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April 4th B&R Announcement

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Sometimes it's not clear what action, if any, will be taken when the Banned and Restricted announcement rolls around, though we all knew something was going to happen this time. I don't know that very many people predicted the exact announcement though:

Modern:

Eye of Ugin is banned.

Ancestral Vision is unbanned.

Sword of the Meek is unbanned.

Vintage:

Lodestone Golem is restricted.

I like the Vintage change, though that doesn't matter to too many people, financially or otherwise. The topic on most people's mind is Modern.

I know that some people were on banning Eldrazi Temple because Tron plays Eye, though it's clear that Eye was the real problem in the deck, often generating four or more mana in one turn. There were no major surprises here, and the question now is to what extent Eldrazi Temple continues to see Modern play. There's real potential for a midrange deck to play painlands and filter lands in addition to Temple to have access to potential turn two or three Thought-Knot Seer.

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With regard to Ancestral Visions and Sword of the Meek, there has unsurprisingly already been a lot of market movement. Good luck finding either of those cards for a reasonable price. Now is a great time to be figuring out exactly what kind of shell that people will look to play these cards in.

Thopter Foundry has, of course, spiked, along with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. People don't have lists ironed out yet, though an artifact heavy deck with a combo finish is the obvious place to start. Expect demand to increase for Academy Ruins, and indeed we are already seeing small market movement on this card. Engineered Explosives also fits naturally into this shell, and has also started to move. It's important to not buy into the hype, and to try to find the pieces that will spike next. Ruins and E.E. definitely stand to grow more, though the best places to invest will be in places where you can get ahead of the initial hype.

With regard to Ancestral Visions, the obvious home is in a deck with Snapcaster Mage- not because of any direct synergy- there isn't any- but because these are the best blue cards for generating card advantage in Modern. During the reign of Eldrazi, Snapcaster Mage was at a low point for Modern play, and that is about to change. It won't be long before we see ol' snappy making significant gains.

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