Before the Banned and Restricted (B&R) announcement happened earlier this week, Wizards of the Coast declared they would change multiple Magic: the Gathering formats. Many Magic players, myself included, speculated that WOTC would take the opportunity to address the Modern since Modern Horizons 2 redefined the format.
The B&R announcement on Tuesday affected Standard, Historic, and even Legacy. But Modern was notably excluded. WOTC didn’t even mention the format. This left many players confused and concerned as to where the health of the format stands.
But WOTC’s Vice President of Design, Aaron Forsythe, later responded to the community on Twitter.
Modern is in a Good Place
Many players interpreted Wizards of the Coast‘s “no comment” to mean that Modern is in a healthy place for the time being. But players still had questions on plenty of individual cards.
Aaron Forsythe had this to say on the matter:
But players pressed Forsythe for a bit more information on the status of certain cards. Forsythe responded to multiple inquiries on Twitter.
What About Lurrus of the Dream-Den?
While waiting for the official B&R announcement, I painted Lurrus as the primary target for a ban. But we now know Lurrus will stick around in the format for the foreseeable future.
What is WOTC’s stance Lurrus? Here’s what Aaron Forsythe had to say:
The sheer power of Lurrus skews decks away from permanents with mana values 3 and greater. Based on Forsythe’s Tweet, Wizards of the Coast acknowledges this fact but will not act on it at this time.
Read More: MTG Arena’s Most Hated Card Just Got Banned in Latest Announcement
What About Unbans?
Opinions on the status of Modern vary greatly. For those players who think Modern is fun and balanced, they speculated the B&R announcement meant an unban was coming.
There are a lot of cards that WOTC could hypothetically bring back to the format.
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.
and
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."
are two such cards, and are generally regarded with nostalgia as fan-favorites. Aaron Forsythe addressed these two cards directly:
Could this mean
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."
could make a comeback in the future? Maybe. But it seems like Pod is off the table.
