In General: Banned and Restricted Update

Hello an welcome back to In General. I am Grandpa Growth and here on Sundays, we cover just about anything and everything relating to Magic: the Gathering. I promised at the end of the Fate Reforged Set Review that I would be discussing the top commons from the new set in my Pauper Cube update article. That will still absolutely happen, but I am pushing it back a week because we got some incredible news in the Magic world.

If you haven't already seen it, the new banned and restricted list has been announced. You can read all about it here: B&R Update. This is huge news friends: several cards were banned, some were unbanned, and multiple formats were affected. Let's walk through the changes and I will give you my take on each card.

Modern

Banned: Treasure Cruise

This is about as predictable as the sunrise, but I still think it is worth talking about. Treasure Cruise was abusive and had created a stranglehold. It singlehandedly forced about a dozen decks completely out of the format. Tight aggro-control lists require specific, high-synergy cards to coalesce into a solid game plan. These decks often need some cheap card draw or cantrips to glue the deck together. Without Treasure Cruise, Delver really isn't going to be a deck. This opens up lots of space in the format for decks that were more easily disrupted by Delver's cheap counterspells.



Banned: Dig Through Time

Although the debate was not unanimous. no one should be surprised to see Dig get buried along with Cruise. Delver decks would easily just switch the cards. They would be worse, but still strong. The trouble is that a slightly weaker Delver deck couldn't beat things like Scapeshift or Twin, who still get to freely abuse Dig. Banning Dig Through Time will make it so that Twin, UWR, Tron, and Scapeshift are back to their pre-Khans status in terms of power level and metagame share.





Banned: Birthing Pod

This caught many by surprise, myself included. I thought that Pod would be banned a year ago, but it wasn't. Since then, I just assumed that Wizards was endorsing, or at least accepting, Pod as the dominant deck in the format. The argument had been brought up that Cruise and Dig HAD to go, but then we were just left with the same format that existed pre-Khans (plus Siege Rhino). Many people thought that this would not lead to an interesting Pro Tour format, thus the banning of Birthing Pod.

Those who paid attention to the announcement of PT Fate Reforged will probably remember that it was slated to be a Standard constructed portion. This was later changed, as announced by Aaron Forsythe himself. This seemed a little fishy at the time, but I didn't think anything of it until now. The reason for the change is clear and it shows that Wizards has been leaning towards banning Pod for a long time now.



Unbanned: Golgari Grave-Troll

There is no Dredge deck in Modern and there won't be one even with this being legal. Troll was pre-preemptively banned when Modern was announced as a new constructed format. The thinking was that they wanted to differentiate this new format from old extended and restricting the power of non-interactive combo decks like Dredge and Dark Depths was a clear first step. I like the unbanning of Grave-Troll because I am not sure it should really be on the list in the first place.

As it stands Grave-Troll really can't have an impact on the format by itself. Dredge could be a problem with the right cards, but Dread Return is the key card in the archetype. Bridge From Below and Narcomoeba are cute, but there are a dozen or more high quality sweepers to solve that problem. E.g. Slagstorm, Drown in Sorrow, Wrath of God. This would only ever be a problem if you could Dread Return a Flamekin Zealot.


Legacy

Banned: Treasure Cruise

Again, no surprise here. The card is simply too powerful in concert with a critical mass of cheap threats, disruption, and burn. Importantly though, Dig Through Time has not been tested as rigorously in Legacy and could play a role in certain decks like Miracles, given an opportunity. An opportunity which the card will get it seems.


Unbanned: Worldgorger Dragon

This isn't as clear cut to me. This card was crazy and abusive and let to degenerate games with degenerate decks. In the announcement article on the mothership, this change was explained by the fact that any reanimator decks would simply rather reanimate Griselbrand than Worldgorger anyway. I am not so sure that it true though. Griselbrand almost always draws enough cards to find a combo finish, which is tough to beat, but that only speaks to the idea of banning that card.

In my opinion, the choice to bring back Dragon shouldn't be based only on the fact that Griselbrand is more appealing. Why would you unban a card that can instantly create a two-card infinite mana combo as early as turn one? Is that what we want to happen in Legacy? Force of will and Daze help keep unfair decks in check, but I don't want Wizards putting me in the position of choosing between only two decks: broken or Blue.


Vintage

Restricted: Treasure Cruise

I like this decision. Vintage is the broken format where no one cares what you are doing as long as it is awesome. Treasure Cruise was a little too strong, but things never really get banned in Vintage, which I like.

As you know I am a huge fan of Pauper and compete regularly on MTGO. I was expecting to see Treasure Cruise banned in Pauper, but it wasn't. I think that the format is diverse and healthy, but many people complain that Delver was already the best deck before Treasure Cruise and now there is no stopping it.

That is dramatic, but I am surprised about this no-call. It could be that Wizards doesn't really care if the format is imbalanced right now because there is no premier level events in Pauper. That would be unfortunate, but I expect it to be at least a little true.


Unrestricted: Gifts Ungiven

Okay. Well that is cool andall, but I am not sure it matters too much. Don't get me wrong, Gifts is a totally broken card and it leads to many truly miserable games. It often means that you just can't lose when you cast it. We all know what the card is capable of.

My thinking here is that there are cheaper ways to win in Vintage, so why pay more? Most decks weren't even taking advantage of their ability to play the first copy of Gifts, so that tells me they probably didn't want the second, third, or fourth.

That's all for today Zoners. As promised next week I will have the Fate Reforged Pauper Cube update article. See you then.

-GG

Reviewing 2014: Hits

Welcome to The General Zone's annual review of ITSELF! At the end of the year we should always take a moment to look back and reflect on what we have accomplished this year. Here on the general zone we have had an interesting journey in 2014. Plenty of twists, turns, and surprises. In today's article I will be examining my own performance in the set review articles...starting with my successful predictions. If you were hoping to hear about my most dramatic slip-ups and omissions, stay tuned to the blog because next week's In General will be fully dedicated to my biggest misses.

So just to be clear, if you see a card on this list it means that my pre-release predictions about the card came true. Either I said it was bad and it was, or I said it was great and it is.

This card drew a lot of attention when it was initially previewed. There were many opinions about its playability on both sides of the coin. I however, would like to take full credit here for correctly determining that it was, in fact, not good.

The real killer here seems to be that there is really no easy way to repeat this effect. Worst Fears can give you a big advantage, but the up front cost is high. Additionally, being a Sorcery means that you don't have much control over when you pull the trigger on this, which is unfortunate.



I feel bad about this one, but when you're right: you are right. I think that everyone, from the design team, to the community, to the players, wanted Godsend to be good. It is just a really cool idea, but the execution falls short.

Personally, this doesn't discourage me, and I hope that it doesn't discourage R&D either. I want to see more Legendary planeswalker equipment in the future. I would love to find out what Sorin's sword could do or what Ajani's busted shovel-axe is supposed to be called.

It is pretty unfortunate that this is two colors, but that could also be a good thing. If this were just one color it would really be tearing up the league. Listen guys, I am going to break it down here for you real simple like: Haste is good. I know this might not be much of a revelation, but I have to take victories where I can get them.

This has been a banner year for Clone effects. We have seen some great updates that have brought this effect back to the forefront of the Commander game. After a change to the rules for how Commander treats cards like this one just a year ago, things were looking grim for the future playability of our shapeshifting friends. I for one am glad to see that they are still around and kicking, maybe as good as ever.

The Rabblemaster! Sir Rabblerino has had a great end to the year. A breakout performance in Standard has brought Gobbos back in to the spotlight in a big way. I am usually not down with the G-men, but I have been excited to watch the coverage of high-level tournaments this season because of how cool this Jeskai has turned out to be in Standard. It has been cool to see how the archetype has developed from the release of Khans, to the Pro Tour, to the Grand Prix scene. I am finally excited about pro-level Magic again.





Here we have another M15 card that is Standard legal, but this one hasn't yet been given its chance to shine...in Standard. To my people who keep an impressive library size, we have been loving the new Nissa. Apparently she is still on Zendikar and still busting stuff up.

Bring it in close here guys, because I have something important to tell you: Four lands...is a lot of lands. As Creatures and spells get cheaper and more efficient, four land might mean more than they ever have in the past.

This gal just makes so much mana, how could she not be good? Well, if you still haven't gotten on the bandwagon, we have plenty of room! Come and see why the grass is greener on the Green side of the fence.

Say no to the Rhino! Hushwing has seen action in Standard, Modern, and some limited Commander play. I have switched away from playing Aven Mindcensor and instead I am now packing Hushwing Gryff whenever I can.

I think that it is pretty funny that the place you most want to play this is in Modern Pod decks, but there are so few Pod decks left in the format that you don't have to worry about the mirror match very much.

You know I had to talk about this at some point. My exact words were something like, this is the closest thing to Ancestral Recall that we are going to get. AND BOY IS IT CLOSE! There isn't much left to be said about Treasure Cruise that hasn't already been said so I will just leave it here.

Alright, it's time to return to my college football extravaganza! I will be back next Sunday where we will turn the tables and take a look at my biggest whiffs; the worst predictions that I made in 2014.

-GG

In General: Treasure Cruises and You Can Too

Welcome to In General. Every Sunday on The General Zone Grandpa Growth gets to go nuts and talk about whatever he wants. Today that means we are talking Treasure Cruise. Is it good? Is it too good? Will it get banned? Yes. To all three. The interesting question to me is: what formats will it STAY legal in?

In an unexpected twist: drawing cards
is still good.

Now that it has had a solid month to tear up the competitive scene in everything from Pauper to Vintage, everyone is playing with it and testing it in multiple archetypes. When people are willing to splash Islands in their burn decks just to play this card, you know it must be legit. I myself have tried this Cruise Burn/Blue Burn deck in Pauper, although I prefer to use the name that I created myself: Viking Funeral.

While it isn't Ancestral, it is close enough to get people bending over backwards trying to abuse it. The Magic community has been on fire as of late. Preliminary results have shown that the card is warping multiple formats and that has many players in something of a tizzy. I am going to breakdown how things stand in each competitive format and make a prediction about whether or not we will be seeing Treasure Cruise on the next banned and restricted update.

Standard: Current Standard isn't exactly what I would call diverse. There are two clear front runners are varying flavors of Abzan and Jeskai. The only deck that is even willing to play Treasure Cruise is the Ascendancy combo deck. I think that it is a good sign for Standard when a combo deck is playable. The format will suffer if combo becomes the number one deck to beat, but I think that is pretty far away from happening. Treasure Cruise will certainly not be banned now and unless things change dramatically in the next two sets, it will stay legal until rotation.
Verdict: No ban.


Khans Block: It is tough to speculate on what the block metagame is going to look like, but if Standard is any indicator of player tendencies, we will see many ports of existing decks. In fact, Abzan is likely to still be good without Fleecemane, Brimaz, Ajani, and Elspeth because we are going to see three more planeswalkers at least one of which will be Green. There are likely to be solid two and three-drops to fill out the curve as well. With at least one solid 'fair' deck to keep Treasure Cruise in check, I think it should all turn out okay. Just for argument's sake though: Lingering Souls was banned in block and Treasure Cruise is better than Lingering Souls in my opinion.
Verdict: Heck if I know.

Modern: Modern appears to be the most affected of any format. It could just be that Standard and Modern have the most premier events, so the card is getting more exposure, but the players are calling for blood already. I think it is a foregone conclusion than Cruise gets banned in Modern, but the more interesting question is: Will it ultimately matter? Dig Through Time is just as good and can go into many of the same decks. The mana fixing is excellent in Modern, so coming up with an extra Blue isn't going to prevent people from playing Dig as a replacement. I am not so sure that just banning Treasure Cruise alone will return the format to its former state (and do we even want more Pod vs. Twin skullduggery?).
Verdict: Banned

Legacy: Legacy is a much more wild beast. New cards continue to have a measurable impact on the format, but you can't expect one card to nail the whole format down even if it is this good. I think that Storm decks will adapt to take advantage of this card. I think that U/R Delver decks will increase in power and popularity to the point that many players will lose interest in the format, but I don't think that we will see a ban in Legacy, at least not as things stand now.

Vintage: Vintage is kind of crazy. On the one hand you have cards like Library of Alexandria...and I can see why people would want to play that, but you also have another hundred crazy cards that can result in turn one and two kills. If you look at what is restricted in Vintage, you will see some strange faces, but most of the offenders are either combo pieces or card filtering effects that enable combos. Based on that metric I would estimate the chance of Cruise being restricted at about 45-55 in favor of a restriction, but that all depends on how the tournament results go. People actually need to consistently choose to play it AND win with it.
Verdict: Possible Restriction.

Pauper: My personal favorite format has gone through a dramatic change because of Khans of Tarkir. Suddenly, everyone starts the game at 22-23 life because of dual lands and Brainstorm is seeing more play than ever. If you have to fill up your graveyard for Cruise, the Brainstorm-fetchland interaction becomes much more attractive. The strange thing about Pauper though, is that it is 80% aggro decks. Delver is the best deck in the format and Cruise only makes it better, but Cruise also enables several other fringe decks like Burn or Madness to compete. The most notable effect that I have seen is that Mono Black is basically stone unplayable now. It is the only deck that can't contort itself to play Treasure Cruise and that is a very good reason to switch decks. Even Tron and Affinity are starting to get in on the action. I think that we could see a ban here, but I wouldn't be in favor of it. I want a fast, powerful Pauper format and I think that Cruise actually advances that goal.
Verdict: Possible ban.

Commander: Last, but not least, we have Commander. Which, depending on your playgroup, is either the lamest format in the world or a hyper cut-throat clone of Vintage where people sometimes play cards you haven't heard of. I hardly pay any attention to the banned list in this format anyway, so I don't care much, but just for the sake of argument, let's say that everyone else cares. Every deck in the format is a graveyard deck. People main deck Tormod's Crypt in a completely unsolved metagame. Graveyards get more full, more quickly than in any other game of Magic. Treasure Cruise is at its best here, but so is everything else. If you can't beat Ancestral then you should join Ancestral. Honestly, if you are playing Blue, this is in your deck. If you aren't playing Blue in Commander, you are just dead wrong. You could make that statement about dozens, maybe a hundred or more other cards that are still legal in Commander.
Verdict: No ban.

That's all for this week folks. If you haven't already, check out the spoilers for Commander 2014, some sweet stuff has been previewed already and more is coming out every day. I will be back next week with full coverage of the new Commander product and all the juicy toys it has to offer.
-GG