Gavin Verhey and Carmen Klomparens of the Magic: The Gathering Play Design team appeared on Weekly MTG today to discuss Monday’s scheduled Banned & Restricted list update that impacted three formats.
Pertaining to the ban of Underworld Breach in Modern, Klomparens noted that Breach was the card that needed to go by highlighting how it had already been banned from formats like Pioneer and Legacy. In addition, she said that there was more fun to be had with Mox Opal long term as it can be slotted into more decks and used to build different artifact decks that players tend to enjoy. If Mox Opal had been the ban, the possibility of an Underworld Breach deck still being around and powerful was on the table.
Klomparens also talked about how Play Design was happy with the wave of unbannings in the previous B&R update despite Mox Opal supercharging the Breach deck. She pointed out how Green Sun’s Zenith helped out Amulet Titan and found a home in Yawgmoth while Faithless Looting gave Hollow One decks the boost needed to return to the format. Play Design did consider other unbannings this go around, but opted against it until Modern shakes out following the Underworld Breach ban.
Klomparens reiterated what she wrote in the official announcement for Troll of Khazad-dum and Sowing Mycospawn in Legacy. The Troll functions as a split-card fetch land/Entomb, giving the Reanimator decks too much flexibility and power for very little cost. Hitting Troll also allows the Reanimator archetype to continue to exist — something that would be much harder if Reanimate was banned instead.
Sowing Mycospawn violates the concept that basic lands are safe and a key way to play around Wasteland and Blood Moon-style effects. Not only can the Eldrazi hit basics, but it often brings along more land destruction or finds an Eye of Ugin to tutor up a win condition. Eldrazi has shoved all other midrange decks out of the format and this ban should help give more room for other midrange decks to exist in Legacy.
Klomparens did mention that the Oops! All Spells combo deck is on her radar but she finds it a pretty cool deck to have in the format. As long is the deck isn’t too strong its unique deck-building and play experience is good for the format. She mentioned she would need a much higher level of confidence that the deck is problematic before looking to ban a card in it.
Verhey gave some more insight on the High Tide unban in Pauper by echoing how it is a “trial unban” and that the Pauper Format Panel will probably ban it again if the deck proves to be a Top 3 deck in the format. He also warned that if the deck takes off and dominates the format quickly, they will make an emergency ban of it again instead of waiting for the next scheduled B&R update. Verhey said that spell-based combo is a fan-favorite archetype and High Tide is a beloved card, so the chance to bring it back is worth it knowing they can ban it again if needed.
As for the lack of action in Standard, Klomparens said that the format is healthy with three to four top decks that don’t have egregious play rates or win rates. All top decks can be beaten if a player looks to do so, but that opens them up to be weak against other archetypes. The bar to take action on a card or deck in Standard needs to be roughly a 50 percent play rate or a power-level outlier along the lines of Oko, Thief of Crowns or Omnath, Locus of Creation.
Standard will be looked at much closer for the June 30 B&R update as the Play Design team will be looking at curating the format post-rotation and making sure it is fun and engaging. Klomparens did say that while Monstrous Rage and Up the Beanstalk — two cards often called out for being too strong or unfun in Standard — may not be the most fun examples of cards that define the terms of engagement in Standard as the best ways to go fast and go over the top with card advantage, but there will always be something that takes those positions no matter how many bans are made.
Klomparens also said that Play Design will be keeping an eye on Mono-Red Aggro in Pioneer after its dominant weekend at Arena Championship 8 this past weekend. If the deck continues to do as well as it has recently, it will likely end up being problematic long-term and require action.
Lastly, the next schedule B&R update is slated for June 30 and no action will be taken in Modern as the date falls in the middle of Modern Regional Championship season. All other formats will be on the table during that time. For more information on Commander, tune in to the Weekly MTG stream on April 22 where Verhey will return to discuss any possible changes for the most popular format of Magic.
