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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
Will there be a B/R announcement on 12/7 when Ultimate Masters is released?
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
no
I mean at this point do we really expect anything to happen? Nothing besides the obvious worth banning, but it won't ever happen and WOTC thinks infinite squirrels is too good for legacy so we're just kind of stuck beingbeing a dead format. I hear duals prices are coming down though which is nice, but I think the format is too far gone at this point
Shaman and Probe ban has made me more optimistic in that regard inasmuch as it indicates that they still care about the format and haven't completely left it to itself yet. Going as far as banning Probe (which is highly justified but far from obvious) makes it very possible that change can occur from bans in the future again.
Another factor to consider is power creep. They have printed ridiculous cards in the last few years which unfortunately were mostly blue (Snap, Delver, TNN, Strix, Leo) but once the other colors catch up in terms of powerlevel we might see change coming from that factor too.
The issue with the current format is that the things that I feel should go are either untouchable because it's a pillar or untouchable because they are just not that strong.
In my view the format would be better off without TNN, but if you asked me point blank if the card is actually at a banable level I would say no. It's not. Even if it's horrid for the game. Because that's the format, a mix of fuck ups and mistakes that are left to fester until someone makes something sweet out of them.
I don't think many argued that Gitaxian Probe was broken or too good, though certainly very good, but many thought it was poorly designed and that it took away key elements from the game making it less interesting and fun. I expect WotC made a similar assessment - a quick look reveals them saying that it was a main component of two of the most powerful decks and also poorly designed (low cost) and taking away fun/interesting aspects of games.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...ate-2018-07-02
Perhaps TNN could be banned with a similar motivation, though it's less of an offender than Probe was since it's not as important in top decks (as of now) and not undercosted.
A less optimistic way to look at it would be, that the bannings of TC, DTT, SotF, SDT, DRS and GP pretty much defined the absolute ceiling of what WotC allows for the format. Every time a new card/deck is reshaping the format, WotC just hits the reset button to Ponder+Brainstorm+Fetches+FoW.
I guess people are just too bored, too old and the prices too high in general for new players to pick up the cards. Legacy has gone full Vintage at this point imo.
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I think the most poor designed card is still Baleful Strix. The card is way beyond Gitaxian Probes power in its representative archetype. We are talking about a blue Doom Blade against any color which works as a cantrip and can also attack and is Force of Will pitchable. It is way to OP in any Ubx control deck and is extremely oppressing on the board because you need to spend removal (resources) on it while it allready replace itself and can trade against anything. In this content Strix is a much more powerful card than Gitaxian Probe was and I think it should be absolutely banned. I could also argue that Terminus is oppressing in that sense but Terminus was allready nerfed since SDT banning so I am more fine with Terminus tbh than Strix.
I think you’re jumping the gap between “good card” to “overpowered card” here.
First, Probe’s problem wasn’t just how it enabled any one archetype, even if it did push one or two. The main issue was how prevalent the card had become, and how much it distorted the risk-taking aspect of the game. By definition, Strix cannot be prevalent outside of UBx, but even in these colors, it is not.
Secondly, Strix is not a Doomblade, it’s just an efficient blocker. It might be hell to deal with for certain archetypes, it’s also a bit of joke for others. From first strikers to pingers to anything with protection from black or blue, mainboard and sideboard options aren’t exactly lacking.
A card that can be answered by Tim can’t possibly be ban-worthy.
Should have known trying to be overly flippant would cost me. Hermit Druid needs a answer right away, Strix can be Tim-ed in the next 15 turns.
Shaman is most definitely not Tim-able, but before we’d even look at that, we should go back to “format warping” and general prevalence. There’s an order to these things.
This is also just not true. There were two archetypes that played probe, and yes, Grixis was very strong, but it's still very strong after the probe banning. Probe detractors always discuss it as though it were literally free, and that any and every deck played it, but that's just not what actually happened in real life.
As for the "risk-taking aspect," I assume you mean the peek that comes with Probe? Again, Thoughtseize is still legal. Thoughtseize gives you exactly as much information as Probe does, and yet no one is yelling about discard taking away some sacrosanct "hidden information" game. People have draw steps, people have Brainstorm; a one-turn snapshot of someone's hand was completely fine.
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