This top 8 was boooooring and so repetitive. Chainwhirler is not too powerful in a vacuum but it's forcing out other decks which is just miserable for the diversity. I know that rotation will bring a lot of changes but I for one do not want Red summer for the next 4 months. I really hope wizards took stock of how bad a viewing experience the top 8 was and how 1 dimensional it makes standard look for the average player who just looks at top 8 and nothing else and sees a sea of red.
If red dominates the rest of the month there had better be some bans with the announcement next month. Even with the poor way wizards reports decks goldfish shows RB and R aggro at 30% of the meta...
I wouldn't say Chainwhirler is the defining or most powerful card of those decks even if they all feature 4 of it. It's merely the middle of the curve where both Monored aggro and BR Midrange converge. Unless other decks have 1 toughness creatures it is one of the least threatening cards in the deck. It can finish a Teferi or Chandra that used their -3 immediately maybe but other than that dies to any kind of removal and doesn't hit for much. It seems another attempt at inflating Dominaria hype but other than that Red has far better cards out there. Bomat, Hazoret, Phoenix, Glorybringer and even Chandra are better than it and of those only Phoenix, Hazoret and Glorybringer look ridiculously OP. Banning Ramunap ruins and Rampaging Ferocidon was a lame attempt at dancing around the real offenders IMO.
I wouldn't say Chainwhirler is the defining or most powerful card of those decks even if they all feature 4 of it. It's merely the middle of the curve where both Monored aggro and BR Midrange converge. Unless other decks have 1 toughness creatures it is one of the least threatening cards in the deck. It can finish a Teferi or Chandra that used their -3 immediately maybe but other than that dies to any kind of removal and doesn't hit for much. It seems another attempt at inflating Dominaria hype but other than that Red has far better cards out there. Bomat, Hazoret, Phoenix, Glorybringer and even Chandra are better than it and of those only Phoenix, Hazoret and Glorybringer look ridiculously OP. Banning Ramunap ruins and Rampaging Ferocidon was a lame attempt at dancing around the real offenders IMO.
It was, but honestly, this is getting really tiresome to come into a top 8 article and see red once again wielding the same culprits. There's such a thing as banning something just so other decks can breath and get showtime. This is one of those. I don't care if their is crap tons of variety in the format: The top of the tournament was red dominant even with the other decks being present. How can the Pro-Tour even achieve it's namesake if it just shows off the same old stuff?
I'm glad people want to discuss how there's variety in the over all top 32 decks in the event, but that doesn't matter unless wizards writes a "top 32 decks" article. They write a Top 8 article. If those top 8 decks are all red decks showcasing old standard cards, the event has failed. Unless their idea is that Goblin Chainwhirler is now the face of Dominaria. Lets just plaster him all over the booster box and be done with it?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I wouldn't say Chainwhirler is the defining or most powerful card of those decks even if they all feature 4 of it. It's merely the middle of the curve where both Monored aggro and BR Midrange converge. Unless other decks have 1 toughness creatures it is one of the least threatening cards in the deck. It can finish a Teferi or Chandra that used their -3 immediately maybe but other than that dies to any kind of removal and doesn't hit for much. It seems another attempt at inflating Dominaria hype but other than that Red has far better cards out there. Bomat, Hazoret, Phoenix, Glorybringer and even Chandra are better than it and of those only Phoenix, Hazoret and Glorybringer look ridiculously OP. Banning Ramunap ruins and Rampaging Ferocidon was a lame attempt at dancing around the real offenders IMO.
Yeah well Chandra, Phoenix, Glorybringer and Hazoret are like most of the value so they aint eating the Ban.
I agree though that Chainwhirler simply but it over the top.
I wouldn't say Chainwhirler is the defining or most powerful card of those decks even if they all feature 4 of it. It's merely the middle of the curve where both Monored aggro and BR Midrange converge. Unless other decks have 1 toughness creatures it is one of the least threatening cards in the deck. It can finish a Teferi or Chandra that used their -3 immediately maybe but other than that dies to any kind of removal and doesn't hit for much. It seems another attempt at inflating Dominaria hype but other than that Red has far better cards out there. Bomat, Hazoret, Phoenix, Glorybringer and even Chandra are better than it and of those only Phoenix, Hazoret and Glorybringer look ridiculously OP. Banning Ramunap ruins and Rampaging Ferocidon was a lame attempt at dancing around the real offenders IMO.
I think this is a gross missed evaluation of the power of the card.
Chainwhirler is the direct cause for warping the format around it. It may seem fairly innocuous on the surface but when you start to look at other cards around it, you realize that it basically makes anything with 1 toughness completely unplayable. Tokens was a pretty decent deck that can hold the ground to virtually anything in the format except...chainwhirler exists, which completely nullifies their go-wide strategy. It having a 3/3 body WITH First strike makes it a formidable opponent in combat. It doesn't trade with a whole lot.
Red has obviously been quite powerful for some time now and banning Ferocidon only to have this thing in the format is mind boggling, at best. There are tools to fight red (things like authority is actually quite good), but the trouble is that white is kind of a crappy color. It's all conditional removal and over priced spells. Teferi and history, essentially, being the sole reason to play the color (Lyra to some extent).
A card doesn't have to be overtly powerful. Chainwhirler is such a card. In a vacuum it doesn't really look like much, but in practice, it's (as mentioned above) format warping.
Ya nice Syphoner/elf/bomat there buddy! Oh you made some 1/1 tokens? Awww that's cute!
I'm ok with the format receiving no further bans to be honest for the time being (only 4 months of this non-sense). Just wish that WotC either stopped printing these ridiculous creatures or at least gave us the tools to fight back properly. Imagine if Kor-Firewalker was in Standard right now. Would we really be talking about how problematic these red cards were?
Edit: Except for Hazoret. Card's power is bonkers in correlation with the speed at which things get deployed in Red. Especially considering that they always seem to have 3 of them in their top 15 cards...
Yeah White cannot really do its job as long as Maro and Friends think its Role should be Being Fair. Fair being some mix of overcosted, underpowered and/or giving your opponent too much back.
There are many factors that have contributed to R dominating the way it has over the last few sets. If we consider for a moment it's curve:
1cmc, Bomat/Soul Scar
2cmc Kari, Kherna, honorable mention Scrounger
3cmc, Chainwhirler, Crasher, Pia
4cmc, HAZORET, Phoenix, Chandra,
5cmc, The Bringer of Glory
It's the perfect storm. Anyone remember Abzan Midrange and all of it's many flavors? The core of a deck was a result of powerful cards printed within it's wedge combination. Here, we have all the same cards contained in 1 color. RB aggro is the same core, but splashes B for Scrounger, Discard/disruption and walkers (Angrath). This was a concession to the raw power of the UW control deck (which is extremely powerful). With RB being a full turn slower it's not a surprise that mono red won. Look at all those RB lists!! Holy Moly!! lol
On banning Chainwhirler, we need to try and beat RB/RDW/ The issue is whether or not we can cleanly accomplish that. A deck like New Perspectives in theory can probably beat it, but it's control match up is poor (Brontobro is another issue). If we (as in us the player base) fail to come up with a solution, there might be a banning? Maybe, I don't think Chainwhirler is that powerful (Ferocidon was a complete and total HOSER of a hate card), but man does it warp the format. dang Wotc dang.
I think a wait and see approach is required here. We went into this event thinking teferi would be the boogieman. I think waiting to see if other decks can adapt is a decent idea.
And for the people clamoring for a Chainwhirler hit I have to ask why? The card does put a very harsh cost on deck building and although it may not seem like it with all the good cards in red at the moment once they leave, which they will in mass, chainwhirler will be left holding the bag going into a multicolored set on ravnica. The entirety of the red game plan will be leaving in three to four months. We'll be getting new toys to potentially combat it in a month from coreset 19, then standard will enter the weird limbo before rotation where no one wants to touch it anyway. Their's no sense in banning cards out of what is effectively a dead format, especially when that deck almost assuredly dies by rotation.
History suggests that Pro Tour Top 8s don't normally define the format.
Typically people take the pro tour results analyse them and come to the next Standard GP and bamn that's our format. However, it is true that this pro tour is later into the format than usual.
Chainwhirler is balanced by its mana cost it jut turns out that red easily has enough power on its own to just overcome its inherent weaknesses. Indestructible 5/4 that turns bad draws into damage, a phoenix that requires two removal spells, a haste threat that kills an opposing creature and powerful versatile plainswalker. You can just splash to try to deal with your issues, Black being the most popular, but that left the splash decks open to just being lit up by the overwhelming consistency of true mono red.
just unban everything WOTC so we can have a fun aggro/control/midrange/combo metagame.
im surprised not many people suggest this. standard is in a unique situation of actually having a banlist already in place, which is full of cards that are going to rotate out in fall anyways. why not unban attune, refiner, and marvel and see what shakes out. its not like the format is going to get any less diverse. cards like chandra and glorybringer would still see heavy play if temur energy returned, but virtuoso looks pretty silly in the face of chainwhirler: the format. also the big eldrazi threats are gone so marvel combo seems less insane. rogue refiner is an enabler, but it also is a value card that RB/WB vehicle decks cant splash for easily.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
We've been in a red dominated Standard format for about a year now, and bannings haven't really done much to remedy that. I'm hesitant to suggest another banning, but Chainwhirler truly is warping the format around it. Tokens isn't a viable deck without something like Leyline of Vitality in the format since your opponent's Chainwhirler just wipes your board the second it comes down. Just to give you a sense of the pervasiveness of the card at the Pro Tour, 50% of the decks at the event were running the card according to MTG Goldfish.
The problem is that Standard doesn't have enough strong midrange cards to provide a counterbalance to the aggro decks. Wizards needs to start developing sets to ensure that there are always multiple viable control, midrange, and aggro strategies in Standard.
Are there any big Standard events coming anyway? If not, everyone will call it wrap and just wait until all the power red cards rotate out. Theoretically this is the point where Standard loses playerbase but honestly it hasn't had much people to begin with.
That said, I feel that BR = Jund and Teferi = Jace the Mind Sculptor.
I shudder to imagine history repeating itself after Jund rotates out...
Are there any big Standard events coming anyway? If not, everyone will call it wrap and just wait until all the power red cards rotate out. Theoretically this is the point where Standard loses playerbase but honestly it hasn't had much people to begin with.
That said, I feel that BR = Jund and Teferi = Jace the Mind Sculptor.
I shudder to imagine history repeating itself after Jund rotates out...
There's a bunch of Standard GPs. So ya, there's quite a few big events on the way.
Historically speaking, the PT didn't really set the pace for decks of a given format, however, this was when the PT was 2 weeks post-release. Things are quite different now.
Mono red was good before Chainwhirler (heck, it was with that deck that I won the easiest PPTQ of my life, losing...2 games out of 5 rounds+top 8. That was insane).
What I am curious is when we enter the "Wild wild west" of the format once we have a critical mass of sets available. We'll be losing 4 in the fall (which is a massive chunk) and that will completely turn the format on its head.
Additionally, I also think they should unban everything BUT copter, cuz **** that card. Would love to play Marvel in a much more fair manner (plus there's always abrade and sorcerous spyglass now). I think the format could handle that just fine. Temur black might still be a little too good now though...
a chainwirler ban seems the most logical course of action. It's the only consistent thing across all these lists. The two drops are varied between hearth, scrounger, kari and earthshaker with none of them significantly in every list. Similarly 4-drops are not consistent amongst lists with pretty much every combination of 2 out 3 from chandra/hazoret/phoenix seeing play.
THe only efficient ban to tackle it would be chainwirler which would open the format enough I think.
a chainwirler ban seems the most logical course of action. It's the only consistent thing across all these lists. The two drops are varied between hearth, scrounger, kari and earthshaker with none of them significantly in every list. Similarly 4-drops are not consistent amongst lists with pretty much every combination of 2 out 3 from chandra/hazoret/phoenix seeing play.
THe only efficient ban to tackle it would be chainwirler which would open the format enough I think.
No, banning chainwhirler is a horrible plan. The problem with banning is that once that card is banned to appease the reactionary pitchfork mob, it is very difficult to unban without a good reason. It sends a message about the card: that it is inherently a broken design that should never be repeated.
If this was the start of a new year and we were miles from rotation, than yes we should see a ban. In this situation, there is no point to it. I'd say ban Hazoret or Chandra, but that would do horrible things to the challenger deck buyers, so I'd just let this go for now.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm hoping not. There are plenty of things out there that can fight rdw.
Big fat green creatures, multiple land drops per turn, and a couple indestructible vigilant hasty lands should be a good start.
I vote for no ban because the decks it is good against are rotating. That and it needs soul scar mage. That combo invalidates go wide anthem strategies and makes glorybringer even better. That and saprolings have a way around it via punishment from slimefoot.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Red won just fine without Chainwhirler. But as has been mentioned previously, the issue with the card has more to do with what it supresses (weenie/token strategies)....something that would be quite viable otherwise.
Not sure unbannings would work all that much either. Ferocidon is just as oppressive to the aforementioned strategies (better attacker, worse blocker, and would fit in to more archetypes)
Im not a fan of the "its only 5 months just wait it out" either. If its a problem, it should be addressed regardless
Well Chainwhirler has a longer lifetime ahead of it if it doesn't eat a ban.
Honestly, what I hate the most is Red has the best fliers to go with the best early ground game....how is that fair?
White has better fliers over all than red. The reason red is so strong is it is well positioned against the meta at large and the designers undervalued how powerful having removal attached to a body can be. Stormbreath Dragon was extremely strong during it's time in standard and Glorybringer ended up being even stronger since exert ended up not being a very big drawback for a deck that just wants to swing and win turn 5-6. Then there is an entire combat suite of creatures that give red incredible reach. Bomat Courier, Earthshaker Khenra, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance all provide exceptional reach, while Scrapheap Scrounger provides extra resiliency.
Case in point, they gave the red slice the strength of blue and the resiliency normally only seen in black with recurring threats like zombies. It's kind of ridiculous, honestly. I have no idea why Rekindling Phoenix had to exist on top of the other early threats that can also pop out late game. Plus, they put all the cards that can deal with these threats as 4 CMC removal spells. I would seriously play Declaration in Stone and Anguished Unmaking in this format over the removal they threw people. Heck, the latter is exactly what vampires need.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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Yes since WOTC seems scared to pump the power to keep pace.
If red dominates the rest of the month there had better be some bans with the announcement next month. Even with the poor way wizards reports decks goldfish shows RB and R aggro at 30% of the meta...
It was, but honestly, this is getting really tiresome to come into a top 8 article and see red once again wielding the same culprits. There's such a thing as banning something just so other decks can breath and get showtime. This is one of those. I don't care if their is crap tons of variety in the format: The top of the tournament was red dominant even with the other decks being present. How can the Pro-Tour even achieve it's namesake if it just shows off the same old stuff?
I'm glad people want to discuss how there's variety in the over all top 32 decks in the event, but that doesn't matter unless wizards writes a "top 32 decks" article. They write a Top 8 article. If those top 8 decks are all red decks showcasing old standard cards, the event has failed. Unless their idea is that Goblin Chainwhirler is now the face of Dominaria. Lets just plaster him all over the booster box and be done with it?
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah well Chandra, Phoenix, Glorybringer and Hazoret are like most of the value so they aint eating the Ban.
I agree though that Chainwhirler simply but it over the top.
2) RB
3) RDW
4) RB
5) RB
6) Mono Green
7) RB
8) RB
9) Mono Green
10) RB
11) RB
12) RB
13) RB
14) BW
15) RDW
16) RDW
17) RB
18) RDW
19) Esper
20) UW
21) RB
22) Esper
23) UW
24) UB
25) RDW
26) RDW
27) RDW
28) RDW
29) RDW
30) RDW
31) Mono Green
32) UG
Seems to me the Top 8 accurately represents the top 32. 87.5% of the Top 8 featured Red, 69% of the Top 32 featured Red
I think this is a gross missed evaluation of the power of the card.
Chainwhirler is the direct cause for warping the format around it. It may seem fairly innocuous on the surface but when you start to look at other cards around it, you realize that it basically makes anything with 1 toughness completely unplayable. Tokens was a pretty decent deck that can hold the ground to virtually anything in the format except...chainwhirler exists, which completely nullifies their go-wide strategy. It having a 3/3 body WITH First strike makes it a formidable opponent in combat. It doesn't trade with a whole lot.
Red has obviously been quite powerful for some time now and banning Ferocidon only to have this thing in the format is mind boggling, at best. There are tools to fight red (things like authority is actually quite good), but the trouble is that white is kind of a crappy color. It's all conditional removal and over priced spells. Teferi and history, essentially, being the sole reason to play the color (Lyra to some extent).
A card doesn't have to be overtly powerful. Chainwhirler is such a card. In a vacuum it doesn't really look like much, but in practice, it's (as mentioned above) format warping.
Ya nice Syphoner/elf/bomat there buddy! Oh you made some 1/1 tokens? Awww that's cute!
I'm ok with the format receiving no further bans to be honest for the time being (only 4 months of this non-sense). Just wish that WotC either stopped printing these ridiculous creatures or at least gave us the tools to fight back properly. Imagine if Kor-Firewalker was in Standard right now. Would we really be talking about how problematic these red cards were?
Edit: Except for Hazoret. Card's power is bonkers in correlation with the speed at which things get deployed in Red. Especially considering that they always seem to have 3 of them in their top 15 cards...
1cmc, Bomat/Soul Scar
2cmc Kari, Kherna, honorable mention Scrounger
3cmc, Chainwhirler, Crasher, Pia
4cmc, HAZORET, Phoenix, Chandra,
5cmc, The Bringer of Glory
It's the perfect storm. Anyone remember Abzan Midrange and all of it's many flavors? The core of a deck was a result of powerful cards printed within it's wedge combination. Here, we have all the same cards contained in 1 color. RB aggro is the same core, but splashes B for Scrounger, Discard/disruption and walkers (Angrath). This was a concession to the raw power of the UW control deck (which is extremely powerful). With RB being a full turn slower it's not a surprise that mono red won. Look at all those RB lists!! Holy Moly!! lol
On banning Chainwhirler, we need to try and beat RB/RDW/ The issue is whether or not we can cleanly accomplish that. A deck like New Perspectives in theory can probably beat it, but it's control match up is poor (Brontobro is another issue). If we (as in us the player base) fail to come up with a solution, there might be a banning? Maybe, I don't think Chainwhirler is that powerful (Ferocidon was a complete and total HOSER of a hate card), but man does it warp the format. dang Wotc dang.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
And for the people clamoring for a Chainwhirler hit I have to ask why? The card does put a very harsh cost on deck building and although it may not seem like it with all the good cards in red at the moment once they leave, which they will in mass, chainwhirler will be left holding the bag going into a multicolored set on ravnica. The entirety of the red game plan will be leaving in three to four months. We'll be getting new toys to potentially combat it in a month from coreset 19, then standard will enter the weird limbo before rotation where no one wants to touch it anyway. Their's no sense in banning cards out of what is effectively a dead format, especially when that deck almost assuredly dies by rotation.
Typically people take the pro tour results analyse them and come to the next Standard GP and bamn that's our format. However, it is true that this pro tour is later into the format than usual.
Chainwhirler is balanced by its mana cost it jut turns out that red easily has enough power on its own to just overcome its inherent weaknesses. Indestructible 5/4 that turns bad draws into damage, a phoenix that requires two removal spells, a haste threat that kills an opposing creature and powerful versatile plainswalker. You can just splash to try to deal with your issues, Black being the most popular, but that left the splash decks open to just being lit up by the overwhelming consistency of true mono red.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
im surprised not many people suggest this. standard is in a unique situation of actually having a banlist already in place, which is full of cards that are going to rotate out in fall anyways. why not unban attune, refiner, and marvel and see what shakes out. its not like the format is going to get any less diverse. cards like chandra and glorybringer would still see heavy play if temur energy returned, but virtuoso looks pretty silly in the face of chainwhirler: the format. also the big eldrazi threats are gone so marvel combo seems less insane. rogue refiner is an enabler, but it also is a value card that RB/WB vehicle decks cant splash for easily.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)The problem is that Standard doesn't have enough strong midrange cards to provide a counterbalance to the aggro decks. Wizards needs to start developing sets to ensure that there are always multiple viable control, midrange, and aggro strategies in Standard.
That said, I feel that BR = Jund and Teferi = Jace the Mind Sculptor.
I shudder to imagine history repeating itself after Jund rotates out...
There's a bunch of Standard GPs. So ya, there's quite a few big events on the way.
Historically speaking, the PT didn't really set the pace for decks of a given format, however, this was when the PT was 2 weeks post-release. Things are quite different now.
Mono red was good before Chainwhirler (heck, it was with that deck that I won the easiest PPTQ of my life, losing...2 games out of 5 rounds+top 8. That was insane).
What I am curious is when we enter the "Wild wild west" of the format once we have a critical mass of sets available. We'll be losing 4 in the fall (which is a massive chunk) and that will completely turn the format on its head.
Additionally, I also think they should unban everything BUT copter, cuz **** that card. Would love to play Marvel in a much more fair manner (plus there's always abrade and sorcerous spyglass now). I think the format could handle that just fine. Temur black might still be a little too good now though...
THe only efficient ban to tackle it would be chainwirler which would open the format enough I think.
If GP Pittsburgh has 4-5 red decks in the top 8, then I definitely think we're into ban territory.
No, banning chainwhirler is a horrible plan. The problem with banning is that once that card is banned to appease the reactionary pitchfork mob, it is very difficult to unban without a good reason. It sends a message about the card: that it is inherently a broken design that should never be repeated.
If this was the start of a new year and we were miles from rotation, than yes we should see a ban. In this situation, there is no point to it. I'd say ban Hazoret or Chandra, but that would do horrible things to the challenger deck buyers, so I'd just let this go for now.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I'm hoping not. There are plenty of things out there that can fight rdw.
Big fat green creatures, multiple land drops per turn, and a couple indestructible vigilant hasty lands should be a good start.
I vote for no ban because the decks it is good against are rotating. That and it needs soul scar mage. That combo invalidates go wide anthem strategies and makes glorybringer even better. That and saprolings have a way around it via punishment from slimefoot.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Not sure unbannings would work all that much either. Ferocidon is just as oppressive to the aforementioned strategies (better attacker, worse blocker, and would fit in to more archetypes)
Im not a fan of the "its only 5 months just wait it out" either. If its a problem, it should be addressed regardless
Honestly, what I hate the most is Red has the best fliers to go with the best early ground game....how is that fair?
White has better fliers over all than red. The reason red is so strong is it is well positioned against the meta at large and the designers undervalued how powerful having removal attached to a body can be. Stormbreath Dragon was extremely strong during it's time in standard and Glorybringer ended up being even stronger since exert ended up not being a very big drawback for a deck that just wants to swing and win turn 5-6. Then there is an entire combat suite of creatures that give red incredible reach. Bomat Courier, Earthshaker Khenra, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance all provide exceptional reach, while Scrapheap Scrounger provides extra resiliency.
Case in point, they gave the red slice the strength of blue and the resiliency normally only seen in black with recurring threats like zombies. It's kind of ridiculous, honestly. I have no idea why Rekindling Phoenix had to exist on top of the other early threats that can also pop out late game. Plus, they put all the cards that can deal with these threats as 4 CMC removal spells. I would seriously play Declaration in Stone and Anguished Unmaking in this format over the removal they threw people. Heck, the latter is exactly what vampires need.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!