problem when you can't recur your Wastelands for some reason, just play more graveyard hate. I've always advocated that most decks just don't run sufficient graveyard hate.
Additionally, having Strip Mine gives decks another option at destroying Tolarian Academy as well as blowing up multicolored lands against a sensitive mana base.
Strip Mine isn't the card that is the problem. It's the actual engine of the lock, Crucible.
Yes, it is actually very broken. It can't be destroyed by disenchant effects, even Krosan Grip, and the common usage would be to loop ETB creatures. Say something like Sundering Titan + [insert any creature here]. With stuff like Bloodghast or Nether Traitor you can loop all your creatures back into play given enough time. Strangely enough I was checking the Online Commander banned list and along with Limited Resources is not on the ban list. I do not have either card so haven't tested to see if you can in fact play with these cards. It is also pretty good with Sneak Attack.
Spot on. Crucible is a P.I.A card to deal with one on one, not the lands. let's not even mention the several other land cards folks would just LOVE to get back over and over again.
Thanks, Heroes of The Planes! You guys are great!
Actual Truth:
My Cube
My Articles
Check out my game, Awien Ambush.
Facing turn 4 Eldrazzi is getting so old.
The cards that should be added to the ban list:
All are far too easy to abuse and tend to suck any enjoyment out of the game.
Channel is way too good. Every single deck that has access to green should play Channel + Emrakul and probably Ulamog and Kozilek. How is that card fair? I guess you can only activate it 39 times so there's a limit to it's brokenness?
Strip Mine has to get banned. People undervalue basics and it's easy to pray on the decks that play non-basics. However, Strip Mine ignores intelligent deck design (not playing a million non-basics) and just wrecks everyone.
Crucible is not a problem. Dust Bowl is not a good card, and Crucible doesn't really make it much better. You have to be doing other stuff as well for it to be even marginally playable. You have to have at least 7+ mana to have multiple effects going on. Crucible is good on it's own and only broken with Azusa/Exploration/Oracle of Mul Daya. You have to make your deck to do that though. And even then you can just kill crucible. Only blue and black can't destroy artifacts, but they can counter any of it or kill/bounce Azusa/Oracle. Or play all the million colorless GY hate cards wizards prints 18 times a set.
Necropotence is the dumbest card. It's just too good. 7 cards in hand every turn is in no way fair, and you can just play Whammer to balance out life loss if you have to. This card has always been too good.
Uril can't be unfair as a general. Just play Thraximundar as a general, any edict effect in B, disenchants in G/W, mass damage in R, and counterspells in U. The only colors this card is a problem for is R b/c there isn't a ton of ways to kill it in those colors. Of course you could just block it.
1800+ in Limited
3-0ing after drafting 17 non-basics in Cube
I also think that 1 v 1 EDH is kind of boring. There are obviously decks that are just BETTER at 1 v 1 and there would have to be HUGE ban lists in order to make it a level playing field for all colors.
In multiplayer EDH most of these cards are not an issue. For instance, if you play a felidar sovereign and are going to win from it, this usually results in the game quickly turning to 3 v 1 and is likely to end in you geting a magister sphinx played on you followed by a banefire. It could also just end in your sovereign getting blasted by more removal than you could possibly deal with. If all three people you are playing against can't deal with it in some way, then you probably diserve to win because you did a bunch of other things to gain that much control over the board.
Similar situations for almost all of these cards that are banned and are not on the original EDH banlist.
IF your isssue with this sort of thing is price, however, then you may want to set up a league with a price limit. There plenty of articles out there on <$50 EDH decks that are blast to play with. This can be a very fun way to get a nice casual gaming group together.
One last thing to note: I think the only way a card should be banned in EDH is if it either for sure sucks the fun out of a game. Or wins the game without trying (see coalition victory). The former is simply because EDH is ment to be fun. The latter is because if you happen to be in a group that isn't playing any counter spells (possibly because none of them are using blue), then coalition victory is pretty much an auto-win on very early turns.
I think if a card is format warping then you need to consider banning it. Sol ring for example. If you want your deck to be competitive... (competitive EDH LOL) you need to run one, Mana Crypt as well.
That said, stuff that is too easily abused is also suspect to me. Channel for example. You have to much life for this to matter... so it basically has no drawback, at least not in EDH.
[Legacy]
ANT
Imperial Painter
Mass damage as the Red player's answer for Uril? Trust me, I play Red. There aren't enough reliable red spells on turn six (or sometimes turn five) to combat Uril. Chump blockers are great, if you can keep them coming, or until the opponent drops Rancor, Eldrazi Conscription, or *shudder* Runes of the Deus. You wanna know the best answer I have for Uril in Red?
Anyway, I love EDH, and there are a few cards I would ban-
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary (again)
Emrakul the Aeons Torn
Armageddon
All non-specific tutors
Here's my thoughts on tutor cards, just so I don't have 300 posts about how tutor are good following my post. This is EDH. It should never be a sanctioned, competitive event because it is supposed to be a fun, casual variant where crazy and sometimes epic plays happen and everyone around the table gets a laugh or two. I hate playing against the guy who stacks his 99 cards with tutors to seek out the same pieces every single game. Oh, ramping for Tooth and Nail again for Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite? Big surprise. It saps the fun from the game really quickly. I like the random factor of 100 card singleton, I don't want to play the same game over and over. (If you do, play Standard, Extended, etc.) Like I said, I'd ban non-specific tutors. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Mystic Tutor, etc. The Harbinger cycle from Lorwyn block is a good example of ones I would keep. They search for specific creatures, but are a lot more limited as to what they could find. Thanks for reading, great thread here!
The problem that stems from tutors is what you're tutoring *for*. If you're tutoring for a Maelstrom Nexus and want it every game, I don't have a problem with that at all. It's a different story when you want to tutor for Grim Monolith/Power Artifact for the umpteenth time.
Don't forget, you can fight back against tutor-reliant strategies. Aven Mindcensor is a ball-breaker due to his flash as well as the instant-speed Shadow of Doubt. Mindlock Orb is also very powerful. Also remember preemptive removal cards as well, mainly Cap effects such as Sadistic Sacrament and Nightmare Incursion. I am not hesitant to pull the trigger on a non-kicked Sadistic Sacrament and disable up to three different combos or critical cards from someone's deck.
Emrakul (and the other titans) are not getting banned. If anything, they are flagships of the format; giant creatures that are unplayable elsewhere that get to wreck some face. The problem with all of them is actually being able to cast them early in the game (as cheated into play, they are all fairly vulnerable). To this end, Channel needs to go (and should have been banned from the outset of the format, really. How is freaking Sway of the Stars ban-able but "GG: add up to 39 to you mana pool" isn't. [/rant]) and maybe even Jhoria, though I am less sure of her, and the RC seems hesitant to ban generals in any case.
Stepping in here: The Eldrazi Titans (and Emrakul in particular) are seeing play in both Standard and Extended. If the rumors about either UrzaTron or Cloudpost being reprinted in Scars of Mirrodin are true, they will be seeing ten times as much play.
And IIRC, Oath of Druids is still viable in 1.5. Guess which creature goes in that deck automatically?
Driving Stick with Isochron Scepter.
Trinkets and Treasure: An Artificer's Toolbox.
Proc Drops: Playing with One Drops.
Deck Primer: Toshiro Umezawa
I honestly could care less if Power Artifact gets banned or not. I'm just saying that if your sole goal playing tutors is to insure an infinite combo by turn 4-5, then that starts to wear out a bit on me when I'm not playing competitive EDH. I'm not complaining about the combo itself or combos in general (because I know how to adjust one of my decks to deal with a certain problem if need be), but the behavior of a player aggressively assembling a table-killing combo as people are just getting their feet off the floor.
@ Sinfire Titan: Oath is still banned in Legacy, unless you're talking about Vintage.
Emrakul is a terrible oath creature in Vintage because Iona and Terastodon exist and are just better. Past that, Emrakul is seeing play in standard as a Polymorph target, which as far as I can tell is a fringe deck. No actual deck's plan is "Imma cast some Eldrazi!"
Without going into speculation on scars, if some form of big-mana land is printed, and it doesn't have a huge drawback, then yes, the Eldrazi will become more playable. In a similar note, adding a positive number to 0 results in a positive number, though in this case we don't even know if the number exists. Until we do, I stand by my point.
Come join us in the MTGSalvation chat ||| My trade thread. ||| My Personal Modern Blog: The Fetchlands
As for Rofellos, Crovax, Ascendant Hero or Ascendant Evincar both do the job nicely in keeping him in check.
Regarding Rofellos, have fun casting a 6 mana answer to him after he has had 4 turns of unmolested gigantic mana advantage.
Why is Yawgmoth's Bargain banned but not Necropotence?
Not that neither bother me, just purely out of curiosity. Because unless I'm missing something totally relevant, they're both identical. Only that bargain can draw cards whenever, as opposed to necropotence. But still, the ends are still the same.
Legacy: Pox | Tiny Leaders: Thalia Hatebears