Preordain

  Before I actually offer my thoughts on this topic I should say that my experience with modern as a format is actually very limited. I’ve only been to like five or so sanctioned events and they were all within the last two years so I live in the postmodern horizons 2 world that from what I hear has drastically changed the format from when it started all that time ago. Just a quick thing so you know where I’m coming from in this article.


When I first caught wind of the upcoming banning and restricted announcement that happened yesterday, I didn’t know what to expect and thought I would just go in with an open mind. Then I started hearing rumors. People were going crazy, pointing towards many modern horizons 2 cards and the one ring being targets of bans in older formats while pioneer would have Rakdos and Nykthos decks being addressed with some potential bannings. Some hype came around them potentially bringing restrictions down from vintage into other formats as a flavorful way to keep the one ring in check. That would be a solution I would be all for because I feel that the one ring has become a bit of a must-run in many decks across the eternal formats. It has come up to the status that the evoke elementals, Ragavan, and Urza’s Saga has alongside its partner in crime: orcish bowmasters. Those few select cards have felt like they have been around for the entirety of modern despite really only coming from the last year’s worth of magic cards. More reason as to why I was thinking that some action would be taken.


People were even going crazy with the unbanning theories. Reigniting the history of splinter twin’s banning, saying that the format was now prepared to handle the card yet again. We basically have a lot of diet splinter twin already. The scurry oak combo deck just got a new toy with Rosie Cotton from LOTR while fable of the mirror breaker and kiki-jiki itself basically do what splinter twin did except in a seemingly more “fair” manner. 4C money pile or 4C elementals whatever it’s called has been bolstered by the new Nissa as well as Solitude, Fury, and Grief just straight up being busted cards that seem to inhabit any relevant deck with their colors. The other two evoke elementals, Endurance and Subtlety make really strong sideboard/mainboard cards elsewhere. As a burn player, I can’t say I’m not a little jealous of everything happening for other decks while a card like punishing fire remains banned for power level reasons from days’ past. Pioneer has had the reputation of a homogenized metagame around Rakdos and Nykthos for a while now with Sheoldred, fable, invoke despair, and all sorts of busted standard cards seemingly running rampant in the format for basically since the deck’s inception. From my experience playing explorer on arena and dabbling a bit in events, I can definitely see where that sentiment comes from. I think my record for playing rakdos/nykthos decks is like five or six games in a row. That may not seem like a lot, but when I play arena twice a week when I’m bored it feels like a lot. I also just have stopped playing a lot of arena since those decks became relevant, which may just feed into my personal experience but that’s the reality of it all. I can’t really comment on legacy or vintage since I have no experience playing those formats, but I know the one ring has popped up a bit there, becoming just another super busted artifact that people can spit out turn one just because that’s how those formats work. To that end I definitely felt like something would at least be said.


Though, to a lot of people’s surprise I’m sure, the post contained two unbannings. Modern would get preordain once again while legacy would get mind’s desire back. With everything I’ve been talking about, it would seem that these two cards were never even in the conversation to begin with. What relevance do these cards have in doing anything to address the current metagame? Well, I will link the actual announcement article below, but I feel like there are a lot of interesting points made to why this may not be what everyone was expecting. The big comment about modern I saw is that even though there are a select few busted cards, the format has still remained surprisingly open with no one deck really running away with everything. To add to that point, the modern tournament finals in Barcelona recently was won by a tron deck, a deck that certainly wasn’t on my radar for being a problem deck in the format. While I’m still sure a lot of people will be most certainly disappointed by there not being anything more, I find myself ok with it all. If they go crazy with the unbannings, they risk modern becoming upended again. Blue did need some extra help outside of the murktide deck and being a support color for multi-color decks and I think preordain is a great starting point which could open up the meta a little more. Perhaps next banning announcement we get a few more cards off the banlist to help enhance the modern format like punishing fire please wizards. Pioneer had another tourney where the finals didn’t have Rakdos or Nykthos present at all which makes me a little more ok with nothing happening to that format. Minds’ desire is something I was surprised that it had been banned for so long, feels like a six mana card with storm is actually kinda fair if you are able to cast it. Obviously, let me know if I’m wrong, but that’s just my opinion. At the end of it all, I appreciate them pointing out that not banning any cards now didn’t mean they were ignoring them, in fact I’m sure if data actually shows that cards need to be banned, they will.


So that was my thoughts on the banning announcement. I’ve been liking the current discourse on it so far, but I feel like people definitely need to chill a bit and actually look at what the formats look like. When I did, a lot of the points made sense and I’m kinda satisfied with how it all ended up. In any case, that’s enough writing for today and I will see you in the next article tomorrow!


Link to announcement: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/august-7-2023-banned-and-restricted-announcement

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