Hello, fellow gamers! Next week we have a highly anticipated Banned and Restricted List announcement. As usual, there's a lot of speculation about massive changes in almost all formats. Here is my personal wish list, predictions, or whatever you want to call it.
Modern/Legacy
Let's start with Modern and Legacy. I don't play these formats, so my analysis on this is mostly based on my years of expertise in Magic and the Magic I watch in these two formats.
Nadu, Winged Wisdom - Modern
This is the elephant in the room. Nadu has to go. No one wants it in Modern anymore, and I'd say there's a 99% chance we'll see it go. I'll always wonder why Nadu even made it to print, but we let it marinate long enough. It's been too dominant, and to boot, the play patterns look pretty awful with the card. I'm confident Nadu will be banned in Modern next week.
Grief - Modern and Legacy
I don't play Modern or Legacy, but I know Magic, and this card isn't healthy in Legacy. If Nadu were to stay in Modern, then Grief would almost have to stay so there's some reason to play anything else. If we're going to ban Grief in Legacy, we should also rip that band-aid off in Modern. Grief is powerful when you're able to scam with it, and it's not a fun play pattern for anyone involved. Having your hand shredded on turn one while facing down a 4/3 menace creature isn't healthy for Magic. Grief should go.
Pioneer
Buckle in. Here's the meat and bones of this write-up. There's a lot that could happen, and we may see a big shakeup in the format.
Pioneer is a format I've played ad nauseam and that I'm comfortable analyzing. I want to see Pioneer undergo a lot of change to shake things up.
Here's my wishlist for Pioneer.
Amalia, Benavides Aquirre
There are so many reasons to ban Amalia that it's outrageous. First, the Amalia combo decks have been strong and among the highest win rates in the format since it's been printed.
In many cases, that alone puts it on the radar for a ban, but Amalia's play patterns that lead to turn-three kills are too much. It pressures you to have interaction in the first two turns when on the draw. If you tap out to play something proactive and they respond with a combo piece, then you won't un-tap in many cases.
It has a bit of Splinter Twin's problem from old Modern where you hope your opponent doesn't have the card, but the deck is so consistent with finding its pieces that you need a well-formulated game plan to handle it.
We have a high win rate and poor play patterns. Let's add one of the biggest issues, which is that the game creates an infinite loop and ends in a draw if you pump their Amalia or if your opponent's Wildgrowth Walker is made indestructible. The higher chance of drawn games artificially lengthens round times, creates frustration, and just isn't fun.
There should be no tied games in Magic, so it's not worth the trouble to create situations like this to keep one deck in the format. The deck checks all the boxes for reasons for banning, and I don't think many would argue in favor of Amalia.
While I'm not 100% confident we'll see Amalia go, it's the right call and correct card to ban. If it's ever an issue again with some other card down the line similar to Wildgrowth Walker, then there's no reason to save this over anything else.
Treasure Cruise
Phoenix has intermittently been one of the top Pioneer decks for years now. Although Phoenix has been a problem in all formats at some point, it's always been a strong and consistent deck.
Cruise is a card that will only get more powerful as the format grows and we get more ways to put cards into the graveyard efficiently. Should we wait for them to reprint Thought Scour in some Standard set and then remove Cruise, or should we just ban Cruise now?
I'm for the complete Pioneer shakeup and axing Cruise now. Phoenix jumped to a new tier of good and consistent with the printing of Sleight of Hand into Pioneer, which gave it a critical mass of cantrips and made the deck run smooth as butter. While Phoenix is almost too good for the format, maybe it can remain untouched for now.
I like when Phoenix is a deck to beat, but if the other bans I want happen, we need to take Phoenix with them.
I'd be happy with a Cruise banning, but it's been so long that I'm not sure they will ban it yet. I could see it going either way with this one.
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord
I went back and forth on this one. Something has to go from this deck, as it's dominant and has a similar frustrating play pattern to a deck like Amalia. If you're not interacting early, there's almost nothing you can do when your opponent has the card. If you're being too reactive, the deck is going to beat you in a fair game. It's an awful needle to thread and simply not fun Magic.
You could also ban Vein Ripper, which would be a band-aid solution. The problem is if you print some busted vampire down the road, then you have to do it all over again.
Sorin has the small upside of potentially being played in a fair vampire deck and used to put powerful five-drop vampires into play like Champion of Dusk. Unfortunately, the downside of keeping it in the format outweighs the upside.
These are the most likely and most desired bans in the formats. There's a great case for all of it to happen. I'd love to see them experiment more with a few unbannings, but I understand the risk of unbanning something and having it break the format. It's just a horrible look for the company, so I'm fine with basically never unbanning anything.
As for Standard, while I haven't played any yet, it looks amazing and healthy for the time being, so WotC did a great job on the current format. I'm anxious to see how Llanowar Elves will impact Standard. Maybe we will be clamoring for some bans in Standard soon. Who am I kidding? People will always be clamoring for bans in every format.
These are my predictions and wish list. I prefer justified bannings, but I'm always down for shaking up formats.
Let's check back next week to see how I did and if I missed anything.
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