All B/R update speculation.

[Lemnear]

B&R announcement reads like:

"We ban every combo or control deck in every format but Legacy/Vintage because we care so little, that we don't even bother to mention them anymore"

[Dice_Box]

Control is still a thing in Modern. Many curse sitting across from Lantern.

[PirateKing]

Is Modern still a Protour thing? Because I read

Banned and Restricted announcements will now be made both on the Monday after Standard-legal set Prereleases and five weeks after a Pro Tour, also on a Monday.

"Come play in the Protour! Win and be forever known as the person who got a whole deck banned!"

[Gheizen64]

Well,

I still cri everidai

[RobNC]

So um, 8 announcements a year now? Yay?

How else are they going to ban all the KAL/AER combos after the Pro Tour?

[nedleeds]

So um, 8 announcements a year now? Yay?

I think on balance, yes. If you are of the opinion that 3-4 cards could easily be unbanned.

[Stevestamopz]

Do the powers that be just have no clue what is going on anymore? Are the people that design these cards wholly seperate to the testers? Do they even talk to each other about their work?

Three bannings in Type 2 lmao, zero mention of Legacy anywhere. Ugh.

Can I just play Goblin Recruiter now anyway?

[Dice_Box]

https://mobile.twitter.com/MishrasFo...38377825943552

For a full explanation of the Banned & Restricted Updates for Standard, please come back in February when Hasbro posts the Q4 financials.

[H]

https://mobile.twitter.com/MishrasFo...38377825943552

People bitched about expected rotation, so now they'll just help you out and rotate your deck for you unexpectedly through R&R announcement.

#WhereIsOurModernPT #Progress #MakeMagicGreatAgain

[MaximumC]

That's right. Clear out the rubbish. Let's open the way for Combo Winter 2.0!

I'm not even being sarcastic. I think that Magic has evolved and R&D is better than it used to be. I think they deserve a chance to see if a combo-heavy metagame can exist that is not miserable. Let combo and control duke it out. Introduce players in Standard to the concept of needing your aggro decks to be hate bears. These are things that I, personally, think are awesome.

It could be that the majority of the players disagree with me, but hey, they deserve a chance.

Now... do I play Saheeli Cat, Mimic Module, Crackdown Fumerole, UB Control, or hatebears...?

[menace13]

...



40 Brainstorms. Convenient that you left that out. 2 Chalice decks that were likely mulliganing to chalice on 1 to stop Brainstorm.

...

Been lurking rarely here but decided I would stop by and see how the GP went. 28 decks using brainstorm in top 32? Seems legit.

That comment you quoted and replied to was in response to someone saying the meta was delver vs snt. I agreed with them. No brainstorm defending from me there. Have advocated for its ban since 2011~. Just wanted to point that out to you. Anyway, you can now get back to spamming brainstorm hate.

[nedleeds]

Do the powers that be just have no clue what is going on anymore? Are the people that design these cards wholly seperate to the testers? Do they even talk to each other about their work?

Three bannings in Type 2 lmao, zero mention of Legacy anywhere. Ugh.

Can I just play Goblin Recruiter now anyway?

The next Tuskvitational will feature Mind Twist, Recruiter, Earthcraft and Frantic Search unbanned.

[Ronald Deuce]

Well, it's a good thing I don't play Modern anymore!

"We ban every combo or control deck in every format but Legacy/Vintage because we care so little, that we don't even bother to mention them anymore"

This.

Also seems like they just despise combo in general these days.

[nedleeds]

That's right. Clear out the rubbish. Let's open the way for Combo Winter 2.0!

I'm not even being sarcastic. I think that Magic has evolved and R&D is better than it used to be. I think they deserve a chance to see if a combo-heavy metagame can exist that is not miserable. Let combo and control duke it out. Introduce players in Standard to the concept of needing your aggro decks to be hate bears. These are things that I, personally, think are awesome.

It could be that the majority of the players disagree with me, but hey, they deserve a chance.

Now... do I play Saheeli Cat, Mimic Module, Crackdown Fumerole, UB Control, or hatebears...?

Why does anyone on this board care what deck you beat up on children with in type 2?

[MaximumC]

Why does anyone on this board care what deck you beat up on children with in type 2?

Well, I guess I have not been to Standard FNM in awhile to know the age group. But, if they make Standard more like Legacy, I'm more inclined to play it.

On top of that, the more Standard resembles Legacy, the more playables we get. That's a good thing!

[Barook]

I'm not even being sarcastic. I think that Magic has evolved and R&D is better than it used to be.

I'm not sure if that whole comment isn't sarcastic. R&D has been alot shittier than before. Standard has been continuosly broken and defined by certain things the past few years - Mono Black Devotion, Siege Rhino, 700$ 4 color fetch/duals good stuff clusterfucks, Collected Company and now Emrakul/Copter, with Reflector Mage been randomly thrown in, too.

This whole thing screams "Full Panic Mode" and the implications of this are far bigger than just Standard. Its attendance is dwindling for a while now and Wizards runs around like a chicken without a head trying to fix things. For years, they've been riding the wave of player growth to go from one record revenue to the next, pleasing their master Hasbro and its shareholders. Too bad that player growth is kinda stagnating now, so that shit no longer works. We have seen a couple of consequences of this already:

- First they tried to squeeze of more money out of the players with the faster 1.5 years rotation schedule. Was also revoked in a sudden panic announcement a few months ago to return to the old schedule because players felt the upkeep cost of Standard has become too high.
- Masterpieces in every set from now on as a permanent attempt to concentrate most of the EV of a booster on said masterpieces, reducing the cost of the actual Standard-legal cards.
- Pushing out four sets (Eternal Masters - Eldritch Moon - Conspiracy 2 - Kaladesh) in four months.

WotC getting trigger-happy with Standard bans is just another sign that they don't know how to fix their shit. The current Standard meta got a piss-poor 36/100 reception by the community and Emrakul (+ Copter, to a certain degree) are mainly blamed for it.

And no, neither the sky is falling nor is Magic dying. But with Magic being one of Hasbro's major franchises that has to deliver, WotC is now in a tight spot to further increase profits. It's like they actually have to try again. We should expect alot more bullshit along the road while Wizards fears the imminent wrath of Hasbro for failing future profit prospects.

[Lemnear]

So with 3 (!!) freaking bans in Standard (!!!!) how they can still claim to test their cards at all? Did it really take another round of Emrakul and colorless creatures for WotC to notice that their creature power creep might have hit the roof?

[Ronald Deuce]

This whole thing screams "Full Panic Mode" and the implications of this are far bigger than just Standard. Its attendance is dwindling for a while now and Wizards runs around like a chicken without a head trying to fix things. For years, they've been riding the wave of player growth to go from one record revenue to the next, pleasing their master Hasbro and its shareholders. Too bad that player growth is kinda stagnating now, so that shit no longer works.

Yep. They're grasping at straws.

I wonder to what extent decreasing revenue and stagnating player numbers are simply the results of the economy's failure to bounce back, rather than a general (comparative) lack of appeal of the new cards.

EDIT:

So with 3 (!!) freaking bans in Standard (!!!!) how they can still claim to test their cards at all? Did it really take another round of Emrakul and colorless creatures for WotC to notice that their creature power creep might have hit the roof?

IIRC, the last time there were three bans in Standard, it wasn't called Standard. And that block was a much bigger disaster than this one could possibly be.

Not to say you're wrong—I think you hit it on the head—but with poor design and poor choices of bans at the same time, what in Hell are they doing?

EDIT again: Lemnear, you've shed light on something else, which is that Wizards has demonstrated a continuing problem designing colorless cards.

[Barook]

So with 3 (!!) freaking bans in Standard (!!!!) how they can still claim to test their cards at all? Did it really take another round of Emrakul and colorless creatures for WotC to notice that their creature power creep might have hit the roof?

Rumor has it that they have random people from the company (who have fuck all to do with R&D) playtest for them instead of a dedicated team for a while now. Given their track record, it shows.

If 1-mana dorks are deemed to powerful for Standard, you know R&D has gone full retard.

[Cire]

I don't follow standard much, but what was (or is the presumed) rationale for the standard bans? Troll and Probe is for dredge and infect, but were they so overpworing in Modern?