It’s been nearly three weeks since a massive ban announcement brought immense change to a handful of formats. No MTG format saw a bigger swing than Modern, whose four unbans have thus far shown to be significantly more impactful than the bans to The One Ring and a couple of Boros Energy staples.
Opening the floodgates like this was quite a controversial decision. Many players, myself included felt as though the risks associated with unbanning Mox Opal and Faithless Looting outweighed the potential reward. Yet, as of now, I’m pleasantly surprised with how things are unfolding.
Modern is way more popular than it was in the months leading up to the ban. Popularity isn’t necessarily a sign of a well-balanced format, but Modern is also much more diverse than it has been since MH3 was released. It’s not perfect, but there’s a lot to like about post-ban Modern’s evolution.
Popularity
Before we discuss everything that makes Modern so appealing, it’s important to look at some of the data that showcases just how interested players are in the format. For most of the nearly four-month stretch between the August ban announcement and December announcement, Modern felt like a barren wasteland.
First and foremost, the ban to Nadu, Winged Wisdom only shifted the attention to Boros Energy. This deck quickly took over Modern, and players were forced to wait until December for inevitable changes to be made. Secondly, play patterns with The One Ring were unenjoyable to say the least. The combination of these two factors kept the format down, with players calling Boros Energy “broken.”
It was common for Magic Online Modern Challenges to fire, but they typically exceeded the necessary minimum number of players by small margins. 50 or so players became the norm. The second the ban announcement happened, these events saw a drastic uptick in participation.
128 players entered the first Modern Challenge following the announcement. Players were eager to brew, but surely that number would dwindle as hype for the format died down, right? Wrong! Fast forward to January 1st, and one of the Modern Challenges reached a whopping 182 players!
The fact that players are still this invested showcases the format’s growth. And this wouldn’t be possible without a diverse range of decks for players to pick up.
Diversity
When the unbans were officially revealed, we were a bit fearful that Modern might spiral out of control. All it would take would be one of the four unbanned cards to be significantly stronger than the rest to put a chokehold on the format. In an interesting turn of events, all four unbanned cards are playable, and each one shows up in a variety of different archetypes.
Mox Opal felt like the most busted of the bunch, and it does lead to some incredible starts out of Grinding Breach combo decks. Nonetheless, Breach isn’t an overwhelming favorite in the field, and there are other Mox Opal decks like Affinity and even Lantern control that are popping up as well.
Meanwhile, Faithless Looting encouraged many players to turn towards Arclight Phoenix strategies out of the gate. As it turns out, Indomitable Creativity decks as well as Rakdos Delirium shells have become the most common homes for the potent sorcery.
Green Sun’s Zenith has appeared in a wide range of different decks. Golgari Yawgmoth has seen a resurgence with Zenith in the mix, as has Amulet Titan. Even some unusual archetypes like Elves have made some noise.
Finally, Splinter Twin hasn’t quite lived up to the hype but does still put up some results here and there. Its synergy with Fear of Missing Out is nothing to scoff at.
All these unbanned cards are performing decently well, and none of them drastically overshadow the others. On top of that, there are plenty of viable decks, such as Dimir Murktide and Boros Energy, that utilize no unbanned cards.
Sideboard staples like Meltdown and pieces of graveyard hate do a good job of keeping more broken starts in check. All of this has led to a healthier format than we anticipated.
Less MH3-Centric
Another nice aspect of the unbans is that Modern has felt less dominated by Modern Horizons 3. When MH3 came out, the entire format was turned on its head. Nadu combo, Boros Energy, Eldrazi variants with Ugin’s Labyrinth, Ruby Storm, Broodscale combo, and more pushed most old-school archetypes to the wayside.
For many enfranchised players, this was extremely frustrating. Modern became impossible to keep up with, and tons of decks we had grown up with and loved simply couldn’t compete anymore. While the unbans didn’t fully solve this problem, they did bring elements of nostalgia back into the format.
With decks like Splinter Twin combo and Cheerios combo unlocked fans of these decks had a reason to sleeve up Modern once more. At the same time, Amulet Titan, Golgari Yawgmoth, and Indomitable Creativity combo (three strategies that use very few MH3 cards) only got stronger with the unbans.
Modern is a format with a rich card pool. Seeing players get to dig a bit deeper into their bags is always pleasant.
Still Not Perfect
All that being said, there is one area that the unbans were a bit problematic: finance. All of the unbanned cards spiked immensely. This should come as no surprise to anyone. Regardless, having such a massive shift happen in Modern all at once only makes it harder for players to reasonably invest in the format.
These unbans could easily signal Wizards’ willingness to do something similar in the near future. Unfortunately, a fresh format can sometimes be overshadowed by its priciness.
One other area of concern worth monitoring is still the popularity of Boros Energy. The deck is still excellent, and the core of Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls remains intact. Even Dimir Murktide showed signs of being problematic.
The good news, at least, is that the unbans strengthened other decks. This could in turn help prevent Boros Energy and Dimir Murktide from holding huge metagame shares.
At the end of the day, Modern is thriving in its current state. We look forward to seeing how players continue to adapt to the metagame at hand.
