With the recent unbannings of
Preordain
Preordain
Scry 2, then draw a card. (To scry 2, look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.)
and
Mind’s Desire
Mind’s Desire
Shuffle your library. Then exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn.)
, many players were surprised that no cards got banned. It appears that Wizards of the Coast generally believes that the major formats are generally healthy at the moment.
Of course, banning cards does not come lightly. Banning cards definitely has major downsides. Beyond simply growing the list of banned cards that some people might find interesting to play with, there’s always potential issues of consumer confidence, especially when expensive cards get banned very quickly.
Notably, Wizards of the Coast has made it clear that they will continue to monitor formats and make changes as necessary, even beyond a once-a-year announcement. This doesn’t just include cards that need to be banned, though. This can include more cards getting unbanned in various formats.
In yesterday’s Weekly MTG, Wizards of the Coast employee Blake described the process of unbanning cards in Modern to be “a step-by-step approach”. However, he did claim that there will likely be more unbannings in the future! While Blake doesn’t directly make ban and unban decisions, he was in the meetings where these topics were discussed. Let’s take a look at some insight we can gain regarding cards potentially coming off the ban lists, especially in Modern.
The Goal of Unbanning Cards
One interesting discussion point regarding cards and their potential to be unbanned is what they add to their respective formats. The goal of unbanning cards isn’t entirely to just make the ban list as short as possible. One of the things Wizards of the Coast looks at is what type of impact that specific cards getting removed from a particular banlist would have on the format in question. Blake mentioned specifically that, with regards to the unbanning of Preordain in Modern, part of the reason was to help stimulate blue decks like Izzet Murktide that had begun to fall in their metagame percentages.
In this sense, the cards that will be unbanned are designed to serve a specific purpose. There are likely cards on the banlist that are a bit outdated given how far power creep has pushed the power level of cards to this day. Still, for them to be unbanned, they ideally would solve a current issue in Modern. One particular issue that is sometimes brought up is the lack of strong aggressive decks, especially in a format dominated by the likes of
Fury
Fury
Double strike
When this creature enters, it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers.
Evoke—Exile a red card from your hand.
and
Wrenn and Six
Wrenn and Six
+1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.
−1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.
−7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace." (You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.)
.
Notably,
Green Sun’s Zenith
Green Sun’s Zenith
Search your library for a green creature card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Shuffle Green Sun's Zenith into its owner's library.
was supposedly discussed, which could bring a bonus to Creature-based decks if unbanned in the future. Ironically though, given the fact that one-toughness Creatures have been partially pushed out of the Modern metagame, Wizards of the Coast appears more likely to print two-toughness Creatures in the future, which suggests that cards like Wrenn, Fury, and
Orcish Bowmasters
Orcish Bowmasters
Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1.
may be here to stay. For better or worse, it seems as though Wizards of the Coast is trying to add more cards to Modern to solve specific issues, rather than take them away. Even still, they appear very careful with what cards they are willing to unban.
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Fun and Balance
“They always come across way over cautious when you hear things like this. The ban list has loads of cards that wouldn’t even be good today”
ozza512
In addition to the goal of utilizing card unbannings as well as additional printings to solve specific metagame problems, Blake made it clear that, beyond a metagame balance, cards that are banned that are largely considered unfun are less likely to get unbanned. Blake’s discussion of
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.
headlines this argument. He mentioned that Bridge didn’t do fair or fun things. Most importantly, though, he stated that “in an environment where it’s strong, it’s almost universally disliked.”
This brings up a pretty important point regarding Wizards of the Coast’s philosophy of unbanning cards. Even if a card doesn’t completely warp the metagame around it, if the risk of unbanning a card far outweighs the reward, then it’s unlikely to get unbanned. In Bridge’s case, even if the card isn’t necessarily too strong, it doesn’t promote fun gameplay for most people. Additionally, if the card does see a lot of play, it makes a lot of players miserable, showcasing that there is little reward and still a high risk of unbanning a card like Bridge.
Even in the case of
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."
, which has certainly been a controversial card for years, Blake mentioned that, in his opinion, the card doesn’t “add fun” to Modern, and has a relatively poor play pattern it creates by forcing opponent’s to constantly play scared. Many players, me included, believe Splinter Twin wouldn’t have a ton of impact on the format, especially given the prevalence of
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
and
Unholy Heat
Unholy Heat
Unholy Heat deals 2 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
Delirium — Unholy Heat deals 6 damage instead if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.
that could help keep it in check. However, lots of people also find Splinter Twin’s play patterns unpleasant, which is certainly worth consideration.
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Cards That Are Too Strong
While cards like Green Sun’s Zenith, Splinter Twin, and even the Artifact Lands were mentioned, there were some cards that were either not discussed at all or quickly put to rest. One of these cards is
Dark Depths
Dark Depths
Dark Depths enters with ten ice counters on it.
{3}: Remove an ice counter from Dark Depths.
When Dark Depths has no ice counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, create Marit Lage, a legendary 20/20 black Avatar creature token with flying and indestructible.
. Dark Depths has an enormous risk to unban, potentially warping the format completely, and can create relatively toxic play patterns, at least by Modern power level standards with no
Wasteland
Wasteland
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy target nonbasic land.
in sight.
Another card that was quickly dismissed was
Golgari Grave-Troll
Golgari Grave-Troll
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature card in your graveyard.
{1}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: Regenerate this creature.
Dredge 6 (If you would draw a card, you may mill six cards instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
. This makes sense, especially given the fact that it was unbanned in Modern, then re-banned soon after. Blake even stated that this card was “at the bottom of the list” regarding cards to unban. It’s clear that even if Wizards of the Coast loosens their grip a bit on the Modern banlist and starts unbanning more cards, there are some that may never see the light of day.
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More Frequent Unbannings?
It will be interesting to see if cards do start getting unbanned with higher frequency, especially given the amount of discussion had regarding cards on the Modern banlist. In the case of Mind’s Desire, for example, this was supposedly talked about previously, adding extra momentum to the decision to ultimately take the card off the Legacy banlist.
Blake did mention that it’s less likely for cards to be unbanned outside the yearly Summer announcements, and that this would likely be considered in tandem with adjacent tournaments. Still, unexpectedly unbanning Preordain and Mind’s Desire which have been banned for many years, while simultaneously banning zero cards across all formats, does set an interesting precedent. It appears there is more focus than ever on shortening banlists, especially regarding Modern, where applicable. Only time will tell, but this trend is certainly worth monitoring.
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