Brainstorm
Force of Will
Lion's Eye Diamond
Counterbalance
Sensei's Divining Top
Tarmogoyf
Phyrexian Dreadnaught
Goblin Lackey
Standstill
Natural Order
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Vintage Apocalypse? Just look at the players feedback, crashing player numbers, format "health", sellouts, 6y long reign of Workshops, etc.
The Format was repeatingly chopping the head of the cantrip core for years like in Legacy, but when they decided to restrict the whole blue core, the format as such took a huge hit in general as they also removed the ability of decks to fight back the onesided games of Lodestone Golem + Chalice. Blue decks only started to become viable again with the release of Dack and Co.
What I am trying to say is that you have several options:
- keep chopping the hydras head just like WotC does since forever in Legacy (TC, SDT, DTT, DRS, etc.) and just accept that Fetches/BS/Ponder are there to remain the best core period,
- ban Brainstorm and watch how the blue decks streamline even more without significantly improving the situation for other cores because Ponder/Preordain/FoW are still better than Sylan Library/Nissas Oath,
- hammer the whole bunch of blue cantrips from Brainstorm over Ponder to Preordain in order to leave Legacy with Modern powerlevel of cantrips and alienate most of the playerbase like it happened in vintage and deal with the fitting description of Legacy as "Modern with ABU Duals and FoW"
(- ban fetchlands and unban all the cards which are just banned because free shuffle/yardfill effects broke them, leaving Brainstorm & Co suddenly as very fair cards)
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I think that this is the crux of the problem. As Zombie pointed out, card selection is one of the most inherently powerful actions in any sort of card game. Every color should have access to good card selection, not only Blue (possible exception being White, since they touch on everything else on the pie, so it's sensible for them to have a major downside in weak card selection). WotC has realized this and recently has been trying to hand it out to every color, each with their own twist (for example, Red's exile from top). The problem is that until other colors receive cards in the same power level of Brainstorm and Ponder, there is no reason not to run Blue.
On another topic, I think that fetchlands are the worst thing that has ever happened to the game for multiple reasons but I understand that banning them is even more unreal than banning Brainstorm.
I think it would be enough to not outright ban "the cantrip shell" or any sizeable part of it, but to print accessible, relevant and individually strong (as in, Legacy playable in principle, even if they did not have this cantrip-nerving effect/ability) cards that make playing a cantrip-heavy game, or relying on cantrips doing their job properly, a liability. Stuff like Leovold, Emissary of Trest and Spirit of the Labyrinth kinda work in that direction, but the first one is just stupid (oughta be symmetric, so it doesn't find its way into Xerox to only fuck the opponent), and Spirit is too weak.
W
1/1
If a card would cause a player to draw a card except the first one they draw in their draw step each turn, that player does not draw that card.
or
1W
Enchantment
If a card would cause a player to draw a card except the first one they draw in their draw step each turn, that player does not draw that card unless they pay (2).
Chains of Mephistopheles is a card that exists that does a lot of what you're looking for.
If availability wasn't a factor I think you'd see it more often.
I own two Chains and whenever I try playing them (this is just my experience), they end up hurting me more than the opponent. In theory it seems great, but you need to give up card draw in your own deck (very bad) and in general the opponent can negate the disadvantage by cantripping in response, using removal on it, countering it or ignoring it anyway to just destroy you with whatever. (Edit: and like Kinda says they are very bad vs some popular decks). Similar to Chalice, the deck building cost seems too steep even if it occasionally wins you a game. Chalice is more powerful though.
Edit: I'll repeat that I think a 2/2 creature with cost WG and hexproof and an effect saying that players can only draw one card per turn would do the trick. Being green makes it Green Sun's Zenithable which means it's worth playing as a one of, since you get 5 virtual copies in your list with 4 GSZ's, while only 1 in the matchups where it's useless (it can still be a 2/2 should you need it). And it's not answered by StP, bolt or Snapcaster Mage. This would be an efficient but not too powerful answer to Brainstorm. And good creature to put equipment on. Only a few decks would play it but it would offer a way to take blue decks down just a little bit, enough for other decks to be more relevant, relatively. But I may be far off on this...
@Bithlord: you have a point but this card would just be a combination of features, and creatures, that already exist in these colors. For red-green we could wish for a hexproof Eidolon of the Great Revel, that could also do the trick.
Edit: I'm an idiot, I just read what you wrote, again. To answer your question, WG could be included in a few decks that are already popular but not good enough, they need some help forward to open up the meta more. A green-red creature might not be played in any deck and so the effect would be wasted. I'd love to see it though.
Would also be cool to see a chains on legs. Maybe 2/1 for 1B, and give it a downside like you lose 1 life in your upkeep.
-rob
To be fair, the creature I made is also GG and RR (it's hybrid!). But, I think that's more my point -- White is able to come to the table without the cantrip package precisely because it has all the hate. What we need, assuming the cantrip package is locked into blue, is the hate to be spread to the other colors as well. (in my opinion of course).
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...it really wouldn't be though. Wild nacatl is a running joke in this thread for a reason and it's not even modern viable. Adding the anti cantrip text to make it situationally better might make some people interested in zoo again (which is the goal right?) but miracles/stoneblade/sneak and skill would certainly still be better decks.
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