Brainstorm
Force of Will
Lion's Eye Diamond
Counterbalance
Sensei's Divining Top
Tarmogoyf
Phyrexian Dreadnaught
Goblin Lackey
Standstill
Natural Order
From what we have seen in the past, they rely on mtgo as a metric for this type of decisions, also from what we have seen in the past, the published league results can be discounted, but the main events are a good representation of what's happening in general. Having said that, from the latest league published, the most played cards are:
1 Brainstorm 50.00%
2 Force of Will 48.15%
3 Ponder 46.30%
3 Lurrus of the Dream Den 42.59%
So, even the leagues, with fudged published results have 42.59% of the decks running Lurrus. (btw, the second most played creature was.... 2 Walking Ballista 18.52%)
Yeah, I have a sneaky feeling it will be far widespread. Our local shop survives on the back of events where they pack the shop shoulder-to-shoulder. This will not be allowed anywhere in the near-medium future, actually it's unlikely they will be able to even open for a good couple of months. The new normal (social distancing) will mean the end to the big release events in there and without those...
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I know those feels. Used to play Maverick, had to sell out to fund study abroad a couple years ago, and recently considered buying into D&T since my situation got good enough to justify spending money. Then Wrenn&6 happened, got really excited to see that banned, and now this companion nonsense. I mean yeah Lurrus and Taxes exist but I don't want to invest in something that will (hopefully) get banned.
I'm in the same camp; all legacy buying/deckbuilding/tweaking is on hold until further notice. I can't play Legacy anyways, I might as well just wait it out and make changes when a location opens up to play. My LGS is closed, but there is a glimmer of hope from the core Legacy players. We're trying to line up a location to do something on a monthly basis (after quarantine is over, of course.) My first suggestion was a bar, lol. Jack 'Turbo Depths' Daniels is up for a challenge!
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Hell yeah, I do love me some Turbo Depths. Last game I played was actually a list with Overgrown Tombs since I didn't want to shell out for Bayous lol. Only got to play it once before the local Legacy scene died (worst timing ever) but it was fun somehow misplaying into wins against every flavor of blue deck that'd given me hell throughout the years.
I am not a great player, and I agree that Turbo Depths is fairly forgiving in that aspect. You can make small misplays and still go: "oh yeah, make a 20/20, gg." The amount of top-deck wins I get with that deck is higher than any other deck I've played. I loved playing against Delver variants. I didn't always win, but the matchup was very comfortable. I got into Turbo Depths when Miracles was on a steep decline, so I saw some decent success at the LGS. For me, nothing beats Depths with Deathrite Shaman though, that was my favorite legacy deck ever. Win with a 20/20 or grind them out with DRS, Dark Confidant, and Hexmage beats.
Just wait, I'll be playing against some salty guy drinking seltzer while I'm half-in-the-bag and attacking for twenty. Dude, get yourself a margarita to go with that salt.
On a serious note, does anybody think Lurrus escapes the next ban announcement?
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I would say no, can't remember last time I saw anything like this (where a new card instantly slots into vintage decks and they all move to the top):
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/vintage#online
Lurrus delver is now nearing 19% of legacy meta:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/legacy#online
And since the card is not that dominant (yet?) in standard , they can safely ban it in the older formats and leave around in standard, thus still selling packs.
Well, there is no schedule, so it's unlikely there will be a ban announcement at all until they deem it "time" to ban Lurrus.
When will that be? Who knows. It seems unlikely (but not impossible) that it could be this month, but considering that most places have yet to even get or distribute paper product yet, I'd imagine it more likely to be a month or so away.
One good thing about Lurrus, though, at least, is that it doesn't just go in "one deck" ike Breach did. That's not actually true, in the strict sense, but while Lurrus might be 19%, at least it isn't as if there is only one or two realistically competitive ways to build it. Lurrus just goes in anything and everything...
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
That's true, my issue with it is just the sheer inevitability it has because Companion. Plus I guess I'm just salty that it goes in everything except the stuff I was hyped to play (I just want to jam some Flickerwhisps dammit!)
This actually reminds me of a similar situation in the now-defunct(?) Force of Will TCG with Reflect/Refrain (Force of Will had a built-in Commander-esque mechanic and RefRef was basically a better JtMS with no mana cost that you could stick in the command zone). The format was actually pretty diverse since the free consistency helped out more or less any strategy, but eventually the card got hit since it made every other interesting Commander obsolete and severely limited future card design.
Anyways, although I sincerely hope that Lurrus is as bad as it gets, it really does show how little Wizards cares about eternal formats when they make a Commander mechanic for standard play *and then* print a Companion that offers free recursion as long as you stick to low CMC. Anybody with half a brain and access to some stock Delver list off MTGoldfish could have told them that was a bad idea.
I can see arguments for just banning Lurrus and letting the other stuff stick, but just nuking the entire mechanic for eternal archetypes is worth consideration. I really don't feel like trusting Wizards not to print some dumb shit in another couple months and throw us all for a loop again, and again, and again.
Well, I agree, but they have fairly explicitly stated that they don't really consider Eternal formats when designing cards. Which, I actually think is false in one sense, but clearly also true in that they often do not check interactions all that thoroughly, even for Modern.
While I floated the idea of just a blanket Companion mechanic ban, I think it is plausible that they first just ban Lurrus, then when it is realized that the rest don't shake out all that well still, they ban the whole mechanic. In that way, they can prop up sales a while longer, while still marketing the sentiment that they are doing something about it.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
The issue is lack of compensation to decks without companions. While it's nice that an opponent has to kinda tell you what they're on before a mill decision, why is okay that all their mulls cost 1 card less and the no-companion mulls still cost 1 card? Why don't they lose their companion and a card if they don't keep a hand of 7?
This is an incredibly easy rules fix of non-companion decks making all mulls at discounted penalty (mull to 6 is now mull to 7, mull to 5 is now mull to 6...), while other decks wait for WotC to print a companion they can use.
It's a pretty simple argument, with precedent, to ban Lurrus because it is going in everything: both Mental Misstep and Survival of the Fittest were banned not solely on power level but also on ubiquity. If you played green, you had to play Survival to compete, and Survival was tier 0. Mental Misstep was in every deck, almost literally (not exactly sure on the saturation levels, it was a while ago.)
TL,DR - If a card goes in anything and everything, and those decks are tier 1, Mental Misstep and Survival of the Fittest tell us that it will be banned.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Well, I wasn't making a case against banning it, of course. Only pointing out that, to me, this isn't a "worst-case" of needing a ban. Just a bad-case.
Well, I agree, but knowledge and caring can be world apart. In fact, (I think it was) Barook already posted the article, from Wizards themselves, where they explicitly stated that a companion-like mechanic was horribly broken. So, what changed? I don't think it is knowledge...
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
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