Wizards showing us who really means business and what it really means.
Foreword
So at the time I’m writing this, a little too late. Most of you should know by now of the recent banning announcement. Wizards officially banned Gitaxian Probe and Golgari Grave-Troll in modern while Standard has it’s first ban since 2011, Where Jace the Mind Sculptor as well as Stoneforge Mystic were deemed to be too powerful for Standard at that time.
Now the modern bans were of course treated quite seriously, but the community was furious with the decision towards the banning of certain cards in Standard: Emrakul the Promised End, Smuggler’s Copter and Reflector Mage. Since the last Standard banning was over 6 years ago, it was quite an abrupt decision made by Wizards to ban 3 cards in Standard out of nowhere. But to further understand why these 3 cards were banned, we must first analyze the actual reasons Wizards gave for banning these cards in their respective formats.
Modern
So Grave-Troll and Gitaxian Probe were banned in modern. Both saw successive runs in certain top tier decks (Probe saw play in Infect,Suicide Zoo variants while Grave-Troll sky-rocketed Dredge to be a fearsome deck to deal with in the post Splinter Twin modern metagame).
In the explanation provided here by Wizards for the banning of Grace-Troll. It is clear that Wizards is clear that there is a problem going on in Modern, Dredge was way too unhealthy which caused a influx in the increase of hate for it in many decks’s sideboards. However, do note the phrase “the real offender has been the dredge mechanic itself.” Let’s face it, Grave-Troll is probably the best “dredger” in terms of value,power level and playability. None of the other Dredgers come quite close to Grave-Troll. In fact, to nerf/balance Dredge, you would have to get rid of the most powerful card it runs, in this case Grave-Troll. However, this does not downright mean Dredge will shift down a tier, it will simply be slightly slower but no stranger to it’s former power pre-ban.
And now..for the infamous Gitaxian Probe. Ever since Modern took off from it’s post-twin meta, Aggro did once again have a voice and say in Modern. And it did so in a very vibrant way of the Suicide Zoo variant, in which the deck revolves around the player taking as much self damage as possible in order to cast an extremely powerful Death’s Shadow for only 1 mana! Various archetypes of Suicide Zoo have popped up over time but Gitaxian Probe did too much to contribute to this powerhouse of a deck. It was also contributing a major part of Infect’s “engine”, which is now a top tier deck feared by many. But this Gitaxian Probe banning made me recall 2 very similar cards that are already banned in Modern…
Ah yes…the 2 of the best cantrips ever made in Magic’s history, being deemed too powerful for Modern as it mainly pushed non-creature strategies to insane levels. But what do these 2 have in common with Probe?
Well if you mentioned it does “too much” for 1 mana…
In fact Gitaxian Probe theoretically cost 0 mana! So Modern is basically stripped of all it’s “value” cantrips leaving behind Serum Visions as it’s top candidate :/
Shocking isn’t it?
Standard
Now onto the main course and it’s glorious, spongy potato salad crest atop it. The Standard bans ladies and gentlemen..
Well hold on there..! Everyone still has their toes hot on this topic even though it’s more than a week after the announcement but I’ll try to analyze what was right and wrong to each banning.
Let’s start off small with Reflector Mage:
Now, Reflector Mage wasn’t a card that made huge impact in Standard, but this ban report claims that Reflector Mage was simply making the UW Flash deck too powerful, the ban report also states Reflector Mage had been “quite strong” in the day of Collected Company Standard. For me, Reflector Mage is indeed quite an annoying card, but it’s power level isn’t something so serious that it needed to be banned. Yeah, you could say whatever you want on how a major piece it was in Collected Company and UW Flash decks, but that doesn’t justify that decks entirely revolved around it.
Next up is the sneaky Copter
Before you all go over how powerful Smuggler’s Copter is, let this slowly sink in for you: “Kaladesh was released on 30th September 2016″, which means Smuggler’s Copter’s time in Standard was only around 3 months. Now..the card is ridiculously strong. A potential 3/3 for 2 is already value, consider also it’s low crew cost and it’s looting effect that could be used offensively and defensively for card advantage. The card overall was solid, but the real question is…
“Why would Wizards print an extremely powerful card, let it stay in Standard for 3 months and ban it?”
Exactly! Wizards knew Smuggler’s Copter was going to be a very powerful card in Standard, yet they still let it sink into the metagame for a while, saw their predictions come true then ban it! It’s not as if “Oh..there’s probably other vehicles to replace it”. No, people have actually spent a lot of money building up the deck, and Smuggler’s Copter isn’t a cheap card either. Standard also isn’t a format in which the banhammer always pays particular attention to, this will affect the future of Standard - in a way that new players would be afraid into certain decks over a fear that their cards would be banned.
And finally the biggest, baddest, strongest and possibly fattest Eldrazi of them all…there can only be one!
Now on the topic of Emrakul, this version had to be tuned down from the previous version of herself for her to even be playable.
Yes…thank god the Promised End wasn’t as terrifying as this when this absolute monster was printed 6 years ago
But still, Promised End was still one hell of a force to be reckoned with. It’s cmc reduction, ability to use your opponent’s best cards against them, resulting in a more favored board position for yourself - all these were nothing but a small resemblance to her former self printed 6 years ago. Nonetheless, I felt she was still a card that was perfectly balanced in Standard, where it saw play in Aetherworks Marvel. Which I once again felt the deck did seem menacing being able to find Emrakul off Aetherworks, but this wasn’t a deck that had all the strengths and none of the flaws. In fact this doesn’t change much where there are other Eldrazi Titans such as Ulamog that are extremely powerful and have devastating effects when played.
But more importantly, if the slightly under-powered version of Emrakul is banned from Standard, why is the the original Titan still legal in Modern? Where it’s a more explosive format and there are multiple easy ways to cheat it into play?
Now you might tell me “Oh..it’s Modern and the answers there are more reliable towards decks playing these..” , well you are half-right but like I mentioned earlier. There are answers to the Aetherworks Marvel deck! Wizards should have thought about the Modern example of decks cheating Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play before deciding whether to ban it’s newer form in Standard!
What Standard might look like in the future..
Now most of you have probably heard Standard has a potential new meta-breaking deck..what? No? Alright…here it is.
With Aether Revolt coming up, Standard is about to receive a literal Splinter Twin combo. While not as powerful as the original Splinter Twin combo, it does win on turn 4. While most players are extremely displeased with Wizards printing a pair of cards within the same block, then announcing the bans above. I would like to raise some motivation: the original Splinter Twin combo with Deceiver Exarch actually were playable in Standard, but even at that time it wasn’t even a top tier deck! To add on, this combo isn’t even as reliable or powerful as the original(Saheeli can be removed before Felidar is played,the combo can be shut down by Authority of the Consuls,if u arrange removal on the stack the combo can be disrupted). So do not be disheartened, we never know that this would dominate Standard, it might just be anyone’s game after all.
Orrrrrrrr maybe not, who knows?
Conclusion
Thus, it’s been a wild week for both Standard and Modern players alike, as well for many collectors and investors. For Standard, it does seem interesting to watch how the meta and other decks will perform with some decks getting nerfed after the bannings. On a good note, do have fun, embrace whatever your playing and I’ll see you soon!
