Brainstorm
Force of Will
Lion's Eye Diamond
Counterbalance
Sensei's Divining Top
Tarmogoyf
Phyrexian Dreadnaught
Goblin Lackey
Standstill
Natural Order
Thanks alot!
Of course, his job security depends on it.
And it doesn't even address the core problems of their current design philosophy.
Even if they don't make stupid new mechanics that you can't really interact with before shit hits the fan (e.g. companion, energy) - there are still the cards left that are too extremely pushed to sell sets. That, in combination with the lack of proper, timely answers, is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
They apparently don't have resources to playtest Eternal formats... which in plain English means stable formats aren't profitable enough so they won't spend money testing them. Still, it's really not hard to do the following checks before printing a card:
1) Does this card let you repeatedly replay Black Lotus/Lion's Eye Diamond without exiling the card after?
2) Does this cheap planeswalker let you replay Strip Mine/Wasteland over and over and also manage the board?
These should be obvious red flags. Somehow Wrenn and Six, Underworld Breach and Lurrus of the Dream-Den still failed them.
I don’t even think you need to go that far on W&6, just ask “should Crucible cost 1 less, be harder to kill/target, and also threaten to end the game in 5 turns?”
Lurrus is the least egregious, and shows at least minimal insight as to how to separate anything like DRS from turn 1 dude into turn 2 play 1-card combo that wins game by itself (ex. Oko). A creature that says stop playing PWs is fine in my book.
In the eighteen years I've been familiar with MaRo's rhetoric, I've never seen him this duplicitous. Hopefully it means someone yelled at him or at the entire group about all of this shit the company has been printing recently.
Find enlightenment for just $29.99!
To be fair, there wasn't widespread shouting that these cards needed to be banned until a while after their release, I follow the spoiler season carefully and listen to maybe a dozen podcasts. When W6 was banned after six months or so very few people actively supported an immediate ban (as I recall, I did fwiw), I remember feeling controversial when I wrote here before the announcement that it seemed like the first opportunity for WotC to ban the card without it seeming like they acted prematurely. It took a while until Brain Feeze was identified as an engine and wincon with Breach, and if that card didn't exist we might still have Breach around.
Anyway, whether these cards can be identified as banworthy at a concept stage or not, as long as bans are carried out swiftly, the damage to the format is minimal. It's when we need to regularly face these cards that 90% (random number) of players recognise as not suitable for this format that our interest in playing is reduced. I hope WotC keep up banning proactively, like with Breach. Edit: and I hope they step it up with respect to Oko and sadly Astrolabe, and Lurrus.
Edit: the Litmus tests you propose seem good.
I thought it was even more. Now, it's possible that the format will adapt, but this seems like a card that will not be easy to balance. The Companion-restriction [edit: for Lurrus specifically] may be suitable for Standard and Pioneer, maybe Modern, but not for Legacy and probably not for Vintage. We should have this card banned now in order to avoid further damaging the format. And, I think with a more proactive approach to banning cards, it may be a good idea to reconsider unbanning cards in the future. I think this could be done in a community effort, similar to how Julian Knab ran the.. What's it called again, the Legacy Mediocre League? [edit: no, Legacy Unchained - https://itsjulian.com/legacy-unchained-week-1/] I forgot, last spring's Twitch tournament with Deathrite, Top and Survival unbanned.
Last edited by pettdan; 05-12-2020 at 03:52 AM.
Pillar of the format! /sarcasm
Even with Lurrus gone, there are still Zirda, Gyruda and probably Yorion at minimum that are going to be problematic. I sure can't sait for Bant/4C Snoko Yorion clusterfuck decks once Lurrus is gone.
They should ban the companion mechanic from Constructed play (allowing you to run the cards normally) and throw in an Astrolabe + Oko ban as well. There, format fixed.
I don't mean to splice up your entire quote, much of what I agree with, but I remember the same day of Breach being spoiled that there was talk of brainfreeze being a good kill condition with the card. Just saying that Breach was dumb as shit and I think even without Brainfreeze existing it would've eventually gotten the axe
It’s perfectly ok you have a good point and you're probably right. I think I oversimplified my description of it which was based on a couple of observations hanging together loosely. As I recalled it took some little time between seeing the card and hearing of BF but maybe it was only less than a day, I thought it might have been a couple of days as I remember finding brain freezes for good prices for maybe a few days, indicating to me it took a while for it to catch on (not disagreeing here, just that this was my observation at the time that I probably reinterpreted wrongly now). Also I don't remember exactly but didn't decklists evolve for a while, I vaguely recall that but maybe what I really recall was all the different types of lists that were popping up.. Final observation and the more relevant one, as Breach was banned, Maverick actually seemed to be becoming a meta deck and if Breach decks were a bit weaker, such as without BF, I can see Maverick having had an even better edge there. It's hard to say how such a meta might have evolved.
Am I the only one who thinks good cards are cool and that people should actually get the chance to play with them before deciding they should be banned? Because it'd be really cool to actually see these cards in person before they get the axe.
Underworld Breach and Wrenn and Six both got banned ludicrously quickly—and with judgment that can only be described as lacking. That's no better than waiting a decade to act on Miracles or waiting to act on Chalice of the Void until sometime never.
All Spells Primer under construction: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...Tl7utWpLo0/pub
PM me if you want to contribute!
I agree that cards shouldn’t be banned without vetting by paper play.
Breach and Wrenn were both poorly designed, and highlight the problems with the short-sighted banning of legacy’s GY police (DRS). Mistakes like these will keep getting out of control (ex. Hogaak, Uro, Sanctuary, Dreadhorde, Wrenn, Breach, Lurrus) the longer we go without the black 1-drop policeman. A fixed version of DRS is likely in order since the mana acceleration leads either to Hymn/Snapcaster exploits or 1-card combo that wins game by itself (Oko). Either he only gets to make a mana of the color/type of the land he exiles, or do something interesting like exile a non-creature or non-instant/sorcery to gain either first strike (anti-Snapcaster) or deathtouch (anti-Goyf).
Breach is on a different level than the others though, that pushed out every fair deck way quicker that DTT OmniTell ever could.
I got burned by the breach ban. It was my fault, I knew it was bannable. Grinding station was another engine for breach.
W6 was a good ban, which I did not get got by because like pettdan, I knew it was bannable before the release date just like with breach.
I agree that miracles needed a banning on terminus BEFORE Oko, Astrolabe and uro, and now its looking like Lurrus and Yorion (all are in some version of a winning miracles decklist). I think the name Miracles is damned ironic for the decklist. Anyway, its name should really be "Miracles Never Cease" now that they have Mystic Sanctuary, also.
Chalice is fine. You can combo turn 2, maybe turn 1 *TO WIN THE GAME* in this format right now without ever casting something that costs 1. It is fine.
If they outright ban Lurrus of the Dream Den, I will be really frustrated. If they ban the Companion mechanic, I will also be really frustrated. Yorion isn't good if there is no Companion mechanic, but if Companion is allowed to stay, Lurrus and Zirda and possibly others remain detrimental to the formats they are effective in.
TL;DR - I prefer balanced design over reactive environment. Companion could have been balanced, and Lurrus was busted without it.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
There are currently 2900 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 2900 guests)