[MtG] Banned & Restricted List - January 19th 2015

[Rodrigo]

Announcement Date: January 19, 2015

Effective Date: January 23, 2015

Magic Online Effective Date: January 28, 2015

 

Modern:

 

Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and Birthing Pod are banned.

Golgari Grave-Troll is no longer banned.

 

Legacy:

 

Treasure Cruise is banned.

Worldgorger Dragon is no longer banned.

 

Vintage:

 

Treasure Cruise is restricted.

Gifts Ungiven is no longer restricted.

 

The complete list of all banned and restricted cards, by format, is here.

 

Next B&R Announcement: March 23, 2015

 

gg

[Spinny]

Wai was worldgorger banned anyways?

 

Ahahahahaha

treasure Cruise is now banned in almost everything xD

[Trebuchet MS]

Didn't expect to see Dig get banned. Maybe the price will fall into a more acceptable range now.

[Simping For Hina]

Saw all of this coming, really. Not surprised. 

[CLG Klavier]

[Simping For Hina]

Good reaction, Klav.

[Rodrigo]

Meanwhile, a collector is very happy.

 

[.Rai]

Pod's dead. That's very interesting indeed. Cruise and stuff is expected.

[bury the year]

Pod's actually banned?

Wow, my friend's gonna be salty. This is the second Modern archetype he's got into that was banned shortly after. And he poured $400+ into that deck, too.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

... gravetroll-sama.... Kinda sad at no BBE, but w/e.

[CLG Klavier]

Good reaction, Klav.

I get all

 

but

 

not Pod

 

;w;

[Simping For Hina]

I get all

 

but

 

not Pod

 

;w;

Tbh, it was 16% of the meta for a good month and more, and only kept being played with almost no bad match ups because it was adaptable to certain situations.It was always a top dog of the format, and it was a higher win percentage than any other deck in the format. Reaching 16%, though, it a lot of the format. Just reaching that is a red light. It also poses a threat to the Day 2 Archetype showings, being as high as everyone. The only real reason I saw it saying was because it has always been around, which really isn't something to argue with. 

[.Rai]

A lot of people are championing Dredgevine now as a replacement to fill the Pod-shaped hole in Modern. Wouldn't be surprised. Maybe even in Junk form considering how good Siege Rhino is. Pod may be gone, but a card like Siege Rhino doesn't just falter out of a format.

[Flame Dragon]

Tbh, it was 16% of the meta for a good month and more, and only kept being played with almost no bad match ups because it was adaptable to certain situations.It was always a top dog of the format, and it was a higher win percentage than any other deck in the format. Reaching 16%, though, it a lot of the format. Just reaching that is a red light. It also poses a threat to the Day 2 Archetype showings, being as high as everyone. The only real reason I saw it saying was because it has always been around, which really isn't something to argue with.

 

Also, the fact that Pod has won WAY more GPs than any other archetype is telling to its power. Another stated reason is that Pod just makes other creature decks that much worse. Not to mention, its important for a PT to have a big shake up, and taking out what has been a pillar since like day 1 should be VERY interesting.
 

A lot of people are championing Dredgevine now as a replacement to fill the Pod-shaped hole in Modern. Wouldn't be surprised. Maybe even in Junk form considering how good Siege Rhino is. Pod may be gone, but a card like Siege Rhino doesn't just falter out of a format.

The interesting thing about Troll is that its hard to see him finding a middle ground between not good and broken. I'm hoping it happens though since I love graveyard based decks.

We've already seen Abzan based decks do well and they have the tools to succeed, just a matter of how good they will be going forward. Again, losing Pod REALLY changes things in Modern.


Anyway, changes REALLY aren't all that shocking. ATM I expect people to have their eyes on Ascendancy and if Grave-Troll can do anything busted.

[Poc]

Dread return is still banned, I can't see grave troll breaking anything without dread return. Unless we get some more busted delve cards.

[Simping For Hina]

 

Also, the fact that Pod has won WAY more GPs than any other archetype is telling to its power. Another stated reason is that Pod just makes other creature decks that much worse. Not to mention, its important for a PT to have a big shake up, and taking out what has been a pillar since like day 1 should be VERY interesting.

 

As I mentioned of Pod having a higher win percentage. I don't count GP wins into anything but winning that. Delver was ranked higher than Pod, but has only has 1 true GP win; GP Madrid, which wasn't even straight Delver. The power to win a GP isn't anything. The power to make it into the GP is what should be countable. The people who win the GPs are the things that matter because they have skill at the deck they are playing, but not it isn't about the deck winning itself. Win percentage is different when you can only count upon the numbers and not the skill of players such as Sam Pardee and Josh McClain who have championed the pod deck when it was just another top dog. 

 

Aggro deck have been out of the format. That isn't an excuse to make it anything anymore in Modern. UWR Control can keep creature decks out of the format and nothing can compare to Affinity in terms of being Aggro anymore. But, I don't think that Creature decks were ever worse than Pod, they couldn't compete at the same level since Pod was utilizing as much as possible. And Birthing Pod wasn't the best card in the deck come Siege Rhino, it was only an engine that supported their game plan afterwards. It was really Siege Rhino that brought Pod to be where it is since it gets over Anger of the Gods where Anger of the Gods kept Pod down a notch the best way it could. 

 

The PT shake up crap is why Wizards pisses me off. It really is a horrible idea to support formats this way, even if it does bring in new players and support. 

 

Bloodbraid Elf should have been here because of how consistent it is at fighting at a Siege Rhino level. But this just makes Living End appropriate in this format now, so I can't complain. 

 

Golgari-Grave Troll is an engine, but there is nothing fuel to support the engine after everything runs out. That is what Dread Return is. Hooting Mandrils gets better, but the deck doesn't change as much as you think. People are trying to make it good like they tried to make Bitterblossom and Nacatl as powerful as they once were. The difference here is that Golgari-Grave Troll is an engine and nothing more. It makes creatures that are easy to deal with more potent, but not to the level that the deck has. The best thing to happen is the deck could just work in faster means, but in no means constantly consistent like Pod has made other decks. 

 

This shakes things up, but it was the wrong approach for Wizards to do for Modern. I am not surprised by this, but the format could have just been strong and stable without an entire increase in power level. BGx is going to be powerful deck again, I suspect, but the variance is just lacking so much. Jund should be strong, imo, but isn't without BBE to support it int the mirror matches. Twin is still going to have a horrible match up against them and GR Tron has gotten significantly weaker. 

 

Creature decks don't have the force against most things without a way to support them. Siege Rhino made these decks fight against Delver and Pod, mostly, but it isn't in their colors which make it weak to other decks. BBE would be a nice addition in the Midrange and Big Zoo versions, which were hardly even played except to be used as an out to Anger of the Gods. The changes made to the banned are because they are being liberal in only one direction, but not willing to see what affects the format in and of itself. The short term plan is only notable for the Pro Tour, but not the players of the format who take into it more than the pros who are all stars are a multitude of formats because they work for these pro tours. 

[Simping For Hina]

People need to stop saying. "I know from personal experience that X is not busted." 

Especially because your personal experience means shit when Wizards is banning or unbanning cards. 

Please don't become these people, YCM MtG Community. 

[Rawkobo]

Pod leaving was mostly an added bonus to the obvious. DTT and Cruise honestly had to go because every list I saw coming into my LGS was attempting to cram them in for consistency's sake, and it was working out relatively effectively. I was even putting in some work assembling Bant Hexproof and saw myself add at least Cruise to my considered cards options.

 

Cruise being banned in Legacy is a little surprising because it seemed at least marginally more fair, but if it wasn't now, it was probably going to be next year.

 

Grave-Troll returning is a roll of the dice, as is Worldgorger.

[Miror B]

Who were the people that said Treasure Cruise was eh-ish in anything but Standard hmmmmmmmmmmmm?

[Poc]

Nobody? Everyone knew this card was busted the second it was spoiled. The only people who didn't like it are the ones who spent a ton of money on bobs since it made him pretty much unplayable.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/322636-ktk-tresasure-cruise/

Actually, Poc, although you realized its power, the majority of players did not. The general consensus, not just here, was that Dig Through Time was simply a better card. Virtually nobody realized just how easy delve was to break. I did, because I used Tombstalker (which gave me the habit of ignoring generic mana on delve spells) but for most players, just as with my linked topic, it simply didn't click that delving 7 was completely attainable, even as soon as turn 3 or 4. Since there was only 3 delve cards before, only one of which was used in eternal formats, people didn't really get how broken it is as a mechanic.

[Flame Dragon]

http://forum.yugiohcardmaker.net/topic/322636-ktk-tresasure-cruise/

Actually, Poc, although you realized its power, the majority of players did not. The general consensus, not just here, was that Dig Through Time was simply a better card. Virtually nobody realized just how easy delve was to break. I did, because I used Tombstalker (which gave me the habit of ignoring generic mana on delve spells) but for most players, just as with my linked topic, it simply didn't click that delving 7 was completely attainable, even as soon as turn 3 or 4. Since there was only 3 delve cards before, only one of which was used in eternal formats, people didn't really get how broken it is as a mechanic.

I also venture to guess not everyone was thinking about the older formats since delve cards break stupid hard in them since the graveyard fills up REALLY fast. In standard Dig and Cruise are pretty close and both fair, though still pretty powerful.

[Justice Master]

Man, MTG has gotten the fuckin staff for a while now. While it definitely has more of a designer staff than Yu-Gi-Oh, the actual quality of the cards are kind of stuck in a lull. It's nice to have controlled power, but the age of fun card design is pretty much over. These choices just further show me that WotC is still terrified of making too many mistakes rather than learning from them and using them as a basis for exciting new things.

No, just ban it. God forbid we have to design in relation to slightly dangerous cards. This all not being said about Pod, which is actually a great move. Just way too late and sadly making Goyf mandatory to run Green in Modern.

[Simping For Hina]

Goyf isn't mandatory to run green. Goyf is mandatory to run every other color. Green is unhelpful for the growing of Goyf. 

 

Treasure Cruise was a good call. Dig Through Time, maybe a lesser value, was still a good call as well. It isn't mistake. These cards are played and are meant for Standard. Eternal formats aren't tested. All this says is that Siege Rhino is really strong. 

 

These choices really don't do anything other than the fact that they don't know what they really want to do with Modern as a whole, and how to approach it. That is fine. Modern is valued by most of the members because of it. It is more than a half-assed format, and Wizards does care about it to see it grow, but they don't know how to do it and testing wouldn't really help with that, either.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

It is a common phrase among legacy players (and I imagine modern players share the sentiment) that goyf is "the best blue creature". Gonna be honest, the phrase made more sense before delver, but I digress.