Quote Originally Posted by Sharpened View Post
Look, I love value Show and Tell lists as much as the next guy. But they aren't why Show and Tell is banned.

Show and Tell was banned because of lists like Gerry's. Combo lists where a resolved Show and Tell meant game over. And judging by a lot of the comments in this thread, people don't seem to understand that.

Abrupt Decay is not an answer to Show and Tell. The Show and Tell player will laugh at you and maybe die of a burst spleen and you'd win by default.
Who cares if a deck can generate GGGGG and resolve SotF and "win", on the ground, or with a disruptable graveyard combo. Elves wins just as fast, show and tell is far more absurd, tougher to disrupt and resilient. If I'm going to fight a stack war over SotF and have it resolve and still have some number of G available and a creature in hand, I'm just playing a pet deck. I could have done the same thing with Show and Tell, not worried about having mana left over to start a chain and just shit on your face with any of the laughable childmind creatures WotC has graced us with.

If I'm not fighting over my "instant win" SotF on the stack I'm jamming it best case on turn 2 with a dork to activate it once. Again would I rather see an Elves player resolve Glimpse? A show and tell nimrod resolve his name sake? Be locked under top / cb? It's just not that impressive anymore. We have routine turn 1 reanimations, why bother with a slower shell that has less means to put back excess Viashino Sandstalkers and do nothing 6 mana mud pies.

The cards that make SotF more tame since it's banning aren't really even the hate pieces like

- Cage
- Revoker
- Abrupt Decay
- Surgical
- Priest

it's the similar cards that are just faster

- GSZ
- Natural Order now just ends the game via Derphoof

I have no doubt SotF would be competitive but you have to cut something. Going all in on the combo version weakens the deck to existing hate.