man i swear if twin had a tombstone it would read:
"the fairest deck that was never actually fair"
ask yourself what police decks are actually doing, and how they accomplish it.
twin was doing its thing in a different world. it was a bonafide 50/50 deck along side a bulwark formed of other top tier decks (ie pillars). they covered eachothers weaknesses, and by being a cut above the rest they kept decks they were 'policing' on the outside looking in. twin and jund did the heavy lifting because no other decks could, either because they didnt exist or were too weak.
for one, modern just works differently now. the set of decks you could consider top contenders is arguably double the size it once was. meta cycling is more distinct, and the job of keeping decks in check is distributed among fair and unfair decks alike. they can more easily step up to the plate because you dont have this wall of similarly dominant decks standing in the way.
you dont need police decks because diversity itself is the police.
secondly, if you believe that twin would naturally slot into the format as just another good deck, then you indirectly admit that it wouldnt be in a position to be this massive counterbalance that you claim it would. it would be subject to moving in and out of favor like other decks, in which case its contribution to 'policing' anything is no more or less than decks already existing.
the only point i see in twins favor for making the format any more interactive is that it has fair play patterns itself while ironically being an unfair deck, and doesnt prey on most actual fair decks. if it becomes a 3-5% shareholder like everyone else, its most likely going to find those percentage points by eating into the shares of decks it preys upon; but only after consolidating a few UR decks. which is a comically small net change for the format, if even noticeable at all.
as for SFM and UW. first you have to assume that SFM is even good enough to see play, then you have to assume the decks it sees play in are good enough to make any difference in the format, and finally you have to assume one or more of those decks is of the UWx stoneblade variety. the only deck SFM cleanly slots into is abzan. everywhere else would require build divergence. so its contribution to diversity would come from multiple decks (pretty much any color combo including white doing midrange stuff) inching their way closer to relevance.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
I keep saying it, I am amazed that people clamor for an infinite combo to make the format more fair.
Dredge...I dunno I am looking at lists and it still feels like people are only playing a couple of pieces of gy hate. I run three in my burn deck, and I don't even see dredge much in paper (people in my area generally hate that sort of glass cannon type of deck, I know its weird). Leyline of the void was everywhere for a while as a response to vengevine and hollow one decks, but both of those died down and the hardcore hate went with them.
I keep saying it, I am amazed that people clamor for an infinite combo to make the format more fair.
Probably because it was relatively fragile and super easy to interact with using any number of main deck answers. Instead of forcing people to run multiple, narrow hate cards in their sideboards that turn games into non-games.
I keep saying it: the hatred, exaggerations, and outright misinformation about Twin, what it did, how it functioned, how it existed harmoniously in a format to both quell uninteractive nonsense (without snuffing it out at all) and promote actual interactive gameplay, all without ever being half as dominant or oppressive as every other diversity ban Modern has ever seen, is both frustrating and endlessly tiresome. But as I have also said a dozen times, we live in a time where reality no longer matters. Feelings and perception rule.
Can we please ban talk on Twin so I can stop seeing comments like this?
Dredge...I dunno I am looking at lists and it still feels like people are only playing a couple of pieces of gy hate. I run three in my burn deck, and I don't even see dredge much in paper (people in my area generally hate that sort of glass cannon type of deck, I know its weird). Leyline of the void was everywhere for a while as a response to vengevine and hollow one decks, but both of those died down and the hardcore hate went with them.
Look at the MTGO Challenge decks I listed, and the GY Hate. Thats what it takes.
Dredge...I dunno I am looking at lists and it still feels like people are only playing a couple of pieces of gy hate. I run three in my burn deck, and I don't even see dredge much in paper (people in my area generally hate that sort of glass cannon type of deck, I know its weird). Leyline of the void was everywhere for a while as a response to vengevine and hollow one decks, but both of those died down and the hardcore hate went with them.
Look at the MTGO Challenge decks I listed, and the GY Hate. Thats what it takes.
I always approached my sideboards like this:
What spells help me insulate my game plan from interacting with me?
What's the most efficient graveyard hate?
What's the most efficient lifegain?
What's the most efficient artifact hate?
What's the most efficient low cmc sweeper/spot removal for creature combo?
What can control not answer?
Then I look at the meta and assign 1-4 slots for each of the above. There is zero reason people shouldn't be running GY hate in modern. Even incidental hate like dryad militant is grossly under appreciated. I'm surprised deathgore scavenger hasn't popped up - it checks so many boxes for a t2 play in most green decks.
Dredge...I dunno I am looking at lists and it still feels like people are only playing a couple of pieces of gy hate. I run three in my burn deck, and I don't even see dredge much in paper (people in my area generally hate that sort of glass cannon type of deck, I know its weird). Leyline of the void was everywhere for a while as a response to vengevine and hollow one decks, but both of those died down and the hardcore hate went with them.
Look at the MTGO Challenge decks I listed, and the GY Hate. Thats what it takes.
I always approached my sideboards like this:
What spells help me insulate my game plan from interacting with me?
What's the most efficient graveyard hate?
What's the most efficient lifegain?
What's the most efficient artifact hate?
What's the most efficient low cmc sweeper/spot removal for creature combo?
What can control not answer?
Then I look at the meta and assign 1-4 slots for each of the above. There is zero reason people shouldn't be running GY hate in modern. Even incidental hate like dryad militant is grossly under appreciated. I'm surprised deathgore scavenger hasn't popped up - it checks so many boxes for a t2 play in most green decks.
There was also an article (possibly video?) I saw a while back on the two very different, distinct plans decks use when sideboarding. For simplicity's sake, it was separated between proactive and reactive. Essentially "reactive" decks want to increase their numbers of answers to deal with trying to stop the opponent's plan of action. Their goal is to focus their efforts on inhibiting what the opponent is trying to do, and maybe win at some point through cheap/efficient threat(s), or expensive, game-ending threat(s). "Proactive" decks sideboard usually to protect their proactive plan against the expected hate they encounter. They generally don't care what their opponents are doing and the cards they bring in add extra protection layers for their main plan and "next level" answers to what they expect their opponent to bring in against them.
Obviously it's an oversimplification (since many decks also introduce new/awkward threats that dodge the intended incoming hate), but still a fairly cohesive idea. Was a really cool breakdown and look into why certain decks sideboard the way they do. Wish I could remember where I saw it so I could read it again.
Dredge...I dunno I am looking at lists and it still feels like people are only playing a couple of pieces of gy hate. I run three in my burn deck, and I don't even see dredge much in paper (people in my area generally hate that sort of glass cannon type of deck, I know its weird). Leyline of the void was everywhere for a while as a response to vengevine and hollow one decks, but both of those died down and the hardcore hate went with them.
Look at the MTGO Challenge decks I listed, and the GY Hate. Thats what it takes.
I always approached my sideboards like this:
What spells help me insulate my game plan from interacting with me?
What's the most efficient graveyard hate?
What's the most efficient lifegain?
What's the most efficient artifact hate?
What's the most efficient low cmc sweeper/spot removal for creature combo?
What can control not answer?
Then I look at the meta and assign 1-4 slots for each of the above. There is zero reason people shouldn't be running GY hate in modern. Even incidental hate like dryad militant is grossly under appreciated. I'm surprised deathgore scavenger hasn't popped up - it checks so many boxes for a t2 play in most green decks.
GY hate is always a requirement when I build sideboards, 3 minimum. Even my Living End deck has GY hate of it's own, to delay and disrupt the strategies of other GY decks in our FNM. Artifact hate is also necessary... really get annoyed when my giant monsters can't attack because they can't cross an ensnaring bridge.
Deathgorge Scavenger is too slow for Modern, as it only eats one card a turn.
Two years ago I made a post about what I thought was the proper card to ban from Dredge, back when it still had Golgari Grave-Troll. They banned GGT and not Bloodghast, which haunts me to this day, but I still believe in two points I made in that post:
1) Dredge is not a busted mechanic, it's actually
2) Stuff that you can cast, trigger or activate from your graveyard for free are busted
What's happened since GGT got banned?
- GGT-less Dredge continues to T8 GPs (Brisbane, Kobe, Copenhagen, Oklahoma City, and a win at Barcelona).
- Hollow One and Bridgevine became real decks. Both decks use Bloodghast (and Faithless Looting, but that's a topic for another time). Both decks are capable of creating insurmountable board states on turn 1-2. Neither deck has dredge cards other than occasional Darkblasts in Bridgevine's SB. (Side note, I made a mention of the Bridge from Below + Greater Gargadon + Bloodghast engine in my 2016 post, and as it turns out, Bridgevine plays all three cards. Though I am aware that Bridgevine can't recur lands, so Gravecrawler instead of Bloodghast as the third card and paying mana to recur Crawler ends up being more stable.)
- Creeping Chill has been printed and has put Dredge in the forefront again. Like all of Dredge's greatest hits (Bloodghast, Narcomoeba, Prized Amalgam), it doesn't cost mana to trigger.
- Dredge plays 4x dredge 5 (Stinkweed Imp), but not a full playset of the next highest dredger (Golgari Thug at 4). 4x dredge 5, 2x dredge 4, 4x dredge 3 (Life from the Loam/Darkblast) is closer to the truth. This can be quite a shocker for people who assume that "dredge is a busted mechanic", ergo, building Dredge starts with simply applying the greedy algorithm to all dredge cards in the format.
Why does Dredge play dredge 3s over dredge 4s? Bloodghast, of course. Those lands in your graveyard aren't going to put themselves back into your hand without Loam, other than Dakmor Salvage.
I believe Bloodghast was a mistake and Golgari Grave-Troll died for its sins, in line with points 1 and 2 above (much like Bloodbraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman, which I'm glad to see has been corrected). The synergy between Bloodghast and Faithless Looting is extremely strong, even without dredgers - Bloodghast gives you the opportunity to turn Looting's discard into a positive, which at least three distinct decks have sought to abuse. It warps UW into playing 4 Terminus because that's the cleanest answer to it before reaching for Rest in Peace from the SB - cheap enough to cast before getting overrun (with some luck or library manipulation), and puts it into the library instead of the graveyard so it can't be revived.
I played against Dredge online a few days ago. Game 3 i put down a Rest in peace on turn 2.... he won on turn 3.... His turn 2 was absolutely insane and i couldnt do anything
i mean dealing with artifacts and GY shennanigans has pretty much been the norm since...forever. they just encompass a good portion of non-standard play patterns, or in other words degenerate/unfair stuff.
imo an incorrect way to approach sideboard, especially in modern, is attempting to cover all of your bases all of the time. that and insulating your sideboard from your 60-card main. decks are 75 cards, and need to be constructed as such.
sideboarding philosophy is interesting though. there are a bunch of em with their own merits, and even pros dont agree.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Two years ago I made a post about what I thought was the proper card to ban from Dredge, back when it still had Golgari Grave-Troll. They banned GGT and not Bloodghast, which haunts me to this day, but I still believe in two points I made in that post:
1) Dredge is not a busted mechanic, it's actually
2) Stuff that you can cast, trigger or activate from your graveyard for free are busted
What's happened since GGT got banned?
- GGT-less Dredge continues to T8 GPs (Brisbane, Kobe, Copenhagen, Oklahoma City, and a win at Barcelona).
- Hollow One and Bridgevine became real decks. Both decks use Bloodghast (and Faithless Looting, but that's a topic for another time). Both decks are capable of creating insurmountable board states on turn 1-2. Neither deck has dredge cards other than occasional Darkblasts in Bridgevine's SB. (Side note, I made a mention of the Bridge from Below + Greater Gargadon + Bloodghast engine in my 2016 post, and as it turns out, Bridgevine plays all three cards. Though I am aware that Bridgevine can't recur lands, so Gravecrawler instead of Bloodghast as the third card and paying mana to recur Crawler ends up being more stable.)
- Creeping Chill has been printed and has put Dredge in the forefront again. Like all of Dredge's greatest hits (Bloodghast, Narcomoeba, Prized Amalgam), it doesn't cost mana to trigger.
- Dredge plays 4x dredge 5 (Stinkweed Imp), but not a full playset of the next highest dredger (Golgari Thug at 4). 4x dredge 5, 2x dredge 4, 4x dredge 3 (Life from the Loam/Darkblast) is closer to the truth. This can be quite a shocker for people who assume that "dredge is a busted mechanic", ergo, building Dredge starts with simply applying the greedy algorithm to all dredge cards in the format.
Why does Dredge play dredge 3s over dredge 4s? Bloodghast, of course. Those lands in your graveyard aren't going to put themselves back into your hand without Loam, other than Dakmor Salvage.
I believe Bloodghast was a mistake and Golgari Grave-Troll died for its sins, in line with points 1 and 2 above (much like Bloodbraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman, which I'm glad to see has been corrected). The synergy between Bloodghast and Faithless Looting is extremely strong, even without dredgers - Bloodghast gives you the opportunity to turn Looting's discard into a positive, which at least three distinct decks have sought to abuse. It warps UW into playing 4 Terminus because that's the cleanest answer to it before reaching for Rest in Peace from the SB - cheap enough to cast before getting overrun (with some luck or library manipulation), and puts it into the library instead of the graveyard so it can't be revived.
great post. ill admit ive never scrutinized bloodghast as much more than a bit player, but the way you put it sheds new light on the card.
normally the finger gets pointed at lootings for what you describe, but there are decks using lootings + yard interactions without raising too many eyebrows. mardu pyro is taking advantage of it as best you can realistically expect outside of some reanimator deck, but the ghast decks really push it over the top.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
So...terminus is a pretty good card on its own. I find the idea that these gy decks "warp" uw to force it to play the miracle to be a bit lazy. With opt in modern alongside serum visions and super Jace, this year just finally provided the tools needed to set up the miracle play. The fact that its good against decks like affinity and humans while being really good against hollow one feels like more of a "oh yeah remember this card is really good" as opposed to "these gy decks are so busted I have to run this lousy card that punishes me against other decks." As for life from the loam, along with triggering bloodghast it also sets up big conflagrates to finish off opponents. Again, it isn't all about the vampire.
The reason that dredge is the busted mechanic is that reviving a bloodghast isn't all that powerful on its own. Reviving two and a prized amalgam while casting a creeping chill and narcomoeba for free on turn two because you used cathartic reunion to dredge 12 in aggregate or something like that, that's the wild board state.
Yeah I dont think the effort to reward ratio makes Terminus at all a 'I only use this because I have to' kind of card. Its grotesquely powerful against anything creature based, graveyard or not.
Creature decks are running amuck and not creature decks, creature decks that have massive cost reduction. Terminus puts them down and is especially good against recursion graveyard decks while being cheap. I say the problem is more sweepers have only gotten worse while creatures are constantly getting better. Terminus gives you an answer Turn 1 or Turn 2 otherwise you get swept.
Bloodghast does seem to have a super easy trigger. Play a land and it comes back is one of the easiest abuse cases around. I am not sure it needs to be banned though I do however think Faithless Looting needs to be put down hard with the banhammer. Seems every degenerate deck of late has Faithless Looting cheating out value as a core component. Unless its an Artifact/Colorless deck then its abusing the other unfair option in Ancient Stirrings. I think Faithless Looting and Ancient Stirrings are out of line with the standard applied to Blue cantrip options.
Which unbans are going to stop Dredge and Graveyard Recursion?
The better question is, do we need to? If you are not bringing GY hate, which shuts down all of them pretty well, thats on you. I again look at the MTGO Challenge. Yes, each deck brings 3+ cards for the GY match up, that's on top of the 3+ artifact. Like mapccu said.
What spells help me insulate my game plan from interacting with me?
What's the most efficient graveyard hate?
What's the most efficient lifegain?
What's the most efficient artifact hate?
What's the most efficient low cmc sweeper/spot removal for creature combo?
What can control not answer?
If you are not ticking the box for GY, and Artifact, you are giving up against a huge part of the potential field.
"the fairest deck that was never actually fair"
ask yourself what police decks are actually doing, and how they accomplish it.
twin was doing its thing in a different world. it was a bonafide 50/50 deck along side a bulwark formed of other top tier decks (ie pillars). they covered eachothers weaknesses, and by being a cut above the rest they kept decks they were 'policing' on the outside looking in. twin and jund did the heavy lifting because no other decks could, either because they didnt exist or were too weak.
for one, modern just works differently now. the set of decks you could consider top contenders is arguably double the size it once was. meta cycling is more distinct, and the job of keeping decks in check is distributed among fair and unfair decks alike. they can more easily step up to the plate because you dont have this wall of similarly dominant decks standing in the way.
you dont need police decks because diversity itself is the police.
secondly, if you believe that twin would naturally slot into the format as just another good deck, then you indirectly admit that it wouldnt be in a position to be this massive counterbalance that you claim it would. it would be subject to moving in and out of favor like other decks, in which case its contribution to 'policing' anything is no more or less than decks already existing.
the only point i see in twins favor for making the format any more interactive is that it has fair play patterns itself while ironically being an unfair deck, and doesnt prey on most actual fair decks. if it becomes a 3-5% shareholder like everyone else, its most likely going to find those percentage points by eating into the shares of decks it preys upon; but only after consolidating a few UR decks. which is a comically small net change for the format, if even noticeable at all.
as for SFM and UW. first you have to assume that SFM is even good enough to see play, then you have to assume the decks it sees play in are good enough to make any difference in the format, and finally you have to assume one or more of those decks is of the UWx stoneblade variety. the only deck SFM cleanly slots into is abzan. everywhere else would require build divergence. so its contribution to diversity would come from multiple decks (pretty much any color combo including white doing midrange stuff) inching their way closer to relevance.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
Dredge...I dunno I am looking at lists and it still feels like people are only playing a couple of pieces of gy hate. I run three in my burn deck, and I don't even see dredge much in paper (people in my area generally hate that sort of glass cannon type of deck, I know its weird). Leyline of the void was everywhere for a while as a response to vengevine and hollow one decks, but both of those died down and the hardcore hate went with them.
Probably because it was relatively fragile and super easy to interact with using any number of main deck answers. Instead of forcing people to run multiple, narrow hate cards in their sideboards that turn games into non-games.
I keep saying it: the hatred, exaggerations, and outright misinformation about Twin, what it did, how it functioned, how it existed harmoniously in a format to both quell uninteractive nonsense (without snuffing it out at all) and promote actual interactive gameplay, all without ever being half as dominant or oppressive as every other diversity ban Modern has ever seen, is both frustrating and endlessly tiresome. But as I have also said a dozen times, we live in a time where reality no longer matters. Feelings and perception rule.
Can we please ban talk on Twin so I can stop seeing comments like this?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Look at the MTGO Challenge decks I listed, and the GY Hate. Thats what it takes.
Spirits
I always approached my sideboards like this:
What spells help me insulate my game plan from interacting with me?
What's the most efficient graveyard hate?
What's the most efficient lifegain?
What's the most efficient artifact hate?
What's the most efficient low cmc sweeper/spot removal for creature combo?
What can control not answer?
Then I look at the meta and assign 1-4 slots for each of the above. There is zero reason people shouldn't be running GY hate in modern. Even incidental hate like dryad militant is grossly under appreciated. I'm surprised deathgore scavenger hasn't popped up - it checks so many boxes for a t2 play in most green decks.
There was also an article (possibly video?) I saw a while back on the two very different, distinct plans decks use when sideboarding. For simplicity's sake, it was separated between proactive and reactive. Essentially "reactive" decks want to increase their numbers of answers to deal with trying to stop the opponent's plan of action. Their goal is to focus their efforts on inhibiting what the opponent is trying to do, and maybe win at some point through cheap/efficient threat(s), or expensive, game-ending threat(s). "Proactive" decks sideboard usually to protect their proactive plan against the expected hate they encounter. They generally don't care what their opponents are doing and the cards they bring in add extra protection layers for their main plan and "next level" answers to what they expect their opponent to bring in against them.
This is exactly why you see decks like UW bringing in Damping Sphere, Stony Silence, and Rest in Peace, while decks like Tron and Storm are bringing in Nature's Claim, Wipe Away, and Echoing Truth.
Obviously it's an oversimplification (since many decks also introduce new/awkward threats that dodge the intended incoming hate), but still a fairly cohesive idea. Was a really cool breakdown and look into why certain decks sideboard the way they do. Wish I could remember where I saw it so I could read it again.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
GY hate is always a requirement when I build sideboards, 3 minimum. Even my Living End deck has GY hate of it's own, to delay and disrupt the strategies of other GY decks in our FNM. Artifact hate is also necessary... really get annoyed when my giant monsters can't attack because they can't cross an ensnaring bridge.
Deathgorge Scavenger is too slow for Modern, as it only eats one card a turn.
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Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
1) Dredge is not a busted mechanic, it's actually
2) Stuff that you can cast, trigger or activate from your graveyard for free are busted
What's happened since GGT got banned?
- GGT-less Dredge continues to T8 GPs (Brisbane, Kobe, Copenhagen, Oklahoma City, and a win at Barcelona).
- Hollow One and Bridgevine became real decks. Both decks use Bloodghast (and Faithless Looting, but that's a topic for another time). Both decks are capable of creating insurmountable board states on turn 1-2. Neither deck has dredge cards other than occasional Darkblasts in Bridgevine's SB. (Side note, I made a mention of the Bridge from Below + Greater Gargadon + Bloodghast engine in my 2016 post, and as it turns out, Bridgevine plays all three cards. Though I am aware that Bridgevine can't recur lands, so Gravecrawler instead of Bloodghast as the third card and paying mana to recur Crawler ends up being more stable.)
- Creeping Chill has been printed and has put Dredge in the forefront again. Like all of Dredge's greatest hits (Bloodghast, Narcomoeba, Prized Amalgam), it doesn't cost mana to trigger.
- Dredge plays 4x dredge 5 (Stinkweed Imp), but not a full playset of the next highest dredger (Golgari Thug at 4). 4x dredge 5, 2x dredge 4, 4x dredge 3 (Life from the Loam/Darkblast) is closer to the truth. This can be quite a shocker for people who assume that "dredge is a busted mechanic", ergo, building Dredge starts with simply applying the greedy algorithm to all dredge cards in the format.
Why does Dredge play dredge 3s over dredge 4s? Bloodghast, of course. Those lands in your graveyard aren't going to put themselves back into your hand without Loam, other than Dakmor Salvage.
I believe Bloodghast was a mistake and Golgari Grave-Troll died for its sins, in line with points 1 and 2 above (much like Bloodbraid Elf and Deathrite Shaman, which I'm glad to see has been corrected). The synergy between Bloodghast and Faithless Looting is extremely strong, even without dredgers - Bloodghast gives you the opportunity to turn Looting's discard into a positive, which at least three distinct decks have sought to abuse. It warps UW into playing 4 Terminus because that's the cleanest answer to it before reaching for Rest in Peace from the SB - cheap enough to cast before getting overrun (with some luck or library manipulation), and puts it into the library instead of the graveyard so it can't be revived.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
imo an incorrect way to approach sideboard, especially in modern, is attempting to cover all of your bases all of the time. that and insulating your sideboard from your 60-card main. decks are 75 cards, and need to be constructed as such.
sideboarding philosophy is interesting though. there are a bunch of em with their own merits, and even pros dont agree.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Spirits
WOTC making the wrong choice with their ban target card? They would never do that!
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
great post. ill admit ive never scrutinized bloodghast as much more than a bit player, but the way you put it sheds new light on the card.
normally the finger gets pointed at lootings for what you describe, but there are decks using lootings + yard interactions without raising too many eyebrows. mardu pyro is taking advantage of it as best you can realistically expect outside of some reanimator deck, but the ghast decks really push it over the top.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)The reason that dredge is the busted mechanic is that reviving a bloodghast isn't all that powerful on its own. Reviving two and a prized amalgam while casting a creeping chill and narcomoeba for free on turn two because you used cathartic reunion to dredge 12 in aggregate or something like that, that's the wild board state.
Spirits
Bloodghast does seem to have a super easy trigger. Play a land and it comes back is one of the easiest abuse cases around. I am not sure it needs to be banned though I do however think Faithless Looting needs to be put down hard with the banhammer. Seems every degenerate deck of late has Faithless Looting cheating out value as a core component. Unless its an Artifact/Colorless deck then its abusing the other unfair option in Ancient Stirrings. I think Faithless Looting and Ancient Stirrings are out of line with the standard applied to Blue cantrip options.
Spirits
There's a local at my store that swears by it. I have yet to win a match against him in UR. Have not faced him yet with UW.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
The better question is, do we need to? If you are not bringing GY hate, which shuts down all of them pretty well, thats on you. I again look at the MTGO Challenge. Yes, each deck brings 3+ cards for the GY match up, that's on top of the 3+ artifact. Like mapccu said.
If you are not ticking the box for GY, and Artifact, you are giving up against a huge part of the potential field.
Spirits
Spirits
UBR Grixis Shadow UBR
UR Izzet Phoenix UR
UW UW Control UW
GB GB Rock GB
Commander
BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG
BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
Yeah, I mean we have the tool to fight the GY, is there even a Legacy option that is better than what we have?
Spirits