For the most part, Marvel Super Heroes wasn’t a very impactful set for constructed, but there were a few problematic outliers. While one of these was dealt with in the last ban announcement, a bigger issue was mistakenly left alone. Now that the next MTG ban announcement is right around the corner on August 10th, however, The Fantasticar can finally be restricted.
MTG Vintage
Using Mishra’s Workshop to cast The Fantasticar on turn one, it’s extremely easy to swing for 16 damage with some zero-mana artifacts in Vintage. As a result, the previously top-tier Colorless Shops deck has received a major shot in the arm and has been taking down tournaments left and right.
Between taking down some of the biggest events in July and comprising half of the top eight in others, it’s clear that Fantasticar Shops is a power outlier in Vintage. Frankly, this was clear just a week after the card was released, as it quickly began dominating league and Challenge results.
Despite this clarity, Wizards of the Coast decided not to take action right away, giving Vintage players a chance to adapt to The Fantasticar. This has yet to happen, but even if it does, the play patterns this card creates are extremely unfun. It’s clear to me that this should have been restricted in Vintage back in June, but at least Wizards has an opportunity to fix that mistake now.
MTG Legacy
The Fantasticar is also killing players out of nowhere in Legacy, mostly appearing in Affinity, Doomsday, and Storm decks as an alternate win condition. That said, while this creates the same toxic play patterns in Legacy, The Fantasticar is a lot more balanced.
Without the fast mana that Vintage has access to, The Fantasticar rarely swings out on turn one. This gives opponents more time to find counterspells or other tools to fight back against The Fantasticar after it goes off. With a bigger restriction on fast mana, Legacy players also need to put a lot more resources into making The Fantasticar work. Should your opponent have an answer, coming back can be difficult.
Even with all this in mind, The Fantasticar is easily one of the best things to be doing in Legacy. It currently, however, does not appear to be an outlier, just adding to the diversity of the meta instead of overpowering it. For this reason, I would not expect The Fantasticar to see a ban in Legacy.
MTG Pauper
In addition to banning Seeker of Skybreak in the last ban announcement, the Pauper Panel also mentioned that they’re keeping an eye on Sneaky Snacker. This mischievous Faerie is beginning to have a homogenizing effect in Pauper, appearing in any deck that can reliably draw two extra cards on its turn.
While Sneaky Snacker’s primary home is Madness Burn, a new Naya Gates deck is what brought Sneaky Snacker’s homogeneity to attention. Reappearing thanks to Secrets of Strixhaven’s Pursue the Past, this deck has consistently put up top-eight performances over the last few months. Sneaky Snacker is even showing up in Dimir Terror lists, winning the biggest Pauper event since the last ban announcement.
While Sneaky Snacker isn’t winning every single Pauper tournament, it is continually putting up a strong performance in a wide range of archetypes. From this perspective, if homogeneity is a concern, I could easily see Sneaky Snacker leaving Pauper.
MTG Standard
Changes to Standard seem unlikely, but there is a card that players are concerned about. As the staple threat in both the Jeskai Lessons and four-color Control deck, Jeskai Revelation now has a huge presence in Standard. With Lessons now being the most popular deck in Standard, players are starting to get sick of seeing this card.
Despite its recent successes, however, Jeskai Revelation decks just seem to be part of the meta. Other decks are routinely top-eighting Standard events, and the overall victor of any given event varies heavily. This may change when Standard sees more competitive pressure from Regional Championships and Pro Tours, but for now, I would not expect to see any bans in Standard.
MTG Modern
Since Pro Tour Marvel Super Heroes broke the Modern metagame open, a fresh wave of innovation has hit the format. While all of the old pillars still exist, a few newer decks, like Cosmogoyf Necrodominance or Oswald Fiddlebender piles, are showing some promise. While this means that changes are extremely unlikely for this coming Monday, there are signs of a potentially problematic deck on the horizon.
Of all the new strategies to pop up, the newest take on Devoted Druid combo appears to be the strongest. With great challenge results and consistent league 5-0s, this is a real contender in the Modern metagame. The deck is also surprisingly challenging to play, offering lots of complex turn two kills if you can see the lines.
If there’s a lot of unearthed potential in this archetype, Devoted Druid Combo could become a future problem in Modern. That, however, is far from a certainty for now, meaning any changes to this format this Monday seem misplaced. With Regional Championships for Modern right around the corner, making sudden changes now is even less likely.
MTG Pioneer
Despite the banning of Cori-Steel Cutter back on May 18th, Pioneer seems to be back to its Izzet Prowess antics. That said, while the deck is the most popular in the format and is seeing lots of success, it once again doesn’t feel like a power outlier. Tournaments are still being won by a wide variety of different decks, including recent newcomers like the return of Vivi Cauldron combo.
That said, the ban to Cori-Steel Cutter didn’t have much to do with tournament results, but instead with a play rate disparity on MTG Arena. Because of this, if Prowess’s popularity has resurged on the platform, there could be a chance that something from the deck gets banned again. That, however, seems rather unlikely, especially after the deck’s recent nerf. For these reasons, I wouldn’t expect to see a ban in Pioneer.
As recent ban announcements have repeatedly shown, however, nothing in MTG rarely goes as predicted. With the potential for crazy unbans to shake things up, or a wider net of bans to recalibrate a format, all kinds of different things can happen. So long as they restrict The Fantasticar in Vintage, though, I don’t think you can really go wrong with this announcement.
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