Unsatisfying MTG Ban Announcement Causes Players to Call for Multiple Unbans

It’s no secret that MTG players are upset about the current state of Modern. With Basking Broodscale Combo ruling the roost for weeks, players have been waiting for Wizards of the Coast to bring down the banhammer and solve an issue they can’t.

Unfortunately, because the Modern Regional Championship season isn’t over yet, Wizards of the Coast decided not to take action in Modern right now. While this is the right decision, respecting those who have invested time testing for their Regional Championships, most players are still frustrated.

As is typical for quieter-than-expected announcements, discussion has now turned to pursuing unbans to help Modern recover from the Broodscale menace. Here, we’ll weigh in on the cards players have been talking about and throw in a few suggestions of our own.

MTG Modern Unban Discussion

With unban discussion exploding on Reddit, multiple MTG players have weighed in on what could be safely unbanned in Modern. This largely seems to have arisen from a discussion around unbanning Deathrite Shaman Deathrite Shaman {T}: Exile target land card from a graveyard. Add one mana of any color. (Activate only as an instant.)
{B}, {T}: Exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Each opponent loses 2 life.
{G}, {T}: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. You gain 2 life. on the WeeklyMTG show this week.

To quickly address Shaman’s unban, many players, myself included, believe unbanning Deathrite Shaman in Modern is far too risky. With Fetch Lands everywhere, Deathrite Shaman is extremely easy to enable, ramping and fixing your mana. Add Deathrite Shaman’s two other abilities, and this creature essentially becomes a one-mana Planeswalker.

Beyond ramping and fixing your mana, Shaman’s other abilities can serve as a win condition on their own while shutting down graveyard strategies. With its dual-colored mana value, Deathrite Shaman also fits into most MTG Modern decks, making it extremely polarizing.

That said, while unbanning Deathrite Shaman would be risky, the card was also banned in a far less powerful Modern, before Modern Horizons blew things out of proportion. Overall, the long-term value this card generates is less scary in a format that commonly ends around turns 3-4. Because of this, unbanning Deathrite Shaman may be perfectly fine, but it comes with a massive risk. Since there are clearer unbans for MTG Modern, we’d stay away from this one.

MTG Punishing Fire

Beyond the Shaman that prompted this discussion, many MTG players feel Punishing Fire Punishing Fire Punishing Fire deals 2 damage to any target.
Whenever an opponent gains life, you may pay {R}. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. is safe to unban, and we agree. The card was originally banned because of its pseudo-combo with Grove of the Burnwillows Grove of the Burnwillows {T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add {R} or {G}. Each opponent gains 1 life. , which lets players recur Punishing Fire for little to no cost for the rest of the game. While this is powerful, spending three mana to recur and cast a Shock Shock Shock deals 2 damage to any target. in Modern is likely far too slow.

That said, while Punishing Fire is a safe unban for Modern, there may be little reason to bother with it. As some players point out, unlike cult classics like Splinter Twin Splinter Twin Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "{T}: Create a token that's a copy of this creature, except it has haste. Exile that token at the beginning of the next end step." , Punishing Fire isn’t a beloved Modern card, so unbanning it will likely only be exciting for a short time. With how strong Modern is nowadays, this card will likely fall by the wayside like many recent unbans.

MTG Birthing Pod

Birthing Pod Birthing Pod ({G/P} can be paid with either {G} or 2 life.)
{1}{G/P}, {T}, Sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature card with mana value equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's mana value, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate only as a sorcery. is the perfect example of an ideal MTG Modern unban. Beyond the card’s massive fanbase, which makes the unban exciting, Birthing Pod seems perfectly in line with Modern’s current power level.

While the card can enable two-card infinite combos with a one-drop creature and otherwise facilitate a fantastic midrange game plan, Birthing Pod’s deckbuilding restrictions balance it out. To combo off, you need to run a series of suboptimal creatures, like Corridor Monitor Corridor Monitor When this creature enters, untap target artifact or creature you control. , that are terrible draws outside of the combo. This deck’s midrange plan offers similar restrictions, forcing you to run creatures that can be awkward to draw.

Factor this in with Modern’s current speed, and Birthing Pod seems like an unban that can be both powerful and exciting for players to experiment with. While Birthing Pod can win on turn 3 fairly easily, many Modern decks, like Ruby Storm and Amulet Titan, already do this.

Of course, as is the case with any unban, there is a chance that Birthing Pod could be more powerful in Modern than expected, but this seems unlikely.

MTG Hypergenesis

While this card looks pretty bad at first glance, Hypergenesis Hypergenesis Suspend 3—{1}{G}{G}
Starting with you, each player may put an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land card from their hand onto the battlefield. Repeat this process until no one puts a card onto the battlefield. can become quite scary when paired with the Cascade mechanic. This lets you bypass Hypergenesis’s Suspend cost, essentially casting the card for three mana using something like Violent Outburst Violent Outburst Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. . From here, you can cheat out massive creatures like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Emrakul, the Aeons Torn This spell can't be countered.
When you cast this spell, take an extra turn after this one.
Flying, protection from spells that are one or more colors, annihilator 6
When Emrakul is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles their graveyard into their library. from your hand, taking over the game.

Living End Living End Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. ‘s existence strongly suggests that Hypergenesis would be perfectly safe for MTG Modern. Because it relies on the Cascade mechanic, a Hypergenesis strategy would face heavy deckbuilding restrictions to work properly, eschewing cards with a mana value of two or less or relying on a finicky enabler.

If that weren’t enough, Hypergenesis is even harder to use than Living End because you need your payoff creatures in hand instead of in the graveyard. Making things worse, if you don’t have Hypergenesis and draw your creatures, they can often rot away in your hand.

That said, the excitement of cheating something like Emrakul, The Aeons Torn into play for three mana would certainly draw some players to try this strategy, though I don’t think it would stick around long. Honestly, this unban feels similar to Punishing Fire in that it has little upside, but it’s probably safe and won’t impact much.

Other Recommendations

While these are the core cards players discussed, a few others received mentions that, frankly, seem far too risky to unban in MTG Modern. Tibalt’s Trickery Tibalt’s Trickery Counter target spell. Choose 1, 2, or 3 at random. Its controller mills that many cards, then exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card with a different name than that spell. They may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then they put the exiled cards on the bottom of their library in a random order. falls into this category, as it enables scary Cascade-style strategies that can be more explosive than Living End or Hypergenesis.

Players also noted that Second Sunrise Second Sunrise Each player returns to the battlefield all artifact, creature, enchantment, and land cards in their graveyard that were put there from the battlefield this turn. should remain on the banlist, despite being fine for Modern from a power-level perspective. Enabling the infamous Eggs strategy, playing against a nondeterministic combo deck that takes 15-minute turns isn’t a play experience players want to bring back to Modern. Eggs fans also have the option of playing Ruby Storm for a similar legal experience in the format, leaving little reason to meddle with this card.

As a card that got wrongfully banned for the sins of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis You can't spend mana to cast this spell.
Convoke, delve (Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color. Each card you exile from your graveyard pays for {1}.)
You may cast this card from your graveyard.
Trample , Bridge From Below Bridge From Below Whenever a nontoken creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, if this card is in your graveyard, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
When a creature is put into an opponent's graveyard from the battlefield, if this card is in your graveyard, exile this card. is also commonly discussed as a Modern unban option. This is probably one of the riskier, sensible options, since it could become problematic, but that seems unlikely. With that in mind, I think unbanning this, with the warning that it might be quickly re-banned if it becomes a problem, is a reasonable option.

All in all, this discussion makes it clear that MTG Modern players want a change, and if Basking Broodscale combo isn’t banned, unbanning something else is the second-best option. With all the attention Wizards is getting for not acting, something will hopefully be done to fix Modern on November 30th.

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