[Article]Eternal Europe: Battle of the Banned

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Today I'm suggesting a fun way to collect some experience with cards that have been exiled from the format - check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25792_Battle-Of-The-Banned.html

Enjoy!

Edit: People are already discussing the format/suggestions here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?25658-The-testing-of-banned-cards

[ESG]

Carsten, I enjoy your StarCity articles a lot, but I feel the timing on this one was inopportune. Aside from the Balance deck, all those decks you presented are combo decks. Do you not feel there is enough combo already in Legacy? (My impression is that your default preference is control, so, if that's true, you might be less sensitive to this issue than I am.)

I feel that, with Tin Fins and Enter the Infinite and Omniscence, we're at a point where Force of Will is almost a necessity unless you're a combo deck, and that bums me out. I try to be an ambassador of this format, but I see budget decks like Burn and so many of the Tier 2 strategies slipping that it's hard for me to recommend them as viable entry points anymore. I hate this relentless "win now" focus that WOTC has been pushing in its design of ever more ridiculous permanents. Stuff like Griselbrand, Emrakul, Omniscence and Enter the Infinite are poorly designed cards and should not exist at all, in my opinion. Mana cost should actually mean something. Despite having thousands and thousands of cards at our disposal, there's not much out there that can interact with these strategies. "Play one card and win" blowouts should be exceedingly rare, which would make them novel and able to be celebrated on that level, but they're all-too-common now. There is a strong need in the format for fast and/or somewhat flexible answers (the Trap cycle and Deathrite Shaman were steps in the right direction, in my opinion). Right now we have primarily counterspells and maybe discard, and discard is not where I want to be, honestly, with Show and Tell decks filled with Misdirections and postboard Leyline of Sanctity.

There are a lot of cool strategies that exist in this big format that don't get a chance to shine due to other cards' increasing power level. All of the cards your article highlighted would be enormously powerful and, aside from Balance, are combo enablers. I know there are other cards on the banned list that don't fit that characterization, but it seems like unbannings almost always raise the power level of the format. I love Strip Mine, but do I want to turn it loose on Legacy? Heck no. So, yes, you get one card back with an unbanning, but it in turn pushes out other cards.

I feel it would be more useful to narrow down your unbanning candidates to three or four of the cards that you feel would be reasonable in Legacy and then have your readers run tests on those. It's pretty obvious that Flash and Yawgmoth's Will are not suitable for unbanning, so the part about trying to influence DCI policy seems suspect. The goofy thrill of "Yeah, let's pit Flash against TES!" doesn't jibe with the seriousness of actually considering what's banned.

Also, my favorite card in all of Magic is Survival of the Fittest, but having so many instant-win-style combos with it now takes the fun out of the card for me.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Oh, I agree that there is definitely enough combo in the meta right now (largely on the back of Griselb), though that has a lot to do with Decay and Deathrite pushing out the predators temporarily. Tempo and Control are already coming back, which should bring the combo count back down to managable levels (and remove that perceived need for FoW). I feel that's a useful and healthy way for the format to regulate itself so that we don't get a Jund-disaster like Modern did.
My absolute preference, deckwise, if given the choice, is true combo-control actually (think Vintage Gifts), though I kind of hope I won't ever get to play that archetype for an extended period in Legacy - good combo-control generally crushes everything else under its heel. After that I prefer control to combo (fun combo like storm, not derpy combo like S&T) and if you see me touching significant amounts of creatures other than once in a blue moon you can rest assured something's out of whack with the metagame.
Also note that this article wasn't actually about unbanning anything in regular Legacy. I suggest a format in which people get to unban their favorite cards so that we can slam those down on the table again. Honestly, do you believe for a second I'd consider Necro, Flash and Will fair in current Legacy? Trust me, I'm not that delusional ;) The nice thing about that is that it also allows us to get a much better understanding as to why those cards need to remain banned or not: Playing with the cards helps our understanding about their fundamental power level and provides tuned decks to play against normal Legacy stuff so we can figure out if they need to indeed remain banned - because if my best Necro-deck consistently loses to half an actual Legacy field, it doesn't need to stay out of the format - not that I expect that to be the result of that particular experiment.

Totally understand your point about Survival, it was sweet as a powerful card-advantage and selection engine. Actually kind of similar to Necro before people figured out you could just use it to draw 10+ cards at once and combo-kill people with it. <3 Pump Knight, Hymn, Necro, Drain Life.dec...

[Zombie]

One anecdote about Survival that's stuck in my mind was some European Rock player basically laughing at how eager Survival players were to Time Walk themselves (Hello, Extirpate!). Elves for you, Carsten (should you get a fever and sling some Forests)? Grindstation 3000 with Draw attachments on the board, combo kill included :P

Also, an example of a Vintage Gifts list?

EDIT: Never got to play Sam Black's monog Elf Vengevine Survival ;___; That deck was a beauty.

[Machahiko]

ESG summed up my thoughts just perfectly. I think Jin-Gitaxias was just already a bit too good for reanimator decks, but now they added griselbrand who outclasses Jin-Gitaxian in every way. Griselbrand even costs less mana, what the..? Show and Tell is god damn stupid card. Oh look 2-card combo that wins the game almost always right away.

[Lord Seth]

I hate this relentless "win now" focus that WOTC has been pushing in its design of ever more ridiculous permanents. Stuff like Griselbrand, Emrakul, Omniscence and Enter the Infinite are poorly designed cards and should not exist at all, in my opinion. Mana cost should actually mean something.How does that make them poorly designed, when the reason their mana cost is irrelevant is a card printed years and years and years ago in a block full of completely overpowered cards?

I don't have any issue with the cards you mentioned. The problem card is Show and Tell.

[Greenpoe]

Yeah, there's other enablers beyond S&T (such as ramp - which can exist even in standard).

[Megadeus]

How does that make them poorly designed, when the reason their mana cost is irrelevant is a card printed years and years and years ago in a block full of completely overpowered cards?

I don't have any issue with the cards you mentioned. The problem card is Show and Tell.

12 mana draw my deck. Yay we built a card! Thats a card I feel like they found on a forum... and same with omniscience... ten mana free everything! Isnt magic more fun when everything is free like yugioh!?