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Whole archetypes/brews were attempted, but never made Tier 1-1.5. Archetypes were attempted because the effects seemed theoretically strong T1. In practice, the decks didn't live up to potential.
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A colorless 1cmc effect is clearly better and easier to use. But those 2-3cmc cards are castable turn 1 OTP. The decks that play them aim to cast them as early as turn 1 (using mana accel). Same...

Ban update seems fair. Bowman is not oppressive. It's nice to have something nonblue that keeps blue card draw in check. The format feels diverse. 2 different monored decks are tier 1, so black and...

1
Artifact
If a land would enter opponent's graveyard, instead exile it and gain 3 life.
T, sacrifice: Target noncreature land gains hexproof until end of turn if it has no abilities other than...

I'm not arguing for a Brainstorm or Force ban, just that Bowmasters shouldn't be banned either. Legacy is the designated format for Brainstorm+fetch, so it's good to have a mechanic to balance that. ...

If Bowmasters can be played in tempo (Delver, scam) or midrange/control (Beans) or combo (Reanimator) then at least it's not skewing the format towards one archetype. Brainstorm and Force are also...

Bargain costs 2U or 3W while Griselbrand costs B or 1B, and Tin Fins isn't even a tier deck.

At fair cost it could slide into those Mind's Desire storm shells (ie Storm that doesnt care about...

Turned out to be consistent: observation, not speculation. You can accurately test consistency. How often and easily you can assemble the combo, protection, variance, etc.

Turned out to be...

Storm can still add Lurrus at no cost. It combos well with LED and is an alternate wincon with lifegain. With Lurrus it should be easier to hit nig mana for Peer & Mind's Desire, or recover from...

Turned out in testing.

It didn't have an impact on the format, but it was underplayed and really could have after a Lurrus ban. Once others discovered the Bant build, it was showing up in Legacy...

At the time companion cost 0. Delver absolutely wants "0: draw a nonland card" in a fair 1-for-1 mirror, to the point where it defined and broke the format.

At cost 3, yeah, maybe Lurrus is...

Is Lurrus that good as a regular card?

Lurrus Delver mainly played it to have +1 free card. Then other decks had to play it, otherwise you're playing a blue mirror at -1 card (i.e. loss). Maindeck...

4x Balance is just too easy to break, even before Planeswalkers. If you haven't played much with it (most players haven't unless you play in custom casual formats), it's not a fair Smallpox card like...

Desire threw a bone to Johnny storm brewers. While not changing the final competitive metagame much, a lot of players had fun brewing with Desire for a while. It led to attempts to innovate in Storm,...

Earthcraft seems safe to unban. Twin sees almost no play in Legacy and is a better color set for infinite token combos.

I doubt they'll unban Mind Twist. It's not unbeatable, but like T1 Ragavan...

The only place where Ad Nauseam wasn't good enough is it couldn't also run things like maindeck Peer into the Abyss or multiple copies of Echo of Eons and Lorien Revealed, due to the CMCs. That's the...

The significant choice is in deck construction. Deck construction is severely constrained by CMC.

Actual resolution of Ad Naus is kind of random, like Mind's Desire, except the number of cards you...

The danger is high, but the variance is also high. Paying 4UU for Desire @ 3 and to hit lands and mana rocks is a big bust and could lose the game. There's a significant probability of hitting 0...

Mind's Desire shuffles before reveal, so the Brainstorm trick doesn't even work.

Did you ever consider playing 1x Nacatl instead of 4x Nacatl? Maybe the problem with Zoo is the card quality is TOO good and it needs to be Highlander instead....

Zoo still top8s once a year or so. The most viable build is 8Lynx (I still think the deck should be called "Raining cats and dogs!"). Wild Nacatl got power-crept by 1-mana 4/5s (Akoum...

So they banned the 3cmc Initiative creature and fair blue's card advantage, but you can still Show and Tell 8 copies of 7/7 flying lifelink draw 7.

Seems like they want JPA > WPA.

That stats and inclusion of Leyline Binding make no sense if they're not including Leagues. Because the Challenge/Showcase % is different. And Leyline Binding sees very little play in Challenges.
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If they measure the meta by Leagues and not competitive events, that indicates 2 things:
1) They treat Legacy as a casual format, with negligible care for the competitive metagame
2) They only care...

I agree. Fetches are too integral a part of Magic history to suddenly ban now, even if they get increasingly degenerate with power creep and new abilities. Brainstorm + fetch + dual is nostalgic to...