8/26 Banned List Updates - Standard, Modern, and Vintage changes.

[ISBPathfinder]

Apologies in advance if this isn't where this should go. I know on sally we would drop these announcements in the rumor mill.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2019-08-26

Standard:

Rampaging Ferocidon is unbanned.

Modern:

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis banned.
Faithless Looting is banned.
Stoneforge Mystic is unbanned.

Vintage:

Karn, the Great Creatoris restricted.
Mystic Forge is restricted.
Mental Misstep is restricted.
Golgari Grave-Troll is restricted.
Fastbond is unrestricted.

[shukkets]

Hogaak banned? Yay!
Faithless Looting banned? Boo!
Stoneforge Mystic unbanned? Yay!
Rampaging Ferocidon unbanned? Meh? Seriously, its rotating out in a little over a month. Who is this for?

[rujasu]

I don't know if the Stoneforge Mystic unban is good for meta balance or not, but if nothing else it's exciting. It's an exciting card that people want to play with. I'm all for giving it a shot. The bans are both correct, if a little overdue.

Rampaging Ferocidon - technically correct, but yeah, the time to do this was months ago. I get why they didn't do it then and why they did it now, but it's a little pointless to do it when there is one month and zero major events left in the format.

No idea about the Vintage stuff. Pleased with the announcement overall. Makes me think about getting back into Modern.

[ISBPathfinder]

I don't know if the Stoneforge Mystic unban is good for meta balance or not, but if nothing else it's exciting. It's an exciting card that people want to play with. I'm all for giving it a shot. The bans are both correct, if a little overdue.

Rampaging Ferocidon - technically correct, but yeah, the time to do this was months ago. I get why they didn't do it then and why they did it now, but it's a little pointless to do it when there is one month and zero major events left in the format.

No idea about the Vintage stuff. Pleased with the announcement overall. Makes me think about getting back into Modern.

Well, right before rotation is usually REALLY slow for standard so its possible that it might stir people to play a little more standard than they otherwise would have at this time of year so its probably nothing but upside for wizards to allow it back in briefly. I do agree though that it probably should have been unbanned going into the M2020 set release but whatever.

[vandertroll]

Perhaps they found a way to make Rampaging Ferocidon work in Arena, that's why the unban?

[rujasu]

Perhaps they found a way to make Rampaging Ferocidon work in Arena, that's why the unban?

Was there ever an issue with it not "working in Arena"? It was banned due to power level, not any technical issues with Arena. It's also still banned in the best-of-one format, for what it's worth.

[ISBPathfinder]

Perhaps they found a way to make Rampaging Ferocidon work in Arena, that's why the unban?

Given that Historic is coming out soon and it likely wasn't an issue for historic its likely they had to code to make it work on arena. I wasn't aware that there was an issue with its coding on arena but I wasn't playing there until well after its ban.

[Max Rebo]

Wow..........Faithless Looting........that is BIG!

[Algernone25]

Perhaps they found a way to make Rampaging Ferocidon work in Arena, that's why the unban?

Given that Historic is coming out soon and it likely wasn't an issue for historic its likely they had to code to make it work on arena. I wasn't aware that there was an issue with its coding on arena but I wasn't playing there until well after its ban.

Ferocidons never had a problem with not working in Arena, it just was banned in standard at the start of Arena's life, so it was made uncraftable. You could still open it in IXN limited events, and it worked exactly how it was supposed to work during those events.
And, I should also note, it's STILL not legal in Best of 1 on Arena, similar to Nexus of Fate. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

As far as the bans go, Looting didn't surprise me, Hogaak did (yes it was absolutely the problem card but wizards has a history of dancing around banning cards that are the face of a booster set) so I was expecting Altar of Dementia to get the hit. It was probably correct, even though I'm sad that it makes my favorite deck (Mardu Pyromancer) unplayable.

[Cyberium]

Stoneforge Mystic might get a reprint in Throne of Eldraine?

That said, sigh, EDH players who like equipments will take a hit.

[rujasu]

Ferocidons never had a problem with not working in Arena, it just was banned in standard at the start of Arena's life, so it was made uncraftable. You could still open it in IXN limited events, and it worked exactly how it was supposed to work during those events.
And, I should also note, it's STILL not legal in Best of 1 on Arena, similar to Nexus of Fate. Not sure if that was intentional or not.

Intentional. The announcement mentions that they didn't unban it in Bo1 because mono-red is still performing well in Bo1.

[Jace]

Mater horizons was barely just released and something is already banned from it

[vandertroll]

Perhaps they found a way to make Rampaging Ferocidon work in Arena, that's why the unban?

Was there ever an issue with it not "working in Arena"? It was banned due to power level, not any technical issues with Arena. It's also still banned in the best-of-one format, for what it's worth.

Oh, I had the impression, or read somewhere online, that there might be problems with a way to generate infinite copies when interacting with another Ixalan card. My bad!

[SocorroTortoise]

Mater horizons was barely just released and something is already banned from it

I'd rather they push the envelope and occasionally print broken things than only print things that are guaranteed safe.

[Jace]

I don't disagree. I like the higher power level cards as a Commander player. It is amusing though

[SecretInfiltrator]

Stoneforge Mystic might get a reprint in Throne of Eldraine?

That said, sigh, EDH players who like equipments will take a hit.

I keep reading this with not a single Kor revealed for Eldraine AFAIK.

[Cyberium]

Stoneforge Mystic might get a reprint in Throne of Eldraine?

That said, sigh, EDH players who like equipments will take a hit.

I keep reading this with not a single Kor revealed for Eldraine AFAIK.

I should clarify, a reprint with similar equipment function but native to the plane. A merfolk maybe.

[ISBPathfinder]

I am fine with printing powerful things, but I also believe that you should do some level of testing of new cards. Hogak is a little irritating from the standpoint that essentially at release people were ready to test the hell out of him. It was a problem essentially within the first week of getting our hands on cards and created cascading bans.

I am fine with pushing the envelope but I hope that it is a little less obvious or takes longer to solve and break the game with new cards. When a new card comes out and becomes the #1 deck within the first week or two not because its new but because nothing is beating it..... maybe there is reason to be concerned.

[motleyslayer]

I really like this unban but I hope we get a reprint soon

[Mookie]

These changes all sound pretty good. I don't actively play most constructed formats, but as a viewer, it does feel as if games of Modern have become less interesting. In the past several years, the format has sped up significantly, mostly due to increasingly fast graveyard decks. First Dredge, then Hollow One, then Phoenix, and now Hogaak. This has also been mirrored by the rise of faster combo decks, like KCI and Neoform. As a result, I think it is a healthy move to try to slow down the format and go back to things ending on turn 4.

Ideologically, I'm pretty happy with the Stoneforge Mystic unban - equipment sees approximately zero play in Modern, and there aren't many competitive white decks either. I do understand why people may have concerns though - SFM → Batterskull can be oppressive for fairer small creature decks, while Swords of X & Y providing protection can also be miserable. Still, artifact removal is a thing that exists, and reducing the amount of graveyard hate necessary in sideboard slots opens more slots for artifact hate.

More practically, while the unban will sharply raise the price of SFM, it will also significantly increase the chance of a reprint, which is something I hope for.

In other formats...

Rampaging Ferocidon unban in Standard makes perfect sense - monored hasn't been the terror of the format for a while, so no need for it to stay banned.

I don't pay much attention to Vintage, so can't comment on that. Fastbond being unrestricted is interesting, at least. Will probably just enable storm decks filled with draw-7s, but I can hope for a spicy Courser of Kruphix deck.

[motleyslayer]

I hope that SFM is similar to JTMS in that it gets a reprint soon but modern should be a lot slower and more interesting now. Probably the most interesting part will be the optimal equipment package since we don't have Jitte in the format

[CommanderMaster999]

Stoneforge Mystic might get a reprint in Throne of Eldraine?

That said, sigh, EDH players who like equipments will take a hit.

There would have to be kor on throne of eldraine to make that possible

But like you said we might get a similar and weaker version in throne of eldraine possibly

[Serpent_Steve]

There was that art released earlier this year of a human like figure (couldn't remember is it looked too much like a Kor or not) surrounded by many weapons as if it had crafted them.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

4 fastbond?! Whoa... it's a whole new world, ladies and gentlemen.