I think blues problem is that other colors have been usurping its powers and benefits too much. Green just got LifeCrafter's Bestiary, and even though it's not exactly the most playable modern card, it illustrates the issue well enough. At this rate Wizards may just have to reinvent blue to give it a new lease on life while still keeping it true to what the color is supposed to represent. It's sort of funny looking back at Time Spiral block and realizing that colorshifted cards never really left.
I was under the impression that green was always secondary in that kind of stuff after blue, what with stuff like Mirri's Guile, and likes doing card draw focused around creatures and lands as well. I think the problem is more that green got something like that without blue getting something as well that is either slightly more flexible, or slightly better (but focused around instant/sorcery rather than creature/land), since it's the sort of thing that is supposed to be primarily blue.
I think blues problem is that other colors have been usurping its powers and benefits too much. Green just got LifeCrafter's Bestiary, and even though it's not exactly the most playable modern card, it illustrates the issue well enough. At this rate Wizards may just have to reinvent blue to give it a new lease on life while still keeping it true to what the color is supposed to represent. It's sort of funny looking back at Time Spiral block and realizing that colorshifted cards never really left.
I was under the impression that green was always secondary in that kind of stuff after blue, what with stuff like Mirri's Guile, and likes doing card draw focused around creatures and lands as well. I think the problem is more that green got something like that without blue getting something as well that is either slightly more flexible, or slightly better (but focused around instant/sorcery rather than creature/land), since it's the sort of thing that is supposed to be primarily blue.
An additional problem is that blue lost both its stronger cheap selection spells (things like Opt were deemed too powerful in recent Standard sets) and its countermagic (Mana Leak was long considered too good for Standard). Hopefully the recent calamities of Standard seasons will help get Wizards to swing the pendulum more towards the middle. Modern would greatly benefit as a result.
I think blues problem is that other colors have been usurping its powers and benefits too much. Green just got LifeCrafter's Bestiary, and even though it's not exactly the most playable modern card, it illustrates the issue well enough. At this rate Wizards may just have to reinvent blue to give it a new lease on life while still keeping it true to what the color is supposed to represent. It's sort of funny looking back at Time Spiral block and realizing that colorshifted cards never really left.
I was under the impression that green was always secondary in that kind of stuff after blue, what with stuff like Mirri's Guile, and likes doing card draw focused around creatures and lands as well. I think the problem is more that green got something like that without blue getting something as well that is either slightly more flexible, or slightly better (but focused around instant/sorcery rather than creature/land), since it's the sort of thing that is supposed to be primarily blue.
An additional problem is that blue lost both its stronger cheap selection spells (things like Opt were deemed too powerful in recent Standard sets) and its countermagic (Mana Leak was long considered too good for Standard). Hopefully the recent calamities of Standard seasons will help get Wizards to swing the pendulum more towards the middle. Modern would greatly benefit as a result.
As I agree better variance reducing cantrips, and modern level counter spells would benefit reactive blue strategies in this format. I also feel that being proactive is a must in modern. whatever makes blue better at this point will probably be something proactive, something that can fight the current board state vs creatures and put a good clock on the opponent vs combo.
I think blues problem is that other colors have been usurping its powers and benefits too much. Green just got LifeCrafter's Bestiary, and even though it's not exactly the most playable modern card, it illustrates the issue well enough. At this rate Wizards may just have to reinvent blue to give it a new lease on life while still keeping it true to what the color is supposed to represent. It's sort of funny looking back at Time Spiral block and realizing that colorshifted cards never really left.
I was under the impression that green was always secondary in that kind of stuff after blue, what with stuff like Mirri's Guile, and likes doing card draw focused around creatures and lands as well. I think the problem is more that green got something like that without blue getting something as well that is either slightly more flexible, or slightly better (but focused around instant/sorcery rather than creature/land), since it's the sort of thing that is supposed to be primarily blue.
An additional problem is that blue lost both its stronger cheap selection spells (things like Opt were deemed too powerful in recent Standard sets) and its countermagic (Mana Leak was long considered too good for Standard). Hopefully the recent calamities of Standard seasons will help get Wizards to swing the pendulum more towards the middle. Modern would greatly benefit as a result.
Did WotC really ever say Opt was too powerful for Standard while they recently printed Oath of Nissa?
But Oath of Nissa can't find counterspells or more cantrips so it's fine. Same as Ancient Stirrings. If you're using your cantrips to find big stupid threads well heck go ahead!
Oh wait. We have cantrips on bears and counterspells on bears and ancient stirrings can find eggs
As I agree better variance reducing cantrips, and modern level counter spells would benefit reactive blue strategies in this format. I also feel that being proactive is a must in modern. whatever makes blue better at this point will probably be something proactive, something that can fight the current board state vs creatures and put a good clock on the opponent vs combo.
I'm not as worried about the proactive side of blue as I am about the reactive side. WotC seem to be actively exploring the proactive side by doing things like starting to work with the Prowess mechanic and making more efficient flying attackers than they previously would have let blue have, such as Rattlechains or Stratus Dancer when they used to require such things to have drawbacks like Gossamer Phantasm or Vaporkin.
Interestingly, he thinks Twin and BBE are safe unbans but JTMS and SFM are "safe-but-risky-longshots." Everything else is either a no-fly to him or risky and improbable (e.g. Majors believes Preordain is in the same risk bracket as Mental Misstep).
If nothing else, I'm happy to see authors and players are having the conversation about unbans. It's an important start to actual change.
Preordain on the level with Mental Misstep? Can't fathom how one would reach that conclusion, unless one thought Mental Misstep to be safe. Sometimes I've wondered if MM would be safe, but I've never played with the card so I'll trust everyone's disgust with the idea (and its banning in Legacy). Infect with MM seems rough.
edit: Also, article says its by Shaun McLaren, not Michael Majors. Majors has an article on death's shadow today.
Preordain on the level with Mental Misstep? Can't fathom how one would reach that conclusion, unless one thought Mental Misstep to be safe. Sometimes I've wondered if MM would be safe, but I've never played with the card so I'll trust everyone's disgust with the idea (and its banning in Legacy). Infect with MM seems rough.
Honestly, some of his analyses aren't what I would call "thorough." It takes him about 50 words to dismiss both P&P and he never even mentions their application in non-combo decks. SFM, JTMS, BBE, and Twin get a more in-depth treatment but, again, it's hardly comprehensive.
@Walaoumpa For example, I tried Opt in Origins for a while, but Delve + JeskaiAscendency + MonestaryMentor meant it was not the time for it.
This underscores how terrified Wizards is of blue.
I actually don't think this is quite as facepalmy as that. Even though I have no doubts that Opt would be fine in Standard power-level wise, I can see the case for hesitating on a 1-CMC instant-speed cantrip-with-a-little-filtering when you're in the early stages of experimenting with Prowessand you've just printed Treasure CruiseandDig Through Time (not to mention Tasigur and Angler). Given that, the wording of his post sounds 100% reasonable to me; he didn't say "Opt is too good for Standard," he said "...it was not the right time for it."
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WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
I wonder if WotC had in mind, a few years back, that blue was going to be in great shape due to Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise being tools. I guess if they did testing they might have found those cards were too much anyways, but then they don't test modern. So when planning sets ahead, they give two seconds worth of thoughts about good blue fixing spells and call it good with DTT/TC. It makes sense that modern hasn't featured as many new blue cards - the best new ones had to be banned, after all.
Probably giving too much credit here lol.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
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Burn RBG
I actually don't think this is quite as facepalmy as that. Even though I have no doubts that Opt would be fine in Standard power-level wise, I can see the case for hesitating on a 1-CMC instant-speed cantrip-with-a-little-filtering when you're in the early stages of experimenting with Prowessand you've just printed Treasure CruiseandDig Through Time (not to mention Tasigur and Angler). Given that, the wording of his post sounds 100% reasonable to me; he didn't say "Opt is too good for Standard," he said "...it was not the right time for it."
Stoddard and the rest of R&D/D&D don't like these cards in Standard. See his "Development Risks" article:
That being said, there are three kinds of cards that we are very careful about printing in Standard both because we don't particularly like what they do in Standard...
He then proceeds to talk about "cheap and efficient card filtering." He then drops this gem:
Quote from Sam Stoddard »
his is one of the risks of having cheap card filtering, and one of the reasons we moved away from doing it in Standard. We print cards like Anticipate, but I don't think we will make another one-mana cantrip with card selection attached to it any time soon. It just doesn't incentivize the kinds of games we want to see play out.
This is exactly as face-palmy as it seems and it's impossible to not think of Opt in that context.
I'm not sure opt is even standard playable without direct support to take advantage of cheap spells. scry 1 at no card disadvantage is hardly worth a single mana unless you also get something out of storm count 1.
In modern, you really need the delve/storm/delirium/snapcaster value to make it playable.
Agreed, pretty face-palmy.
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KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
I actually don't think this is quite as facepalmy as that. Even though I have no doubts that Opt would be fine in Standard power-level wise, I can see the case for hesitating on a 1-CMC instant-speed cantrip-with-a-little-filtering when you're in the early stages of experimenting with Prowessand you've just printed Treasure CruiseandDig Through Time (not to mention Tasigur and Angler). Given that, the wording of his post sounds 100% reasonable to me; he didn't say "Opt is too good for Standard," he said "...it was not the right time for it."
Stoddard and the rest of R&D/D&D don't like these cards in Standard. See his "Development Risks" article:
That being said, there are three kinds of cards that we are very careful about printing in Standard both because we don't particularly like what they do in Standard...
He then proceeds to talk about "cheap and efficient card filtering." He then drops this gem:
Quote from Sam Stoddard »
his is one of the risks of having cheap card filtering, and one of the reasons we moved away from doing it in Standard. We print cards like Anticipate, but I don't think we will make another one-mana cantrip with card selection attached to it any time soon. It just doesn't incentivize the kinds of games we want to see play out.
This is exactly as face-palmy as it seems and it's impossible to not think of Opt in that context.
Yep, I'd say that's a very good case for a facepalm. I was just saying I don't think the first case you brought up is that bad.
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WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Yep, I'd say that's a very good case for a facepalm. I was just saying I don't think the first case you brought up is that bad.
Although I agree those quotes are as facepalmy as they get, the Opt case is also bad. I don't think Opt would have been at all problematic in Standard, and I don't trust the Wizards Standard testing process for a minute. The last few Standard seasons have been very polarized (at best) and totally broken (at worst), including flagrant testing failures like a lack of strong answers and missing Copy Cat. Opt's failure to make it through the testing process feels very much like a problem with the process and not the card. That sucks for Modern because we're stuck getting cards through Standard.
My guess for Wizards reluctance to try strong Blue cards is this: UB decks were the best decks in Standard for a while, albeit a very, very long time ago. So Wizards stayed away from making Blue too strong. But then they made Delver of Secrets. It was the best deck in Standard for a bit and shaped Legacy. They stayed away from it again. Then they went in with some supposedly "average" yet strong Blue cards in Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise. Big mistake.
Now Wizards is just too timid to let off cards that are pretty well known by anyone who plays Modern at least once a week for 4 rounds - Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Preordain are completely fine in this environment. If something should change and they become "too good," which is probably a stretch (although it could very well be something that makes Sword of the Meek and Ancestral Vision too good as well), then they can act accordingly. I doubt it will have to come to this, especially within the next 2 years.
It's very timid thinking, but I'm just trying to gauge why on Earth would Wizards feel that Preordain should remain banned. Gifts Storm or Ad Nauseam? Gifts Storm would probably crack Tier 2. It would never be Tier 1 as long as Burn remained Tier 1 or 2. Ad Nauseam could potentially get to Tier 1, but the deck can be hated on a bit. It's just nobody puts anything in their sideboards for Ad Nauseam specifically. Everyone hopes to dodge it. I'm not saying it's the easiest deck to hate out because it's not and they can adapt their sideboards as well. But if it got too good, I know for sure players wanting to beat it could.
*Also, rcwraspy made a case for Preordain not helping the former Storm before Probe got banned too much since the deck already has a solid goldfish consistency. I am going to assume that it applies to Gifts Storm as well.
This is my opinion in the order in which cards could come off safely.
1. Preordain
2. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3. Stoneforge Mystic
4. Bloodbraid Elf - safer than Mystic, but Jund doesn't need help right now, at least by metagame percentage
5. Seething Song - potentially not safe in Gifts Storm, but would spawn some new archetypes (although I know the hate for Through the Breach currently)
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I love how in the article he says: "The problem with putting too much card filtering in a format is that it drives too many of the games to play out exactly the same. There is some novelty in this, but I think it is less fun for a format that we want to be highly re-playable."
LOL really? So Legacy isn't highly replayable? It's just a novelty. It's been around for how long with the same cantrips and people still enjoy the format? This guy's a joke. Has he ever played with cantrips before? All they do is reduce variance when drawing cards. You can still have some wacky deck going against another wacky deck. It's just less likely someone will lose due to land screw etc. Which, apparently, according to the guy in charge is a novelty.
Anyways, I would love it if Preordain came off the banlist. It helps combo in the form of finding the deck threats and helps control by finding it answers while at the same time sacrificing tempo and it's not OP.
"No changes" for Modern was expected. An unban would have been nice. A ban would have been outrageous.
I'll be pushing hard for controlling/reactive blue decks to get their unban soon. Lots of numbers to publish and discussion to spark!
What card do you think would change things if unbanned? You can't possibly mean jtms.
I'm still on team Preordain. It helps blue decks find generic answers, it helps them find specialized answers, and it helps them find win conditions. It also does this in the early stages of the game, avoiding many non-games that cause many blue decks to be so weak in Modern. There are more Tier 2 controlling blue decks (Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, Jeskai Control) than Tier 2 combo decks (Ad Nauseam, Gifts Storm), and those controlling decks have higher average shares and more consistent appearance in the top-tier. This leads me to believe their benefit from Preordain would outweigh the combo decks' benefit from Preordain.
"No changes" for Modern was expected. An unban would have been nice. A ban would have been outrageous.
I'll be pushing hard for controlling/reactive blue decks to get their unban soon. Lots of numbers to publish and discussion to spark!
What card do you think would change things if unbanned? You can't possibly mean jtms.
I'm still on team Preordain. It helps blue decks find generic answers, it helps them find specialized answers, and it helps them find win conditions. It also does this in the early stages of the game, avoiding many non-games that cause many blue decks to be so weak in Modern. There are more Tier 2 controlling blue decks (Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, Jeskai Control) than Tier 2 combo decks (Ad Nauseam, Gifts Storm), and those controlling decks have higher average shares and more consistent appearance in the top-tier. This leads me to believe their benefit from Preordain would outweigh the combo decks' benefit from Preordain.
Do you think a preordain unban would increase the value of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben?
For all the complaining about blue lacking power and the attention WotC has given blue to keep it in check I honestly feel blue is the fairest color in Modern. And I have trouble seeing that as a bad thing.
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Modern GB Rock U Flooding Merfolk RUG Delver Midrange WU Monks UW Tempo Geist GW Bogle GW Liege UR Tron B Vampires
Affinity Legacy
Fish
Goblins
Burn
Reanimator
Dredge
Affinity EDH W Akroma GBW Ghave BRU Thrax GR Ruric I advocate for the elimination of the combo archetype in Modern. I believe it is degenerate and unfun by its very nature and will always limit design space and cause unnecessary bans.
I know its not a really good reason, but one concern for having both Preordain and Serum Visions legal in modern is that a lot of decks would end up playing both and since the effects are the same except for doing things in a different order, players could mix up the order when playing one of the two.
For example, cast Serum Visions scry first then draw. Or the opposite.
Might happen or might not, but it could lead to many judge calls.
I know its not a really good reason, but one concern for having both Preordain and Serum Visions legal in modern is that a lot of decks would end up playing both and since the effects are the same except for doing things in a different order, players could mix up the order when playing one of the two.
For example, cast Serum Visions scry first then draw. Or the opposite.
Might happen or might not, but it could lead to many judge calls.
Seems like a moot point as you said. Plenty of cards in modern have similar effects that people could potentially confuse. That should have no bearing on whether the card is a safe unban or not.
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I was under the impression that green was always secondary in that kind of stuff after blue, what with stuff like Mirri's Guile, and likes doing card draw focused around creatures and lands as well. I think the problem is more that green got something like that without blue getting something as well that is either slightly more flexible, or slightly better (but focused around instant/sorcery rather than creature/land), since it's the sort of thing that is supposed to be primarily blue.
An additional problem is that blue lost both its stronger cheap selection spells (things like Opt were deemed too powerful in recent Standard sets) and its countermagic (Mana Leak was long considered too good for Standard). Hopefully the recent calamities of Standard seasons will help get Wizards to swing the pendulum more towards the middle. Modern would greatly benefit as a result.
Frontier: UBR Grixis Control | BRG Jund Delirium
As I agree better variance reducing cantrips, and modern level counter spells would benefit reactive blue strategies in this format. I also feel that being proactive is a must in modern. whatever makes blue better at this point will probably be something proactive, something that can fight the current board state vs creatures and put a good clock on the opponent vs combo.
decks playing:
none
Did WotC really ever say Opt was too powerful for Standard while they recently printed Oath of Nissa?
Oh wait. We have cantrips on bears and counterspells on bears and ancient stirrings can find eggs
BLEH!
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I'm not as worried about the proactive side of blue as I am about the reactive side. WotC seem to be actively exploring the proactive side by doing things like starting to work with the Prowess mechanic and making more efficient flying attackers than they previously would have let blue have, such as Rattlechains or Stratus Dancer when they used to require such things to have drawbacks like Gossamer Phantasm or Vaporkin.
Yup.
https://twitter.com/samstod/status/602502299726970880
This underscores how terrified Wizards is of blue.
In other news, Shaun McLaren makes some unbanning cases today (premium):
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/34778_Should-We-Unban-Anything-In-Modern.html
Interestingly, he thinks Twin and BBE are safe unbans but JTMS and SFM are "safe-but-risky-longshots." Everything else is either a no-fly to him or risky and improbable (e.g. Majors believes Preordain is in the same risk bracket as Mental Misstep).
If nothing else, I'm happy to see authors and players are having the conversation about unbans. It's an important start to actual change.
edit: Also, article says its by Shaun McLaren, not Michael Majors. Majors has an article on death's shadow today.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Honestly, some of his analyses aren't what I would call "thorough." It takes him about 50 words to dismiss both P&P and he never even mentions their application in non-combo decks. SFM, JTMS, BBE, and Twin get a more in-depth treatment but, again, it's hardly comprehensive.
I actually don't think this is quite as facepalmy as that. Even though I have no doubts that Opt would be fine in Standard power-level wise, I can see the case for hesitating on a 1-CMC instant-speed cantrip-with-a-little-filtering when you're in the early stages of experimenting with Prowess and you've just printed Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time (not to mention Tasigur and Angler). Given that, the wording of his post sounds 100% reasonable to me; he didn't say "Opt is too good for Standard," he said "...it was not the right time for it."
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Probably giving too much credit here lol.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Stoddard and the rest of R&D/D&D don't like these cards in Standard. See his "Development Risks" article:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/development-risks-modern-2015-05-22
He then proceeds to talk about "cheap and efficient card filtering." He then drops this gem:
This is exactly as face-palmy as it seems and it's impossible to not think of Opt in that context.
In modern, you really need the delve/storm/delirium/snapcaster value to make it playable.
Agreed, pretty face-palmy.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Yep, I'd say that's a very good case for a facepalm. I was just saying I don't think the first case you brought up is that bad.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Although I agree those quotes are as facepalmy as they get, the Opt case is also bad. I don't think Opt would have been at all problematic in Standard, and I don't trust the Wizards Standard testing process for a minute. The last few Standard seasons have been very polarized (at best) and totally broken (at worst), including flagrant testing failures like a lack of strong answers and missing Copy Cat. Opt's failure to make it through the testing process feels very much like a problem with the process and not the card. That sucks for Modern because we're stuck getting cards through Standard.
Now Wizards is just too timid to let off cards that are pretty well known by anyone who plays Modern at least once a week for 4 rounds - Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Preordain are completely fine in this environment. If something should change and they become "too good," which is probably a stretch (although it could very well be something that makes Sword of the Meek and Ancestral Vision too good as well), then they can act accordingly. I doubt it will have to come to this, especially within the next 2 years.
It's very timid thinking, but I'm just trying to gauge why on Earth would Wizards feel that Preordain should remain banned. Gifts Storm or Ad Nauseam? Gifts Storm would probably crack Tier 2. It would never be Tier 1 as long as Burn remained Tier 1 or 2. Ad Nauseam could potentially get to Tier 1, but the deck can be hated on a bit. It's just nobody puts anything in their sideboards for Ad Nauseam specifically. Everyone hopes to dodge it. I'm not saying it's the easiest deck to hate out because it's not and they can adapt their sideboards as well. But if it got too good, I know for sure players wanting to beat it could.
*Also, rcwraspy made a case for Preordain not helping the former Storm before Probe got banned too much since the deck already has a solid goldfish consistency. I am going to assume that it applies to Gifts Storm as well.
This is my opinion in the order in which cards could come off safely.
1. Preordain
2. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3. Stoneforge Mystic
4. Bloodbraid Elf - safer than Mystic, but Jund doesn't need help right now, at least by metagame percentage
5. Seething Song - potentially not safe in Gifts Storm, but would spawn some new archetypes (although I know the hate for Through the Breach currently)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I love how in the article he says: "The problem with putting too much card filtering in a format is that it drives too many of the games to play out exactly the same. There is some novelty in this, but I think it is less fun for a format that we want to be highly re-playable."
LOL really? So Legacy isn't highly replayable? It's just a novelty. It's been around for how long with the same cantrips and people still enjoy the format? This guy's a joke. Has he ever played with cantrips before? All they do is reduce variance when drawing cards. You can still have some wacky deck going against another wacky deck. It's just less likely someone will lose due to land screw etc. Which, apparently, according to the guy in charge is a novelty.
Anyways, I would love it if Preordain came off the banlist. It helps combo in the form of finding the deck threats and helps control by finding it answers while at the same time sacrificing tempo and it's not OP.
I'm still on team Preordain. It helps blue decks find generic answers, it helps them find specialized answers, and it helps them find win conditions. It also does this in the early stages of the game, avoiding many non-games that cause many blue decks to be so weak in Modern. There are more Tier 2 controlling blue decks (Grixis Delver, Grixis Control, Jeskai Control) than Tier 2 combo decks (Ad Nauseam, Gifts Storm), and those controlling decks have higher average shares and more consistent appearance in the top-tier. This leads me to believe their benefit from Preordain would outweigh the combo decks' benefit from Preordain.
Do you think a preordain unban would increase the value of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben?
GB Rock
U Flooding Merfolk
RUG Delver Midrange
WU Monks
UW Tempo Geist
GW Bogle
GW Liege
UR Tron
B Vampires
Affinity
Legacy
Fish
Goblins
Burn
Reanimator
Dredge
Affinity
EDH
W Akroma
GBW Ghave
BRU Thrax
GR Ruric
I advocate for the elimination of the combo archetype in Modern. I believe it is degenerate and unfun by its very nature and will always limit design space and cause unnecessary bans.
Spirits
For example, cast Serum Visions scry first then draw. Or the opposite.
Might happen or might not, but it could lead to many judge calls.
Seems like a moot point as you said. Plenty of cards in modern have similar effects that people could potentially confuse. That should have no bearing on whether the card is a safe unban or not.