B/R List update

[kombatkiwi]

Banned: Trade Secrets
Unbanned: Staff of Domination

Trade Secrets ban: Literally affects nobody, who gives a crap
Staff of Domination unban: <3

Moar metalworker plz

[(nameless one)]

Yes yes yes!

It's combo time!

I guess my Nin, the Pain Artist combo MUD deck is a go!

[Davran]

Aw man...now I can't bait greedy combo players into a Cerebral Vortex kill with Trade Secrets!

On a serious note, I guess I agree with the ban - should help out with some of the collusion that happens in EDH side events and "tournaments".

Remind me again why Staff of Domination was banned in the first place?

[Aggro_zombies]

Aw man...now I can't bait greedy combo players into a Cerebral Vortex kill with Trade Secrets!

On a serious note, I guess I agree with the ban - should help out with some of the collusion that happens in EDH side events and "tournaments".

Remind me again why Staff of Domination was banned in the first place?
For similar reasons to why Trade Secrets was just banned: because it ruined games. I mean, the card basically reads, "Make infinite mana: You may win the game."

Not sure why Staff is somehow okay but Trade Secrets is destructive, but hey, now I can jam Staff into Elfball and win more.

[Davran]

For similar reasons to why Trade Secrets was just banned: because it ruined games. I mean, the card basically reads, "Make infinite mana: You may win the game."

Not sure why Staff is somehow okay but Trade Secrets is destructive, but hey, now I can jam Staff into Elfball and win more.

Maybe it's just me...but with infinite mana you should be winning the game anyway. Staff of Domination is just another thing you can do once you get there.

As for Trade Secrets, I've heard of more than one occasion where a 2 man "team" would show up to an EDH side event or "tournament". One player has the mono-blue control deck, and the other has some sort of combo. The control guy prevents anyone from interacting with the combo guy, and they split whatever the prize is. Trade Secrets is a tool in that arsenal - the control guy is drawing more countermagic, and the combo guy is digging for his win condition. Granted, this is a special case and totally not worthy of banning a card...but I guess enough people are butt hurt that the RC decided to take action.

[Aggro_zombies]

Maybe it's just me...but with infinite mana you should be winning the game anyway. Staff of Domination is just another thing you can do once you get there.

As for Trade Secrets, I've heard of more than one occasion where a 2 man "team" would show up to an EDH side event or "tournament". One player has the mono-blue control deck, and the other has some sort of combo. The control guy prevents anyone from interacting with the combo guy, and they split whatever the prize is. Trade Secrets is a tool in that arsenal - the control guy is drawing more countermagic, and the combo guy is digging for his win condition. Granted, this is a special case and totally not worthy of banning a card...but I guess enough people are butt hurt that the RC decided to take action.
I think a far more common occurrence is one player playing Consecrated Sphinx and another player Cloning it. That isn't even an intentional way to immediately eliminate half a four-man pod, and people have been bitching about Sphinx since it came out.

That said, collusion can and will continue to happen. Player teams goldfishing side events have a ton of options that won't be solved by banning bad cards. I used to use Sway of the Stars and Biorhythm as examples of why the rules committee has its head up its ass when it comes to bannings; now, I have one more example.

[Amon Amarth]

Yeah, no one really cares about Trade Secrets being banned. It affected no one and even though I've seen some good arguments for it being banned it's a crap card that depends on your opponents being dumb.

Staff, on the other hand, is freakin' awesome. That it kills someone with infinite mana is pretty ho-hum these days and at best a two-card combo. All the awesome things it can do as a utility card are pretty exciting and is basically the ultimate EDH card. It does everything! So cool!

[Offler]

Trade secrets is usually not seen in play since people who can read know that if you are target of the spell you have to draw two cards, but your opponnent can draw up to four... In multiplayer its different if you have co-player you can ask if you both can draw whole library. Well with my deck nobody will ever be able to agree with such deal :D

Staff of domination is a very powerful thing. It can serve both as combo igniter, and as combo finisher regardless of color of the deck. When in format again it can enable a lot of black and green infinite mana combos, while allow to draw whole deck at the same time...