Ban Updates Shake Up Pioneer and Modern

On August 26th, Wizards took drastic action to fix a long list of their most popular formats. In Pioneer, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Amalia Benavides Aguirre were both banned, in Modern, Grief and Nadu, Winged Wisdom were banned and in Legacy Grief was banned.

Pioneer

Prior to the 26th, Pioneer did not suffer from any singular best deck, but the format had a very clear top 3 decks with problematic play patterns. Those decks were Amalia Combo, Rakdos Vampires, and Izzet Phoenix.

Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord combined with Vein Ripper had a Show & Tell type effect that defined the format. Anydeck that did not have a reasonable plan against a turn 3 Vein Ripper was unplayable. Having the best midrange deck in the format have its primary gameplan be a show-and-tell combo was not healthy and was something they deemed worthy of removal. A 6/5 Flying Ultra-Blood Artist with a costly Ward trigger was too much and Sorin giving it lifelink the following turn made aggressive decks lose on the spot. 

Amalia combo was a different sort of problem. Amalia with Wildgrowth Walker and a Lifegain trigger would explore repeatedly until she hit 20 power and then wipe the board. This loop was annoying to execute in paper because each explore would be different unless your opponent was repeatedly putting a card on top. To make the situation worse both Amalia and Wildgrowth Walker are mandatory triggers meaning if you could make Amalia skip 20 power or give Walker indestructible the game is forced to a draw. I know of at least one RCQ in which in the Amalia Heroic matchup two players went to game nine. Eventually, the round ended in a draw with a record of 1-1-7. Cards like Lash of Malice became commonplace in Rakdos Vampire’s sideboard to force a draw and act as a normal removal spell. 

Pioneer Post-Bans

The third top deck was UR Phoenix which has now survived yet another ban announcement completely unscathed. Treasure Cruise is an insane magic card that is still legal to play for no real reason. I predict Phoenix will rise to even greater heights of dominance and as a result, Lotus Field will appear more too. Decks like Convoke and Rakdos Sac will see more play because there is no more threat of a turn 3 Vein Ripper. I also believe Rakdos Tree combo is a very real and underplayed option in the Metagame. Maindeck graveyard hate, a midrange combo deck with the most powerful spells in the format like Fable, Thoughtseize, and Push is a recipe for success.

Modern

In Modern, the two cards banned were Nadu, Winged Wisdom, and Grief. Prior to the 26th Nadu, Winged Wisdom was the centerpiece of arguably the most broken modern deck of all time. Grief… was just unfun to play against.

Nadu, Winged Wisdom when combined with Shuko generates an insane amount of value that with Springheart Nantuko allows the user to go through their entire deck and perform convoluted loops with Endurance to win the game with Infinite Life, infinite creatures, or infinite damage from infinite copies of Noble Hierarch. 

Nadu was a product of a commander design changed at the last second with no one noticing that the ability could be abused by your own 0 mana targeting. It then wreaked havoc on modern for the past two months and ruined the first month of RCQs by presenting the choice of playing the best deck in the format or something bad. 

Nadu is now in the past. Along with Grief. Grief was banned based on what seems like vibes. It was not dominating the format by any means and it was not in an oppressive number of decks. Grief was unfun to play against but the decision to ban it seems like an attempt to appease the masses by both getting rid of the clear mistake and making games more fun in the meantime. 

Modern Post Bans

Energy decks will rise to prominence but while some dread it, frankly it does not seem like a bad deck to be the best deck. If the best deck in the metagame can get killed by Pyroclasm it is a spot where decks can really target the metagame and succeed. Incentivizing creature interaction because the best deck in the format can flood the board means more people are playing interactive and fun magic. In the post-Nadu world, I would play Yawgmoth! I am heavily biased, but killing an Ocelot Pride and drawing a card is very fun so can you disagree? Other great choices are decks like Goryo’s, UB Murktide w/ Frog, Storm, or Control. Combo decks like Goryo’s or Ruby Storm have a good energy matchup because they kill quicker than energy can. UB Murktide and Control are great because though energy is a powerful archetype a swath of interaction can take it apart pretty handily.