It’s not rare for cards to get banned based on power level. It’s also very common for cards that have a massive metagame share to have targets on their backs. For instance, this past Monday, it was not shocking at all to see The One Ring get the axe in Modern and Psychic Frog to bite the dust in Legacy.
What is unusual, though, is for a card to get banned because it doesn’t function correctly. Yet, this is what has happened to You Meet in a Tavern. Well, sort of.
You Meet in a Tavern is not a new card and works perfectly fine in paper. On Magic Online, however, this is another story. A bug has forced this card to be temporarily banned in all formats for the foreseeable future. Let’s take a closer look at the issue and the formats that are most affected.
The Bug
For the past few days, players have been calling for the bug surrounding You Meet in a Tavern to be patched. For those unfamiliar, as things currently stand on Magic Online, using the Form a Party mode on You Meet in a Tavern is pretty much a guaranteed five-for-one.
Normally, this mode should work very similarly to Lead the Stampede. This means that you get to select all the creatures you see in the top five cards of your deck.
The problem is that the bugged version of the card lets you select noncreatures as well. This makes the card essentially a “draw five,” which is way too strong.
Normally in situations like these, Magic Online will go down for maintenance while the tech team works on implementing a proper fix. Unfortunately, this must not have been realistic with the holiday break coming up.
As such, You Meet in a Tavern is temporarily banned in all formats. This way, players won’t be able to exploit the bug for an unfair advantage. This isn’t a big deal for most competitive formats, but for Pauper, this is a bit problematic.
The Affected Decks
As you might expect, there are a few different creature-centric strategies in Pauper that are built to maximize You Meet in a Tavern that will now have to find replacements. First, we have Gruul ramp. From Arbor Elf to Boarding Party, his deck utilizes a high density of creatures up the curve.
While much of the “ramp” aspect of the deck is tied to Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl effects, Eldrazi Spawn also go a long way in helping you cast your spells. Malevolent Rumble, Eldrazi Repurposer, and Writhing Chrysalis go a long way in this department.
This is where You Meet in a Tavern enters the equation. In many games, you’ll use the card to generate card advantage. In others, though, you’ll simply use it as a mini-Overrun. With a wide enough board, giving your creatures +2/+2 can end the game out of nowhere. This versatility makes the card worthwhile.
Sometimes, you’ll see You Meet in a Tavern pop up in Elves decklists for a similar reason. While Winding Way and Lead the Stampede are more efficient, the upside of being able to use You Meet in a Tavern as a late-game finisher is powerful.
Additional Problems?
Normally, this temporary ban to You Meet in a Tavern wouldn’t be a huge issue, since there are worthwhile replacements. It’s common for Elves players to run Lead the Stampede anyway over You Meet in a Tavern since it costs one less mana.
However, multiple players have pointed out that Lead the Stampede is also bugged on Magic Online, just in a different way. This time, rather than letting you take five cards including noncreatures, Lead the Stampede only lets you select one card period. This defeats the whole purpose behind running Lead the Stampede.
While it’s still possible the tech team could fix this problem before the holidays, it seems unlikely. There was no reason to issue a temporary ban to Lead the Stampede, since the bug in this example is a net-negative for the person casting it.
So, if you’re a dedicated Elves player, you may have no choice but to overload on copies of Distant Melody and hope things work out in your favor. Others have likely turned to other archetypes, which will undoubtedly skew the Pauper metagame at least a little.
Pauper is a relatively popular format on Magic Online, so seeing these bugs run rampant is far from ideal. Hopefully we see a more complete fix after the holidays.
