[SPECULATION] LoA not restricted on ModO classic, possibly an hint for the next B/R?

[menace13]

LoA as a 4-of would be totally broken. If you've ever played with the card you should know how ridiculously good this card is... Wastelands or not.

Broken when your fast beater is 3WW

[Koby]

Library w/o power is underwhelming.

Library w/ power is underutilized.

[Meekrab]

There's a precedent: The time Arabian Nights was printed there's no Legend Rule.

That's not what precedent means.

–noun
1.
Law . a legal decision or form of proceeding serving as an authoritative rule or pattern in future similar or analogous cases.

Anyway, yes, please unban LoA and Mana Drain in Legacy, pure control needs some new tricks.

[caiomarcos]

Survival needs the banhammer. Shit's like Jund in recent type 2 memory. And they're not gonna add "legendary" to a card. There's no precedent for that; the closest is power-level erata, which Library already has.

But they didn't teach me "alguns" yet. Would it be "o ovo" if I were trying to say "an egg?"

What is its power level errata?

Also, just realized level is a palindrome, hehe

[pippo84]

That's not what precedent means.



Anyway, yes, please unban LoA and Mana Drain in Legacy, pure control needs some new tricks.

First thing: For both cards the price would skyrocket!! Yep, if you can find a Mana Drain for 50€ now after a ban it would be approx 150-200€ each! Too much!!

As for power level: I think that unbanning both would be ok.. Mana Drain would see tons of play! AnD LoA wouldn't see that much play. It would just be useful in control mirrors, and without power it's not that broken.

Anyways I wouldn't unban them because of the price.

And yes, we all know that Wizards won't even consider them to ban.

[lebarion]

I'm no Vintage expert and never saw exactly how broken LoA can be in play, but with the current power level of Legacy it may not fuck the entire format.

@Fuzzy, if they add "Legendary" to Library of Alexandria, by your logic, they'd probably have to do it for City of Brass, too, and so fucking the entire format. And they'd also have to do it for a lot of crappy cards (King Suleiman, Aladdin, Sindbad, Ali Baba, Ali From Cairo, Abu Jafar, El-Hajjâj , Uncle Istvan, etc.,etc.).

PS. Mas a verdadeira razão do meu post é escrever um pouco em português aqui :). Zach, por quê você está estudando português?

[Gheizen64]

What is its power level errata?

Also, just realized level is a palindrome, hehe

Things like Flash and Time vault were once power-leveled errataed. Now they're not anymore and as such banned everywhere.

[(nameless one)]

why can't we ask for Land Tax to get unbanned instead?

[Zach Tartell]

What is its power level errata?

I assume you're familiar with the whole Flash-ruining-Legacy-for-a-while thing. In the days of old it was worded as printed, then power-level erata came along and changed it to "If you don't pay the additional cost the creature it goes straight to the bin instead of into play." Dissatisfied with how much fun we were having, Wizards (or the unbanning committee, which I understand may be a separate entity) decided to switch the style up on us, changing the wording back to the original.

I'm no Vintage expert and never saw exactly how broken LoA can be in play, but with the current power level of Legacy it may not fuck the entire format.

@Fuzzy, if they add "Legendary" to Library of Alexandria, by your logic, they'd probably have to do it for City of Brass, too, and so fucking the entire format. And they'd also have to do it for a lot of crappy cards (King Suleiman, Aladdin, Sindbad, Ali Baba, Ali From Cairo, Abu Jafar, El-Hajjâj , Uncle Istvan, etc.,etc.).

PS. Mas a verdadeira razão do meu post é escrever um pouco em português aqui :). Zach, por quê você está estudando português?

1. Ludicrous that you'd suggest that Legacy is a more stable and able to withstand the addition of Library.
2. No comment.
3 (a). No fair - I only just learned how to make an ã on my alt + number pad.
3 (b). I also can only make simple sentences. I can do present progressive with está/ão + gerund and literally just started learning interrogatives (but only as much as What is this? or Is this a ____?).
3 (c) Unemployed for a couple months, finally got my internet-savvy roomie to rip Rosetta Stone Portuguese 1, 2, and 3 for me. If I'd had my druthers I'd've started Dutch (as I'm kinda seriously looking to emigrate) but Portuguese'll keep me busy when I get bored of comic books and video games.

[Fuzzy]

@Fuzzy, if they add "Legendary" to Library of Alexandria, by your logic, they'd probably have to do it for City of Brass, too, and so fucking the entire format. And they'd also have to do it for a lot of crappy cards (King Suleiman, Aladdin, Sindbad, Ali Baba, Ali From Cairo, Abu Jafar, El-Hajjâj , Uncle Istvan, etc.,etc.).

I can't see the problem here. Also, any doubt the KING SULEIMAN should be a legend?

[caiomarcos]

I didn't ask what power level errata is.

Zach said:
" ...the closest is power-level erata, which Library already has."

So I asked "What is ITS power level errata?"

Like... what is LoA's power level errata? I can't find it...

[dontbiteitholmes]

I didn't ask what power level errata is.

Zach said:
" ...the closest is power-level erata, which Library already has."

So I asked "What is ITS power level errata?"

Like... what is LoA's power level errata? I can't find it...

Card Text -
Tap to add 1 colorless mana to your mana pool or draw a card from your library; you may use the card-drawing ability only if you have exactly seven cards in your hand.

Oracle Text-
T: Add 1 mana to your mana pool.
T: Draw a card. Activate this ability only if you have exactly seven cards in hand.

So to answer your question there isn't a power level errata. A couple years ago WoTC set out to remove the power level errata from most of the old cards that had one. This is why Time Vault returned to kicking ass and when they removed the power errata from Flash we all remember what happened. For some reason they missed Impulse. I'm guessing this was less of a power level thing and more of a saving time errata since at one point there where decks that would cast Impulse multiple times a turn, which would eat up a lot of time. Really with all the shuffling in the game now adays Impulse should just return to it's printed version.

Also this is not really speculation. The precedent seems pretty clear that online Classic banned/restricted has zero impact on Legacy banned restricted, so I see zero reason to think Library is about to be unbanned in Legacy or Vintage for that matter.

[kiblast]

One day, Drain will be unbanned. I'm sure. Power level of legacy is ready to accept mana drain (remember that spell snare /pierce exist)..and regardin colorless mana,there are not such broken combos as artifcat/tinker or vault key in legacy.

[Fuzzy]

Counter your threat, Jace for UU? Yeah, NO BROKEN COMBOS...

[kiblast]

Counter your threat, Jace for UU? Yeah, NO BROKEN COMBOS...

this is what Drain is for.
Doing what a card text says on its own it is not a combo.

A: i cast a goyf
B: drain it.
A: pass.
B: tap 2 island, plus 2 colourless from drain: Jace.

Where is the combo? i can't see it. Casting a card with mana accel is not ''combo''. Winning with belcher in turn 1 is ''combo''.

[dahcmai]

I played during the time when Library was still considered busted as hell and Necropotence was still a 4 of in many Vintage decks. Many decks today don't mess with Library as it's an unreliable draw engine. If it became a reliable one as in being able to have one opening turn each game, it would warp decks around it to abuse this.

It's not that the card got worse over the years, it just got unreliable enough to not be included. It takes a certain type of deck to be able to sit and take a beating in the early turns in return for dominating the game out over the turns past 3. I'm sure Slaver decks would love to have Library as a 4 of. That's just too easy to include it with them.

Having 4 would be pretty silly in control decks. Legacy would handle it actually worse than Vintage even despite the massive play of wastelands in Legacy. It's overly strong in Legacy. 1st turn personal uncounterable howling mine is serious stuff.

[kiblast]

dahcmai, what do you think of eventually unbanning Drain?
Totally broken or just a much more versatile counterspell?
given the fact that counterspell is not so great anymore (i mean of course is a great counter, one of the best, but doesn't have that much impact on competitive play anymore) i'm all for the second hypothesis.

[ScatmanX]

Lord of Atlantis is perfectly fine for the format.


Oh... wrong card... Leia as Malditas Cartas.

[luckme10]

First of all, I think Lord of Atlantis is a great card and perhaps too good. Put it on the reserve list. Wait, this isn't about Lord of Atlantis? Sigh, this game needs to stop using so many acronyms. I play magic, not prep for med school.

[dontbiteitholmes]

dahcmai, what do you think of eventually unbanning Drain?
Totally broken or just a much more versatile counterspell?
given the fact that counterspell is not so great anymore (i mean of course is a great counter, one of the best, but doesn't have that much impact on competitive play anymore) i'm all for the second hypothesis.

Eventually is a big word to be throwing around in conversations like this.

Definition - at an unspecified later time : in the end

If someone was trying to answer if Mana Drain could "eventually" be unbanned they would have to...
1: Look into the future and guess how long MTG will continue printing new sets.
2: Make a baseless assumption on what will be printed in every set from now until that imaginary date.
3: Make an even more baseless assumption on what the metagame will look like far into the future.

Before even thinking about if Mana Drain would be fair some day. It's not going to be anytime remotely soon I can tell you that. Playing around FoW is one thing, playing around Mana Drain is quite another. The only way Mana Drain could ever be unbanned is if Aggro and Combo get so powerful and fast that Control can't even exist anymore without Mana Drain. Since they will obviously keep printing good control cards in the future though I doubt we will get to that point. See planeswalkers.