Innovations – Epic Bans, The New Metagame

2) Decks Waiting to Break Again: When you ban a “combo piece” like Vengevine or Tendrils or Iona but don’t touch the engine, it just breaks again. It’s
not the Vengevine, Tendrils, or Iona that is “winning” the game; they are just the current most efficient ways to capitalize on some broken interaction
or engine. The banned list wants to be as small as possible. Banning anything other than fast mana and library manipulation/engines leads to some other
slightly less good card replacing the old one.

So despite Survival being the most dominate deck since Affinity, a pretty sizable percentage of players were in uproar over its banning. In the days
approaching June 20, many players speculated on what WotC would do. After all, with the new event decks containing Stoneforge Mystic, and with Jace,
the Mind Sculptor being the center of the brand (not to mention the most expensive in-print card ever), many assumed that Stoneforge and Jace were
untouchable.

“Jace, the Mind Sculptor will never be banned in Standard.” -Every Random Dude Who Confuses Opinions with Facts

Did a lot of people think Jace was above the law? Sure, no question. Many didn’t dare to have such high hopes. Still, not everyone confuses their
opinion with facts. It does seem this experience is yet another great litmus test for determining the credibility of various would-be authorities. For
instance, Ted Knutson was very vocally spearheading the beginning of the “Ban Jace” movement. Ted doesn’t go around saying every random card should be
banned. Actually, the last card he predicted would be banned was Survival of the Fittest. Hrmmm…  

He deals not in what he wants, but in what will be. He isn’t always right, but the key distinction is that his goal is to accurately predict the future
(not to try to shape it). All too many people get so caught up in trying to steer and control formats, progress, people, markets, and society, that
they delude themselves into believing that What Will Happen is in any way a function of what they Want to Happen. There is an underlying and implicit
arrogance involved in those who try to force their opinions on others as fact. What about when one’s opinions turn out to be correct? Well, the market
has a pretty good system for determining which people are generally Right and which people are Wrong.

I say all this to help illuminate how we can be among those Right people, those people who are interested in accuracy, in The Truth. It is so easy to
get sucked into the allure of proclaiming one’s opinion as fact and convincing oneself that things must be a certain way (since that is the only way
one understands things at the moment). Seeing the future is a skill more valuable than words can say, but it is not an unobtainable skill. If you
desire Future Sight, then practice analyzing the future without investing your own ego. Observe those who make predictions about what you want to be
able to predict. Look at the logic used by those who are consistently right, and ask yourself if any of it would be useful to you.  

Look at the logic used by those who seem to be right/wrong completely at random. Are they right some of the time on accident? These people are
particularly dangerous, as they can easily convince themselves that they understand everything involved when they happen to arrive at the right answer;
yet, when their answer is wrong, they can convince themselves that they were right and that everyone else was wrong. We want to be wary of these
people, for they are often the source of much confusion, yet they may have an appetite for attention that far surpasses their appetite for
understanding.

What about the logic of those consistently wrong? These people can actually be quite educational teachers. After all, if they are consistently wrong,
it stands to reason we can learn a lot by listening to what they say and secretly just imagining it to be a piece of evidence to the contrary. Why
don’t these people do the same? They can’t help themselves! Even if they try to do this on an occasion, they will just delude themselves into believing
that their “real” position is the opposite of what it is so as to rationalize their positions.

Okay, this turned out to be kind of a long tangent, but for those interested in learning to see the future, hopefully it is of use. Accuracy is
underrated, in my humble opinion. Want to promote accuracy? Call people out on those times they proclaim some position as fact, and it turns out to be
wrong. Everyone is wrong some times, so it’s not like it’s the end of the world. There is no reason to fear the truth, to fear being proved wrong. We
would do best to remember the difference between divergent thinking and fools.

Take Michael Flores, for instance. He comes up with lots of stupid ideas. Many of these turn out brilliant. He tends to say some pretty radical things,
thinking thoughts many wouldn’t dare. The result? He is wrong a lot; however, he produces results. He does produce brilliance, ideas that few would
have considered, if any. As a result, he is an invaluable resource, as long as you let him be what he is. His opinions have certainly proven their
worth considering, however they turn out.

Not every source is so valuable. What is the source’s track record? What results have they produced? Can you trust them? Are they crazy geniuses,
aspiring students of the art, objective reporters, or just fools?

This tangent began after the first paragraph. You’re 1500+ plus in. Think it might be time to wrap it up and get back to Jace and SFM?

Right, so Jace and Stoneforge Mystic are the exact type of cards that people historically oppose banning. Both enable so many decks. After
all, Caw-Blade variants are the real problem, right? RUG, Twin, U/B, Boros, G/W, and WW are all fine, right? What about all the people who want to play
all those “bad” decks? Caw-Blade doesn’t win on turn 2 or anything, but you know what? People are really, really sick of it.

1) Caw-Blade was the most dominant deck in the history of Magic. No, it wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as Flash, Academy, Trix, etc. However, all
those decks existed in other eras, against different metagames. Neither Flash, nor Academy, nor Trix ever won as much as Caw-Blade has over these past
four months. However, they did all lead to bans. No deck has dominated a major format as much as Caw-Blade in the game’s eighteen-year history, and it
will hopefully be a record not broken for a long time.

2) Jace costing $100 was obnoxious. Even when Tarmogoyf was $50 in Standard, you never needed them. Jace would never be banned because of its
cost (no card should or will be); however we have all learned a valuable lesson. WotC wants what is best for the game. Banning Jace, the Mind Sculptor
is a really, really hard pill for WotC to swallow. After all, Worldwake sold like crazy, mostly due to Jace. Gideon, Koth, Tezzeret, and Karn
all helped drive sales, at least partially perpetually chasing “The Next Jace.” An awful lot of people assumed that Jace was too big to be banned.

No one is above the law.

The impact of this will actually be far bigger than people realize. First, a lot of irrational behavior has resulted from people misunderstanding what
Jace is and what he isn’t. Jace is the best card printed since Skullclamp (hrmm, wonder where that is from…). You know what happened when Skullclamp
got printed? Cards got banned.

Now that we have proof that WotC is willing to ban anything to ensure the health of a format (but certainly is not trigger-happy), I predict a little
bit less craziness from the high-end mythic secondary market. Already Jace has “crashed” to $60 (as if $60 is not already an outrageous cost for a card
that came out last year). Most people didn’t want Jace banned because he cost $100, but they also didn’t want Jace to get a free pass for that
exact reason, either.

When 88% of the Day 2 Singapore metagame contains Jace, the Mind Sculptor, that is a problem. It’s fine if some cards cost a lot, but it’s not okay if
you need those cards to compete.

3) When people start using tournaments as evidence where Caw-Blade only takes four of the Top 8 slots that Caw-Blade’s reign is over, you know
the format has been broken for too long. Using StarCityGames.com‘ deck database, I did a quick check to see just how many
Top 8s Caw-Blade has actually gotten since Mirrodin Besieged was legal. From Pro Tour Paris up to today, there are 674 Standard Top 8 decks on record.
Of those, 428 contain Jace, the Mind Sculptor; 340 contain Stoneforge Mystic; and 291 contain both. Keep in mind these numbers include decks before
people had any idea just how good Caw-Blade was and decks before the printing of New Phyrexia. Put another way, that’s:

Jace 64%
Stoneforge Mystic 50%
Caw-Blade 43%

That is absolutely outrageous. We are talking not even close to okay. This is from the Pro Tour, Grand Prix, PTQs, SCG Opens, everything. More
recently, the problem has only been growing. Over the past couple of months, Caw-Blade has had 49% of the spots at major events. A major part of the
problem has been that Caw-Blade is far too skill-testing for most players’ tastes. Magic isn’t supposed to be VS or Chess. Caw-Blade is just too hard
for most players to play with or against, allowing those who can to dominate. For instance, during this same four and a half month period, there have
been twelve SCG Standard Opens, producing 96 Top 8 lists. Of those, 58 have been Caw-Blade! That is over 60% at the semi-pro level! The problem only
grows when we start looking at local tournaments.

4) There are so many cool cards to try and explore in both Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia, plus M12 is right around the corner. Caw-Blade
has been strangling tournament Magic for so long that we have not gotten to see so much of what is possible. People are excited to finally explore this
new world!

Bans are always going to be very controversial, but this time, there is no mistaking, no misunderstanding. Yes, some may disagree whether Jace and
Stoneforge both needed to be banned, but anyone who doesn’t agree that Caw-Blade needed to go is pretty far beyond misguided. Why did WotC ban both?
After all, why not just ban Stoneforge? After all, the card was merely the second-best card in the format before New Phyrexia, but with the
printing of Batterskull and Sword of War and Peace, it was elevated to the top spot in the format by many metrics. Jace still saw much more play, but
Stoneforge was the best card in the best deck.

WotC clearly couldn’t have banned only Jace (as Caw-Blade would likely still thrive without him). Banning only Stoneforge, however, poses the huge risk
that only Jace decks would succeed. Maybe there are no more Caw-Blades, but does that give free reign to Twin, U/B, RUG, and so on? If WotC is going to
bite the bullet and pay the costs involved in a ban, they are going to be damn sure they do the job they set out to. It is literally the worst-case
scenario to both ban a card and not change the format enough.

WotC wants people to be able to play with their cards. Jace and Stoneforge were making people not able to play with almost any of their other cards in
Standard. As far as playing with Jace and Stoneforge, it isn’t as if you can’t play those still. After all, Jace is one of the best cards in every
format he is legal in. Extended, Legacy, Vintage, we are not short on places where Jace succeeds. If Modern becomes a format, he will be awesome there.

What about Stoneforge? Well, already Stoneforge Mystic has dominated Extended, and the Stoneforge revolution is underway in Legacy, a format where she
is actually merely one of the best creatures (alongside Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf). In fact, I see a future where Stoneforge Mystic changes
Vintage. An analysis of the future of Vintage is a bit beyond the scope of this article, but for fun, here is the deck that I played this past weekend
with Matt Sperling and David Ochoa. We, along with LSV, EFro, David Williams, Owen Turtenwald, and others continue the fine tradition of putting Black
Lotus, Ancestral Recall, and Time Walk to use—despite the current health, or lack thereof, of the Vintage tournament scene.

4-Color Stoneblade

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 06-26-2011

Vintage

Creatures (17)

• 3 Gorilla Shaman
• 1 Mesmeric Fiend
• 3 Kataki, War's Wage
• 4 Dark Confidant
• 2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic

Lands (18)

• 1 Strip Mine
• 3 Wasteland
• 4 City of Brass
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Underground Sea
• 2 Scrubland
• 2 Badlands
• 2 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Marsh Flats

Spells (25)

• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Red Elemental Blast
• 3 Cabal Therapy
• 2 Skullclamp
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 1 Revoke Existence
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Mental Misstep

Sideboard

• 1 Umezawa's Jitte
• 1 Energy Flux
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 2 Red Elemental Blast
• 1 Disenchant
• 4 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Shattering Spree
• 1 Yixlid Jailer
• 2 Mindbreak Trap
• 1 Mental Misstep

Stoneforge Mystic is in a class with only Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf. There is no question; she will continue to see lots of play across the board.
Besides, if you want, you can still play her in Standard!

Exception: The decklist for the “War of Attrition” Event Deck will be legal in Standard if kept completely intact. That deck, which went on sale on
June 10, contains two copies of Stoneforge Mystic.

Now, you don’t actually have to play the physical War of Attrition Event Deck; you just need to play the exact list, if you want to play Stoneforge
Mystic. In fact, what better way to begin our look at the new metagame than with the first deck that we know people will consider?

War of Attrition

Wizards of the Coast

Test deck on 06-26-2011

Standard

Creatures (23)

• 4 Leonin Skyhunter
• 4 Elite Vanguard
• 2 Kor Duelist
• 2 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Kemba, Kha Regent
• 1 Mirran Crusader
• 4 Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1 Puresteel Paladin
• 4 Porcelain Legionnaire

Lands (23)

• 21 Plains
• 2 Dread Statuary

Spells (14)

• 4 Journey to Nowhere
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Darksteel Axe
• 4 Flayer Husk
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Skinwing
• 1 Sickleslicer
• 1 Apostle's Blessing

Sideboard

• 2 Arrest
• 3 Celestial Purge
• 1 Kor Duelist
• 4 Kor Firewalker
• 4 Revoke Existence
• 1 Apostle's Blessing

Okay, so without Sword of Feast and Famine, War and Peace, or Batterskull, the Stoneforge Mystics here aren’t exactly busted, but you know darn well
that a number of players are going to race to be the first player to Top 8 an event with War of Attrition. Think about it; this is the first time such
an exception has been made, so why wouldn’t a number of people want to be the first person to make history in this way? Imagine you are that person for
a moment. Imagine the laughs, the cheers, the praise, the stories, people writing about you. This list is pretty far from optimal, but it isn’t really
so bad. It could win an event on a good day, and being that player is prize worth more than store credit.

Personally, I am totally in favor of the exception. This isn’t some cash-grab by WotC; this is part of an effort to help players segue into the
tournament scene. The Event Decks were designed to be out-of-the-box ready for tournament play. You and I may take for granted how hard it can be for
new players to make the jump into tournament play, since we are already here. It can be quite daunting though, and these Event Decks provide a starting
point, a stepping stone. Players at this step are particularly vulnerable, as they can often feel like they are over their heads and have no idea what
is going on. Buying an Event Deck and finding out that the best cards in it are banned would likely discourage a non-zero number of players from
sticking with tournament Magic. This solution, while not particularly clean, does at least alleviate this, as well as create opportunities for positive
stories instead. Besides, this isn’t going to seriously impact the metagame, so why not let people use the deck as it was designed to be used?

War of Attrition is a pretty straightforward White Weenie deck, with such Stoneforge targets as Bonehoard, Skinwing, Darksteel Axe, and Sword of…
Vengeance. You are pretty much just going to play a game similar to Paul Rietzl Pro Tour Amsterdam White Weenie deck, with a modest amount of
removal, tricks, and pumps to overpower people on the battlefield. It is probably going to be a little soft to Valakut and Splinter Twin, making it a
questionable choice for the hardcore tournament player, but you gotta admit, more than a couple people are going to run it for the times.

Now, on a more serious tip, let’s look at the rest of the decks in the format, as well as what is going to be possible without Jace, the Mind Sculptor
or Stoneforge Mystic. After all, this means not only was Caw-Blade banned, but 90% of the field took a hit. Where does this leave us?

Well, let’s start with the twin elephants in the room, Valakut and Splinter Twin.

Valakut is one of the few decks that does lose a key card. Combine this with its previous dominance, and we have the pacesetter out the gate. Valakut
is extremely resilient and dodges many forms of interaction, often creating a very oppressive influence on aggro decks that can’t beat a turn 4
Primeval Titan. While it doesn’t lose a key card, it will change in make-up.

First of all, Nature’s Claims are no longer maindeck cards in Valakut. Instead, we will likely see a return to cards like Pyroclasm, Slagstorm, and
Lightning Bolt. Beast Within is an option, especially if Splinter Twin picks way up, but the point is that what few interactive cards Valakut has will
change to meet the needs of the new format.  

This is only the beginning, however. These past few months we have all grown accustomed to Valakut being back on the Summoning Trap plan, loading up
with Inferno Titans to go with their Primeval Titans. This was out of necessity to combat the Mana Leaks all over the place. If you’ll recall, Green
Sun’s Zenith was supposed to change the face of Valakut. After all, it is more consistent and more versatile, with its only weakness being
countermagic. If Jace, the Mind Sculptor’s ban causes the number of counterspells to crash, Green Sun’s Zenith is posed to make a big comeback. What
new targets does New Phyrexia offer? Is Thrun good? Avenger? Acidic Slime? Oracle? Gaea’s Revenge? Lotus Cobra? Joraga Treespeaker? Birds of Paradise?
It isn’t clear that Green Sun’s Zenith will win the fight against Summoning Trap, but even if it does, Summoning Trap is likely to appear in
sideboards.

The other big factor will be Splinter Twin’s influence. While Valakut appears to have a big edge over level one of the metagame, it does have a huge
natural weakness to Twin. What does that mean for the archetype, when Twin is the second most hyped strategy to survive? It seems pretty clear that
level one of the metagame is:

Valakut (rock) < Twin (paper) < Everything Else (scissors)

This means that at level one, anything we are brewing needs to either beat Twin (an attempt at defining scissors) or be better at beating Valakut
(either win more often, or lose to everything else less often).  

What will these Twin decks look like? Well, one starting point is to take the most successful previous version (that doesn’t use Stoneforge), Flores’s
U/R Twin:

U/R Twin

Mike Flores

Test deck on 05-22-2011

Standard

Creatures (11)

• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 4 Sea Gate Oracle
• 2 Inferno Titan
• 4 Deceiver Exarch

Planeswalkers (6)

• 2 Jace Beleren
• 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (26)

• 8 Mountain
• 10 Island
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Tectonic Edge

Spells (17)

• 3 Mana Leak
• 4 Into the Roil
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 4 Splinter Twin
• 4 Preordain

This list features four Jace, the Mind Sculptors, but those can be replaced with more card draw of other varieties. Jace Beleren, Foresee, and See
Beyond are all worth considering right off top. Additionally, the format is going to be a lot more aggressive, so it’s possible that some amount of
Spell Pierce and Into the Roil may want to become Pyroclasms.

Another possible route to go is back to the beginning. Here is my original Pyro-Twin list, which didn’t even feature Jace, the Mind Sculptor:

Pyro-Twin

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 05-01-2011

Standard

Creatures (4)

• 4 Deceiver Exarch

Lands (22)

• 7 Mountain
• 9 Island
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 2 Halimar Depths

Spells (34)

• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Foresee
• 3 Into the Roil
• 4 Pyromancer Ascension
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 4 See Beyond
• 4 Splinter Twin
• 4 Preordain
• 1 Call to Mind
• 4 Gitaxian Probe

Does the huge increase in Valakut and disappearance of Caw-Blade, RUG, and more mean the support spells should change? For sure. Spell Pierce can
immediately become Mana Leak, and it is worth considering adding Spreading Seas. In fact, we are going to be seeing a lot more Spreading Seas in the
days to come, which is interesting to consider, if you are contemplating decks like Mono-Black, which could feel the splash damage from the hate.

It is far from certain what the optimal Twin list will look like, but it is almost surely quite a bit different from these starting points. Maybe
Grixis Twin takes off? Maybe Birthing Pod takes up the combo, using Totem-Guide Hartebeest as a Pod target that can search up the Splinter Twin to go
with the Deceiver you already searched up?

Valakut and Twin are not the only combo decks, however. Suture Sisters, using Soul’s Attendant, Leonin Relic-Warder, and Phyrexian Metamorph is a lot
more dangerous of a kill, now that Jace is gone and Inkmoth Nexus less popular. The infinite life combo still doesn’t beat Twin, but it does beat
Valakut and most aggro decks.

This format is hardly a pure combo format, however. Mono-Red and Vampires are in the interesting dilemma of escaping unscathed, but losing their niche
in the metagame. They both had reasonable game against Caw-Blade, but that counts for nothing, now. Instead, they are going to have to figure out how
to compete with Valakut and Twin, meaning some pretty radical redesigns. Vampires will probably have to go back to adopting discard. Demon at Death’s
Gate is sure to make a comeback. What removal gets played is still very up in the air, but Primeval Titan and Deceiver Exarch would appear to be the
two most important creatures (followed by Vengevine).

Speaking of which, Vengevine is an interesting question mark. After all, Vengevine’s weakness has traditionally been Valakut, so why would it be on the
rise, now? Well, Vengevine against Valakut is a little like Cruel Ultimatum in Five-Color Control against Faeries. Yes, Faeries could just counter it,
but it lets you slant your deck to be very anti-Faeries, with Cruel Ultimatum picking up the slack against everyone else.

Vengevine might be able to pull off a similar trick. If you slant your Vengevine deck to be good against Valakut and Twin, you may be able to rely on
Vengevine to do the heavy lifting against non-combo decks. Still, with Jace gone (Vengevine purpose in life) and combo on the rise (his weakness), it
is certainly not level 1 or 2 of the metagame to work with him. What we ought to do, though, is be mindful of a place in the future where Vengevine
helps us prey on the decks that are designed to beat what we see today.

As we said, Caw-Blade isn’t the only deck to suffer this announcement. RUG is basically dead, at least in its old form. That was a deck that revolved
completely around Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Without him, what are you even doing? I wouldn’t be surprised if some new deck takes over that sort of
space, but it needs a new core strategy. Maybe Twin? Maybe some other walkers? Maybe more fatties? Maybe Mass Polymorph? Maybe some form of Turbo-Land?

The future of U/B and U/W Control is very interesting. They do lose their best card, but they also lose their two greatest threats. Now that U/B
Control only has to fight combo and aggro, it is very conceivable that they can ride the other card-advantage engines to replace Jace. Beleren,
Foresee, Jace’s Ingenuity, Liliana, and more can pick up the slack. Combine that with Despise, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, Mana Leak, Stoic
Rebuttal, Black Sun’s Zenith, Go for the Throat, and Into the Roil, and we are already seeing a deck coming together. Four Preordains and four
Spreading Seas are a must, as are four Edges. The victory conditions of choice are probably some mix of Consecrated Sphinx, Grave Titan, and maybe even
Precursor Golem. This is definitely going to be a deck to work on.

As for U/W, we lose the awesome discard and spot removal, but we gain Venser and Day of Judgment. Venser, the Sojourner is looking pretty solid in the
new metagame, with lots of great targets to blink. He provides game-winning card advantage and an ultimate that can totally win on its own.  

Mono-Black mages are going to finally have a chance to prove whether this really is time for the revival of the archetype. After all, Jace, the Mind
Sculptor was always the card that they couldn’t beat. Jace invalidated the archetype both because of the “Jace Test” (Phyrexian Obliterator) and Jace
outclassing all of black’s mediocre two-for-ones. You know I love a Mono-B deck, but it does seem that the combination of great creature removal and
discard could be just what the doctor ordered for combating the aggro and combo decks.

What about the other Stoneforge decks? Boros, White Weenie, G/W Quest? Well, they are generally not where you want to be against Valakut, especially
with their best card missing, but it is possible that now that they do not need to compete with other Mystics and Jaces that they can become even more
aggressive or more disruptive. Personally, this is not where I would want to be in the metagame, right now, but now that Jace and Stoneforge are gone,
I am betting that we see a very wide open and diverse mix of decks that people use to try to step up and prove that they can compete with the Twin
Mountains of the format, Valakut and Splinter Twin.

With M12 just weeks away, we are going to see the beginnings of the revolution in the weeks to come, but another major shake-up in July. After all,
just think about how much M10 and M11 changed Magic. Could we really imagine that M12 won’t do the same? These are exciting times! After all, cards
don’t get banned in Standard every day. I gotta admit, watching Jace get banned feels like watching my son graduate from college. I am so proud of you,
son!

One thing is for sure, this is the exact perfect time to brew! I am not sure I have ever seen the community so excited to try all the deck ideas they
have been saving up for months. The format next week will be nothing like the format last week, and quite frankly, probably not all that similar to the
format of next month, either.

What decks do you want to see explored first? Let me know in the forums, and I’ll start with the most popular suggestions. See you Monday, when we get
down to the business of tuning some of the decks from the new world of Standard!

Patrick Chapin
“The Innovator”