[B&R] Mystical Tutor banned / Illusionary Mask and Grim Monolith unbanned

[ramanujan]

The following responses are meant to be humorous. Humor is needed right now.

A small compilation of various entities responses to announced changes:

LSV: Hmm, I wonder what I will play now. The 60 basic lands of doom deck will certainly surprise my opponents. Unfortunately, they will not be surprised enough to die, even with me playing the deck. Lands is good and if I just trade in these beta undergrounds before they lose too much value I can put together half of the deck. Problem solved.

Starcitygames: Fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire (running in circles)…. Close down Starcitygames.com. Reopen site a while later. We have now increased the cost in Grim Monolith, and bought out everyone else. Mwa Ah Ah!

Fairy Macabre: Oh come on, I am still a creature…. It is still June…. But I don’t want to be a bulk card, I am meant for spotlight in games 2 and 3…. Crap

Lands Pilots: Huzzah for us. Get more Tabernacles, those Empty the Warrens are making me nervous.

Doomsday: Take that Ad Nauseam, now the players will have to learn those pesky stacks in order to compete

Shock Lands: We’re shocked

Japanese Mirage Mystical Tutor: This has been a long year.

Dark Depths: This sure is lonely in the dark depths of the trade binder

The new DTB forum: I am the old DTB forum, out of date

Ebay BIN Sellers: Hurray, I sold something!! Announcement?? Dang it!! Even when I overprice I am still never getting ahead.

Saito: Wow, if there was only another deck I could randomly add city of traitors to that would win anyway. Thank goodness I am not going to the GP.

ANT: I was totally a fun deck to play against, really. I hope that the judges didn’t read the announcement because I am winning with Mystical Tutor anyway. If needed, I will Mystical Tutor up a glass of shut the hell up for them. I am the combo vampire. You only think that I am dead.

Terastodon: I made a new friend, Protean Hulk


I hope that this lightens your mood,

Peace

[menace13]

Removed flame. -J Half of R&D was on the gravy train or won a PT outright before joining wizards. Randy Butler would be in the hall of fame if he weren't an employee.

No, you.

That was a mad outburst based on anger from a poorly made decision, one which does not go with hard numbers that clearly show ANT and Reanimator are not dominating the top 8's.

[Gheizen64]

I wouldn't be that overjoyed if I were a Lands.dec or Zoo player.

Both decks are not difficult to hate out. Cards like Firespout do just fine against Zoo but several decks devoted so many cards to the ANT and Iona matchups that they didn't have room for them. And graveyard hate which hated on almost every viable combo deck but ANT, and also hates on Lands, and TES, just got more potent, and will see even more play than it already does.

With ANT and Reanimator getting a slight nerf, now everyone is going to aim their sideboard hate slots squarely at what they consider the new best decks in the format. And it's not going to be pretty. :p

What's interesting is that imho everyone will think Combo is dead, go with Zoo and then Combo will win it all because control will start playing firespouts.

You heard it here first :P

[Enigma]

I'm very excited that we will need some brainstorming for GP's metagame, as the obvious deck choices are now disminished by that decision of banning MT. Now there is something to keep in mind while analyzing GP's meta. Yes, a lot of people, and many here seems to think that way, will think Zoo, Lands and Enchantress went from good decks to really good one, and you guys are probably right. As for me, I still fear combo decks, just in different form then Reanimator and ANT. Belcher always been a good contender, and it is actually way better against Zoo than ANT and Reanimator. And there is also TES that is a good anti zoo/lands choice.

But I think you guys are way overrating the influence of that decision. Yes it hoses two DTB, but the meta will just adapt, as always. The fact that this is coordinating with the most interesting event in Legacy's history makes that decision a great opportunity for us to analyze that.

It seriously only matters how people gonna interpret it, really.

P-M

[dahcmai]

Thank god I had picked up my Resets again after the solidarity hype was at it's highest. Seems they might be useful again.

I had 4 foil Monoliths setting in my commons box for EDH decks. I feel really lucky today. Guess, I'll try and rebuild the old MUD decks for a laugh.

Mask, well I'm glad it sucks, I'd hate for that card to become good considering how much it is already. It was over $100 back when it was mediocre and that was years ago before all this price jumping stuff.


I guess Land Tax is still massively overpowered to the point of warping the entire format so badly everyone would be forced into playing Mighty Quinn if unbanned. lmao. It can hang out with it's new friend Mystical though. Land Tax still makes me laugh seeing it on there. They are going to never let that one come off out of principle.

[lacombeshawn]

Well, ANT basically just ceased to exist as a relevant deck. Combo is basically a total dog to blue now that it loses one of its most important setup pieces.

Why did they do this? Combo consistently underperforms, the problem card in Reanimator is Entomb, and basically all of the other strategies using Mystical are fine. The last two SCG 5ks have been dominated by Zoo, which isn't even blue - so we nerf one of the two decks Zoo isn't so hot against? What?

The format was perfectly healthy, and Reanimator's poor showing of late seems to indicate the format is adapting to it. And now it looks like we're in for some Vintage-style loving.

Maybe there shouldn't have been all those articles about fixing the B&R lists...it seems Wizards loves to be hamfisted when it comes to managing them.

But seriously, why? Why?!

I agree with almost everything this guy says. The format was healthy and people have been really enjoying it. I feel like wizards of the coast just whizzed in my corn flakes!!! Not to mention I just lost like a hundred bucks in mystical tutors that were in all my decks!!

[hungryLIKEALION]

Simply put, this is not good news for Zoo. Yes, combo was one of zoo's worst matchups, but its presence in the metagame helped Zoo more than it hurt it because it forced the blue decks to diversify their answers. ANT was strong enough to take up sideboard slots in the blue decks, despite maindeck counterbalance and such. Now those decks don't need to devote as many sideboard slots to combo, meaning they have more room for Zoo.

I've been off playing Excalibur for months now, and was starting to get to the point where I wanted to play Zoo again for a while, intending to take it to the next big tourney I intend... but now, I really just don't like the odds.

[oxeimon]

so uh, why do people think underground seas going down in value?

[Jak]

People really need to define healthy. If you are just looking at how many defferent decks there were, then Legacy is very healthy. But from my perspective, looking at it color wise, it wasn't. Having equality in colors is just as important to me as number of decks because when every deck has blue, the diversity isn't really there between decks. Blue's dominance is one of the major reasons Zoo has been performing well and combo has been kept down. Hopefully by hurting combo, non blue decks can be picked up and Zoo won't have that edge over the field and we see some diversity in colors and decks.

[(nameless one)]

I guess Land Tax is still massively overpowered to the point of warping the entire format so badly everyone would be forced into playing Mighty Quinn if unbanned. lmao. It can hang out with it's new friend Mystical though. Land Tax still makes me laugh seeing it on there. They are going to never let that one come off out of principle.

This...

I was a little dissappointed with Grim Monolith unbanning. I was at the local store just a week after Entomb was reintroduced and I there was a playset of Land Tax and a couple of Grim Monolith on showcase. Each card was $6. I decided to pick up Land Tax instead of Grim Monolith (well because it was already a playset and I have a couple of Scroll Racks) thinking that it is more likely to get unbanned on the next B/R update.

Now, the local store doesnt have any more Grim Monolith and they're now $30 each.

I should have picked the Monolith instead. I am still happy that Legacy has a new toy to play with.

[Kangaxx]

You people need to quit crying. Mystical Tutor was a good ban. It doesn't completely get rid of either Storm Combo or Reanimator, but makes them not the two strongest decks in the format anymore (They were, btw.)

Illusionary Mask will see play with Dreadnought and a few other things that have face-up triggers (Fathom Seer comes to mind.) I think between it and Grim Monolith, a very powerful Trinket Mage deck will emerge.

Grim Monolith, however, is -extremely- powerful in this format, and immediately goes into several existing archetypes as follows.

1. Belcher can, should, and will run 4 Grim Monolith. It's true acceleration in a Storm ramp, and it's excellent for getting a Belcher down on an acceleration-light hand.

2. Dragon Stompy will attempt to run Grim Monolith. This may be what gives rise to Covetous Dragon being playable in the deck, and it will more likely bring Arc-Slogger back for it.

3. Painter Stone will get better. Grim Monolith lets this combo go off on turn two via turn one Monolith (Off a tomb, city, petal, whatever), turn two land, Grindstone, Painter, Activate, win.

4. Other weird decks will emerge now that getting 6 mana on turn two is a very possible part of Legacy.

EDIT: Also, I can't help but wonder if Mono Black Reanimator gains ground on U/B because of this. It's certainly where I'm leaning. Packing Putrid Imp, Animate Dead, 4 Iona, a couple Terastodons and Sphinxes, etc.

i'm also pretty sure that Dragonstorm decks will be atleast a tier 2 archetype with the unbanning of Monolith. Stax just got alot better as well.

[lordofthepit]

On the other hand, I think Grim Monolith is suffering from Dream Halls Syndrome. Its currently $30 a piece but is it really that good? Yes, it will enable Staxx and MUD comebacks but does it fix their inconsistency?

No, it's not. I've been following the price of Grim Monolith pretty closely in the last few months because I was thinking of picking up a playset in anticipation of it being unbanned. You could get it then for as low as $4-5 on eBay if you shopped around.

Yesterday night, I was a bit late to the party because I was watching the NBA Finals. Most stores had already sold out by then, but there were still about a dozen left across various stores priced at about $10. I hesitated on whether it was worth the money, but ended up splurging for a playset nonetheless. An hour later, pretty much every store had sold out except for Channel-Fireball, which had them in stock at $17.99 (for slightly played) and $19.99 (for NM).

Those merchants that are jacking up the price to over $30 a piece are just trying to take advantage of the fact that there's no supply right now. I'm confident that those cards will eventually settle in price to something more reasonable (but then again, that's what I said about Dark Depths and Entomb).

[troopatroop]

Instead of crying about the decks you own that got weaker, lets assess all of the decks that will still exist in a fully powered state.

Zoo
Counter-top
Merfolk
Bant
Goblins
Belcher
Faeries
New Horizons
Tempo thresh
Landstill
Dredge

That's with numerous Rogue decks in the works or on the side. That still seems like a healthy format to me, just a bit slower. ANT and Reanimator may have been a bit too good, and it'll be interesting to see how those archtypes adapt in a new environment. Reanimator can always go Mono-Black or Black/Green, which is alot more tempting now without Mystical. TES can get away without running it, along with SI and Belcher, so not much has really changed. I for one, am happy to not have to play against ANT or U/B Reanimator as much anymore. Other decks will become more popular, and I could see Merfolk/Counter-top/Zoo making up a good 50% of the field now. Firespout and Perish just got better.

[Piceli89]

You're forgetting Doomsday/Fetchland Tendrils, which is the deck I and some other pilots are straightly going to build, and is WAY far to be "the dog against blue". I think you'll still have more (good) Tendrils decks than how you were expecting after this day.

[majikal]

You're forgetting Doomsday/Fetchland Tendrils, which is the deck I and some other pilots are straightly going to build, and is WAY far to be "the dog against blue". I think you'll still have more (good) Tendrils decks than how you were expecting after this day.

This deck is still extremely strong, even while losing some of its resiliency to hate with the loss of MT. I think it's probably the strongest against blue decks while still having decent game against aggro.

I'll definitely be retuning my build as well.

[Sanguine Voyeur]

Wildfire just got stronger.

[honestabe]

Legacy is the new vintage.

WoTC is going to kill this format; its what happens when an eternal format gets too popular, they kill it. It happened in t1, and you're watching it happen in legacy.

Sorry guys :(

[SpikeyMikey]

Does anyone remember a few months back to the mass of threads spawned by the rumor of the abolition of the reserve list and the later strengthening of the same? Remember that vocal minority that claimed that the price and availability of cards would not drive the format under and Wizards would not stop supporting a format as wildly popular as Legacy had proven to be at GP: Madrid? Remember how they said that the Vintage parallel was a fallacious argument and that the larger availability of Legacy cards was enough to keep the format alive and kicking? Would any of those people like to come forward now to stand by their previous claims? I haven't gone back through those threads to see who was berating us for a 'Chicken Little' mentality back then, but I'm sure there are at least a couple in this thread pontificating on their views of this latest announcement. But, to an extent, they were right. Legacy will not collapse under it's own weight. WotC is shifting the balance away from Legacy before that happens with the shift to supporting a new Extended over Legacy. I'm sure the collectors are happy. They are getting what they wanted. Another unsupported format with ghastly high card prices.

[Pulp_Fiction]

Fucking idiots. This is sickening. MT ISN'T THE PROBLEM WITH THE FORMAT. SENSEI'S DIVINING TOP IS! God damn, all Wizards seems to do to this format is shit all over it rather than make it better. I am truly upset with the ignorance of this company.

[MMogg]

And I received this reply:

To be perfectly honest Mystical Tutor intel came in to me at the last minute for me and my assignment was to cover the Extended announcement. I am certain that Tom LaPille will write extensively about the decision regarding that decision next week.

- David Brian-Marshall

You see, things like this just bother me. Tom LaPille has a new feature article (not mentioning the update) published on the same day as the B&R update. Would it have been so difficult for them to actually have his article about the update at the same time? And I love how this guy is not even sure if there will be further explanation. Maybe there won't. Maybe LaPille's next article will be on how wonderful Standard is. So, again, for me personally, and probably for others as well, it isn't just the ruling/announcement, it's also the way they communicate with the Legacy community. Their mode of communication is very often silence, like with the Reserved List decision, and we're left trying to piece together an explanation.

The thing is, this isn't some damned spectator sport. If this were NHL or MLB or NBA (etc.), rules changes don't make much of an impact on us personally. Yet,in professional sports they usually explain in full why they make rules changes. Here, we're the participants and we're told nothing about the important decisions that effect our collections and playing. When people say they're going to quit, I think it's more they're tired of being fucked up the ass while being told to turn that grimace into a smile.