A glimpse into the diabolical machinations of a Modern format fanatic.
Overzealous Persecution #1 - The Modern Banned List, pt. 1
Posted 12-18-2012 at 02:23 AM by The Dead Weatherman
The Modern format is a mess. But it’s broken in a kind of subtle, almost tolerable way. The format remains at least functional despite what is wrong. It’s easy (and, in some respects, appropriate, as we will touch on later) to blame Jund for what is going on here but there is no need to lay blame at this point. What needs to be done is most certainly unban something that can create a bigger impact than Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. Valakut was certainly a good start and it presents a solid precedent for not every card currently being on the banned list being a format apocalypse waiting to happen but it wasn’t exactly what it needed.
There perhaps might need to be one more ban as well. You’d be right to think that it’s a card in Jund, but if you believe my answer is Bloodbraid Elf you are sadly mistaken. Bloodbraid Elf, while powerful, is not what has caused the recent overwhelming domination of the Jund archetype. I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this but I won’t spoil the answer until the final part of this series. The real reason that, I think, Bloodbraid Elf is fine is that the real reason why he or she is creating an imbalance is that the cards that do what she does well enough to rebalance her are currently banned. If you can give back one of these cards the likelihood of the Elf becoming less of an issue is high.
Before I hop to it I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to make any empirical statements about whether or not card X will be safe or unsafe in the format. I’m merely laying down some facts about the format that I have played since before it was even a true format. It’s all for the sake of making my side of the argument for the possible eventual unbanning of these cards. Because that’s all opinion journalism should be: the opening statement of a larger intelligent debate.
So I’m going to do things in alphabetical order, which not only appropriate aesthetically but allows me a direct segue into the best candidate, in my opinion, for unbanning in the first quarter of 2013: Ancestral Vision. The reason for the banning of Vision is pretty straightforward: Wizards of the Coast does not like the fact that players are able to suspend a Vision on their first turn, answer everything one-for-one until turn five, then refill during their upkeep as Vision casts itself from exile. The problem with this reason for banning is that there is already a legal card in Modern that not only does exactly that but also does it better than Vision ever could imagine.
Yep. That’s exactly why Bloodbraid Elf is causing an imbalance in the format; it’s an Ancestral Vision that is better than Ancestral Vision in a format without another Ancestral Vision to allow other decks to do the same. With Bloodbraid Elf, Jund is able to trade one-for-one with various removal and discard spells and then bounce right back with a turn four Bloodbraid Elf. It’s exactly the same concept except instead of drawing three cards on turn five you get some random spell and a hasty 3/2 on turn four. Ancestral Vision is a superb candidate for unbanning because it gives Jund an opponent that can fight it on the exactly same level.
With the unbanning of Vision, I think what would happen is you would create blue archetypes that can contend with Jund without having to commit half of a sideboard to it. In doing so you create an archetype that has room to contend with other less fair archetypes, such as Storm. Ultimately, what you have now is essentially the format that Modern should be. Jund is aggro, Vision is control, and the combo decks are the combo decks. In theory at least. This could of course go horribly, horribly wrong when Bloodbraid Elf and Ancestral Vision show up together in some horrible RUG monstrosity but that’s just the risk that needs to be taken at this point. Besides, creating brand, spanking new archetypes is usually a really good thing. It makes players pretty happy.
Next on our alphabetical, hypothetical list is Bitterblossom. Likely removed from the format solely because it is just the worst beating alongside Spellstutter Sprite, Scion of Oona, and Mistbind Clique. Bitterblossom really is terribly powerful and it was not the best decision to make it Tribal – Faerie. Admittedly, Bitterblossom is a much bigger risk than Vision. It can cause very, very degenerate, non interactive, and just plain miserable games. On the other hand, what you stand to gain is a card that can actually be used in more archetypes than Vision because what it does isn’t automatically solely the best for control archetypes.
While Faeries is likely the first place it will show up, Bitterblossom has also historically been a strong contender in Tokens, Blade decks, and other various other Midrange decks that need a bit of late-game redundancy. Introducing a card that multiple types of player can use is ideal for creating the maximum amount of good feels among your player base. But the real question is why? Bitterblossom is, yes, absurd, so why is unbanning it even an option? Well, if you look back to Faeries in Standard you can see that Faeries didn’t always just roll over everything. It surely dunked every 5-Color opponent but it could be beaten.
And it was. If you wanted to beat it, then all you had to sleeve up the White Weenie deck of the time, Kithkin. Kithkin has high-profile wins over UB Faeries and it’s not hard to see why: a turn two Bitterblossom is actually kind of slow. You don’t receive your first token until turn three, while your opponent has various flavors of one-mana 2/2s and Wizened Cenn to turn them into Wild Nacatl or larger. Against a strong aggro archetype, Bitterblossom struggles to keep up and it is not hard to overwhelm it if you try. In Modern, it’s possible to do just that with, for example, Robots, a deck that can play many dudes on the first two turns of the game and get in for damage long before your blue and black tokens can do anything about it. And if they have a metalcrafted Etched Champion, well, no amount of Faeries can possibly save you.
Unless you’re on Twin and you just made a billion Pestermites, I guess.
What’s more, life totals are much more important in Modern than they are in the other format where Bitterblossom is still making waves, Legacy. With BW Stoneblade, I was rarely concerned with my life total, unless it was less than, say, three. You’ll seal up a win with your board state before Bitterblossom (or even Dark Confidant) ever become an issue. In Modern this probably wouldn’t be the case. Modern is a hostile environment that will win with actual creatures more often than not, and you have to pay quite a lot more life for your mana. Life is at a much higher premium in this neck of the woods so Bitterblossom’s intended drawback has the chance to be just that.
There’s also a pretty big elephant in the room: Abrupt Decay. Yes, “it dies to removal” is not a proper argument for anything ever. However, I will propose that it is not entirely irrelevant. The presence of Abrupt Decay will always make non-land permanents that cost three or less that don’t come with some sort of built-in protection less good than they once were. Ask anyone who used to play Vedalken Shackles. It’s just not as safe as it once was because Abrupt Decay is very popular. Is this a good reason to unban anything? No. But is it something to consider if WotC ever decides to discuss it? Absolutely. The presence of this extremely powerful answer is demonstrably relevant.
Of course, because Bitterblossom is indeed a Faerie, the presence of Scion of Oona actually gives the Fae deck a way to counter the uncounterable spell. Again, the fact that Bitterblossom is a Faerie in its own right was what broke the camels back. Not only can Scion of Oona protect it, but Mistbind Clique can turn it off anytime the Fae deck needs it to, which means that the loss of life isn’t even relevant either. It’s for this reason that I will concede that we may never see Bitterblossom return to Modern.
I was initially planning on this being all one article, but as you may have noticed this is getting a little long. I’m already just shy of 1500 words. But rest assured that there is much more to come. I still have much to say!
There perhaps might need to be one more ban as well. You’d be right to think that it’s a card in Jund, but if you believe my answer is Bloodbraid Elf you are sadly mistaken. Bloodbraid Elf, while powerful, is not what has caused the recent overwhelming domination of the Jund archetype. I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this but I won’t spoil the answer until the final part of this series. The real reason that, I think, Bloodbraid Elf is fine is that the real reason why he or she is creating an imbalance is that the cards that do what she does well enough to rebalance her are currently banned. If you can give back one of these cards the likelihood of the Elf becoming less of an issue is high.
Before I hop to it I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to make any empirical statements about whether or not card X will be safe or unsafe in the format. I’m merely laying down some facts about the format that I have played since before it was even a true format. It’s all for the sake of making my side of the argument for the possible eventual unbanning of these cards. Because that’s all opinion journalism should be: the opening statement of a larger intelligent debate.
So I’m going to do things in alphabetical order, which not only appropriate aesthetically but allows me a direct segue into the best candidate, in my opinion, for unbanning in the first quarter of 2013: Ancestral Vision. The reason for the banning of Vision is pretty straightforward: Wizards of the Coast does not like the fact that players are able to suspend a Vision on their first turn, answer everything one-for-one until turn five, then refill during their upkeep as Vision casts itself from exile. The problem with this reason for banning is that there is already a legal card in Modern that not only does exactly that but also does it better than Vision ever could imagine.
Yep. That’s exactly why Bloodbraid Elf is causing an imbalance in the format; it’s an Ancestral Vision that is better than Ancestral Vision in a format without another Ancestral Vision to allow other decks to do the same. With Bloodbraid Elf, Jund is able to trade one-for-one with various removal and discard spells and then bounce right back with a turn four Bloodbraid Elf. It’s exactly the same concept except instead of drawing three cards on turn five you get some random spell and a hasty 3/2 on turn four. Ancestral Vision is a superb candidate for unbanning because it gives Jund an opponent that can fight it on the exactly same level.
With the unbanning of Vision, I think what would happen is you would create blue archetypes that can contend with Jund without having to commit half of a sideboard to it. In doing so you create an archetype that has room to contend with other less fair archetypes, such as Storm. Ultimately, what you have now is essentially the format that Modern should be. Jund is aggro, Vision is control, and the combo decks are the combo decks. In theory at least. This could of course go horribly, horribly wrong when Bloodbraid Elf and Ancestral Vision show up together in some horrible RUG monstrosity but that’s just the risk that needs to be taken at this point. Besides, creating brand, spanking new archetypes is usually a really good thing. It makes players pretty happy.
Next on our alphabetical, hypothetical list is Bitterblossom. Likely removed from the format solely because it is just the worst beating alongside Spellstutter Sprite, Scion of Oona, and Mistbind Clique. Bitterblossom really is terribly powerful and it was not the best decision to make it Tribal – Faerie. Admittedly, Bitterblossom is a much bigger risk than Vision. It can cause very, very degenerate, non interactive, and just plain miserable games. On the other hand, what you stand to gain is a card that can actually be used in more archetypes than Vision because what it does isn’t automatically solely the best for control archetypes.
While Faeries is likely the first place it will show up, Bitterblossom has also historically been a strong contender in Tokens, Blade decks, and other various other Midrange decks that need a bit of late-game redundancy. Introducing a card that multiple types of player can use is ideal for creating the maximum amount of good feels among your player base. But the real question is why? Bitterblossom is, yes, absurd, so why is unbanning it even an option? Well, if you look back to Faeries in Standard you can see that Faeries didn’t always just roll over everything. It surely dunked every 5-Color opponent but it could be beaten.
And it was. If you wanted to beat it, then all you had to sleeve up the White Weenie deck of the time, Kithkin. Kithkin has high-profile wins over UB Faeries and it’s not hard to see why: a turn two Bitterblossom is actually kind of slow. You don’t receive your first token until turn three, while your opponent has various flavors of one-mana 2/2s and Wizened Cenn to turn them into Wild Nacatl or larger. Against a strong aggro archetype, Bitterblossom struggles to keep up and it is not hard to overwhelm it if you try. In Modern, it’s possible to do just that with, for example, Robots, a deck that can play many dudes on the first two turns of the game and get in for damage long before your blue and black tokens can do anything about it. And if they have a metalcrafted Etched Champion, well, no amount of Faeries can possibly save you.
Unless you’re on Twin and you just made a billion Pestermites, I guess.
What’s more, life totals are much more important in Modern than they are in the other format where Bitterblossom is still making waves, Legacy. With BW Stoneblade, I was rarely concerned with my life total, unless it was less than, say, three. You’ll seal up a win with your board state before Bitterblossom (or even Dark Confidant) ever become an issue. In Modern this probably wouldn’t be the case. Modern is a hostile environment that will win with actual creatures more often than not, and you have to pay quite a lot more life for your mana. Life is at a much higher premium in this neck of the woods so Bitterblossom’s intended drawback has the chance to be just that.
There’s also a pretty big elephant in the room: Abrupt Decay. Yes, “it dies to removal” is not a proper argument for anything ever. However, I will propose that it is not entirely irrelevant. The presence of Abrupt Decay will always make non-land permanents that cost three or less that don’t come with some sort of built-in protection less good than they once were. Ask anyone who used to play Vedalken Shackles. It’s just not as safe as it once was because Abrupt Decay is very popular. Is this a good reason to unban anything? No. But is it something to consider if WotC ever decides to discuss it? Absolutely. The presence of this extremely powerful answer is demonstrably relevant.
Of course, because Bitterblossom is indeed a Faerie, the presence of Scion of Oona actually gives the Fae deck a way to counter the uncounterable spell. Again, the fact that Bitterblossom is a Faerie in its own right was what broke the camels back. Not only can Scion of Oona protect it, but Mistbind Clique can turn it off anytime the Fae deck needs it to, which means that the loss of life isn’t even relevant either. It’s for this reason that I will concede that we may never see Bitterblossom return to Modern.
I was initially planning on this being all one article, but as you may have noticed this is getting a little long. I’m already just shy of 1500 words. But rest assured that there is much more to come. I still have much to say!
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