Justin Brickman: A Modern Proposal
Everybody has an opinion on the Banned and Restricted list, and I’m no different.
At the past two Nerd Rage Gaming Championship Trials, Nerd Rage Editor Casey Laughman and I exchanged our thoughts on the last B/R list announcement and the change to the schedule of future announcements. (For those of you who aren’t aware of this change, there will be two announcements per standard-legal set; once right before pre-release and another five weeks following the Pro Tour. The next announcement is March 13.)
This led the conversation in the direction of “If I had control of the Modern B/R list, what would I change?” This question brings a lot of personal bias into consideration, as I would love to have every busted blue card in Modern unbanned, but that’s obviously not good for the health of a format. So instead of trying to form my own version of the B/R list from scratch, I brainstormed a few changes and some thoughts about what the impact would be on the format.
While looking at the current list, I went through thinking about each individual card that could possibly be unbanned, and which are simply just way too dangerous to let loose on the rollercoaster we call Modern. I must give Wizards credit, as of the 35 cards on the list, a large number have earned their life sentence.
My changes would be:
Ban: Simian Spirit Guide and Mox Opal
We saw several different decks at SCG Indianapolis that showed up looking to be as unfair as possible and play as few turns as possible. These decks contained two big offenders: Mox Opal and Simian Spirit Guide.
Fast mana has always been an issue in Modern, and it is a huge affront to the “Turn 4” mentality people have about Modern. While Mox Opal is limited to decks with a high density of artifacts, its role in the consistency and explosiveness of those decks can’t be overstated. The ability to play an Arcbound Ravager on Turn 1 or a Turn 2 Etched Champion is hard to come back from for most decks. Beyond that, Puresteel Paladin combo has seen a boost in performance due to the addition of Sram, Senior Edificer.
Puresteel Paladin Combo, by Shea Strausman
14th place, SCG Indianapolis Modern Classic
This deck plays 26 0-mana artifact spells and has only seven lands that produce mana; this means that not only is turning on Metalcraft trivial, but that they can use the extra mana as soon as turn 2 (Editor’s note: Shea chimed in to say that turn 1 is possible, but a turn 2-3 goldfish is much more common) to go off by using the Mox for either blue to cast Retract or red to cast Grapeshot after looping the free spells over and over and drawing their deck.
Simian Spirit Guide is the poster child for unfair in Modern, as anyone putting this in their deck is looking to do something completely degenerate or completely unfun. We saw Ad Nauseam take down the Open this past weekend in a commanding fashion, and we also saw Goryo’s Vengeance reach the top 4 in the Modern Classic. Both decks use the powerful ape spirit to the most effectiveness out of any deck in Modern.
Ad Nauseam, by Nick Byrd
1st place, SCG Indianapolis Modern Classic
This deck is the combo deck that is most reliant on SSG to go off; the deck is Esper-based to fit the combo pieces and the various cantrips to help the deck stay consistent, yet it has a double red win condition. This list actually adds a copy of Desperate Ritual to the main deck, giving the deck the ability to use the extra mana from the mana monkey to go off just a bit sooner. Without SSG, this deck doesn’t have a reliable way to cast its win condition and just doesn’t function. I don’t like banning cards to completely kill a deck, because Modern should be a vibrant format where you can play anything your heart desires, but I’ll make an exception for SSG because I firmly believe free fast mana has no place in Modern.
Goryo’s Vengeance, by Keenan Davidson
4th place, SCG Indianapolis Modern Classic
When talking to Keenan about his Top 4 performance with this deck, which he appropriately titled “Harambe’s Revenge,” I learned that the deck is completely busted, and not for the reason you’d think. Yes, cheating a big, flying, life-linking Yawgmoth’s Bargain into play is not fair, but without Modern’s favorite ape spirit, Griselbrand or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn can come down on turn 2-3 at the fastest with their best draws. With SSG, this deck can kill as quickly as the first turn with the right draws, but consistently on the second or third turn with even mediocre hands. In top 8 I witnessed Keenan winning the deciding game on the first turn after his opponent even provided some resistance in the form of Thoughtseize.
The fact that a Lotus Petal exists in Modern makes combo too explosive, and nothing healthy can come from Simian Spirit Guide existing in Modern. The format doesn’t quite have the tools to defend itself from that kind of power right from the beginning of the game. Legacy at least has Force of Will and Daze, creating a huge shield of what can be done within the early stages of the game.
Unban: Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Ok, let’s get the easy one out of the way first. Jace is simply too slow to take over Modern at this point without sufficient levels of interaction. Yes, a Jace on a clear board could be game over, but at the speed of decks in Modern, games are close to decided before turn 4. Even if the coast seems clear, tapping out for Jace on turn 4 can be a lethal mistake.
Last weekend, we saw a Grixis Control player make Top 4 of the Open; in two of his camera matches, he died with an Ancestral Vision still on suspend from the first turn. I expect this pattern to be the case in a fair number of games where Jace would just not matter at all, because it isn’t impacting the board nearly enough.
However, blue decks do need tools to combat other grindy, fair matchups such as Jund or Abzan, and Jace is the perfect tool to combat these decks by allowing a way to fight discard spells, Liliana of the Veil or even keep some of the more problematic creatures in check for a few turns if need. Abzan and Jund decks also contain tools such as Maelstrom Pulse and Dreadbore that make it possible to answer planeswalkers as well as the various creature-lands such as Stirring Wildwood and Raging Ravine that are commonly played in these strategies.
Unban: Stoneforge Mystic
Ban: Batterskull
While I didn’t start playing till after the Caw-Blade era, I’ve played against Death and Taxes enough in Legacy to understand how underwhelming a Stoneforge Mystic can be when the equipment isn’t very difficult to answer. Stoneforge itself also has diminishing returns, as the first one is great, the second one is all right, and the third/fourth copy feel like the worst draws in the deck. With Skullclamp and Umezawa’s Jitte banned (for good reasons), the premier options for Stoneforge Mystic would be Batterskull and Swords.
Obviously Batterskull is fine as a five mana 4/4 life-linking and vigilance creature that can be reset. But it becomes rather obnoxious when it can get cheated into play on turn 3, and from that point on it becomes even more difficult to answer as the game goes on. The stipulation to unbanning Stoneforge Mystic would be to ban Batterskull for the clear reason that the sequence of cheating in a Batterskull as well as having the ability to reset it on the cheap is too good. When Swords become the primary targets for Stoneforge Mystic, it allows play patterns to shift from having to be proactive on answering Stoneforge Mystic, to being reactive and allowing the player to commit mana into the equip cost of the swords.
Those are the three biggest changes I’d like to see in Modern; however it is up to WOTC to decide what comes and goes. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what is in store for us next week when the next update is released, but a certain four-mana planeswalker being unbanned would be much appreciated.
Justin Brickman is an SCG Tour grinder from suburban Chicago who began playing Magic during Innistrad block. His Magic accomplishments include an SCG Regionals Top 16 and a Super Sunday Series Top 4. He can be reached on Twitter @BrickerclawMyr.
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