(a bunch of Bannings)

These are some major changes to every widely played format outside of Standard (where Jace and Stoneforge are already Banned). What does this mean for these formats? Check out our Instant Analysis after the jump!

http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=2199

You didn't mention Emrakul at all in your summary. I think that abomination deserves at least a mention somewhere.

That was a card I was hoarding (when they were $4-5). Just finished my Russian playset too. Didn't see that coming.

Preordain and Ponder?!

edit: Extended is still a format?

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Originally posted by James_Hetfield2:
GSZ

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Same here . I got 7 of them just in the past week.

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Originally posted by gaeacradle:
Same here . I got 7 of them just in the past week.

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Same, cept foil here (Foil Nut)..

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Originally posted by choco man:
I would rather have WOTC ban Glimmerpost/Primeval Titan too instead of Cloudpost.

You didn't mention Emrakul at all in your summary. I think that abomination deserves at least a mention somewhere.

PS: I'm with you on the Mental Misstep. I actually like Zoo's chances more in a MM world than in a world without it.

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Yup. I think the analysis in that article is bang-on: Mental Misstep had a palpable slowing effect on the format, and the result was that we could play control decks again and didn't have to look over our shoulders for combo at every turn. I wouldn't count MM out forever, though. I expect that Wizards will become worried/deluged by complaints over combo's dominance and the lack of non-blue decks before too long.

And High Tide is just scary... it's so hard to beat, now that it's actually a consistent deck (thanks to Candelabra, Time Spiral, and BSZ) and doesn't lose to itself. At least Brain Freeze was a relatively easy win-con to deal with.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me." -T.S. Eliot

RIP Ari

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Originally posted by Goaswerfraiejen:
Yup. I think the analysis in that article is bang-on: Mental Misstep had a palpable slowing effect on the format, and the result was that we could play control decks again and didn't have to look over our shoulders for combo at every turn. I wouldn't count MM out forever, though. I expect that Wizards will become worried/deluged by complaints over combo's dominance and the lack of non-blue decks before too long.

And High Tide is just scary... it's so hard to beat, now that it's actually a consistent deck (thanks to Candelabra, Time Spiral, and BSZ) and doesn't lose to itself. At least Brain Freeze was a relatively easy win-con to deal with.

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I agree. Misstep was great for keeping some of those decks in check. Apparently I was wrong thinking it was a calculated move by Wizards. This actually kinda ****es me off.

A quote from the Article was something along the lines of this is as stupid as when they banned ritual when Necro was the problem.

This does nothing to kill Pyromancer's combo since you just replace ponder & preordain with slightly worse versions in slight of hand and serum visions.

GSZ makes sense its a tutor that goes back into your deck.

At least Blazing Shoal will go back to being work a few cents again.

In reference to the September 20, 2011 Banned and Restricted Announcement.

Modern

Blazing Shoal, Cloudpost, Green Sun's Zenith, Ponder, Preordain, and Rite of Flame are banned.

Before Pro Tour Philadelphia, the DCI's stated guideline for the Modern format was to avoid having decks that consistently win the game on turn three. With the results of the Pro Tour in, we are tweaking that goal to not having top-tier decks that consistently win on turn three (or earlier). We also have the goal of maintaining a diverse format.

Seeing the results, these still seem like reasonable goals. The Pro Tour is the highest level of competition, and the best deckbuilders in the world are likely to find the fastest and strongest decks. Many found blazingly fast decks. However, the winning deck could not deliver 20 damage (or equivalent) in less than four turns, and the second-place deck could very rarely do that either. This shows that the format has the potential to meet the initial vision, but it is not there yet.

Blazing Shoal
Blazing Shoal decks exile cards with converted mana cost of at least 9 to deliver turn-two and turn-three kills using the infect mechanic (usually with Inkmoth Nexus or Blighted Agent). While this is exciting the first time, Blazing Shoal delivers that same quick kill too consistently.

Rite of Flame
This was primarily used in combination decks to deliver very quick wins. While Jeremy Neeman did not make the Top 8 of the tournament, his Modern deck won nine out of ten matches, and did so with some extremely quick kills.

Ponder and Preordain
A large number of blue-red combination decks kept the field less diverse. One thing that made them so efficient was the cards that would find their combinations. Ponder and Preordain were the most widely used of those cards. Banning these should make those combination decks somewhat less efficient without removing the possibility of playing them.

Cloudpost
The threat of facing decks which could generate fifteen or more mana each turn starting on turn four kept a lot of different decks out of the tournament, greatly reducing the diversity. There are alternatives for people who wish to play mana-ramp decks, but they do not appear to be as crushing.

Green Sun's Zenith
On turn one, this can give the acceleration of a Llanowar Elves by getting a Dryad Arbor. On later turns, it can get a large creature or a one-of "toolbox" creature such as Gaddock Teeg. While this is interesting, it is also too efficient. If one intends to build a deck that has turn-one accelerants, Green Sun's Zenith is a great choice. If one wants to more access to utility green creatures, Green Sun's Zenith is a great choice. If one wants to more reliably get a large green creature, such as a Primeval Titan, onto the battlefield, Green Sun's Zenith is a great choice. However, this ends up with fewer different decks being played in practice, as Green Sun's Zenith is such a good choice that there are fewer green decks that do anything else. The DCI hopes that banning Green Sun's Zenith increases diversity among Modern green decks.

Extended

Jace, the Mind Sculptor; Mental Misstep; Ponder; Preordain; and Stoneforge Mystic are banned.

For the past year, no cards have been banned in Extended. The outcome was that the best Standard decks over the preceding years, such as Caw-Blade and Faeries, were the best decks in Extended. Many people who would otherwise enjoy Extended did not enjoy that environment. To avoid repeating this, the DCI is banning the cards that have been most played in the most successful Standard and Extended decks over the past three years. For reasons similar to why these cards were banned in other formats, the DCI is banning them in Extended.

Legacy

Mental Misstep is banned.

Force of Will has long been thought of as a card that helps keep combination decks in check in Legacy and Vintage. However, it doesn't directly help decks that aren't playing blue. One idea that was floated was creating a similar card that could be played in nonblue decks. When Phyrexian mana was designed, it was an opportunity to create such a card. R&D wanted a card that could help fight combination decks, and could also fight blue decks by countering cards such as Brainstorm. Clearly printing a card like this has a lot of risk, but there is also the potential for helping the format a lot. The risk is mitigated, because if it turns out poorly, the DCI can ban the card.

Unfortunately, it turned out poorly. Looking at high-level tournaments, instead of results having blue and nonblue decks playing Mental Misstep, there are more blue decks than ever. The DCI is banning Mental Misstep, with the hopes of restoring the more diverse metagame that existed prior to the printing of Mental Misstep.

Vintage

Fact or Fiction is no longer restricted.

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Originally posted by coasterdude84:
I agree. Misstep was great for keeping some of those decks in check. Apparently I was wrong thinking it was a calculated move by Wizards. This actually kinda ****es me off.

And yeah, I need to now find an answer for High Tide. Chalice maybe?

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Yeah. Resolving the Chalice can be problematic, though, since High Tide is a blue deck.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me." -T.S. Eliot

RIP Ari

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Originally posted by Goaswerfraiejen:
Yeah. Resolving the Chalice can be problematic, though, since High Tide is a blue deck.

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Originally posted by choco man:
I would rather have WOTC ban Glimmerpost/Primeval Titan too instead of Cloudpost.

You didn't mention Emrakul at all in your summary. I think that abomination deserves at least a mention somewhere.

PS: I'm with you on the Mental Misstep. I actually like Zoo's chances more in a MM world than in a world without it. But, hey...at least in Modern you can't cheat on having less than 4 Goyf b/c Green Sun's Zenith is banned.

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Originally posted by Zakman86:
Leyline of Sanctity/Runed Halo seem really good against that deck.

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Good point. Although there are still obvious problems:

1.) They have to resolve, unless Leyline is in your opening hand--not necessarily an easy task when you've already lost a game. This requires WW and, presumably, some way around their permission (probably easiest if you have access to blue).
2.) They can still be bounced quite easily thanks to their maindeck Cunning Wishes

I guess if you really wanted to hate on High Tide, you've also got Ethersworn Canonist, Orim's Chant (and whatever its reprint is called), Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, and, to a certain extent, Angel's Grace. Whether that generates a viable deck beyond the High Tide matchup, however, I'm not sure. I'm inclined to think 'no'. Building decks that hate on fast combo isn't too hard; ensuring that they don't lose to everything else, however, is a different matter. It'll be interesting to see what happens. You're definitely right to point out that white has decent tools, however. That's worth pondering.

I guess you're right: the best tech is in UW, and W has a decent chance. That doesn't do much to end blue's dominance, though.

__________________
"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me." -T.S. Eliot

RIP Ari

quote:

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Originally posted by Wizards:
Unfortunately, it turned out poorly. Looking at high-level tournaments, instead of results having blue and nonblue decks playing Mental Misstep, there are more blue decks than ever. The DCI is banning Mental Misstep, with the hopes of restoring the more diverse metagame that existed prior to the printing of Mental Misstep.

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Except for the part where Misstep mostly just replaced Daze or Spell Snare in blue decks. $10 says we see even more blue decks now.

Personally I've have banned Splinter Twin and Grapeshot instead.

Now the decks that used Ponder/Preordain will use Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, and maybe Telling Time instead.

Sure, Sleight is less efficient than Ponder, and Serum Visions makes you take the card first before you scry 2, but the overall loss of efficiency isn't nearly enough to reduce the fundamental turn of those combo decks by a whole turn.

All I see is the Splinter Twin deck getting into a more dominant position in modern.

After Vengevine hit the scene why were players so reluctant to devote more space in the sb to disenchant effects? When big Jace was ruling standard why wasn't Pithing Needle in every side board? Even with it's limited application and nonrestrictive use Misstep was banned even though you can play four in any deck to counter it's effect, or even Nix for that matter, and yet they're both 0cc but you wont see that. As for Vintage un-restricting FoF, that just seems overwhelmingly unimpressive.

I have respect for the design teams but in hindsight it goes to show how much WotC knows about a format when they originally ban cards that would have been effectually useless against the Modern decks we saw last week. There's no way they could've known but that's the point. All of the card inflation due to hype was not only a waste of money (tell that to the guy who had to have his play set of shocks but will never uses 8-12 in a deck) it was a waste of time. The majority of inflated cards didn't even show, moreover they didn't win.

This disproportionate benefit is not intuitively obvious, which is why so many theorycrafters deny it exists. In short:

1) The control player pays 2 life to prevent between 4 and 8 early game damage. This is obviously in the control player's favor. So don't say that "aggro would love to have you pay 2 life."

2) The turn lost by the aggro player (when their creature, Vial, Ritual-->Hippie, or whatever is countered) closes part of his/her damage-dealing window. With the 1-drop dead, aggro decks had to do more damage in the mid game when control decks were largely established--which didn't work. Resolving some spells too late is tactically equivalent to not resolving them. Not all 1-drops are created equal. The 1-drops in an aggro deck are far more important to that deck winning or losing. So an environment in which all 1-drops are at risk benefits blue decks more because their 1-drops are less valuable.

3) Adding misstep to aggro decks reduces the threat density of those decks, clogging them with a very situational answer-to-an-answer. Blue decks get to use misstep as an direct answer, which is way better than an answer-to-an-answer because direct answers don't get in the way of everything else you're trying to do. Also, control decks have the card draw and card selection to bypass their situational cards and get the stuff they want. So an environment in which the best answer is situational benefits blue decks more because they have a smaller downside to playing with situational spells.

4) Misstep is effectively asymmetrical. You might think it affects everyone equally (it counters itself, can go in any deck, etc) but, like many apparently symmetrical cards, it effectively hurts one archetype more than another. Using symmetrical cards to gain an assymmetrical advantage is not inherently bad. It's often part of good deck design, good play, and it's part of what makes the game fun. However, if this effective asymmetry ends up wiping out entire archetypes then it's probably too good. Misstep is the blue equivalent of Balance. If you only read the card then you might think it's fair, but it's not.

I loved MM because it protected against the number 1,2, and 3 removal cards in the format STP, Lightning Bolt, Path. Yeah Jace is in there too, but he's not more than those 3 cards. I play G/W maverick/aggro, whatever you want to call it and it does much better with Mental Misstep protecting my guys.