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By: TugaChampion, Guilherme Carmona Alexandrino
Dec 03 2015 1:00pm
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I like playing Modern. There are many interesting decks and match ups. However, there are also some problems with it and I think they should have already been addressed. But first, let's get into the roots of modern:

Modern was played in the Community Cup in 2011 with fewer bans. When it was announced as a format for competitive play, some more bans were added. In my opinion, they should have banned way less things, making a format similar to the old Extended. I loved playing the Thopter Depths deck in Extended and I would have jumped into Modern right away if that was available there as well. However, they had other plans for Modern and I don't think that is necessarily wrong.

After some bans and unbans over the years the banlist looks like this:

Ancestral Vision Jace, the Mind Sculptor Treasure Cruise Dig Through Time Stoneforge Mystic Birthing Pod Bloodbraid Elf Deathrite Shaman Green Sun's Zenith Punishing Fire Ancient Den Great Furnace Seat of the Synod Tree of Tales Vault of Whispers Blazing Shoal Dark Depths Dread Return Glimpse of Nature Hypergenesis Chrome Mox Ponder Preordain Rite of Flame Seething Song Skullclamp Sword of the Meek Umezawa's Jitte Cloudpost Second Sunrise Sensei's Divining Top Mental Misstep

Some of these are too powerful, others kill diversity, a few enable combo decks and Second Sunrise and Top both use too much time and that's the main reason they are banned. I think some of these cards don't really deserve to be here, and they could improve the format by being legal. I'll get to those later, but first I'd like to talk about possible bans.

There are very interesting decks in Modern. I'll talk about several of them and say why they should or shouldn't be banned.

Splinter Twin has been a good deck for most of Modern's life but never becoming too good. There are several ways to build it, straight UR or splashing a third color, black, green and, most recently, white. I think this deck is a pillar of the format. It can't kill before turn 4 and usually takes longer than that. People naturally play removal already so most decks already have some way to interact with it.

Splinter Twin

Scapeshift is the deck that I have played the most in this format. This was only a deck after they unbanned Valakut and this is one good example that the initial bans were a bit too much. The deck has never been too powerful and has remained in tier 2 status. Most versions play green for ramp and Scapeshift, red because Valakut requires Mountains and blue for some selection, Cryptic Command and Remand. Recently, the lists include a forth color to include Bring to Light. It plays like a control deck with a combo kill. There's also a RG version which top8ed GP Pittsburgh, that plays less of a control game.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Jund and Abzan are the BGx decks of the format. These are good decks that can beat almost anything, if they are prepared for it. However, it's impossible to prepare for everything and there are always some combo decks that beat them. Jund was very good when it had Bloodbraid Elf and later Deathrite Shaman but those are banned now. Abzan appeared with Siege Rhino and they are also pillars of the format.

Tarmogoyf Liliana of the Veil

Living End didn't get banned alongside Hypergenesis and for good reason as it never broke out of tier 2 status. The deck is slower, less powerful and more easily hated.

Living End

Grixis decks come in 3 types. Grixis Twin, which I already talked about, Grixis Control and Grixis Delver. Grixis Control was a good choice for a while, when people thought they were playing against Twin but the deck lost most of its popularity, although it did top8 GP Pittsburgh. Delver hasn't shown up that much as well.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Burn had been a deck in the old Extended format for a long time. It was never tier 1 but it always appeared as it was cheap. Despite being similar to today's Modern deck, it actually had some interesting aspects like playing artifact lands and even Inkmoth Nexus to fuel Shrapnel Blast. Today's Burn is a tier 1 deck and because it plays a bunch of fetchlands, duals and Eidolon of the Great Revel, it is not a cheap option. Turn 1 Goblin Guide, turn 2 Eidolon can be game over and there's nothing fancy about the deck. The fights hate very well thanks to cards like Skullcrack and Atarka's Command. It consistently kills on turn 4 and can even kill on turn 3. I'm not really comfortable with this being a tier 1 and banning one key card like Goblin Guide or Eidolon would help the format.

Goblin Guide

Affinity doomed Standard, always stayed relevant in Extended and is currently another tier 1 in Modern. Despite the lack of most artifact lands, I think the deck is much better in Modern than it was in Extended. The new cards like Mox Opal, Signal Pest, Steel Overseer, Inkmoth Nexus and a few others make it much more consistent, even if slightly slower. What used to fall apart to a single Ancient Grudge, can now come back from much more than that. It can kill on turn 3, although less often than Burn, but it can also kill out of nowhere with Inkmoth Nexus and Plating/Ravager. Just like Burn, I don't think Affinity should be as good as it is right now, and banning one card like Inkmoth Nexus or Mox Opal, might bring it down just enough without killing the deck.

Mox Opal

Infect is another of these pseudo combo decks. While it hasn't shown up much lately it can also kill on turn 3 and even of turn 2 with the perfect draw. I wouldn't be opposed to making it a bit worse and banning Inkmoth Nexus would hurt this and Affinity with just one ban.

Inkmoth Nexus

Bogles is a deck that wants to have as little interaction as possible. Hexproof, when used sporadically, can be interesting. It's perfectly fine on expensive creatures. But when used on small creatures, especially if they are 1/1s, it makes an unplayable card that can be broken, with the right tools. Most auras are not very good because it's very easy to lose two cards to one. This allows them to print some aggressively costed auras without creating something too powerful. These two things combined, create a deck that is very difficult to interact with. Magic is fun because it's an interactive game. Take that away and the fun goes with it. In my opinion the one mana Hexproof creatures should be banned. The deck hasn't had many good results lately, but its existence is not good for the format.

Slippery Bogle Daybreak Coronet

Tron aims to have in play as soon as possible all 3 of Urza's lands, so that it produces 7 mana out of 3 lands. After that, it plays stuff like Karn, Ugin and Wurmcoil. This deck can do very well or very poorly depending on what it faces. Affinity doesn't really care about Ugin or Karn and even Wurmcoil is very beatable. Jund and Abzan have a very hard time beating those cards. I also think this deck is not good for the format.

Urza's Power Plant Urza's Mine Urza's Tower

Grishoalbrand aims to get a Griselbrand into play and using Nourishing Shoal exiling a big green card, draws most of the deck and kills them with Borborygmos Enraged. It can kill on turn 2 and it's possible to win at instant speed. The turn 2 kills are enough reason to ban something and I'd probably choose Goryo's Vengeance.

Goryo's Vengeance

Amulet Bloom is the biggest offender. This deck is the plague of Modern and I am can't see any reason it hasn't been banned yet. It can kill on turn 2 and it is very difficult to stop. You might have a counter but they can still Pact of Negation on turn 2 and have enough to not only pay for it on turn 3 but to also keep going. Sometimes, even if it doesn't actually win on turn 2, it sets up the game in a way that is not possible to lose. Whenever I play against it, win or lose, I don't have fun. This deck doesn't play Magic, it plays something else and beats your Magic deck. Banning just Summer Bloom would hurt the deck but it would probably still be playable. I'd rather see Amulet banned or even both cards, since they are only good to do something broken and there's nothing to be gained from having those cards legal. People claim the deck is very skill intensive but I don't agree. You have to know what you are doing but with practice, you learn all the tricks. And since the deck doesn't actually play Magic a big percentage of the time, you can practice alone and after that you'll eventually learn how to play around discard, counterspells and artifact removal.

Amulet of Vigor Summer Bloom

Lantern Control is another deck that doesn't really play Magic. The deck isn't even that good but it just doesn't do anything good for the format. It could also be banned the same way Top and Second Sunrise were banned, since the deck way too much time to win.

Lantern of Insight

Now I'll talk about some individual cards:

Many people want Blood Moon banned. That would be a huge mistake. Blood Moon keeps people in check. It gives you choices while building your deck and on which lands to fetch. Blood Moon is also very good against some of the strategies that hurt the format like Tron and Amulet Bloom. I think Blood Moon is the single most important card in Modern and it should never be banned.

Blood Moon

Similar to Blood Moon, there's Choke. Choke should be banned. Blood Moon hurts greedy people. Choke hurts basic lands, a specific basic land. That is not good for the game. Imagine a kid playing his first tournament ever. He's playing a blue deck that only has Islands. In game 2 his opponent plays Choke. That kid might never go back to a tournament again because that was a very bad experience. It's one thing to lose to powerful cards. It's another to lose to something that hurts your entire deck by attacking your basic lands. It's mainly for this reason and not actually for competitive play that I think choke should be banned.

Choke

Some cards I'd like to see unbanned:

Ancestral Vision would be a great way to make control playable. The card is way less powerful than Treasure Cruise and it should at least be given a chance.

Sword of the Meek is a combo with Thopter Foundry. It was considered too powerful for Modern but I don't think that's the case anymore. Abrupt Decay, in particular, is an easy way to break the combo. There are also many ways to go over the top of it and make it not relevant or too slow.

Seething Song was banned in 2013 and you can read here their reasons. Their reasons for banning Seething Song seem somewhat reasonable but they're actually flawed. Outside MTGO, Storm's results were not that great. In MTGO, many people played Storm, because the deck was cheaper than most other options. That is way it was a big part of the meta. It's also very sad to see Amulet Bloom survive so long when Seething Song was banned. I think it's time to give Seething Song a shot, having Storm replace decks like Amulet Bloom and Grishoalbrand.

They could also try bringing back both Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf to see how it goes, but those are more risky. In my opinion, those risks should be taken, because it might turn out well. If they don't work out, they get banned again. Cards like Bitterblossom, Golgari Grave-Troll and Valakut, prove that the original banlist was too conservative. Out of those 3 cards, Valakut is the one with more success and it's still not part of a tier 1 deck.

Right now, Modern needs some changes. I might play a Daily event with 4 very interesting match ups and have a lot of fun but I can also face Lantern Control, Bogles, Grishoalbrand and Amulet Bloom and have the opposite experience. I'd love to hear what you think about Modern bans/unbans and I hope you enjoyed this.