Home from work and re-reading the ban announcement in detail, this line caught me by surprise:
"In watching the format evolve, we've observed that decks seeking to control the game have struggled against the speed and variety of threats present in the format. Often these decks have been forced to adopt an explosive win condition of their own. Our hope is that Jace, the Mind Sculptor will provide yet another option in an already diverse format, giving controlling decks an alternative way to close out prolonged games."
I'm not sure how I feel about this statement. It seems they are saying that blue-based control decks have slow or unreliable win conditions (which I agree with) and that somehow Jace fixes that?? They also imply that previous decks (like Twin) or current decks (like Breach/Emrakul) are clearly NOT what they want in terms of reactive decks. I'm curious to see how things pan out. Maybe Jace will be the savior of blue reactive decks, or maybe it will be just another option of mediocrity, and they use the same justification here to release SFM or Twin in another 6mo-1yr (giving control decks another option to close out games). Who knows. Either way, I will definitely be brewing with my foils.
I read it differently. I think Wizards is hoping JTMS gives slower decks the OPTION of a viable, slower win con. Currently, those decks basically NEED to resort to faster ones, which isn't as diversified as it could be if slower options were better. They aren't saying explosive win cons are bad. They just want slow decks to have a slow option if they want to run one.
Yeah, I read that as Twin, Nahiri, Through the Breach.
Instead of a more true control solution.
They aren't knocking those approaches. They just said they want other options (hence "yet another option") alongside explosive ones. There's no conspiracy theory or hidden barb against explosive win cons here. They are literally stating they want more options alongside the existing faster ones.
I don't like it. I think modern was a balanced and diverse machine with more deck originality than ever before. Channel Fireball recommended 'no change.' MTGGoldfish recommended 'no change.' I'm honestly sick of Wizards hashing their decisions on statistics from Magic Online- an outdated, unfurnished system with biased results that are derived from arbitrary definitions of 'pro players.'
I can partially understand why Bloodbraid Elf was unbanned. Each season, people hoped they would see her again, only to be disappointed by her continued absence. I have a softspot for Jund. It didn't place top-8 in the last Rivals Pro Tour. However, Modern does not 'need' Jund to be the competitive and diverse format that it is now (or at least during the last Rivals Pro Tour). Abzan made top-8, albeit with some skepticism in it's consistency.
Jace being unbanned? This is blatant arms-dealing by Wizards. We know Wizards unbanned Jace to sell more 25th Anniversary product. The players are playing the cards, yet Wizards is playing the players. I hate this. To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, Wizards should have made no changes.
I entirely agree with Matt Sperling, "[Wizard's] is not just changing the weather, they're selling umbrellas."
Jace being unbanned? This is blatant arms-dealing by Wizards. We know Wizards unbanned Jace to sell more 25th Anniversary product. The players are playing the cards, yet Wizards is playing the players. I hate this. To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, Wizards should have made no changes.
I entirely agree with Matt Sperling, "[Wizard's] is not just changing the weather, they're selling umbrellas."
That's giving a lot of credit to the company who also banned Twin and Top shortly after their respective reprints. I doubt they put that much foresight into the B&R list when it comes to new Masters sets.
Edit: And the same company who printed Stoneforge Mystic as a GP promo, marking the first ever non-Medern legal GP Promo since Modern was a format.
I don't like it. I think modern was a balanced and diverse machine with more deck originality than ever before. Channel Fireball recommended 'no change.' MTGGoldfish recommended 'no change.'
Well, no, actually, neither Channel Fireball nor MTG Goldfish recommended anything at all; the people who make those sites didn't get together to make a statement, those are just individual articles by individual writers. Florian Koch and SaffronOlive were the ones who recommended that. So your argument is really just "two people suggested no changes."
That one is suggesting unbans for Jace and Bloodbraid Elf. And Seth Manfield (who wrote the cited article) is a legitimate pro player, whereas SaffronOlive is a self-described "jank brewer" (i.e. not really competitive) and the last notable placing I can find by Florian Koch is from mid-2016.
To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, Wizards should have made no changes.
Except over 90% of the people who voted in this poll wanted unbans. There may have been disagreements on what cards to unban, but the players overwhelmingly showed they wanted unbans.
Home from work and re-reading the ban announcement in detail, this line caught me by surprise:
"In watching the format evolve, we've observed that decks seeking to control the game have struggled against the speed and variety of threats present in the format. Often these decks have been forced to adopt an explosive win condition of their own. Our hope is that Jace, the Mind Sculptor will provide yet another option in an already diverse format, giving controlling decks an alternative way to close out prolonged games."
I'm not sure how I feel about this statement. It seems they are saying that blue-based control decks have slow or unreliable win conditions (which I agree with) and that somehow Jace fixes that?? They also imply that previous decks (like Twin) or current decks (like Breach/Emrakul) are clearly NOT what they want in terms of reactive decks. I'm curious to see how things pan out. Maybe Jace will be the savior of blue reactive decks, or maybe it will be just another option of mediocrity, and they use the same justification here to release SFM or Twin in another 6mo-1yr (giving control decks another option to close out games). Who knows. Either way, I will definitely be brewing with my foils.
I read it differently. I think Wizards is hoping JTMS gives slower decks the OPTION of a viable, slower win con. Currently, those decks basically NEED to resort to faster ones, which isn't as diversified as it could be if slower options were better. They aren't saying explosive win cons are bad. They just want slow decks to have a slow option if they want to run one.
How I took it as well. Honestly not bothered by these unbans in the slightest. I think the legendary status is a tinted lens people are viewing through.
To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, Wizards should have made no changes.
To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, we should purchase NO WotC product, most especially NO M25 product, if we do not like this decision. That's what I will do. This decision will not only result in me buying no WotC products but also no HASBRO products (as ultimately this is about enriching Hasbro shareholders), and I will now institute the card-buying moratorium on TCG Player and the local gaming store (sorry fellas). Last year I attended GenCon in Indy and spent a lot on games, much of that WotC/MTG product, and I played in some MTG events. I'm going again this August and will see that my money this year goes to anybody and everybody but Hasbro/WotC or ANY MtG related product, like signed playmats. I will only play MtG on the side, for free.
My thoughts on the unbans today:
1. I do not agree with the JTMS unban in Modern.
2. More than I don't agree w/ the unban, I don't agree w/ the timing or how it was rolled out, on back of two great Modern events showcasing the diversity of decks that people can choose to play.
3. Making him one of the face cards of M25 releasing in a month makes it impossible to communicate to me that this decision is for any reason other than to sell packs of WotC product. If you are gonna cash grab, maybe don't be so naked about it?
4. It's one thing to try and scam me and another thing entirely to be disingenuous about your reasons for the scam. WotC is NOT being transparent (see 3 above).
5. Today's decision is a step back from diversity, and a move to exclusion, not inclusion, of the player base in Modern.
6. It will result in a devolution of the Modern format (going backwards), not an evolution of it, b/c it will drive Midrange decks out of existence...they cannot compete when the opponent untaps w/ JTMS in play.
7. Speaking of Midrange, BBE isn't one of the 50-most played creatures in Legacy (checks in around 105). I think it's impact in Modern is far overstated. It whiffs too frequently in terms of hitting what you need when u need it. Have fun cascading into that worthless discard or removal spell. You'll get that more than you will hit that magic Lily or KCom.
8. I can't wait to see what happens when JTMS goes back on the ban list after M25 sales disappear.
I believe that when WotC screws its players the entire MtG community should feel the burn. I also don't believe in letting mega-corporations like Hasbro screw w/ my pocket book over toys/games. It's one thing to bend me over for the necessities in life like food, water, power, gasoline, stuff I have to buy, but when you start to fleece me over a GAME...I'm out. See, as much as I love games, I love the principle of not being fleeced even more.
Jace was actually about the same price before the ban so How is it fleecing? Those who held them have their investment back. Those that sold high simply have to buy back in, no value lost. Those who never had them? Well it's a really good card with a really high demand so, just like any other magic card, be prepared to pay or crack packs.
In hindsight all this overreaction is going to be funny, as Jace proves itself to be relatively fair. Tron, Bogles, Burn, Lantern, Storm, Ad Nauseum, Titanshift, and Affinity frankly aren't even a little scared of Jace, and would actually hope to see their opponents tap out on turn for nothing but brainstorm. How can a card that (more or less) blanks against over half the format be dangerous for the game?
I need someone to explain to me a Modern/metagame reason why some people are so upset about the JTMS unban. I hear that the M25 connection feels shady and I think most of us are open to some suspicious speculation about this. But I also see a lot of dissatisfaction based on JTMS's metagame positioning or prospects. This is what I don't understand. How are people so sure this card is dangerous or format-warping? Have you actually tested it? I don't think we have any clue what this card will do, which probably means it will be merely good like many other powerful Modern staples. So where is all this confident hate coming from?
They are upset because they think the big bad Wizards/Hasbro corp is out for their money, and they dont want to pay (checks) $600 for a playset, and they didnt buy in when it could have been $200 for a playset.
They are upset because they think the big bad Wizards/Hasbro corp is out for their money, and they dont want to pay (checks) $600 for a playset, and they didnt buy in when it could have been $200 for a playset.
Hard times.
Admittedly I was more irritated about the unban since I viewed it through my Legacy lense. Then I remembered Modern doesn't have FoW, Daze, Counterspell, etc to protect him along with a much larger creature suite to be scared off and stopped giving a fishcake.
He'll have his place. When he's good, he'll be crazy good and well, that's fine.
I need someone to explain to me a Modern/metagame reason why some people are so upset about the JTMS unban. I hear that the M25 connection feels shady and I think most of us are open to some suspicious speculation about this. But I also see a lot of dissatisfaction based on JTMS's metagame positioning or prospects. This is what I don't understand. How are people so sure this card is dangerous or format-warping? Have you actually tested it? I don't think we have any clue what this card will do, which probably means it will be merely good like many other powerful Modern staples. So where is all this confident hate coming from?
My reasons for disagreeing with Jace unban:
1. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Modern is the one format they've done right the last year and a half.
2. In light of Standard's failures, Standard's rotation backtrack, the FNM promo backtrack, the card stock quality issue, and crappy PR response to the judge/harassment issues, I don't trust WotC's recent decision-making. They should play it more conservative in the grand scheme of the game as a whole.
3. Lantern hasn't caused rounds/tournaments to drag longer, but guess what does? Brainstorm -> fetch -> rinse/repeat -> fateseal.
4. The unbans will likely reduce deck diversity in Modern as midrange consolidates around the unbans. Mardu, Abzan, CoCo, EldraziTron, RG Eldrazi, and Shadow are all at risk. What do you get in return? A tier 1 Jund and U/X/x Control. Not a good trade-off if you care about diversity.
5. People will lose value on their cards/decks from Point 4.
5. This is a blatant cash grab with huge financial risk if they have to ban Jace again.
They are upset because they think the big bad Wizards/Hasbro corp is out for their money, and they dont want to pay (checks) $600 for a playset, and they didnt buy in when it could have been $200 for a playset.
Hard times.
This should have been on everybody's radar for quite some time. Jace was never going to be less than $50, so buying them slowly over time is a fairly low risk. Even if he was never unbanned, he could be turned around and sold back for minimal (if any) loss.
Want to talk about getting burned? How about $6 AVs jumping to $200 playsets? Jace's jump has been barely 200%, and already falling. AV jumped over 800% and currently sits in my binder, unplayed, as an expensive reminder to buy into banned cards preemptively.
Except over 90% of the people who voted in this poll wanted unbans. There may have been disagreements on what cards to unban, but the players overwhelmingly showed they wanted unbans.
...and I said Bloodbraid Elf , the highest voted card in the poll, is understandable. Jace, The Mind Sculptor ? I'm not convinced that the players wanted him unbanned more than Wizards. This is a problem. I think the players should decide, not Wizards, but that's my opinion.
I need someone to explain to me a Modern/metagame reason why some people are so upset about the JTMS unban. I hear that the M25 connection feels shady and I think most of us are open to some suspicious speculation about this. But I also see a lot of dissatisfaction based on JTMS's metagame positioning or prospects. This is what I don't understand. How are people so sure this card is dangerous or format-warping? Have you actually tested it? I don't think we have any clue what this card will do, which probably means it will be merely good like many other powerful Modern staples. So where is all this confident hate coming from?
"I was on the fence about unbanning Jace, the Mind Sculptor but interested in giving the planeswalker a trial run. After playing our match and being reminded of just how powerful Jace is, it's hard to imagine it being allowed to run wild in Modern. While a midrange deck like Jund is a good matchup for Jace, the Mind Sculptor—and it's certainly true that a four-mana planeswalker isn't all that scary against decks like Affinity, Storm, and Tron—if Jace, the Mind Sculptor is unbanned, it would push all the midrange and control decks toward running it and probably reduce the diversity of the format."
He did some very light testing to come to that conclusion, but the doubt is against Jace, by default, because of what I remember him doing in standard during Worldwake block. Wizard's is playing a dangerous game by unbanning him, in my opinion.
Except over 90% of the people who voted in this poll wanted unbans. There may have been disagreements on what cards to unban, but the players overwhelmingly showed they wanted unbans.
...and I said Bloodbraid Elf , the highest voted card in the poll, is understandable.
You didn't mind it as much as Jace, but you still explicitly said afterwards that "To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, Wizards should have made no changes." That includes no unban on Bloodbraid Elf. I demonstrated how the evidence is that doing that would be going against the overwhelming desire of the player base. Again, over 90% of the voters in that poll wanted an unban. And of the small percentage that didn't want unbans, there's the possibility some did want bans (it's not possible to evaluate crossover, unfortunately), which would further drop the percentage that wanted no changes. So in demonstrating that players are the deciding consumer base, you are advocating Wizards of the Coast go directly against what the available evidence indicates that players want. One doesn't even need to look at that poll to realize this; players have been clamoring for unbans in Modern for quite some time now.
Now, you may point to the fact that a majority didn't want Jace unbanned due to the poll, but he was still the 4th most popular choice and I wouldn't be surprised if some people who would have been fine with him elected not to vote because they didn't want to simultaneously ban him and Stoneforge or Twin and thus voted for those instead. At any rate, unbanning Jace was a significantly more popular answer than "no changes."
Sure, the poll has limitations. It's only from one site and was hardly conducted in a scientific fashion. But it's the best data I know of in regards to this, certainly much better than what you cited as proof for your claim.
I need someone to explain to me a Modern/metagame reason why some people are so upset about the JTMS unban. I hear that the M25 connection feels shady and I think most of us are open to some suspicious speculation about this. But I also see a lot of dissatisfaction based on JTMS's metagame positioning or prospects. This is what I don't understand. How are people so sure this card is dangerous or format-warping? Have you actually tested it? I don't think we have any clue what this card will do, which probably means it will be merely good like many other powerful Modern staples. So where is all this confident hate coming from?
"I was on the fence about unbanning Jace, the Mind Sculptor but interested in giving the planeswalker a trial run. After playing our match and being reminded of just how powerful Jace is, it's hard to imagine it being allowed to run wild in Modern. While a midrange deck like Jund is a good matchup for Jace, the Mind Sculptor—and it's certainly true that a four-mana planeswalker isn't all that scary against decks like Affinity, Storm, and Tron—if Jace, the Mind Sculptor is unbanned, it would push all the midrange and control decks toward running it and probably reduce the diversity of the format."
He did some very light testing to come to that conclusion,
"Very light testing"? The guy played a single game. That was it. Okay, technically it was three games, but only one actually involved Jace, so that's fundamentally one game of testing. Calling that "very light testing" is being exceedingly generous.
but the doubt is against Jace, by default, because of what I remember him doing in standard during Worldwake block.
Who cares what he did in Standard? It's a substantially smaller format in which cards will often take over and be the best just because there weren't valid answers to them, answers that there frequently are in Modern. I mean, if we go by what cards did in Standard, then we'd better get rid of Attune with Aether straightaway in Modern!
I have to point out that your basis for players wanted an umban is shaky at best. Not only did that thread show that people in the thread could not agree on what they wanted unbanned with only blood braid and stoneforge having more voters wanting them unbanned than banned, but the premis of the thread entices people who want some sort of change. Obviously the meta was healthy so there were a reasonable amount of people who thought a banning was unnecessary so they either voted this, or ignored the thread entirely. Sencondly there were 36 options for cards to un ban vs half that for cards to ban meaning there are that many more chances for someone to who is voting to not choose no cards unbanned. It is an observational survey with the only reward being to see your pet card win which doesn't exactly have the makings of a sound expirimental meathod. Those threads are for fun and should not be taken too seriously. I've mostly found it to be pod players arguing with twin players arguing with blue players arguing with jund players about why giving their deck more tools wouldn't be a bad thing. Wizards may have made a good call with the unban, I don't know, but lets not pretend that a mtgsalvation poll is representative of all competetive modern players.
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I think I have to cave and start rocking Jace TMS as at least a 2 of in UR Breach. A solid 4 drop next to Cryptic Command in our deck, digs deep for the combo, can buy time, annoy/screw draws and win which are all okay for this deck. In anticipation of seeing more Jace locally I will also move a Clique to the MD as a way to flash EOT or at draws to try to snag their Jaces. I don't think Jace is good enough to be the primary win condition but in this kind of shell I think it will shine.
I'm hoping we see spicy tech come up, I wanna see a Jace control deck ft. Notion Thief and Bitterblossom catch all those other Jace players off guard.
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RG BBE Ponza UX Eldrazi Tron UR Jace Breach
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I read it differently. I think Wizards is hoping JTMS gives slower decks the OPTION of a viable, slower win con. Currently, those decks basically NEED to resort to faster ones, which isn't as diversified as it could be if slower options were better. They aren't saying explosive win cons are bad. They just want slow decks to have a slow option if they want to run one.
Instead of a more true control solution.
Spirits
They aren't knocking those approaches. They just said they want other options (hence "yet another option") alongside explosive ones. There's no conspiracy theory or hidden barb against explosive win cons here. They are literally stating they want more options alongside the existing faster ones.
Spirits
Spirits
I can partially understand why Bloodbraid Elf was unbanned. Each season, people hoped they would see her again, only to be disappointed by her continued absence. I have a softspot for Jund. It didn't place top-8 in the last Rivals Pro Tour. However, Modern does not 'need' Jund to be the competitive and diverse format that it is now (or at least during the last Rivals Pro Tour). Abzan made top-8, albeit with some skepticism in it's consistency.
Jace being unbanned? This is blatant arms-dealing by Wizards. We know Wizards unbanned Jace to sell more 25th Anniversary product. The players are playing the cards, yet Wizards is playing the players. I hate this. To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, Wizards should have made no changes.
I entirely agree with Matt Sperling, "[Wizard's] is not just changing the weather, they're selling umbrellas."
That's giving a lot of credit to the company who also banned Twin and Top shortly after their respective reprints. I doubt they put that much foresight into the B&R list when it comes to new Masters sets.
Edit: And the same company who printed Stoneforge Mystic as a GP promo, marking the first ever non-Medern legal GP Promo since Modern was a format.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
And if we want to argue by article, then look here:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14445&writer=Seth Manfield&articledate=2-9-2018
That one is suggesting unbans for Jace and Bloodbraid Elf. And Seth Manfield (who wrote the cited article) is a legitimate pro player, whereas SaffronOlive is a self-described "jank brewer" (i.e. not really competitive) and the last notable placing I can find by Florian Koch is from mid-2016.
Except over 90% of the people who voted in this poll wanted unbans. There may have been disagreements on what cards to unban, but the players overwhelmingly showed they wanted unbans.
EDIT: Links fixed so they work right now.
How I took it as well. Honestly not bothered by these unbans in the slightest. I think the legendary status is a tinted lens people are viewing through.
To prove that we players are the deciding consumer base, we should purchase NO WotC product, most especially NO M25 product, if we do not like this decision. That's what I will do. This decision will not only result in me buying no WotC products but also no HASBRO products (as ultimately this is about enriching Hasbro shareholders), and I will now institute the card-buying moratorium on TCG Player and the local gaming store (sorry fellas). Last year I attended GenCon in Indy and spent a lot on games, much of that WotC/MTG product, and I played in some MTG events. I'm going again this August and will see that my money this year goes to anybody and everybody but Hasbro/WotC or ANY MtG related product, like signed playmats. I will only play MtG on the side, for free.
My thoughts on the unbans today:
1. I do not agree with the JTMS unban in Modern.
2. More than I don't agree w/ the unban, I don't agree w/ the timing or how it was rolled out, on back of two great Modern events showcasing the diversity of decks that people can choose to play.
3. Making him one of the face cards of M25 releasing in a month makes it impossible to communicate to me that this decision is for any reason other than to sell packs of WotC product. If you are gonna cash grab, maybe don't be so naked about it?
4. It's one thing to try and scam me and another thing entirely to be disingenuous about your reasons for the scam. WotC is NOT being transparent (see 3 above).
5. Today's decision is a step back from diversity, and a move to exclusion, not inclusion, of the player base in Modern.
6. It will result in a devolution of the Modern format (going backwards), not an evolution of it, b/c it will drive Midrange decks out of existence...they cannot compete when the opponent untaps w/ JTMS in play.
7. Speaking of Midrange, BBE isn't one of the 50-most played creatures in Legacy (checks in around 105). I think it's impact in Modern is far overstated. It whiffs too frequently in terms of hitting what you need when u need it. Have fun cascading into that worthless discard or removal spell. You'll get that more than you will hit that magic Lily or KCom.
8. I can't wait to see what happens when JTMS goes back on the ban list after M25 sales disappear.
I believe that when WotC screws its players the entire MtG community should feel the burn. I also don't believe in letting mega-corporations like Hasbro screw w/ my pocket book over toys/games. It's one thing to bend me over for the necessities in life like food, water, power, gasoline, stuff I have to buy, but when you start to fleece me over a GAME...I'm out. See, as much as I love games, I love the principle of not being fleeced even more.
Nobody is forcing you to play Jace, and you are throwing a fit over a card that could very well be in someone's hand as they get burned out on Turn 3.
Spirits
In hindsight all this overreaction is going to be funny, as Jace proves itself to be relatively fair. Tron, Bogles, Burn, Lantern, Storm, Ad Nauseum, Titanshift, and Affinity frankly aren't even a little scared of Jace, and would actually hope to see their opponents tap out on turn for nothing but brainstorm. How can a card that (more or less) blanks against over half the format be dangerous for the game?
Cmon now. That's silly.
Hard times.
Spirits
Admittedly I was more irritated about the unban since I viewed it through my Legacy lense. Then I remembered Modern doesn't have FoW, Daze, Counterspell, etc to protect him along with a much larger creature suite to be scared off and stopped giving a fishcake.
He'll have his place. When he's good, he'll be crazy good and well, that's fine.
Modern: Storm
Legacy: ANT
My reasons for disagreeing with Jace unban:
1. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Modern is the one format they've done right the last year and a half.
2. In light of Standard's failures, Standard's rotation backtrack, the FNM promo backtrack, the card stock quality issue, and crappy PR response to the judge/harassment issues, I don't trust WotC's recent decision-making. They should play it more conservative in the grand scheme of the game as a whole.
3. Lantern hasn't caused rounds/tournaments to drag longer, but guess what does? Brainstorm -> fetch -> rinse/repeat -> fateseal.
4. The unbans will likely reduce deck diversity in Modern as midrange consolidates around the unbans. Mardu, Abzan, CoCo, EldraziTron, RG Eldrazi, and Shadow are all at risk. What do you get in return? A tier 1 Jund and U/X/x Control. Not a good trade-off if you care about diversity.
5. People will lose value on their cards/decks from Point 4.
5. This is a blatant cash grab with huge financial risk if they have to ban Jace again.
EDIT: Meant RG Eldrazi, not RG Tron.
This should have been on everybody's radar for quite some time. Jace was never going to be less than $50, so buying them slowly over time is a fairly low risk. Even if he was never unbanned, he could be turned around and sold back for minimal (if any) loss.
Want to talk about getting burned? How about $6 AVs jumping to $200 playsets? Jace's jump has been barely 200%, and already falling. AV jumped over 800% and currently sits in my binder, unplayed, as an expensive reminder to buy into banned cards preemptively.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Spirits
...and I said Bloodbraid Elf , the highest voted card in the poll, is understandable. Jace, The Mind Sculptor ? I'm not convinced that the players wanted him unbanned more than Wizards. This is a problem. I think the players should decide, not Wizards, but that's my opinion.
Quote from SaffronOlive in this article.
"I was on the fence about unbanning Jace, the Mind Sculptor but interested in giving the planeswalker a trial run. After playing our match and being reminded of just how powerful Jace is, it's hard to imagine it being allowed to run wild in Modern. While a midrange deck like Jund is a good matchup for Jace, the Mind Sculptor—and it's certainly true that a four-mana planeswalker isn't all that scary against decks like Affinity, Storm, and Tron—if Jace, the Mind Sculptor is unbanned, it would push all the midrange and control decks toward running it and probably reduce the diversity of the format."
He did some very light testing to come to that conclusion, but the doubt is against Jace, by default, because of what I remember him doing in standard during Worldwake block. Wizard's is playing a dangerous game by unbanning him, in my opinion.
Spirits
Now, you may point to the fact that a majority didn't want Jace unbanned due to the poll, but he was still the 4th most popular choice and I wouldn't be surprised if some people who would have been fine with him elected not to vote because they didn't want to simultaneously ban him and Stoneforge or Twin and thus voted for those instead. At any rate, unbanning Jace was a significantly more popular answer than "no changes."
Sure, the poll has limitations. It's only from one site and was hardly conducted in a scientific fashion. But it's the best data I know of in regards to this, certainly much better than what you cited as proof for your claim.
"Very light testing"? The guy played a single game. That was it. Okay, technically it was three games, but only one actually involved Jace, so that's fundamentally one game of testing. Calling that "very light testing" is being exceedingly generous.
Who cares what he did in Standard? It's a substantially smaller format in which cards will often take over and be the best just because there weren't valid answers to them, answers that there frequently are in Modern. I mean, if we go by what cards did in Standard, then we'd better get rid of Attune with Aether straightaway in Modern!
I'm hoping we see spicy tech come up, I wanna see a Jace control deck ft. Notion Thief and Bitterblossom catch all those other Jace players off guard.
RG BBE Ponza
UX Eldrazi Tron
UR Jace Breach