The Cat is Out of the Bag

We are days away from the follow up Banned and Restricted announcement. With the release of Aether Revolt and the most recent bannings, Wizards of the Coast announced a new policy in which they would make another Banned and Restricted announcement five weeks after the Pro Tour. Well, here we are.

While the B & R announcement is for all formats, I doubt anything will change in any format beyond Standard. Legacy has been more balanced with the printing of Leovold, Emissary of Trest and Modern looks healthier than ever. Pauper seems healthy as well and while I think they could unban Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero in Masques Block Constructed, I doubt they’ll make any changes. All eyes will be on Standard.

Felidar Guardian is the main card that is up for debate. The Cat Beast is half of the now infamous CopyCat combo with Saheeli Rai that has been played in Standard. While the cards may look like Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin, they play a lot like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Restoration Angel. This similarity allows a lot of flexibility with the combo and it can fit into a few different styles of decks. The 4 color versions of the deck have a lot of value creatures that liked to be blinked or copied and can grind through removal on its combo pieces. The Jeskai Control version was more present at the beginning of the format but is a traditional control deck with the combo as an efficient win condition.

While the combo has not dominated Standard, it has been a constant factor in the format and a limiting factor for what is playable in the format. Slow Midrange decks have a hard time keeping up with the Saheeli decks and have been pushed out of the format. These leaves the format without a middle ground. Saheeli combo is the biggest end game and every other deck that has succeeded either has an anti-combo lock piece like Dynavolt Tower or just eschews an endgame and tries to curve out on its opponent. So that begets the question; is the format healthily?

The format is balanced. The top decks are all even with each other. But that doesn’t mean the format is healthy. Healthy formats have playable decks that fall into every category. There are fast aggro decks, midrange decks, ramp decks and control decks. This format can’t check off all of these boxes. There is so much territory that cannot be explored in the format because of the presence of the CopyCat combo. The slow Midrange decks can’t beat the card advantage of the 4 color CopyCat deck because they have to leave in so much removal to deal with the combo. The 4 color deck can churn through its deck and play powerful planeswalkers and the Midrange deck can’t answer everything and end the game before they run out of cards. The ramp deck in the format would be the Marvel deck, but Its natural prey, slow Midrange decks don’t exist. While it beats some of the decks, the format is hostile to it. The CopyCat deck can combo safely because of Marvel’s lack of interaction and the presence of the combo encourages a ton of Negates and other countermagic in the format that Marvel can’t power through. The format is narrow and I don’t think help outside of a ban is coming. Nothing rotates when Amonkhet drops and Felidar Guardian and Saheeli Rai are a long way away from rotating. We will have this current card pool until the fall, and if Amonkeht and Hour of Devestation don’t shake things up, we will be playing this format until the fall.

Should they ban Felidar Guardian? Well, that depends on what role you think bans should play. The format isn’t unplayable, its just unfun. A more aggressive banning stance says rid the format of the combo and try to restore a conventional Standard format. A more conservative banning stance says bans are too damaging for consumer confidence and to let it ride.

Dying on turn 4 to an infinite combo in Standard isn’t exactly fun. They banned Emrakul, the Promised End for not being fun to play against repeatedly. There is precedent for a ban like this. There is also precedent for not banning an infinite combo. Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin existed in Standard together for about 6 months before Splinter Twin rotated. This was during the Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic reign of terror and they could have easily banned Splinter Twin with those two cards but didn’t. They let it ride. But I think Felidar Guardian is a different animal. It isn’t going to rotate anytime soon and the answers in Standard aren’t what they once were.

There has been a bit of discussion on banning Gideon, Ally of Zendikar as well for being too oppressive. I don’t like this argument. The card is great, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it is oppressive enough or toxic enough to necessitate a ban.

I don’t take banning cards lightly. It is not good to have to ban cards. Standard is already a no-go for players who don’t like the idea of their cards rotating quickly. Casual players tend for eternal formats like Commander and busier players tend to play Modern because there is less change week to week. Injecting more instability into the format is not what WotC has in mind. Crushing value of cards can be game ending for younger players who cannot reinvest and leaves a bad taste in players’ mouths. Having an unsavory format is just as damaging though. Standard is supposed to be a customer acquisition tool for the tournament scene. New players are supposed crack packs, trade for the cards they want and get into tournaments though Standard. New players are supposed to lose, that is how people learn. But considering how people lose is even more important. It is one thing to get beat by a flashy mythic rare planeswalker, that makes the new player want to buy more cards and build a better deck. But getting cheesed out by an infinite combo in Standard kills that excitement. Having new players lose interest is more damaging than the potential damage of bans.

Verdict:

Feldiar Guardian should be banned