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.
Ding dong the Looting is dead!! I'm keeping the 3 Surgical in every sideboard because it does heavy lifting against a ton of decks, but it will be nice to not have to mainboard them
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Project Booster Fun makes it less fun to open a booster.
hmm not the biggest fan of the looting ban, a lot of fun decks used that. Cool to see stoneforge finally get set free though.
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Commander: UBG Tasigur, the lab enabler UR Planeswalker Control UBRW Breya's personal box of combos BRW Vampire beats, by Dre 1 Karn, where all lands are command towers UBR Inalla's Venser lock UBRGW Atog Atog contraption tribal WUB Xur's second chance UGW Derivi, bird tribal R Brother's Yamazaki BRG Prosh, the scourge of multiplayer GW Capt. Sisay's Deck Dumping Service UB All Your Spells do Belong to Me UG Tapioca Pearl BG Meren's grinder
As a player who has two decks with looting, i can only say: "Thanks for the first step in the right direction."
Even after loosing a card from my decks i think, for the health of modern, that was necessary. Next time Mox Opal, random tron land and Ancient Stirrings getting banned please and free Punishing Fire.
With this ban does that mean Tron will be on the rise and become the dominate deck of the format? What also does this mean for the rest of modern with looting going away?
I think the bans were all spot on, to be frank. As for tron, the Urza lands need to get banned, but that is a completely different subject.
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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 think you will see a rise in eldrazi tron and people shift back to humans and spirits. Urza is still well positioned and with gy based strats being hindered jund may see a resurgence.
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Tooth & Nail........Grishoalbrand....Living Dominance....Tezzerator.........Vannifar Pod
My Decks that have been BANNED
DRS Jund | Kiki-Pod | Bloom Titan | Splinter Twin | KCI
After sleeping on it, I think it's a good ban because it will nerf arclight phoenix.
It does feel bad that cheaper decks like dredge, hollow one, and mardu pyromancer took collateral damage.
UR Phoenix can still function, which is nice. But I think the mono red version might be killed off.
Urza likely gets much stronger with the addition of SFM.
Tron gets an indirect buff from lack of fast combo decks that kept it in check.
Modern loses a combo card and gains a midrange card. It's a double imbalance.
The format was very linear while control / midrange had to find its narrow spot in the mix. Now Wizards tells us "we want the opposite : midrange / control are here to fill the room, and combo decks need other ways to predate the metagame".
In my opinion that's a very interesting take.
The second intention seems to be : release the tension in the sideboards. This is a clear plus in favor of the format.
Finally, I like the fact they're not afraid to unban and observe what SFM can do. They can still ban it again like they did with Golgari Grave Troll. People (pros included) are very prolific and often mediocre at speculating about cards, but nothing's better than put the beast in the arena and look in the eye of Reality.
I as a Humans player will suffer from the Tron popularity and various SFM control decks, but I'll enjoy what is one of the biggest shift in Modern in long time.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
I think banning looting is just reckless. If I understand this corectly, banning looting makes these decks unplayable:
- Mardu Pyromancer
- UR Phoenix/ Mono Red Phoenix
- Grixis Goryo's Vengence
- Dredge
- Hollowed One
This is going after way too many decks at the same time. I think they should have just banned Hogaak and unbanned stone forge and left it there.
I feel that while it's unfortunate that there were so many decks that had to suffer because of the sins of Hogaak, I feel that looting just caused too many decks to be absurd in dredge, Hogaak (by that dredge vine as well) and even Hollow one. TBH even though I had success playing Mardu Pyro, I certainly won't be missing the other decks being weakened by the ban
I think people are discussing izzet charm in izzet phoenix which is a lot slower but mono red might be out of luck
I think this might be my second favourite B and R update behind the JTMS/BBE unban
I think banning looting is just reckless. If I understand this corectly, banning looting makes these decks unplayable:
- Mardu Pyromancer
- UR Phoenix/ Mono Red Phoenix
- Grixis Goryo's Vengence
- Dredge
- Hollowed One
This is going after way too many decks at the same time. I think they should have just banned Hogaak and unbanned stone forge and left it there.
I feel that while it's unfortunate that there were so many decks that had to suffer because of the sins of Hogaak, I feel that looting just caused too many decks to be absurd in dredge, Hogaak (by that dredge vine as well) and even Hollow one. TBH even though I had success playing Mardu Pyro, I certainly won't be missing the other decks being weakened by the ban
I think people are discussing izzet charm in izzet phoenix which is a lot slower but mono red might be out of luck
I think this might be my second favourite B and R update behind the JTMS/BBE unban
I also like to point out:
- Ancient Stirrings
- Mox Opal
(Explicitly mentioned in a B&R as dangerous cards)
- Cavern of Souls
- Goryo's Vengeance
(Discussed extensively on forums as potentially dangerous cards)
Considering how wide reaching this faithless looting ban is and how they have explicitly discussed Mox Opal and Ancient Stirrings as potentially dangerous cards, I think its not unreasonable to expect a Mox Opal/ Stirrings ban in the near future.
I'm not too unhappy about the bannings. Kind of surprised they didn't just ban Ancient Stirrings with Faithless Looting though. This banning makes it the most powerful cantrip in Modern. Ponder for 5 was pretty busted, it's a surprise it outlasted Faithless Looting! I would say that is the next most problematic card that gets axed. I'm not really worried about Mox Opal as much honestly. As powerful as it is, it's still Legendary artifact. Affinity burns through it's recourses pretty quick. Being able to use the extra mana or two to tutor out something from the top of your deck is the degenerate play pattern. I would argue Simian Spirit Guide is more problematic in the fast mana department. I don't actually play Affinity myself so maybe I am missing some perspective on it's power level.
Also, I can't wait to watch someone Leroy Jenkins a Stoneforge Mystic into a turn 3 Karn. It's going to happen and that's going to be hilarious!
I think banning looting is just reckless. If I understand this corectly, banning looting makes these decks unplayable:
- Mardu Pyromancer
- UR Phoenix/ Mono Red Phoenix
- Grixis Goryo's Vengence
- Dredge
- Hollowed One
This is going after way too many decks at the same time. I think they should have just banned Hogaak and unbanned stone forge and left it there.
I feel that while it's unfortunate that there were so many decks that had to suffer because of the sins of Hogaak, I feel that looting just caused too many decks to be absurd in dredge, Hogaak (by that dredge vine as well) and even Hollow one. TBH even though I had success playing Mardu Pyro, I certainly won't be missing the other decks being weakened by the ban
I think people are discussing izzet charm in izzet phoenix which is a lot slower but mono red might be out of luck
I think this might be my second favourite B and R update behind the JTMS/BBE unban
I also like to point out:
- Ancient Stirrings
- Mox Opal
(Explicitly mentioned in a B&R as dangerous cards)
- Cavern of Souls
- Goryo's Vengeance
(Discussed extensively on forums as potentially dangerous cards)
Considering how wide reaching this faithless looting ban is and how they have explicitly discussed Mox Opal and Ancient Stirrings as potentially dangerous cards, I think its not unreasonable to expect a Mox Opal/ Stirrings ban in the near future.
I think that mox opal and ancient stirrings have been cards that people have complained about for almost as long as I started playing modern in 2015, so maybe if looting got the ban hammer then their time is coming soon
I would like to see cavern get banned as it makes weird gameplay IMO and makes control a bit worse against tribal decks but I think it's MUCH lower than the first 2 cards
I think that mox opal and ancient stirrings have been cards that people have complained about for almost as long as I started playing modern in 2015, so maybe if looting got the ban hammer then their time is coming soon
I would like to see cavern get banned as it makes weird gameplay IMO and makes control a bit worse against tribal decks but I think it's MUCH lower than the first 2 cards
I think Goryo might be alot safer now without Faithless Looting.
Its pretty clear that with the Faithless Looting Ban/ Standard Energy + Ramnup Bans, Wizards is willing to more aggressively go after decks.
Why is it that no one complains about Mox Opal until something broken comes up or affinity does well. People have not stopped playing affinity and hardened scales and i dont hear anyone complaining. These decks still show up now and then and its totally fine with everyone. Its not until something like KCI comes up or affinity top 8s that people start complaining. This shows me that Mox Opal isnt the culprit its the cards that allow for broken things to happen as well as ppl only complain when they lose to a deck containing the card.
Ancient stirrings also isnt "broken" or OP. The main issue I see that people have with it is that green has too much power across many game mechanics, in this case cantripping being the one. I dont think ancient stirrings is too strong but I dont think its fair that blue gets all of its good cantripping spells banned while green can keep this powerful one even if it is one you have to build around. Most cantrips have to be built around anyways or youd see serum and opt in any deck that runs blue and thats not the case.
whats odd is theres a deck that uses both cards right now and no one has said a word about it.
I think the bannings were fair but leaning more towards the side of heavy handedness which isnt necessarily a bad thing. I just wish they were heavy handed in unbannings too not just with bannings.
Lastly, I think ppl already asking for ancient stirrings and mox opal bannings are simply whining at this point. Those two cards havent done anything and it remains to be seen what will come of the decks that run them. We just got some serious changes and asking for more right away is so typical of the community to never be satisfied with what is happening. I remember when people wanted death's shadow and bauble banned when the deck started making an appearance and thank God wotc ignored those pleas. I think everyone needs to chill out, enjoy the new meta and reevaluate their deck choice if they fear a tron meta.
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Modern RUAffinityUR GMono Green StompyG CEldrazi TronC URWJeskai GeistWRU WRBoros BurnRW BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
The reason KCI was so powerful was due to it being very strong against any hate. At first glace the deck seems like it should lose to graveyard hate and artifact hate. However, due to it maindecking 3-4 Engineered Explosives, easily slotting in any number of Nature's Claim and similar effects in the sideboard, and due to the deck's main point of recurring artifacts from the graveyard at instant speed, it basically dealt with everything. Ancient Stirrings only made the deck consistent, but the true power was in the core of the shell, nothing else. The question we need to ask is if Stirrings and Mox Opal make the deck broken or not, and in most cases, even in KCI I would say it isn't the case. I think in the same vein, one could even argue the same for Faithless Looting in the graveyard decks. Its the argument of enablers vs payoff.
However, Wotc did ban Looting because of the implications it could have on the future meta game, and how a card like looting can enable decks like Dredge to be super powerful and format warping. While I'd personally argue that Izzet Phoenix, while once the top deck or one of the top decks, it was on its last legs as a top tier deck at the time of the banning even with Hogaak gone. But by banning looting it overall slows down the format, so I guess its warranted to slow down the format and could, and probably so, will create a better format overall.
The thing is about banning cards in an eternal format, I am for only one criterion of banning: format warping. This is slightly vague but I will give two other criteria under the "format warping" title. (1) Meta game share and (2) homogenization of deck construction strategy. Hogaak is a good example of the first. It's obvious success across pretty much every tournament since its printing had a huge share of not just the overall meta game, but also the winning meta game. As for the second, we can look to cards like Ponder and Preordain for an example.
I'll reply to your quote:
I dont think its fair that blue gets all of its good cantripping spells banned while green can keep this powerful one even if it is one you have to build around
The reasoning here is incorrect. You even said it later yourself and how you can't simply put Ancient Stirrings and Mox Opal in any (green) deck, and how Serum Visions doesn't go into ever blue deck. While you are right about Opal and Stirrings, I think you are wrong about blue decks and its cantrips. Serum Visions doesn't go into every blue deck because there aren't as many "pile" decks in Modern. The decks that do care about drawing do play Serum Visions, and there's a good chance that even the blue decks that don't currently run it would play a card like Ponder or even Preordain due to the immense increase in power compared to Serum Visions. In how the mechanics work with Fetch Lands, Serum Visions becomes a vastly inferior card compared to the other two. If we look to pretty much every blue deck that isn't a specific critical mass deck (e.g. Urza wants critical mass of artifacts, spirits wants creatures, etc), then I'd argue that they all would play Ponder or Preordain, as they all already are playing Serum. This then becomes format warping as we see in Legacy where most decks start with 52 cards after Brainstorm and Ponder.
Going back to my original criterion about banning cards, i'd like to share a quote I have shared in the past from Brian Kibler to show why I believe this is the only valid criterion:
"This is the problem with eternal formats. New interactions are going to keep coming up, new powerful things are going to keep happening If you're response is 'we're going to get rid of that one', then you are going to lose the point of having an eternal format. In Modern, people can't play the decks they've put together that they like and they want to play, which is really a lot of the appeal of the format to a lot of people."
7:13
We need to ask ourselves what is the point of an eternal format like Modern. To Kibler's point, Modern is there for us to play cards that were printed from 8th edition. If we take some other criterion than what I proposed, they we will continue to ride the ban carousal and continue to keep banning what ever deck is on top (e.g Pod, Splinter Twin), or what cards people simply don't like. As he says, new interactions will keep coming up, and yes, we sometimes need to ban these under strict criteria, but in the case of weaker arguments such as potential enabling of a certain strategy, we have to avoid that way of thinking.
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 August 26, 2019 B&R Announcement:
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis banned.
Faithless Looting is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is unbanned.
Next B&R Announcement:
October 7, 2019
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:
Hogaak, Faithless Lootings banned, Stoneforge unbanned.
Bridge from Below is banned
Krark-Clan Ironworks is banned
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:
08/07/2019 - 26/08/2019
20/05/2019 - 08/07/2019
11/03/2019 - 20/05/2019
21/01/2019 - 11/03/2019
26/11/2018 - 21/01/2019
01/10/2018 - 26/11/2018
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
Really?
There go a bunch of competitive and fun-to-play decks.
It's a very sad day in modern, today.
UBG Tasigur, the lab enabler UR Planeswalker Control
UBRW Breya's personal box of combos BRW Vampire beats, by Dre
1 Karn, where all lands are command towers UBR Inalla's Venser lock
UBRGW Atog Atog contraption tribal WUB Xur's second chance
UGW Derivi, bird tribal R Brother's Yamazaki
BRG Prosh, the scourge of multiplayer GW Capt. Sisay's Deck Dumping Service
UB All Your Spells do Belong to Me UG Tapioca Pearl
BG Meren's grinder
Told you so.
Even after loosing a card from my decks i think, for the health of modern, that was necessary. Next time Mox Opal, random tron land and Ancient Stirrings getting banned please and free Punishing Fire.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
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!
As a Dredge player, I don't care too much about the ban.
As a Mardu Pyromancer player, I'm sad to see the ban killing off my deck. However, I can now try to grind with SFM...so there's that.
Modern Dredge
Budget Dredge
Mardu Pyromancer
Belcher
Tooth & Nail........Grishoalbrand....Living Dominance....Tezzerator.........Vannifar Pod
My Decks that have been BANNED
DRS Jund | Kiki-Pod | Bloom Titan | Splinter Twin | KCI
The card should be banning is ancient stirrings, not the urza land.
It does feel bad that cheaper decks like dredge, hollow one, and mardu pyromancer took collateral damage.
Urza likely gets much stronger with the addition of SFM.
Tron gets an indirect buff from lack of fast combo decks that kept it in check.
Draft My Cube!
The format was very linear while control / midrange had to find its narrow spot in the mix. Now Wizards tells us "we want the opposite : midrange / control are here to fill the room, and combo decks need other ways to predate the metagame".
In my opinion that's a very interesting take.
The second intention seems to be : release the tension in the sideboards. This is a clear plus in favor of the format.
Finally, I like the fact they're not afraid to unban and observe what SFM can do. They can still ban it again like they did with Golgari Grave Troll. People (pros included) are very prolific and often mediocre at speculating about cards, but nothing's better than put the beast in the arena and look in the eye of Reality.
I as a Humans player will suffer from the Tron popularity and various SFM control decks, but I'll enjoy what is one of the biggest shift in Modern in long time.
- Mardu Pyromancer
- UR Phoenix/ Mono Red Phoenix
- Grixis Goryo's Vengence
- Dredge
- Hollowed One
This is going after way too many decks at the same time. I think they should have just banned Hogaak and unbanned stone forge and left it there.
I feel that while it's unfortunate that there were so many decks that had to suffer because of the sins of Hogaak, I feel that looting just caused too many decks to be absurd in dredge, Hogaak (by that dredge vine as well) and even Hollow one. TBH even though I had success playing Mardu Pyro, I certainly won't be missing the other decks being weakened by the ban
I think people are discussing izzet charm in izzet phoenix which is a lot slower but mono red might be out of luck
I think this might be my second favourite B and R update behind the JTMS/BBE unban
I also like to point out:
- Ancient Stirrings
- Mox Opal
(Explicitly mentioned in a B&R as dangerous cards)
- Cavern of Souls
- Goryo's Vengeance
(Discussed extensively on forums as potentially dangerous cards)
Considering how wide reaching this faithless looting ban is and how they have explicitly discussed Mox Opal and Ancient Stirrings as potentially dangerous cards, I think its not unreasonable to expect a Mox Opal/ Stirrings ban in the near future.
We just have to wait & see what SFM brings to the meta and enjoy the new cards from Throne. Exciting times !
Also, I can't wait to watch someone Leroy Jenkins a Stoneforge Mystic into a turn 3 Karn. It's going to happen and that's going to be hilarious!
I think that mox opal and ancient stirrings have been cards that people have complained about for almost as long as I started playing modern in 2015, so maybe if looting got the ban hammer then their time is coming soon
I would like to see cavern get banned as it makes weird gameplay IMO and makes control a bit worse against tribal decks but I think it's MUCH lower than the first 2 cards
I think Goryo might be alot safer now without Faithless Looting.
Its pretty clear that with the Faithless Looting Ban/ Standard Energy + Ramnup Bans, Wizards is willing to more aggressively go after decks.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]
Ancient stirrings also isnt "broken" or OP. The main issue I see that people have with it is that green has too much power across many game mechanics, in this case cantripping being the one. I dont think ancient stirrings is too strong but I dont think its fair that blue gets all of its good cantripping spells banned while green can keep this powerful one even if it is one you have to build around. Most cantrips have to be built around anyways or youd see serum and opt in any deck that runs blue and thats not the case.
whats odd is theres a deck that uses both cards right now and no one has said a word about it.
I think the bannings were fair but leaning more towards the side of heavy handedness which isnt necessarily a bad thing. I just wish they were heavy handed in unbannings too not just with bannings.
Lastly, I think ppl already asking for ancient stirrings and mox opal bannings are simply whining at this point. Those two cards havent done anything and it remains to be seen what will come of the decks that run them. We just got some serious changes and asking for more right away is so typical of the community to never be satisfied with what is happening. I remember when people wanted death's shadow and bauble banned when the deck started making an appearance and thank God wotc ignored those pleas. I think everyone needs to chill out, enjoy the new meta and reevaluate their deck choice if they fear a tron meta.
RUAffinityUR
GMono Green StompyG
CEldrazi TronC
URWJeskai GeistWRU
WRBoros BurnRW
BRWMardu PyromancerWRB
However, Wotc did ban Looting because of the implications it could have on the future meta game, and how a card like looting can enable decks like Dredge to be super powerful and format warping. While I'd personally argue that Izzet Phoenix, while once the top deck or one of the top decks, it was on its last legs as a top tier deck at the time of the banning even with Hogaak gone. But by banning looting it overall slows down the format, so I guess its warranted to slow down the format and could, and probably so, will create a better format overall.
The thing is about banning cards in an eternal format, I am for only one criterion of banning: format warping. This is slightly vague but I will give two other criteria under the "format warping" title. (1) Meta game share and (2) homogenization of deck construction strategy. Hogaak is a good example of the first. It's obvious success across pretty much every tournament since its printing had a huge share of not just the overall meta game, but also the winning meta game. As for the second, we can look to cards like Ponder and Preordain for an example.
I'll reply to your quote:
The reasoning here is incorrect. You even said it later yourself and how you can't simply put Ancient Stirrings and Mox Opal in any (green) deck, and how Serum Visions doesn't go into ever blue deck. While you are right about Opal and Stirrings, I think you are wrong about blue decks and its cantrips. Serum Visions doesn't go into every blue deck because there aren't as many "pile" decks in Modern. The decks that do care about drawing do play Serum Visions, and there's a good chance that even the blue decks that don't currently run it would play a card like Ponder or even Preordain due to the immense increase in power compared to Serum Visions. In how the mechanics work with Fetch Lands, Serum Visions becomes a vastly inferior card compared to the other two. If we look to pretty much every blue deck that isn't a specific critical mass deck (e.g. Urza wants critical mass of artifacts, spirits wants creatures, etc), then I'd argue that they all would play Ponder or Preordain, as they all already are playing Serum. This then becomes format warping as we see in Legacy where most decks start with 52 cards after Brainstorm and Ponder.
Going back to my original criterion about banning cards, i'd like to share a quote I have shared in the past from Brian Kibler to show why I believe this is the only valid criterion:
We need to ask ourselves what is the point of an eternal format like Modern. To Kibler's point, Modern is there for us to play cards that were printed from 8th edition. If we take some other criterion than what I proposed, they we will continue to ride the ban carousal and continue to keep banning what ever deck is on top (e.g Pod, Splinter Twin), or what cards people simply don't like. As he says, new interactions will keep coming up, and yes, we sometimes need to ban these under strict criteria, but in the case of weaker arguments such as potential enabling of a certain strategy, we have to avoid that way of thinking.
URStormRU
GRTitanshift[mana]RG/mana]