Adjusting to a Modern World: B&R list part 2

The hero Modern deserves?

In this second post about the Modern B&R list, I will discuss some of the cards that I ‘unbanned’ in my last post and my reasons behind it.

But first, I forgot a card in my last post:

Umezawa’s Jitte

I forgot to mention this card in my last post. Sorry. This card was also one that I mulled a bit over. Because, without Stoneforge it is hard to judge how good this card would be. But I ultimately think that the card would be too good for modern and all decks with creatures would wan’t some number of it and thus having the same effect as Stoneforge would – have it or lose to it.

With that out of the way, lets get right into it. The following cards are the ones I ‘unbanned’ in my previous post. However, one disclaimer: I tried to include interactions between cards on the original B&R list in my judgment, but since I never have played with most of them, I probably missed a lot. And please remember, this is just a point of discussion. Here we go:

• Ancestral Vision
• Ancient Den
• Bloodbraid Elf
• Cloudpost
• Deathrite Shaman
• Dread Return
• Glimpse of Nature
• Golgari Grave-Troll
• Great Furnace
• Green Sun’s Zenith
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Ponder
• Preordain
• Punishing Fire
• Seat of the Synod
• Second Sunrise
• Seething Song
• Sensei’s Divining Top
• Sword of the Meek
• Tree of Tales
• Vault of Whispers

The first thing I want to discuss is some of the combo offenders above and how people perceive playing against combo. If you have ever dared to enter the dark and deep end of the internet (read: MTG Salvation forums), you have noticed that most Modern players have one thing in common: They love to complain about combo decks/players. It is not unlikely to read posts like this “I want to ban [Card] because it is so boring and I hate playing against it“. This is a completely fair opinion to have and I can respect that people can have different views of what they believe is fun. But why should we negate one players fun for the sake of the other? Can’t we find space to embrace all kind of play styles/preferences? Apparently not, or at least it seems like that. Cards like Seething Song, Second Sunrise and Jeskai Ascendancy are frequently referred to as boring. And yes, some people might find these cards incredibly boring to play against. But I can guarantee you that there also are people who find Tarmogoyf, Birthing Pod and Delver of Secrets incredibly boring. So why are we only listening to one part of the uproar? As mentioned in my last post, I hate (really hate) to play against Burn, but I would never go so far as to advocate that cards should be banned because they are boring. You either adjust or admit defeat – and I hope that our community one day can embrace that others might have different playstyle preferences than themselves and accept that they once in a while will have to accept to be bored in a match (just like everyone else).

With that in mind, lets start discuss some cards:

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Bloodbraid Elf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is one of the most iconic cards in Magic and he is probably also one of the best. He might even be too good for Modern, but I would rather have him re-banned because of powerlevel issues than to never know if he could thrive in Modern. Most people will never get to play with this iconic card because of the steep cost of buying in to either Legacy or Vintage and I think he could help revive true Control in modern. This leads us to his age-old nemesis: Bloodbraid Elf. She can almost singlehandedly make sure he never gets our of hand and I thus think that we need both of them.

Green Sun’s Zenith

Green Sun’s Zenith is often victim of the same accusations as I put forward against Stoneforge Mystic and Umezawa’s Jitte. It’s hard to overlook if you are playing green and with creatures. However, I don’t believe this to be the case – at least not to the same extend. This would enable Elves to probably climb up a few tiers and it would also give creature decks a way to find hatebears to help fight combo and control MU’s. Then there is the case of Birthing Pod decks. They certainly doesn’t need a boost, but I am unsure if they would want this card at all? It can only find green creatures and come with a high cost. I think that Chord of Calling‘s instant speed and versatility is better for them. But i’m no expert. Finally, then there is the case about Dryad Arbor. Is that really so broken that we can’t have both cards? I personally don’t agree.

Deathrite Shaman

Next up is this little guy. He was unfortunate enough to be the scapegoat when Jund was dominating Modern. However, I believe with the changes to the B&R list I put forward, that he has served his time and can be released into Modern again. There is no denying that he is incredibly good and WOTC probably shouldn’t have made him a 1/2, but I still feel that with the changes I suggest he has a place. Especially because of the next two cards:

Golgari Grave-TRoll

Dread Return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This pair falls under the category I discussed earlier about perceived fun. But it might also just be too good for Modern. One thing is sure though, Golgari Grave-Troll will do nothing on its own. So there is no reason for it to be on the B&R list. Dread Return on the other hand could prove a problem. But I am not convinced at all. Without Dredge all-stars such as Ichorid, Cabal Therapy, Breakthrough and Lion’s Eye Diamond I believe that it can be contained with cards such as Scavenging Ooze, Rest in Peace and Deathrite Shaman (see above).

Ancestral Vision

Ancestral Vision is the fixed version of Treasure Cruise. And without any good cards to abuse it (like Shardless Agent) I can’t really see why it is on the list in the first place. However, I can see a world where this, JTMS and BBE are in the same deck and that might be a problem. But for know (and because I don’t thin JTMS will ever be unbanned) I can’t see any reason for it to be banned. It would give a small boost to control, but it is a horrible topdeck in the lategame, so I am not even sure they want it.

Ancient Den

Seat of the Synod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned in my previous post, I swapped the Artifact Lands with Cranial Plating. My reasoning for this is that Cranial Plating is already pushing the limits powerlevel-vise and the fact that the artifact lands enables other cards and strategies (Tezzeret anyone?). These lands could also enable Thirst for Knowledge in control strategies.

Glimpse of Nature

This is another close-to-borderline card. However, I have a hard time seeing elves being really oppressive without Gaea’s Cradle, Natural Order, Wirewood Symbiotic, Birchlore Rangers and Quiron Ranger. I might be wrong and Beck // Call alongside GSZ is enough to push Elves to playable, but I don’t see that.

Ponder

Preordain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we encounter our first problem. These cards by themselves is far from ban worthy in my opinion. The problem is that the cards they find are broken is you are too effective in finding them. As mentioned in my other post, Serum Visions is a bad card and I hate that I need to play it. Unbanning both of these might be stretching it, but I think that at least Preordain should be released back into Modern.

Cloudpost

When talking about Cloudpost, it is easy to compare it to the Tron lands – so lets do that. The perfect turn 3 with Tron leaves you with 7 colorless mana. The perfect turn 3 with Cloudpost leaves you with 6 mana. When we move on Cloudpost slowly overtakes the Tron lands. As of this moment I can’t remember the last time a Tron deck put up any respectable results? To be honest, I don’t think that Tron is a top tier deck and also it is pretty far from it. By unbanning Cloudpost we suddenly make ramp-into-big-awesome-things a top tier strategy. Even with the subpar land destruction we have in Modern already, I believe that this strategy can be kept under control.

Seething Song

I already discussed this in my last post when I discussed why Rite of Flame had to stay on the bench for know. This card will put Storm back on the radar and provide Modern with what I perceive as a ‘real’ combo deck, but the uprise in control will help keep its dominance down and the lack of interaction (compared to its Legacy counterpart) will continue to make Storm an easy deck to disrupt. So stop crying, make a better sideboard and get on with it.

Punishing Fire

Punishing Fire is also a mystery for me. People say that it would invalidate creature strategies. I don’t believe that is the case. In Modern each creature is already undergoing the “Bolt Test”, meaning that every creature with toughness below 4 has to be really efficient, have a value EtB trigger or something third. I don’t believe that spending 5 mana to kill a Wild Nactl or Kitchen Finks is too broken. This would help other creature strategies prevent Birthing Bod decks from out-valuing them and also help keep creature based combo decks (like Elves) and Planeswalkers in check.

Sword of the Meek

Sword of the Meek is one of the cards on the current B&R list the the lowest powerlevel and I have a hard time seeing it warping Modern in any way. It might be used as wincon in some control builds or in a Tezzeret shell, but that’s it.

Last but not least, the final two cards from the list. Both banned because of their interference with tournaments by dragging out rounds (And yes, I will be very biased in my judgment of these. Sorry).

Second Sunrise

Sensei’s Divining Top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, I wanna make it clear that the reasoning behind the banning of these cards are BS. Both of the are clearly borderline good at what they do and if any, that should be the reason for banning them. Lets start with SDT. This is probably the card I want to see unbanned the most so that I can make a Modern version of Miracles (which I play in Legacy). This is the missing piece and such a good control card, but at the same time, I have a hard time seeing SDT + Counterbalance dominate Modern as people fear. First of all, Abrupt Decay sees a lot of play and AD don’t care much for our SDT + CB interactions. Second, even though the manacurve in Modern isn’t as widespread as in Standard, it is far from the streamlined ones of legacy, meaning that SDT + CB will be a lot less effective. Finally Brainstorm is not legal in Modern which means that the Miracle cards will be much less oppressive. This combination will also help keep the revival of engine-combo decks in check since they are very streamlined in their CMC curves.

This leaves us with Second Sunrise. Before everyone and their neighbor started hating on the Ascendancy combo, they all hated (and probably still do) Eggs. Eggs have a special place in my heart. I never really got to play it myself, but I enjoyed the deck. There is something beautiful about the way it works and how everything has synergy – the last true (engine) combo deck of Modern. Unfortunately some players were not adept to play with it, but still decided to bring it to tournaments. Combine that with the people who insist on not scooping when the deck goes of, and the rest is history as they say. First of all, I want to stress that the people forcing players to ‘play out’ their entire combo are entitled to do so, but my problem is with those who at the same time complain that rounds go to time. Like any other modern engine deck (Storm and Ascendancy) Eggs can easily be disrupted. Eggs are even disrupted by cards already in people’s sideboards like graveyard- and artifact hate.

In order to sum up or if TL;DR is the case here are the main points I wanted to bring forward:

• Accept that people have different perceptions of what is fun and accept that I might not align with your perceptions. If we embrace all the play styles, Modern can flourish and grow to its full potential.
•  WOTC can help this on the way by having a less conservative approach to the B&R list. By releasing a large amount of the cards on the list, they will create a truly diverse format that embraces all aspects of our beloved game.

Once again, let me know what you think in the comment section below. Am I completely crazy or is there some sense to my ideas?

J

PS.

I would love to create some video showcasing Modern as it would look like with this B&R list. Unfortunately though, I don’t own any Modern cards on MTGO (outside the ones I use in Legacy Miracles). So if you are interested in making a video series with me and have a substantial collection online, then please reach out to me.