Hello folks, and welcome back to the column that updates you on news of the casual. I am your reporter, bringing the highlights of the casual world to your attention. Today I want to begin a project that is similar to one I saw on another website.
Before we begin with that, I have some news for those reader who might be players or fans of HeroClix. I have begun a weekly column on HeroClix for the WizKids website. You can find the find the first column here. If you enjoy it, log onto the forums and find the HeroClix post called Home Turf, and let me know what you think.
Okay, back to today’s column. No question about it, Andrew Lee is the inspiration for today‘s article, so let’s give credit where credit is due. He was upset with the recent Vintage restrictions, as were a lot of us casual players. We regularly use the WoTC B&R lists as guidelines for our casual decks, but the restriction of Ponder has left many casual gamers scratching their heads. What do we do now?
Andrew Lee created a proposed Banned and Restricted list for casual gamers to use, based in part on the WoTC lists, and then added some cards he felt were appropriate. I really like the idea, so I credit him for that. However, I believe that the idea is good enough to give space to here in my column as well. If you are a casual player looking for a good B&R list, then look no further.
Today I will be producing what I consider to be a general casual B&R list. If you use this list, then your decks will no longer need to be any particular format at your casual table. It has the potential to create consistency in the casual world, as long as everyone uses one list. So, why should I be the arbiter of the list, as opposed to anyone else? Great question!
1). Experience. There are few in the casual world who have as much experience with the banning and restricting of cards as I do. From the Five Color Ruling Council to the similar body in charge of Peasant Magic, I have years of real life experience for making decisions on a B&R list.
2). Objectivity. I have had over a hundred Magic players at my apartment slinging casual decks in my time in Michigan, and played numerous games against strangers and friends alike at local card stores and tournaments. I do not have an axe to grind against any play style. I believe Andrew Lee’s lists shows biases. For example, his list includes cards like Winter’s Grasp and Stone Rain. I do not know if this is her personal axe to grind or his playgroup’s metagame, but putting land destruction cards on the list demonstrates an introduction of subjectivity that should not be involved.
3). Permission. I spoke with Andrew Lee ahead of time, and he agreed to allow me to use his idea and change things. I didn’t want to just take someone else’s idea without talking with them first.
4). I Shouldn’t! I am introducing the original list today, but I will be taking your feedback. This is your list, not mine. This is not a list for my casual group, but a good general list for all casual groups and formats. I want your feedback. You will have ideas I haven’t thought of, and ways of seeing cards I haven’t seen. Comment in the forums and let’s talk about what works and doesn’t work. Your ideas will become a part of this list. I am a moderator, not an arbiter. A foundation layer, not a carpenter.
…
With that out of the way, let’s talk about theory.
The Theory
When I first wrote the Magic Role-Playing Game, I was surprised by how many comments I received about how you could build a broken combo deck like High Tide with it. Of course you could! The format was never intended to remove combo decks from play. It was intended as a fun way to demonstrate your Planeswalker growing and developing over time. Nothing stopped a player from shuffling up a High Tide deck and playing it at the casual table before I published the MRPG, and nothing stopped them from doing so after.
Some players see a format in a tournament light. In a tournament, you are trying to make the most powerful deck you can with a certain set of cards. Then you tweak it to fit the metagame and refine it to a well forged sword with which to slice your opponents. That’s not casual Magic.
Nothing but good taste prevents a player from shuffling and playing High Tide or Academy or any other high octane deck. There are going to be uber powerful decks in any format, from Faeries to Megrim-Jar to Fruity Pebbles to Necropotence. That’s the way formats work. In any format, there are going to be decks better than others, and a best deck, followed by some really close best decks.
In tournaments, you want to find those decks. In casual play, you typically don’t. You aren’t playing for prizes and your deck should represent that. You might look at the below B&R list and exclaim, “I can break that in a tournament!” Yes, perhaps you can. That would also be missing the point.
The B&R list below is meant to be the boundaries of an island beyond which you cannot go, but there are still areas within the island that are impolite to visit, such as entering my house without asking permission, and others that are dangerous, like heading into the interior of an active volcano. These are just boundaries. That’s all.
The Power Cards
Every list is going to begin with some obvious, fairly non-controversial cards that few will dispute. These cards make the foundation of the Casual B&R list.
Cards like Sol Ring, Ancestral Recall, and Yawgmoth’s Will are so powerful, that their restriction is simple and obvious. The list of the Power Cards is right here:
The Power Cards — Restricted
Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Channel
Chaos Orb
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Enlightened Tutor
Fastbond
Flash
Gifts Ungiven
Grim Monolith
Imperial Seal
Intuition
Library of Alexandria
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Memory Jar
Merchant Scroll
Mind Twist
Mishra’s Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mystical Tutor
Necropotence
Personal Tutor
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Time Spiral
Time Walk
Timetwister
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Vampiric Tutor
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Yawgmoth’s Will
Some cards not on this list include Frantic Search, Gush, Brainstorm, Regrowth, Braingeyser or Stroke of Genius, Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Fact or Fiction, Crop Rotation, Dream Halls, and Grim Tutor. Note that my Power Cards list includes Mind Twist and Chaos Orb, where Andrew Lee’s list does not.
I really had to think hard about including Flash on this list. Is it so uncontroversial as to be automatically restricted? I believe so, but if you disagree, let me know in the forums.
Why did I not include X on this list?
Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond – These cards play fair. You have to exchange two cards to get an artifact that costs no mana and taps for one. They are not innately unfair, unlike many of the other cards on the above list. I just don’t think they are automatic.
Regrowth – I think we need to lose our fear of Regrowth. We have a three-costed Regrowth that doesn’t even get played that much. I admit that a two-mana Regrowth is obviously a good card, but it’s not so good that is should be auto-restricted like Balance. It is just one mana cheaper than :Fair and Barely Getting Played.” It’s not broken, it doesn’t get you massive card advantage and very few powered Vintage decks even consider running it these days. It’s not at the same power level as Wheel of Fortune and Ancestral Recall and it is never a source of card advantage.
Brainstorm, Ponder – Although victims of a very charged tournament environment, these cards are fine at the casual table.
Frantic Search, Crop Rotation – These cards are restricted in Vintage because of their interaction with Tolarian Academy. On their own, they are fair. Frantic Search is free and costs you a card while Crop Rotation can get you any land you need, pulling up special lands like Volrath‘s Stronghold and Kor Haven. It might get axed later, but they are not automatic restrictions.
Fact or Fiction, Gush, Dream Halls – I just don’t feel that these cards are powerful enough, on their own to dominate a game, unlike the other cards. Is Gush innately unfair? Not really. Neither is Fact or Fiction, which is great card draw, but often under the power of your opponent. Dream Halls makes everybody play big things, and it costs an extra card. Can it be a combo engine of doom? Yes, but on its own its fine. We’ll be looking at combo engines next.
Combo Engines
A lot of cards over the years have been acted upon because they are combo engines. Now, some of those, like Necropotence and Tolarian Academy, are powerful enough that they have moved out of the Combo Engine category and into the Power Cards category.
The goal of the B&R should never be to punish a deck type or style of play. There is nothing wrong with being a Johnny, Spike, or Timmy. All are welcome under the tent of the casual crowd. There is nothing wrong with playing tempo, aggro, combo, control, or anything else (like uber-casual theme decks that are not able to be portrayed in the normal pyramid, or hybrid decks which do have a place on the Framework…).
However, over the years, I believe we have all found that the decks which can be the least fair are combo decks. There’s nothing wrong with combo per se, but some engines are just too dangerous. In this section, I want to look at engines that are too dangerous to allow.
Where is the line? Some might argue that Earthcraft is unfair and should be restricted. Others might argue Dream Halls is unfair. A third might point out that Test of Endurance at multiplayer games is unfair.
I believe this is where the greatest controversy will lay. Let’s take a look at the six cards I am suggesting:
Bazaar of Baghdad
Dream Halls
Hermit Druid
Mind’s Desire
Oath of Druids
Skullclamp
I think these cards collectively create overly powerful situations that requires their restriction. Other cards could go here, like Earthcraft or Goblin Recruiter. However, for now, I believe this is a strong start.
Unfun Cards
There are a few cards that are just not that fun, and this is supposed to be about fun. Some of these cards take a while to resolve, and others are just annoying.
Armageddon
Burning Wish
Cunning Wish
Death Wish
Glittering Wish
Golden Wish
Living Wish
Research/Development
Ring of Ma’Ruf
Shahrazad
Sundering Titan
As you can see, I have played the Wishes, all similar effects, on the restricted list, because they take forever to resolve. In tournaments, players have just fifteen cards to look through, but in casual play, a player can look through their entire collection, trying to find the cards for them to use, and we don’t have ten minutes to wait around while someone finds the right card for the situation.
Shahrazad is just unfun to play against. I’ve seen this puppy Forked several times, and it’s just nasty. Move on to the next game, don’t extend the current game by hours.
I am not anti-land destruction, but Armageddon is too easy and too powerful. I do not intend to restrict Obliterate, Catastrophe, Cataclysm, Jokulhaups, Land Equilibrium, Epicenter, Boom/Bust, Desolation Angel, Apocalypse, or Global Ruin. Instead, I just want to reduce the speed at which you can reliably use Armageddon effects by restricting it. Joining the Armageddon in unfunland is Sundering Titan. I believe it should be unbanned in tournament oriented Five Color, but in casual Magic, it should probably be on the list of restricted cards.
The Banned Cards
In casual Magic, we want people to play with the cards they own, so only a handful of cards are banned:
Amulet of Quoz
Bronze Tablet
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Jeweled Bird
Rebirth
Tempest Efreet
Timmerian Fiends
These are the ante cards. All are banned. Should your playgroup allow ante, all of these cards are unbanned, with Contract from Below moved to the restricted list.
The Remaining Tutors
There are a few cards left, like Grim Tutor, Transmute Artifact, Gamble, Crop Rotation, Insidious Dreams, Entomb, and so forth, that act as tutors, but I decided not to put them on the list. As of right now, consider these cards being watched, but I don’t want to overdo the list. I’m comfortable with adding cards later, but it is easier to add cards than take cards off. Trust me on that.
The Others
I recognize that there are cards that historically have had a lot of power. Aether Vial, the artifact lands, Umezawa’s Jitte, Metalworker, Goblin Lackey, Tendrils of Agony, Worldgorger Dragon, Cursed Scroll, and Parallel Thoughts.
…
What I would like to do is allow you to play with this list for a month or six weeks. I expect that many of you will have immediate thoughts. Good! Then I will solicit your comments again in a month or six weeks. I want to see both the initial reaction, and then the reaction after playing with this list for a few weeks. Are there problem cards that you didn’t see at first? Are there cards you thought might be issues that prove not to be so bad?
Remember, this is not about building a tournament caliber deck and taking out opponents with the best decks you can build. It’s about having a foundation for casual play at the kitchen table.
So I’ll solicit opinions again in a few weeks, then we’ll add or subtract from the list, and I’ll publish that in the future article.
Fair enough?
Until later…
PS – Here is the B&R list in its total form:
The Casual Restricted List
Ancestral Recall
Armageddon
Balance
Bazaar of Baghdad
Black Lotus
Burning Wish
Channel
Chaos Orb
Cunning Wish
Death Wish
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Dream Halls
Enlightened Tutor
Fastbond
Flash
Gifts Ungiven
Grim Monolith
Glittering Wish
Golden Wish
Hermit Druid
Imperial Seal
Intuition
Library of Alexandria
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Living Wish
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Memory Jar
Merchant Scroll
Mind Twist
Mind‘s Desire
Mishra’s Workshop
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mystical Tutor
Necropotence
Oath of Druids
Personal Tutor
Research/Development
Ring of Ma’Ruf
Shahrazad
Skullclamp
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Sundering Titan
Time Spiral
Time Walk
Timetwister
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Vampiric Tutor
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Yawgmoth’s Will
The Casual Banned List
Amulet of Quoz
Bronze Tablet
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Jeweled Bird
Rebirth
Tempest Efreet
Timmerian Fiends