Not saying any card should be banned right now, but I just wanted to state this. It takes more than a broken format for WotC to ban cards in T2.
Back when Skullclamp and Ravager were banned, it wasn't because WotC wanted to fix the format. It was because people had grown sick of playing in such an environment and tournament attendance had dropped drastically. Wizards didn't budge until the situation reached that point and they were really feeling the sting. As far as I know that hasn't happened now.
This part is pure conjecture- Maybe Jace could have driven T2 into the ground if it wasn't because of WotC's new game design formula of stronger creatures and weaker control being popular with a large player base. It's possible Jace's dominance is driving people to quit T2, but not enough to offset the amount of people who, well, like the cards in the format in spite of Jace warping the game's balance.
I have mixed feelings about this. Gaddafi is pretty bad, sure. Intervention always is a messy course of action. You can easily cause more grief than you're trying to prevent, for yourself included. Moral high ground aside, this has generally been the case.
To be fair, the disappearance of the U.S.'s manufactures can't be blamed squarely on China. That is just yellow scare rethoric. In truth it's the effect of Globalization at work. Low-skill jobs will move to the places where living costs are the lowest and worker rights are the s***tiest. The poor and uneducated will be stuck in a dead end, the rich and powerful will become ungodly richer and powerful-er, and consumers will be able to buy crap-quality goods for insanely low prices, so they will not complain. This will go on until education and social awareness are able to catch up everywhere in the world which, well, is not close to happening any time soon.
But yeah, cutting ties with China will accomplish nothing at this point. The fact that China's factories are the best places to build stuff in the world isn't going to change. By severing ties with them, the US will lose the ability to compete in the pricing market.
but if you get 2 hawks in your opening hand, then isn't 1 of them basically a dead draw?
Yes, but on the other hand whenever you have to mulligan a bad hand and your new one has a hawk you'll be able to recoup the card disadvantage better. The pluses to running 4 hawks outweight the drawbacks.
He stepped down now the problem lies in a power vaccum over the country. it is now possible for another hama type organization to take over.
i know the muslim brotherhood is eyeing it and they are just about as bad.
i am sure the taliban are eyeing the prospects as well. right now power is in military control which could setup a military type of government if they refuse to let it go to someone else.
Yes, there is that risk, but it isn't really great. The Brotherhood tried to take leadership over the protests from the first moment but the people on the streets weren't interested in dealing with them. Instead, Mohamed El Baradei emerged as a significant figurehead among the protestors and he's very pro-western and as anti-radical as they come, and there's high possibilities he will lead the interim governement or even become the next president.
However, once there are actual elections there is a possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood gaining more protagonism, since the protestors who have refused with them largely represented Egypt's urban demographic, and the rural population is more conservative. But so far, there's been no actual indication that the Brotherhood will be able to seize power.
The other risk right now is that Egypt's military will not cede power to a civilian government. The whole process is in their hands right now. Egypt's military is probably another deterrent for a radical party to take power in Egypt, since none of the heads of the institution have stepped down, and they have always been pro-western under Mubarak. If a radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood wins an election, it is possible there will be a military coup to remove them...
How many times did Bohny mulligan during this match? 8? That's disgusting. It's a shame since he still put on a fight; I didn't expect G/W Quest to be such a force in this format.
Is it that hard to support Tezzeret? I mean, there's at least a few artifacts that are good enough to run on their own. 4 Chalice and 4 Inkmoth Nexus are a good start...
Inkmoth Nexus I think this is a must have with Tezz, it's actually a pretty powerful combo. Drop Tezz and make a 5/5 flying infect which will make the opponent lose in very short order if he doesn't have an answer...
As for other cards, possibly Mimic Vat and a few cyclers like the Spellbombs and Ichor Wellspring...? Even if you run just 12 targets it should be plenty for Tezzeret's -1 in the late game. You don't need to use the +1 or the ultimate since you can win just off that ability...
Maybe it's not a great idea, but my point is I don't think you need to fill a deck with 30+ junk artifacts to run Tezzeret.
Was there a specific reason some cards were left off the list though? Like Phyrexian Vatmother.
Are people that down on a 2BB 4/5 infect? The drawback is pretty negligible and it's a two turn clock on its own while being more a ton more useful than that.
Sadly at the moment pretty much every midrange creature is unplayable in Standard. On turn 4 you drop one of these guys and it will be immediately outclassed by a Titan from Ramp or JTMS from control.
Same goes for almost every 4 and 5 drop, and 6-drops that aren't Titans. Standard just sucks like that at the moment.
Praetor's Counsel? Maybe if only as a 1-of. This card seems ridiculous to me, it can randomly net you so much card advantage as to make Cruel Ultimatum seem like a joke.
This set has plenty of great cards. I guess the problem for many people is that the best ones are just throwbacks of other cards, which waters down the excitement. As someone said, Thrun has been done before, Pithing Needle has been done, another sword is just another sword, and hey, look, Tezz is back -still an artifact planeswalker? How surprising. Etc.
Remember it's still just a small expansion and the first of these in every block usually is pretty weak. MBS is better than what we usually get. Myself, I like it quite a bit.
Have you considered blending this in with a Vengevine build? You have the Squadron hawks already. Also, Mirrian Crusader is a beast with equips, the Swords especially.
This. A hundred times this. Fauna Shaman finds your Thrun and Stoneforge Mystic, and gives you a backup plan with a Vengevine. And Mirran Crusader is so perfect in this deck, he's insane with them swords.
Fits so well with Wizard's trend of revolving the game around degenerate bombs, though. Ugh...
Back when Skullclamp and Ravager were banned, it wasn't because WotC wanted to fix the format. It was because people had grown sick of playing in such an environment and tournament attendance had dropped drastically. Wizards didn't budge until the situation reached that point and they were really feeling the sting. As far as I know that hasn't happened now.
This part is pure conjecture- Maybe Jace could have driven T2 into the ground if it wasn't because of WotC's new game design formula of stronger creatures and weaker control being popular with a large player base. It's possible Jace's dominance is driving people to quit T2, but not enough to offset the amount of people who, well, like the cards in the format in spite of Jace warping the game's balance.
To be fair, the disappearance of the U.S.'s manufactures can't be blamed squarely on China. That is just yellow scare rethoric. In truth it's the effect of Globalization at work. Low-skill jobs will move to the places where living costs are the lowest and worker rights are the s***tiest. The poor and uneducated will be stuck in a dead end, the rich and powerful will become ungodly richer and powerful-er, and consumers will be able to buy crap-quality goods for insanely low prices, so they will not complain. This will go on until education and social awareness are able to catch up everywhere in the world which, well, is not close to happening any time soon.
But yeah, cutting ties with China will accomplish nothing at this point. The fact that China's factories are the best places to build stuff in the world isn't going to change. By severing ties with them, the US will lose the ability to compete in the pricing market.
Yes, there is that risk, but it isn't really great. The Brotherhood tried to take leadership over the protests from the first moment but the people on the streets weren't interested in dealing with them. Instead, Mohamed El Baradei emerged as a significant figurehead among the protestors and he's very pro-western and as anti-radical as they come, and there's high possibilities he will lead the interim governement or even become the next president.
However, once there are actual elections there is a possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood gaining more protagonism, since the protestors who have refused with them largely represented Egypt's urban demographic, and the rural population is more conservative. But so far, there's been no actual indication that the Brotherhood will be able to seize power.
The other risk right now is that Egypt's military will not cede power to a civilian government. The whole process is in their hands right now. Egypt's military is probably another deterrent for a radical party to take power in Egypt, since none of the heads of the institution have stepped down, and they have always been pro-western under Mubarak. If a radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood wins an election, it is possible there will be a military coup to remove them...
Inkmoth Nexus I think this is a must have with Tezz, it's actually a pretty powerful combo. Drop Tezz and make a 5/5 flying infect which will make the opponent lose in very short order if he doesn't have an answer...
As for other cards, possibly Mimic Vat and a few cyclers like the Spellbombs and Ichor Wellspring...? Even if you run just 12 targets it should be plenty for Tezzeret's -1 in the late game. You don't need to use the +1 or the ultimate since you can win just off that ability...
Maybe it's not a great idea, but my point is I don't think you need to fill a deck with 30+ junk artifacts to run Tezzeret.
Same goes for almost every 4 and 5 drop, and 6-drops that aren't Titans. Standard just sucks like that at the moment.
It's an entirely playable card. Hardly busted, though.
Remember it's still just a small expansion and the first of these in every block usually is pretty weak. MBS is better than what we usually get. Myself, I like it quite a bit.