David’s back with his annual Modern ban watch list. What was banned in 2021? The format now appears healthy, but what is on his radar for the future?
Ban
Banning problem cards helps build healthy metagames. For this, Modern is no exception. Today David examines a different approach: unbanning.
Being unable to play with your cards sucks. No one will dispute this. What is also unequivocally true is that cards need to be banned. Sometimes Wizards makes mistakes while making cards, and the likes of Oko, Thief of Crowns proceed to wreck their havoc. Other times new cards interact with old ones in unexpected […]
It’s been quite a while, but your eyes do not deceive: this is another full banlist test series! It’s been almost two years since I did one of these. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but there are only so many viable test subjects in the first place, and I’ve done a few already. […]
On February 15, 2021, Wizards banned a card near and dear to my heart: Simian Spirit Guide. The Asking-for-It Ape was featured prominently in my go-to Modern deck, Colorless Eldrazi Stompy, which must mutate dramatically if it is to keep pace in the format. With a week of testing under my belt, I’m ready to […]
Wow. There are bannings, and then there are bannings. This was definitely the latter. Wizards looked at non-Standard Constructed, saw that it was poor, and nuked it. All of it, Historic, Pioneer, Legacy, and most importantly, Modern. Vintage also saw an unbanning. Because somebody had to get thrown a bone. Monday morning, Wizards dropped the largest […]
Final article of the year! Good riddance, 2020. Hopefully, things start to turn around quickly and we can have the gathering part of Magic: The Gathering back again. But, this isn’t about a virus or vaccine. Today, I have business that must be finished before 2021 begins. For the third year running, it’s time to update my […]
It’s important to consider alternative solutions to any problem. No matter how clear the solution to a given problem may be to you, never discount the possibility of other perspectives offering insight. Or that biases can blind to us to potential solutions. Either way, entertaining alternatives can get the creative juices flowing. Which is why […]
Continuing on with article types that have been vanishingly rare this year, it’s time to look at the lessons from a specific tournament. I haven’t done this since February because there just haven’t been any Modern tournaments. Wizards has neglected every other format in order to push Arena. Which means that other competitive formats have been neglected. […]
Today brought one of the most significant bans in recent memory, and at breakneck speed. Surprise?! The August 3rd, 2020 Banned and Restricted announcement is live!
There are many old sayings about plans going awry. Even when it seems like everything lines up perfectly, there’s always a chance for something to go wrong. Throw in a global health crisis, and everything goes out the window. The shutdown seemed like the perfect time to run another banlist test. It’s been over a year […]
But for copyright concerns, I would have led off this article with the lyrics to “Another One Bites the Dust.” I hope perfectly reasonable intellectual property law is happy with itself. There’s been another B&R Announcement. This time something actually is banned in Modern. So that’s nice. Even if it does moot a number of […]
Discussing the Modern banlist has always been a favorite pastime of the format’s aficionados. In times like these (and I don’t mean COVID-19, but that other c-word), player attention is turned towards what needs to be banned; pundits have suggested all the companions eat the bullet, or that Wizards implement sweeping errata. But personally, I’ve […]
