The card is not limited resources. It's not completely beyond the pale to even consider.
What's wrong with Limited Resources?
If there are 10 or more total lands on the battlefield, nobody can play lands. In 1v1 where LR was designed, that means each player could have 5 lands. In multiplayer, that's no longer the case for a LR dropped early, and the more players there are the worse it is.
And yet in testing my Lavinia deck, T1-2 dump your hand wheel is fairly normal (10 artifacts that produce mana equal or greater than what they cost, not to mention half the rest of the deck being cmc 1 or 2). I would totally put Balance in that deck if it were legal, and it would be the poster child of why Balance shouldn't be legal.
Are you running knowledge pool in your lavinia deck? If so, I don't think you're the banlist's target market. And if not, then...why are you playing lavinia?
Balance is a casualty of Sol Ring and friends. Dumping a bunch of broken rocks into play then resetting everyone else is just absurd. And since we know Ring et al. aren't going anywhere, neither is Balance.
I think that's why it's so powerful in vintage. Commander we have 1 sol ring, 1 mana crypt, and 1 mana vault (which is only arguably on the same level) in a deck that's almost twice as big. After that it drops off pretty quick. The likelihood of a T1-2 dump your hand cast balance instawin is pretty much nil.
And yet in testing my Lavinia deck, T1-2 dump your hand wheel is fairly normal (10 artifacts that produce mana equal or greater than what they cost, not to mention half the rest of the deck being cmc 1 or 2). I would totally put Balance in that deck if it were legal, and it would be the poster child of why Balance shouldn't be legal.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)