he's not talking about playing karn turn 3 against aggro. he's saying in a format where you can play a karn turn 3 (and liliana on turn 2) a 3/3 on turn 2 isn't that overpowered.
No, but 3 3/3's on turn 2 is a bit over powered, and not that hard to pull off.
I don't see the logic here. Karn Liberated is actually quite underwhelming against aggro--he can only take out one card at a time, which is far less useful when your opponent has a bunch of dangerous creatures on the field. Against aggro, Karn Liberated would usually just -3, then die the next turn. It's a little better against Affinity than the decks Wild Nacatl would probably be in, but that's because Affinity is very dependent on certain cards, so Karn Liberated tends to be a bit better. But against general aggro decks he's not that great, at least not the turn 3 Karn Liberated. If you've stabilized, though, he can do some real work, but again, that's not on turn 3.
Way better against Zoo decks would be Wurmcoil Engine and Oblivion Stone.
he's not talking about playing karn turn 3 against aggro. he's saying in a format where you can play a karn turn 3 (and liliana on turn 2) a 3/3 on turn 2 isn't that overpowered.
Yeah, it's exactly what germanturkey said. In a format where one can drop a turn 3 Karn, getting a one mana 3/3 on turn 2 isn't really that overpowered. This format still has turn 2 Infect wins (inconsistent, I admit) and regular, consistent turn 4 Affinity wins. How is it okay for Affinity to drop a turn 1 Opal, Memnite, Citadel, Plating and Zoo can't get a 3/3? The distinction of what is overpowered and what is allowed just continues to seem arbitrary.
It's because Nacatl is the centerpiece of the Naya singularity.
Once you have the triumvirate of Kird Ape, Loam Lion and Wild Nacatl, you've got little in the way of excuse not to play a deck that runs playsets of them.
Along with Bolts, Paths, Goyfs, Lightning Helices... c'mon, it all starts with the critical mass of cards that make having Naya lands matter.
So they killed an archetype to make people split up and pursue divergent paths by banning Nacatl. The P/T isn't so much an issue, considering things like Delver and Steppe Lynx exist (though some effort is involved with beefing those two, the latter especially), rather it was the way the lands mattered.
He is also referring to a turn 1 Experiment One turn 2 double Nacatl start. Which is still very improbable.
Except it really isnt. I suggest you build it and gold fish the deck. I was surprised how often it happened.
Quote from ktkenshinx »
Yeah, it's exactly what germanturkey said. In a format where one can drop a turn 3 Karn, getting a one mana 3/3 on turn 2 isn't really that overpowered. This format still has turn 2 Infect wins (inconsistent, I admit) and regular, consistent turn 4 Affinity wins. How is it okay for Affinity to drop a turn 1 Opal, Memnite, Citadel, Plating and Zoo can't get a 3/3? The distinction of what is overpowered and what is allowed just continues to seem arbitrary.
I got my ass chewed out complaining about turn 3 wins and I was told it wasnt consistent, and now we are complaining about turn 4 wins in a turn 4 format, which is about as consistent as the turn 3 wins.
I got my ass chewed out complaining about turn 3 wins and I was told it wasnt consistent, and now we are complaining about turn 4 wins in a turn 4 format, which is about as consistent as the turn 3 wins.
That's not even close to what I am implying. I am saying that in a format where Affinity wins on turn 3 or 4 and where Karn and Lilly drop on turn 3 and 2 respectively, Kitty really isn't that unfair. Now, he might be unfair for other reasons; I haven't tested him alongside E1 and the RtR Zoo creatures, so I'm not sure. But as compared to other decks in the format, he's not that unfair or broken.
Yeah but unfairness isn't the only metric.
Otherwise we could unban Top and Second Sunrise.
Which are banned largely because time complexity issues.
Nacatl was banned because it homogenized aggro. And now we have how many truly viable aggro decks? It's Affinity and that's it. We have a ton of tier 2 aggro decks that can't seem to win a major event with any consistency (Burn, Merfolk, Gruul Zoo, Domain Zoo, Soul Sisters, BW Tokens, etc.), but aggro is really all Affinity all the time. Since GP Detroit, Affinity has made up 50% of all MTGO aggro decks, and 10% period of the metagame. The next highest aggro representative? Merfolk and Burn with 3.5% each of the metagame share.
Mind you that I'm not actually supporting Nacatl's unbanning. I'm honestly not sure whether it's a good or bad idea. I'm just saying that there is reason to doubt the effectiveness of the ban in opening up aggro. Perhaps other factors conspired together to make aggro such a one-story-town, but the end result has still been the same.
Nacatl was banned because it homogenized aggro. And now we have how many truly viable aggro decks? It's Affinity and that's it. We have a ton of tier 2 aggro decks that can't seem to win a major event with any consistency (Burn, Merfolk, Gruul Zoo, Domain Zoo, Soul Sisters, BW Tokens, etc.), but aggro is really all Affinity all the time. Since GP Detroit, Affinity has made up 50% of all MTGO aggro decks, and 10% period of the metagame. The next highest aggro representative? Merfolk and Burn with 3.5% each of the metagame share.
Mind you that I'm not actually supporting Nacatl's unbanning. I'm honestly not sure whether it's a good or bad idea. I'm just saying that there is reason to doubt the effectiveness of the ban in opening up aggro. Perhaps other factors conspired together to make aggro such a one-story-town, but the end result has still been the same.
That's really the problem, the diversity issue's been fixed at the cost of them still struggling to breach tier 2 at best.
I like to think part of the problem is representation.
Card pool is part of it, but the other part is that you're competing with arguably overrepresented decks just for the chance to get the recognition needed to catapult an archetype into the big leagues.
Does anybody here think Green Sun's Zenith could be unbanned? It was banned for homogenizing green decks, but I don't think that this would happen. It wouldn't be run in Melira or Kiki Pod because it can't fetch the entire combos. It probably wouldn't be run in Hatebears for the same reason Fauna Shaman isn't, it doesn't work well with Leonin Arbiter. It wouldn't be run in Tron because it does nothing there. It wouldn't be run in Jund or Rock because it most of the things that it would fetch are also white. Same goes for Gruul Zoo. Living End can't use it and Boggles has no use for it. Primeval Titan Scapeshift might run it, but it would not run the package of creatures that homogenized green decks. That means that Junk and Naya Zoo are the only green decks that would run it with a package of creatures such as Gaddock Teeg. I think that because of this, it could come off.
This format still has turn 2 Infect wins (inconsistent, I admit)...
It's more consistent than you might think. On the weeks that I am testing with it in the Tourney practice room I get a potential turn 2 win a few times a week, and an actual turn 2 win too fast for disruption at least once a week. It feels kinda dirty to do, but it can be easily disrupted with common MD cards.
And no one said it was. What people said was "it limits diversity because anyone who is using two of those colors will splash the third in order to put kitty in".
Seriously, if the guy doesn't understand that cards are sometimes banned in order to diversify the meta, then he should just be ignored. If he argues a card that was banned for limiting diversity should be unbanned to increase diversity, then he should be ignored completely.
Eventually some decent hate will make 3 color decks less dominant, and then kitty will be unbanned to give people incentive to splash a 3rd color.
Okay - if Nacatl was preventing deck diversity, then after it's banning, there should be more aggro decks, right?
Here were the aggro decks prior to Nacatl's ban - Affinity, Zoo, Burn/RDW.
Here are the aggro decks in the format as things currently stand - Affinity, Zoo, Burn. So clearly the presence of Nacatl didn't do anything to prevent deck diversity. If that's all their argument consisted of, then there is zero reason for Nacatl to be on the ban list, since it's clearly not promoting or preventing deck diversity.
All zoo is (generally speaking) is a pile of efficient non-synergistic creatures with efficient non-synergistic removal and burn. The only way a new aggro deck would be created for the modern format is if there is legitimate synergy that promotes playing cards that aren't just "goodstuff" as you see in 95% of zoo decks.
I'm actually not all-in on unbanning Nacatl as I think there are other cards that need to come off first, but if Wizards' only logic is that it's preventing diversity, then it shouldn't be on there since that argument has proven useless.
Does anybody here think Green Sun's Zenith could be unbanned? It was banned for homogenizing green decks, but I don't think that this would happen. It wouldn't be run in Melira or Kiki Pod because it can't fetch the entire combos. It probably wouldn't be run in Hatebears for the same reason Fauna Shaman isn't, it doesn't work well with Leonin Arbiter. It wouldn't be run in Tron because it does nothing there. It wouldn't be run in Jund or Rock because it most of the things that it would fetch are also white. Same goes for Gruul Zoo. Living End can't use it and Boggles has no use for it. Primeval Titan Scapeshift might run it, but it would not run the package of creatures that homogenized green decks. That means that Junk and Naya Zoo are the only green decks that would run it with a package of creatures such as Gaddock Teeg. I think that because of this, it could come off.
Zenith would 100% be played in Hatebears, Melira, Jund / GBx, and other similar decks.
-Hatebears would be perfectly fine dropping Arbiter for green sun's zenith. See Maverick in legacy for reference here. Good decks play powerful cards. Zenith is a very powerful card, much more so than arbiter.
-Jund would now play 8 turn 1 mana dorks that don't become bad topdecks. The only reason zenith wasn't played previously was due to it being a bad bloodbraid cascade. With BBE banned, zenith would easily slot into Jund.
-Birthing pod decks would 100% cut 1-2 mana dorks for Zenith as Zenith IS a mana dork that can also fetch out important combo pieces.
You're also missing scapeshift, which would love to play Zenith as a 1cmc rampant growth, primeval titan, oracle of mul daya, and general toolbox enabler.
I think the other big thing you're also missing, is that zenith is just a super powerful card in general. They could just as easily list power level as a reason for banning zenith, and that would be just as reasonable of an answer for it being banned as "homogenizing green decks".
Yeah but unfairness isn't the only metric.
Otherwise we could unban Top and Second Sunrise.
As I mentioned with GSZ, wizards may state that top is banned due to time reasons (which is legitimate), but it's just as easily bannable due to it's power level. While I don't personally want the format to be so creature based, the mini combo of top + terminus would be enough to make midrange creature decks near unplayable. This also doesn't include obvious benefits for combo decks like Twin.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find me online - I'm on Cockatrice * Tag - Badd B - Or on MTGO - Tag - Cbus05
The Todd Anderson article has many valid points. A lot of the cards on the BL are probably okay to come off. That will happen over time. The format is "fine" right now. I enjoy playing it, but I will admit it could be better. It could also be a lot worse.
Let's say for example that Rite of Flame was not on the BL, the format would be broken and not very fun for a large amount of the player base. For those of you that remember the first Modern Pro Tour, it was full of turn 2 decks. So a slower format helps allow people to play MTG. For example, I recently got trounced on MTGO by a Mono G devotion deck. There is a lot of diversity if you are willing to brew.
One important thing to keep in mind with regards to what Wizards is doing for the format is that the first set created since the inception of Modern was Theros. This means that WOTC came up with Modern and then immediately said, "Let's reprint Thoughtseize." This means that more reprints are on the way. I would guess we will start to see older cards introduced into the format soon. They couldn't do it earlier because they didn't know there was a reason to. It might be a little bit longer, but they probably wanted to see how the format would work. Good things are on the way though.
I don't think anything should be banned at the moment. I think Birthing Pod will eventually get the axe, because it will eventually deserve it. I don't think that time is here quite yet. But every set makes it better. Just look at what Archangel of Thune did for Melira.
I think the following cards should come off:
Wild Nacatl
Preordain
Golgari Grave-Troll
I think that eventually we will see JTMS, BBE, and Bitterblossom as well. But it could be 10 years.
For those curious, I play Jund online. I'm 1-2 against mono green devotion. I play no abrupt decays because it is not good enough right now. Not killing Pod or Master of Waves is a big deal. So I really don't think it should be banned.
Edit: GSZ is too powerful for the current format. If a lot of other things were also unbanned, then it would be fine. But as is, no way Jose. Also, I said Nacatl is fine, but it is possible it would make Countercat a deck again, and that is a good reason for it to be banned.
You're also missing scapeshift, which would love to play Zenith as a 1cmc rampant growth, primeval titan, oracle of mul daya, and general toolbox enabler.
I'm dubious about Scapeshift running Green Sun's Zenith. Primeval Titan isn't even its main win condition, so taking out useful cards to put in something that helps you fetch out its secondary win condition seems dubious. I'm also very uncertain that the promise of a 1-mana ramp spell makes it worth running Dryad Arbor. Dryad Arbor has anti-synergy with Pyroclasm and opens the deck up to threats from cards that it's supposed to be fairly impervious to (namely, creature removal).
As for Oracle of Mul Daya, I feel that if it was decent in Scapeshift, they'd already be running it. And again, to fit that AND Green Sun's Zenith in, you have to take out cards that help you win. It's too cute. And by the time you have the 4-5 mana to cast it, you probably wouldn't be needing the Explore effect.
I'm not a Scapeshift player so maybe I'm wrong in everything I just said, but Green Sun's Zenith really doesn't seem like a card Scapeshift would want. In what you're suggesting, it doesn't seem to do much other than let it fetch out subpar cards for the deck (except for Primeval Titan, but you're already playing 8 copies of your win condition if you're playing with Primeval Titan, do you really need more?).
As I mentioned with GSZ, wizards may state that top is banned due to time reasons (which is legitimate), but it's just as easily bannable due to it's power level. While I don't personally want the format to be so creature based, the mini combo of top + terminus would be enough to make midrange creature decks near unplayable. This also doesn't include obvious benefits for combo decks like Twin.
top would help control a lot with counterbalance being in the format. It can still be hit with abrupt decay but getting to counter lots of stuff and having miracles on command might be too much.
With Scry being in Theros, I am really hoping we get a ramped up crystal ball type effect that could play the role of a reasonable Top for Modern.
Make it require a tap so that it doesn't cause time issues. Don't give it the tuck option so it can be answered. Just make it scry on a stick at a reasonable rate.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I support WotC's goal of shaping Modern in favor of diversity.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
I think it's more the versatility that would make it playable. It ramps on turn 1 or 3 (searching Dryad Arbor or Sakura-Tribe Elder), and also acts as a secondary win-con by searching for Prime Time. Seems good enough to me.
But the deck doesn't need a secondary win condition, it already has a secondary win condition if it's playing Primeval Titan. It's an unnecessary dilution of the deck.
And again, trying to ramp with it isn't that impressive either. First, if it wanted more ramp, it could play more ramp cards, which it doesn't; it already has enough. Furthermore, as I've pointed out, using it to fetch out a Dryad Arbor is not a good idea because, even ignoring the fact it makes Pyroclasm really bad (some Scapeshift decks don't play it), it still opens you up to hate cards that you shouldn't be vulnerable to.
Green Sun's Zenith has versatility, but the problem is that in Scapeshift none of the things it can do are particularly impressive for the deck. I keep looking at the stuff it can do and keep thinking "whatever I take out to put Green Sun's Zenith in is going to be more useful to me than that card."
With Scry being in Theros, I am really hoping we get a ramped up crystal ball type effect that could play the role of a reasonable Top for Modern.
Make it require a tap so that it doesn't cause time issues. Don't give it the tuck option so it can be answered. Just make it scry on a stick at a reasonable rate.
If it weren't for Ash being a thing, I'd say I'd be ok with having a Planeswalker who'd let you scry 1 or 2 as a loyalty ability.
Though I never really paid attention to whether or not JTMS having a +2: scry-fateseal 1 was a bad thing. Back when JTMS was relevant to my daily card playing I really only saw him as a Brainstorm engine that could double as loose removal with his unsummon.
Zenith would 100% be played in Hatebears, Melira, Jund / GBx, and other similar decks.
-Hatebears would be perfectly fine dropping Arbiter for green sun's zenith. See Maverick in legacy for reference here. Good decks play powerful cards. Zenith is a very powerful card, much more so than arbiter.
-Jund would now play 8 turn 1 mana dorks that don't become bad topdecks. The only reason zenith wasn't played previously was due to it being a bad bloodbraid cascade. With BBE banned, zenith would easily slot into Jund.
-Birthing pod decks would 100% cut 1-2 mana dorks for Zenith as Zenith IS a mana dork that can also fetch out important combo pieces.
You're also missing scapeshift, which would love to play Zenith as a 1cmc rampant growth, primeval titan, oracle of mul daya, and general toolbox enabler.
I think the other big thing you're also missing, is that zenith is just a super powerful card in general. They could just as easily list power level as a reason for banning zenith, and that would be just as reasonable of an answer for it being banned as "homogenizing green decks".
I don't think Hatebears would run it. They stopped running Fauna Shaman because of Leonin Arbiter. I think that this would be a similar case.
What would BG Rock and Jund cut for it? Removal? Discard? Creatures? These are too essential to BGx to cut. Even if they cut some copies of Goyf and Ooze for it, it would make Jund slower. I think that it wouldn't be played there and since they can't run most of the homogenizing package, it would be fine even if they did.
I don't think Kiki Pod would run Zenith. None of its combo is green. Melira Pod could, but it wouldn't change much. They are already super-consistent.
I mentioned Scapeshift. Primeval Titan versions might run it, but Cryptic versions wouldn't. And the fact that it can ramp doesn't matter, they don't play all of the ramp that they could anyways.
Most of the decks that would run Green Sun's Zenith wouldn't even be running it for the toolbox, so it would be safe. And Green Sun's Zenith is not too powerful in a format where turn 3 Karn Liberated is possible and much more powerful.
No, but 3 3/3's on turn 2 is a bit over powered, and not that hard to pull off.
On a more related note, yeah, leave Mental Misstep on the banned list. I don't see any way it won't end up being completely degenerate.
And in this case, I'm not at all being sarcastic. Magic is not supposed to be a primarily skill-based game.
a 3 nacatl opening hand is pretty improbable. i do agree that it is a very strong opening, but the chance of it happening are in the single %s.
He is also referring to a turn 1 Experiment One turn 2 double Nacatl start. Which is still very improbable.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Yeah, it's exactly what germanturkey said. In a format where one can drop a turn 3 Karn, getting a one mana 3/3 on turn 2 isn't really that overpowered. This format still has turn 2 Infect wins (inconsistent, I admit) and regular, consistent turn 4 Affinity wins. How is it okay for Affinity to drop a turn 1 Opal, Memnite, Citadel, Plating and Zoo can't get a 3/3? The distinction of what is overpowered and what is allowed just continues to seem arbitrary.
Once you have the triumvirate of Kird Ape, Loam Lion and Wild Nacatl, you've got little in the way of excuse not to play a deck that runs playsets of them.
Along with Bolts, Paths, Goyfs, Lightning Helices... c'mon, it all starts with the critical mass of cards that make having Naya lands matter.
So they killed an archetype to make people split up and pursue divergent paths by banning Nacatl. The P/T isn't so much an issue, considering things like Delver and Steppe Lynx exist (though some effort is involved with beefing those two, the latter especially), rather it was the way the lands mattered.
Except it really isnt. I suggest you build it and gold fish the deck. I was surprised how often it happened.
I got my ass chewed out complaining about turn 3 wins and I was told it wasnt consistent, and now we are complaining about turn 4 wins in a turn 4 format, which is about as consistent as the turn 3 wins.
That's not even close to what I am implying. I am saying that in a format where Affinity wins on turn 3 or 4 and where Karn and Lilly drop on turn 3 and 2 respectively, Kitty really isn't that unfair. Now, he might be unfair for other reasons; I haven't tested him alongside E1 and the RtR Zoo creatures, so I'm not sure. But as compared to other decks in the format, he's not that unfair or broken.
Otherwise we could unban Top and Second Sunrise.
Which are banned largely because time complexity issues.
Nacatl was banned because it homogenized aggro. And now we have how many truly viable aggro decks? It's Affinity and that's it. We have a ton of tier 2 aggro decks that can't seem to win a major event with any consistency (Burn, Merfolk, Gruul Zoo, Domain Zoo, Soul Sisters, BW Tokens, etc.), but aggro is really all Affinity all the time. Since GP Detroit, Affinity has made up 50% of all MTGO aggro decks, and 10% period of the metagame. The next highest aggro representative? Merfolk and Burn with 3.5% each of the metagame share.
Mind you that I'm not actually supporting Nacatl's unbanning. I'm honestly not sure whether it's a good or bad idea. I'm just saying that there is reason to doubt the effectiveness of the ban in opening up aggro. Perhaps other factors conspired together to make aggro such a one-story-town, but the end result has still been the same.
I fail to see how Kitty would be banned for making games run longer...
Please Visit my Alterations Page!
My Alters Sales Thread
Want a FREE Playset of Foil Baneslayer Angels?!?:
That's really the problem, the diversity issue's been fixed at the cost of them still struggling to breach tier 2 at best.
I like to think part of the problem is representation.
Card pool is part of it, but the other part is that you're competing with arguably overrepresented decks just for the chance to get the recognition needed to catapult an archetype into the big leagues.
You know, unfairness AND time complexity aren't the only metrics.
Otherwise we could unban Seething Song.
Which is banned largely because it made Storm too consistent.
...wait, no that falls under unfairness.
Ok, let me start all over.
You know, there's this thing called "reading comprehension..."
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I'm up to my pits in creature kill as is, might as well blaze some trees while I'm at it.
Let it be done.
Will own everything it sets its sights on? Probably not.
But it gives incredible consistency to decks that run any sort of green creatures, and that is why it's quite powerful.
It's more consistent than you might think. On the weeks that I am testing with it in the Tourney practice room I get a potential turn 2 win a few times a week, and an actual turn 2 win too fast for disruption at least once a week. It feels kinda dirty to do, but it can be easily disrupted with common MD cards.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Okay - if Nacatl was preventing deck diversity, then after it's banning, there should be more aggro decks, right?
Here were the aggro decks prior to Nacatl's ban - Affinity, Zoo, Burn/RDW.
Here are the aggro decks in the format as things currently stand - Affinity, Zoo, Burn. So clearly the presence of Nacatl didn't do anything to prevent deck diversity. If that's all their argument consisted of, then there is zero reason for Nacatl to be on the ban list, since it's clearly not promoting or preventing deck diversity.
All zoo is (generally speaking) is a pile of efficient non-synergistic creatures with efficient non-synergistic removal and burn. The only way a new aggro deck would be created for the modern format is if there is legitimate synergy that promotes playing cards that aren't just "goodstuff" as you see in 95% of zoo decks.
I'm actually not all-in on unbanning Nacatl as I think there are other cards that need to come off first, but if Wizards' only logic is that it's preventing diversity, then it shouldn't be on there since that argument has proven useless.
Zenith would 100% be played in Hatebears, Melira, Jund / GBx, and other similar decks.
-Hatebears would be perfectly fine dropping Arbiter for green sun's zenith. See Maverick in legacy for reference here. Good decks play powerful cards. Zenith is a very powerful card, much more so than arbiter.
-Jund would now play 8 turn 1 mana dorks that don't become bad topdecks. The only reason zenith wasn't played previously was due to it being a bad bloodbraid cascade. With BBE banned, zenith would easily slot into Jund.
-Birthing pod decks would 100% cut 1-2 mana dorks for Zenith as Zenith IS a mana dork that can also fetch out important combo pieces.
You're also missing scapeshift, which would love to play Zenith as a 1cmc rampant growth, primeval titan, oracle of mul daya, and general toolbox enabler.
I think the other big thing you're also missing, is that zenith is just a super powerful card in general. They could just as easily list power level as a reason for banning zenith, and that would be just as reasonable of an answer for it being banned as "homogenizing green decks".
As I mentioned with GSZ, wizards may state that top is banned due to time reasons (which is legitimate), but it's just as easily bannable due to it's power level. While I don't personally want the format to be so creature based, the mini combo of top + terminus would be enough to make midrange creature decks near unplayable. This also doesn't include obvious benefits for combo decks like Twin.
Let's say for example that Rite of Flame was not on the BL, the format would be broken and not very fun for a large amount of the player base. For those of you that remember the first Modern Pro Tour, it was full of turn 2 decks. So a slower format helps allow people to play MTG. For example, I recently got trounced on MTGO by a Mono G devotion deck. There is a lot of diversity if you are willing to brew.
One important thing to keep in mind with regards to what Wizards is doing for the format is that the first set created since the inception of Modern was Theros. This means that WOTC came up with Modern and then immediately said, "Let's reprint Thoughtseize." This means that more reprints are on the way. I would guess we will start to see older cards introduced into the format soon. They couldn't do it earlier because they didn't know there was a reason to. It might be a little bit longer, but they probably wanted to see how the format would work. Good things are on the way though.
I don't think anything should be banned at the moment. I think Birthing Pod will eventually get the axe, because it will eventually deserve it. I don't think that time is here quite yet. But every set makes it better. Just look at what Archangel of Thune did for Melira.
I think the following cards should come off:
Wild Nacatl
Preordain
Golgari Grave-Troll
I think that eventually we will see JTMS, BBE, and Bitterblossom as well. But it could be 10 years.
For those curious, I play Jund online. I'm 1-2 against mono green devotion. I play no abrupt decays because it is not good enough right now. Not killing Pod or Master of Waves is a big deal. So I really don't think it should be banned.
Edit: GSZ is too powerful for the current format. If a lot of other things were also unbanned, then it would be fine. But as is, no way Jose. Also, I said Nacatl is fine, but it is possible it would make Countercat a deck again, and that is a good reason for it to be banned.
Level 1 Judge
WUBRG
I'm dubious about Scapeshift running Green Sun's Zenith. Primeval Titan isn't even its main win condition, so taking out useful cards to put in something that helps you fetch out its secondary win condition seems dubious. I'm also very uncertain that the promise of a 1-mana ramp spell makes it worth running Dryad Arbor. Dryad Arbor has anti-synergy with Pyroclasm and opens the deck up to threats from cards that it's supposed to be fairly impervious to (namely, creature removal).
As for Oracle of Mul Daya, I feel that if it was decent in Scapeshift, they'd already be running it. And again, to fit that AND Green Sun's Zenith in, you have to take out cards that help you win. It's too cute. And by the time you have the 4-5 mana to cast it, you probably wouldn't be needing the Explore effect.
I'm not a Scapeshift player so maybe I'm wrong in everything I just said, but Green Sun's Zenith really doesn't seem like a card Scapeshift would want. In what you're suggesting, it doesn't seem to do much other than let it fetch out subpar cards for the deck (except for Primeval Titan, but you're already playing 8 copies of your win condition if you're playing with Primeval Titan, do you really need more?).
top would help control a lot with counterbalance being in the format. It can still be hit with abrupt decay but getting to counter lots of stuff and having miracles on command might be too much.
Make it require a tap so that it doesn't cause time issues. Don't give it the tuck option so it can be answered. Just make it scry on a stick at a reasonable rate.
I ran a thought experiment on my blog
Modern in a Nuclear Wasteland
of an extreme case of banning 20 more cards to make sure they get everything, then scaling back where appropriate. WotC seems to be on a slowly build up approach. Both ways probably reach similar end points.
The post Gatecrash metagame is proving to be closer to the endpoint than I estimated, so its very possible that few (if any) more cards need to be banned.
But the deck doesn't need a secondary win condition, it already has a secondary win condition if it's playing Primeval Titan. It's an unnecessary dilution of the deck.
And again, trying to ramp with it isn't that impressive either. First, if it wanted more ramp, it could play more ramp cards, which it doesn't; it already has enough. Furthermore, as I've pointed out, using it to fetch out a Dryad Arbor is not a good idea because, even ignoring the fact it makes Pyroclasm really bad (some Scapeshift decks don't play it), it still opens you up to hate cards that you shouldn't be vulnerable to.
Green Sun's Zenith has versatility, but the problem is that in Scapeshift none of the things it can do are particularly impressive for the deck. I keep looking at the stuff it can do and keep thinking "whatever I take out to put Green Sun's Zenith in is going to be more useful to me than that card."
If it weren't for Ash being a thing, I'd say I'd be ok with having a Planeswalker who'd let you scry 1 or 2 as a loyalty ability.
Though I never really paid attention to whether or not JTMS having a +2: scry-fateseal 1 was a bad thing. Back when JTMS was relevant to my daily card playing I really only saw him as a Brainstorm engine that could double as loose removal with his unsummon.
Ah, to be young and brash.
Anyway, if only Ash could scry~
I don't think Hatebears would run it. They stopped running Fauna Shaman because of Leonin Arbiter. I think that this would be a similar case.
What would BG Rock and Jund cut for it? Removal? Discard? Creatures? These are too essential to BGx to cut. Even if they cut some copies of Goyf and Ooze for it, it would make Jund slower. I think that it wouldn't be played there and since they can't run most of the homogenizing package, it would be fine even if they did.
I don't think Kiki Pod would run Zenith. None of its combo is green. Melira Pod could, but it wouldn't change much. They are already super-consistent.
I mentioned Scapeshift. Primeval Titan versions might run it, but Cryptic versions wouldn't. And the fact that it can ramp doesn't matter, they don't play all of the ramp that they could anyways.
Most of the decks that would run Green Sun's Zenith wouldn't even be running it for the toolbox, so it would be safe. And Green Sun's Zenith is not too powerful in a format where turn 3 Karn Liberated is possible and much more powerful.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.