Lately, Modern community members have expressed interest in talking holistically about the challenges and problems facing Modern. Whether or not Modern has "challenges" or "problems" is up for debate, but what is clear is that people want to talk about all of these issues in one unified setting.
As such, Modern staff are opening this thread as a replacement for the old "Banlist Discussion" thread and the "State of the Meta thread." You can use this thread to talk about any and all of these varied Modern issues and their intersection. This thread will be heavily moderated, so be sure to read the rules before posting; anyone who posts in this thread is assumed to have read and understood these rules.
Allowed topics
Bans, unbans, and all things related to the banlist and banlist policy
Metagame health and diversity
Reprint suggestions and reprint philosophy
New cards and design philosophy
Prices and Modern finance
Archetype definitions
Format health, successes, and challenges
Anything that constructively relates to these different issues
Here are some reasons that cards are banned in Modern:
Some cards enable a top tier deck to consistently win on turn 3 or earlier. Because this violates the "turn 4" rule of the format, the following cards have been banned:
Other cards have been banned because they make certain decks too consistent/reliable and thus stagnate the format. Here are some examples of these cards:
Some cards, currently only one, are banned because they were just mistakes. This card is one of the most broken cards of all time and has been banned in almost every format where it was or is legal:
There are also some cards that were banned for logistical reasons. These cards made tournaments last too long and were banned to make events run smoother. They were not necessarily banned for power reasons.
They're keeping Modern safe by protecting us from the horrors of a 4/4 lifelinker, a mediocre cantrip, and good win condition for Blue Moon. It's for our own good! Those things are WAY worse than all the obnoxious degeneracy we have already!
Why? They almost always wait 1 year after significant changes before doing anything. We have a new set releasing that will undoubtedly have Modern impact, including cards deliberately designed to benefit Modern players and decks. I don't see a reason to hate Wizards over an expected no-changes update when the format is in such good shape. It's yet another endorsement that Modern is stable and healthy.
That said, there are zero good reasons for a card to not be unbanned in February. Of course, barring major metagame shifts. That would be a fine time to look at SFM or GSZ. If Wizards doesn't act then, I think many players would be justifiably upset. But right now, Wizards just gave Modern a bevvy of new cards in Guilds and "no changes" continues our 2.5+ year running narrative of a healthy format despite the vocal criticisms and minority naysayers arguing to the contrary.
ktk: Because there are cards that should not be banned, and a flat 1 liner 'No Changes to Any Format' is lazy in the extreme.
Show your work Wizards, tell me why. If they actually made an argument, maybe I would understand it. They dont though.
I am more than happy with what Blue is doing now.
I am more than happy with new cards coming in and doing work. They ALWAYS DO.
I am close to happy with the decks I have to play, but not really.
I am sick of the garbage that gets to exist, while contrasted with what doesnt.
I can understand WotC's perspective and actions on this. Even if they do give an explanation, we'll have self-designated MtG experts passionately typing about how the game is being ruined. WotC would be wasting their time trying to explain, even if they gave the data they have from MTGO. The format is fine right now.
I can understand WotC's perspective and actions on this. Even if they do give an explanation, we'll have self-designated MtG experts passionately typing about how the game is being ruined. WotC would be wasting their time trying to explain, even if they gave the data they have from MTGO. The format is fine right now.
You believe that there is zero chance they could explain, with MTGO data, their reasoning, and that it would be accepted by at least some people?
I find that indefensible. When they post with MTGO data 'hey folks these standard decks are 55/45 pre-board, and even better after, we need to ban something' thats just logic.
If they did even half of that for why they cannot unban some cards, that would go a very long way.
I agree that that would be logic, and would make sense. But even if WotC provides their logic and evidence, that doesn't necessarily correlate to players in general being logical about their criticisms. That won't necessarily stop people from complaining, and may just change what they complain about. In my experience, most players seem to only accept data-driven arguments when the data supports their prior opinion. If the data doesn't correlate to support their opinion, they seem much more likely to look for a flaw in the data and resort to their prior opinion (often based on little to no data, only conjecture). People, in general, seem much more comfortable with their conjecture than any sort of data that conflicts with their opinion. Even in cases where it's clearly irrational to try to argue with the data, many will simply come up with more conjecture about some possible "solution". It's sort of like the whole "god of the gaps", but in Magic. There really is little or no point in reasoning with people who refuse to reason.
What you are discussing is banning. They can't have numbers to back a decision on *unbanning*. No one plays modern with banned cards on MTGO.
Unbanning can only be backed up by gut feeling and long winded unterminable threads about why a card should be unbanned. (Or stay banned, depending on where you sit.) thnkr is right, and the first few posts of this thread proves it.
They're keeping Modern safe by protecting us from the horrors of a 4/4 lifelinker, a mediocre cantrip, and good win condition for Blue Moon. It's for our own good! Those things are WAY worse than all the obnoxious degeneracy we have already!
With UW being so good now, Stoneforge is a lot riskier than it was a few months B&R announcements ago, and I think its a good descion to wait out at least another B&R announcement especially since the new set just came out. However, I gotta say, saying its just a 4/4 lifelinker is very disingenuous.
On your "obnoxious degeneracy" statement:
I assume you mean Hallow One, Storm, and KCI, which are the 3 most successful degenerate decks.
Lets just take MTG goldfish top 10 decks:
3 Aggro: Humans, Hardened Scales, Hallow One.
2 Midrange: Jund, Mardu Pyro
2 Combo: Burn, Storm
3 Control/ Tempo: UW Control, Spirits, Tron
I would say out of those, 2 or 3 are degenerate, if you include Tron. If you count burn as combo, thats 2 combo decks in the in the top 10, 2-3 degenerate if you are including tron and hallow one . The distribution of each archtype looks very healthy, even if you go further into the top 15-20 decks. I'd even guess that going further into the top 20 decks, the percentage becomes better for "fair" decks
What you are discussing is banning. They can't have numbers to back a decision on *unbanning*. No one plays modern with banned cards on MTGO.
Unbanning can only be backed up by gut feeling and long winded unterminable threads about why a card should be unbanned. (Or stay banned, depending on where you sit.) thnkr is right, and the first few posts of this thread proves it.
No?
You could easily provide backing with numbers and say 'you know what we goofed'.
What you are discussing is banning. They can't have numbers to back a decision on *unbanning*. No one plays modern with banned cards on MTGO.
Unbanning can only be backed up by gut feeling and long winded unterminable threads about why a card should be unbanned. (Or stay banned, depending on where you sit.) thnkr is right, and the first few posts of this thread proves it.
No?
You could easily provide backing with numbers and say 'you know what we goofed'.
You are providing no arguments on HOW exactly they should give numbers. We saw test results from the community on testing banned cards and they proved to be either wrong or too anecdotal to have any meaningful impact (e.g. Jace bringing down all midrange decks).
Also, "we goofed" is not something that you can say or that is actually true. At the time of banning of some of these cards the bans might had been reasonable. Now, several years later, in a different environment, you can't look back 7 years ago and say "we goofed", how could had they known?
I honestly don't get why "no changes" is lazy. The BASELINE for every BnR announcement should be no changes, and changes should happen only to address issues. Currently there are no issues with the format.
I honestly don't get why "no changes" is lazy. The BASELINE for every BnR announcement should be no changes, and changes should happen only to address issues. Currently there are no issues with the format.
"No Changes" in of itself isn't necessarily lazy. What's lazy is not a single word about the state of any format whatsoever. No nod to things going well, no caution about things to look for, no analysis of current affairs and no hint at future activity. The post is almost like they forgot one was coming and prepared nothing for it. Lazy.
I honestly don't get why "no changes" is lazy. The BASELINE for every BnR announcement should be no changes, and changes should happen only to address issues. Currently there are no issues with the format.
"No Changes" in of itself isn't necessarily lazy. What's lazy is not a single word about the state of any format whatsoever. No nod to things going well, no caution about things to look for, no analysis of current affairs and no hint at future activity. The post is almost like they forgot one was coming and prepared nothing for it. Lazy.
yeah woould be ok if they atleast discussed how current meta is going which is why they are not doing anything and maybe cards to watch out for.
This thread is full of idiots... Lightning Bolt is NOT being reprinted.
Many times has a writer in Wizards said so, because of the plain and simple fact that it's too powerful for what it costs. x/3 creatures shouldn't be able to die at instant speed for one mana without a signifigant drawback. (like PTE giving you a land)
I absolutely guarantee that LB will not be printed in M10, and you can quote me on that.
I honestly don't get why "no changes" is lazy. The BASELINE for every BnR announcement should be no changes, and changes should happen only to address issues. Currently there are no issues with the format.
This goes back to what has been mentioned many times previous.
If 'no issues with the format' = no banlist changes, meaning no cards are REMOVED from the ban list. To not get a breakdown at least of how Wizards believes the format's to be, means we are simply in the dark, even more so in this age of no data.
They should honestly cancel the announcements all together in this case. It adds nothing.
I think the reason is that the new set just came out. I really see no point of this date for the B&R announcement and the next date of Nov 26th is much better.
But think about it this way, they cant comment on Standard as it just got a new rotation. Modern hasn't changed and looks healthy. The only real thing they can comment on is Legacy with probe being banned.
They don't want to give reasons because fans might hold that against them so they only give details when the have to ie when something gets banned or is unbanned.
I think the reason is that the new set just came out. I really see no point of this date for the B&R announcement and the next date of Nov 26th is much better.
But think about it this way, they cant comment on Standard as it just got a new rotation. Modern hasn't changed and looks healthy. The only real thing they can comment on is Legacy with probe being banned.
I dont care about Standard. At all, in any capacity. What is going to change between now and Nov 26th? Maybe Runaway Steam-Kin is another busted pseudo-storm deck? Maybe Trophy obliterates all (it wont) and BGx takes over as 20% meta king? Maybe Creeping Chill further promotes a goldfish Dredge deck?
I mean..I guess, but what do they do? Unban a 1/2 for 2 that may put an artifact into play if it lives? Scary.
I think the reason is that the new set just came out.
They banned Gitaxian Probe in order to hit small creature pump aggro decks, right as Fatal Push was printed, which hits every single creature in every single deck that ran Probe. They do not care whatsoever about new cards impacting B&R decisions.
With the benefit of hindsight, SFM is not coming off while UW is a tier 1 deck. It's like, here is a deck whose strength lies in the lategame, now let's give it a tool to make its early-game better, so it can be good at all stages of the game, also keep in mind this deck is already tier 1 now...I just don't see the sense in that.
GSZ is another one I don't understand why people love so much. The issue with Chord/Company decks is that their best starts are off a T1 mana dork, but those same mana dorks are horrible topdecks in the late-game. Putting GSZ in those decks means you can have 8 mana dorks for turn 1 and only 4 dead draws late-game. There are some consistency issues it introduces (drawing your Dryad Arbor, not being hittable off Company - but GSZ is replacing a dork, and flipping a dork off Company is not great either), but I don't believe those outweigh the flexibility of GSZ.
One card that I think could come off is Punishing Fire.
1) Humans needs another check
2) Jund is not great even after BBE (we'll have to see how much Assassin's Trophy helps it)
3) Tron has moved to mono-G (though it could move back to RG, not dismissing that possibility immediately. Anything other than mono-green is weaker to Field of Ruin though.)
4) Loam (currently a tier 5 deck) benefits from it. Definitely don't think it'll break Loam, it's reliant on the graveyard and not a fast deck, so you have more time to draw into your RIP or whatever.
5) The other two slow CA engines (Bitterblossom and Sword of the Meek) have been unbanned and have not broken the format.
KCI has Grove already, but I don't think they'll play Fire, given they already maindeck 3 Stirrable board wipes that double as combo pieces.
The biggest question mark is 2). If Jund continues to underperform and Humans remains dominant, Punishing Fire could be reintroduced. I certainly feel it's a safer anti-aggro card than SFM when UW is still tier 1.
Even if they unban nothing, I simply want to know why. An overview like izzetmage provides above is all I am asking for, though adding some numbers, historical context, something, would be appreciated.
Either way, not worth talking about as clearly Wizards cant be bothered and we dont get a modern event until October 20th...huge 'zzzzzzzzzzzzz'.
UW is doing well because it runs 4x Terminus. You think a 4 Terminus deck is going to cut 6-7 slots for a creature? Never mind a laughably weak one in today's meta?
They banned Gitaxian Probe in order to hit small creature pump aggro decks, right as Fatal Push was printed, which hits every single creature in every single deck that ran Probe. They do not care whatsoever about new cards impacting B&R decisions.
My point is that they shouldn't have had the date set for Oct 1st, and the next one just makes much more sense.
They banned Gitaxian Probe in order to hit small creature pump aggro decks, right as Fatal Push was printed, which hits every single creature in every single deck that ran Probe. They do not care whatsoever about new cards impacting B&R decisions.
My point is that they shouldn't have had the date set for Oct 1st, and the next one just makes much more sense.
They purposefully moved the BR announcements to coincide with set releases. New cards being printed should rarely impact what is going on or coming off the list unless there is an obvious reason a new card interacts poorly with an existing card. There just isn't time to test very much by the time the set is released.
As for data to support the choice of no changes, it should be included. Just because we have members here like ktk to dig into the wealth of tournament data and compile stats for us, doesn't mean everyone does. I'm going to assume the vast majority of modern players at a competitive level are pretty well plugged in, but for those that aren't and rely on wizards specially, they should back it up with at least something. It could even be vague, if only to point the person to a general direction.
Modern has seena good bit of flux recently imho. Humans, spirits, hollow one, and even death shadow decks are relatively young compared to tron, burn, affinity, elves etc. I have no doubts that the format will continue to evolve. The faster the change, the more risky an unban is imo because you can't gauge the impact as easily.
I'm also in agreement with more impactful BR announcements will take place alongside supplementary products which may in luxe some of these prices. They are in it to turn a profit after all. JTMS has also set precedence. They claimed it was for volume, but I'm skeptical. That seems like a noble rider on an otherwise profit based decision to push a set with poor value otherwise.
"Modern is in a pretty good spot" and "Cards could and should come off the banned list" are not mutually exclusive, nor dependent on each other. One being true should have no impact on the other. People thought the format was going to come to an end with Jace, The Mind Sculptor unbanned, and it pretty much did nothing until paired with exactly Teferi, Field of Ruin, Opt, and Terminus, and is STILL not anywhere close to dominant.
Perhaps many of the fears and risks are being assessed by people who are incredibly terrible at evaluating cards and decks...
Lately, Modern community members have expressed interest in talking holistically about the challenges and problems facing Modern. Whether or not Modern has "challenges" or "problems" is up for debate, but what is clear is that people want to talk about all of these issues in one unified setting.
As such, Modern staff are opening this thread as a replacement for the old "Banlist Discussion" thread and the "State of the Meta thread." You can use this thread to talk about any and all of these varied Modern issues and their intersection. This thread will be heavily moderated, so be sure to read the rules before posting; anyone who posts in this thread is assumed to have read and understood these rules.
Allowed topics
Prohibited topics and behavior
The mod team will strictly enforce these rules. Please make this a place where people are unafraid to post constructive thoughts.
Update from the October 1, 2018 B&R Announcement:
No Changes
Next B&R Announcement:
November 26, 2018
Current DCI Modern Banned List
Here are some reasons that cards are banned in Modern:
Second Sunrise
The following are links to WotC's in-depth explanations as to why cards have or have not gotten banned since the beginning of the format:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf unbanned
October 2017: No changes
March 2017: No changes
Gitaxian Probe and Golgari Grave-Troll are banned
Eye of Ugin banned, Ancestral Vision and Sword of the Meek unbanned
Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin banned
Birthing Pod/Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time banned, Golgari Grave-Troll unbanned
Bitterblossom/Nacatl unbanned. DRS banned
Addition of Second Sunrise
Addition of Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song
Removal of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3rd Banned List change with explanations
2nd Banned List change with explanations
1st Banned List change with explanations
Community Cup Announcement with the Initial Ban List.
Old threads:
08/20/2018 - 01/10/2018
07/02/2018 - 08/20/2018
04/16/2018 - 07/02/2018
02/10/2018 - 04/16/2018
01/15/2017 - 02/10/2018
10/27/2017 - 01/15/2017
7/18/2017 - 10/27/2017
3/23/2017 - 4/24/2017
3/13/2017 - 3/23/2017
1/9/17 Banlist Update
12/8/2016 - 3/13/2017
9/28/2016 - 12/10/2016
7/18/2016 - 9/30/2016
4/4/2016 - 7/18/2016
1/16/2016 - 4/4/2016
7/13/2015 - 1/16/2016
1/19/2015 - 7/13/2015
7/14/2014 - 1/19/2015
2/9/2014 - 7/14/2014
1/20/2014 - 2/10/2014
6/23/2014 - 1/20/2014
4/22/2013 - 6/23/213
1/27/2013 - 4/22/13
9/20/2012 - 1/27/2013
7/19/2012 - 9/20/2012
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
They're keeping Modern safe by protecting us from the horrors of a 4/4 lifelinker, a mediocre cantrip, and good win condition for Blue Moon. It's for our own good! Those things are WAY worse than all the obnoxious degeneracy we have already!
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
ktk: Because there are cards that should not be banned, and a flat 1 liner 'No Changes to Any Format' is lazy in the extreme.
Show your work Wizards, tell me why. If they actually made an argument, maybe I would understand it. They dont though.
I am more than happy with what Blue is doing now.
I am more than happy with new cards coming in and doing work. They ALWAYS DO.
I am close to happy with the decks I have to play, but not really.
I am sick of the garbage that gets to exist, while contrasted with what doesnt.
Spirits
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
You believe that there is zero chance they could explain, with MTGO data, their reasoning, and that it would be accepted by at least some people?
I find that indefensible. When they post with MTGO data 'hey folks these standard decks are 55/45 pre-board, and even better after, we need to ban something' thats just logic.
If they did even half of that for why they cannot unban some cards, that would go a very long way.
Spirits
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Spirits
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
Unbanning can only be backed up by gut feeling and long winded unterminable threads about why a card should be unbanned. (Or stay banned, depending on where you sit.) thnkr is right, and the first few posts of this thread proves it.
With UW being so good now, Stoneforge is a lot riskier than it was a few months B&R announcements ago, and I think its a good descion to wait out at least another B&R announcement especially since the new set just came out. However, I gotta say, saying its just a 4/4 lifelinker is very disingenuous.
On your "obnoxious degeneracy" statement:
I assume you mean Hallow One, Storm, and KCI, which are the 3 most successful degenerate decks.
Lets just take MTG goldfish top 10 decks:
3 Aggro: Humans, Hardened Scales, Hallow One.
2 Midrange: Jund, Mardu Pyro
2 Combo: Burn, Storm
3 Control/ Tempo: UW Control, Spirits, Tron
I would say out of those, 2 or 3 are degenerate, if you include Tron. If you count burn as combo, thats 2 combo decks in the in the top 10, 2-3 degenerate if you are including tron and hallow one . The distribution of each archtype looks very healthy, even if you go further into the top 15-20 decks. I'd even guess that going further into the top 20 decks, the percentage becomes better for "fair" decks
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
No?
You could easily provide backing with numbers and say 'you know what we goofed'.
Spirits
Also, "we goofed" is not something that you can say or that is actually true. At the time of banning of some of these cards the bans might had been reasonable. Now, several years later, in a different environment, you can't look back 7 years ago and say "we goofed", how could had they known?
I honestly don't get why "no changes" is lazy. The BASELINE for every BnR announcement should be no changes, and changes should happen only to address issues. Currently there are no issues with the format.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
"No Changes" in of itself isn't necessarily lazy. What's lazy is not a single word about the state of any format whatsoever. No nod to things going well, no caution about things to look for, no analysis of current affairs and no hint at future activity. The post is almost like they forgot one was coming and prepared nothing for it. Lazy.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
yeah woould be ok if they atleast discussed how current meta is going which is why they are not doing anything and maybe cards to watch out for.
“Homo homini lupus est.”
This goes back to what has been mentioned many times previous.
If 'no issues with the format' = no banlist changes, meaning no cards are REMOVED from the ban list. To not get a breakdown at least of how Wizards believes the format's to be, means we are simply in the dark, even more so in this age of no data.
They should honestly cancel the announcements all together in this case. It adds nothing.
Spirits
But think about it this way, they cant comment on Standard as it just got a new rotation. Modern hasn't changed and looks healthy. The only real thing they can comment on is Legacy with probe being banned.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
So no impressions and no data allowed any more...
I dont care about Standard. At all, in any capacity. What is going to change between now and Nov 26th? Maybe Runaway Steam-Kin is another busted pseudo-storm deck? Maybe Trophy obliterates all (it wont) and BGx takes over as 20% meta king? Maybe Creeping Chill further promotes a goldfish Dredge deck?
I mean..I guess, but what do they do? Unban a 1/2 for 2 that may put an artifact into play if it lives? Scary.
Spirits
They banned Gitaxian Probe in order to hit small creature pump aggro decks, right as Fatal Push was printed, which hits every single creature in every single deck that ran Probe. They do not care whatsoever about new cards impacting B&R decisions.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
With the benefit of hindsight, SFM is not coming off while UW is a tier 1 deck. It's like, here is a deck whose strength lies in the lategame, now let's give it a tool to make its early-game better, so it can be good at all stages of the game, also keep in mind this deck is already tier 1 now...I just don't see the sense in that.
GSZ is another one I don't understand why people love so much. The issue with Chord/Company decks is that their best starts are off a T1 mana dork, but those same mana dorks are horrible topdecks in the late-game. Putting GSZ in those decks means you can have 8 mana dorks for turn 1 and only 4 dead draws late-game. There are some consistency issues it introduces (drawing your Dryad Arbor, not being hittable off Company - but GSZ is replacing a dork, and flipping a dork off Company is not great either), but I don't believe those outweigh the flexibility of GSZ.
One card that I think could come off is Punishing Fire.
1) Humans needs another check
2) Jund is not great even after BBE (we'll have to see how much Assassin's Trophy helps it)
3) Tron has moved to mono-G (though it could move back to RG, not dismissing that possibility immediately. Anything other than mono-green is weaker to Field of Ruin though.)
4) Loam (currently a tier 5 deck) benefits from it. Definitely don't think it'll break Loam, it's reliant on the graveyard and not a fast deck, so you have more time to draw into your RIP or whatever.
5) The other two slow CA engines (Bitterblossom and Sword of the Meek) have been unbanned and have not broken the format.
KCI has Grove already, but I don't think they'll play Fire, given they already maindeck 3 Stirrable board wipes that double as combo pieces.
The biggest question mark is 2). If Jund continues to underperform and Humans remains dominant, Punishing Fire could be reintroduced. I certainly feel it's a safer anti-aggro card than SFM when UW is still tier 1.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Either way, not worth talking about as clearly Wizards cant be bothered and we dont get a modern event until October 20th...huge 'zzzzzzzzzzzzz'.
Spirits
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
I really like that idea
My point is that they shouldn't have had the date set for Oct 1st, and the next one just makes much more sense.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
They purposefully moved the BR announcements to coincide with set releases. New cards being printed should rarely impact what is going on or coming off the list unless there is an obvious reason a new card interacts poorly with an existing card. There just isn't time to test very much by the time the set is released.
As for data to support the choice of no changes, it should be included. Just because we have members here like ktk to dig into the wealth of tournament data and compile stats for us, doesn't mean everyone does. I'm going to assume the vast majority of modern players at a competitive level are pretty well plugged in, but for those that aren't and rely on wizards specially, they should back it up with at least something. It could even be vague, if only to point the person to a general direction.
Modern has seena good bit of flux recently imho. Humans, spirits, hollow one, and even death shadow decks are relatively young compared to tron, burn, affinity, elves etc. I have no doubts that the format will continue to evolve. The faster the change, the more risky an unban is imo because you can't gauge the impact as easily.
I'm also in agreement with more impactful BR announcements will take place alongside supplementary products which may in luxe some of these prices. They are in it to turn a profit after all. JTMS has also set precedence. They claimed it was for volume, but I'm skeptical. That seems like a noble rider on an otherwise profit based decision to push a set with poor value otherwise.
Perhaps many of the fears and risks are being assessed by people who are incredibly terrible at evaluating cards and decks...
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate