September Ban List Update

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JovialJovian
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Post by JovialJovian » 2 years ago

So, I've had one friend build a deck using Worldfire thus far, it uses the card appropriately, as an instant-win with a big of setup. Not too hard to disrupt from what I can tell, he wasn't ramping into it, but cheating it with Mizzix's Mastery and finishing with Jeska, Thrice Reborn, making it vulnerable to graveyard hate, counterspells, and hand disruption, plus he gave us a few turns warning, because he had to search it up. I suppose if he got lucky and drew it naturally, it could come out as a surprise, but in general I'm no more concerned about Worldfire than I am and other gigantic spell. It's one of those cards that you hold onto to play at the right moment, then win in the aftermath, if you play it recklessly, you just ruin games and people stop playing with you. I'm not slapping out Jokulhaups unless I know I can win right off the back of it for exactly the same reason.

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RxPhantom
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Post by RxPhantom » 2 years ago

I"m good with Worldfire. I don't think it was ever a problem, nor was it ever going to be one. I think it came off because there was no reason for it to be there in the first place. If you can cast a 9-mana spell and then win in short order, that's an earned victory.
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onering
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Post by onering » 2 years ago

As I think about it, I wonder how much World fire getting banned was actually a message to WotC not to design cards for commander like that. It was clearly the sort of big Mana Timmy spell that defined the format at the time, and came around when Wizards was beginning to actively promote the format, around the same time as the precons began being released and probably developed over the same time frame. From what I remember, the RC didn't have the same level of communication back then with Wizards as they do now and wouldn't have the same ability to tell wizards they shouldn't be making certain cards that are bad for the format (as they recently did with the 5 color nonsense commanders). Banning World fire out of the gate would have sent the signal that that type of effect was not welcome in the format, which if it was designed for the format would have been a pretty strong message. Wizards at this point was aware of how cards interact with the presence of a commander, so floating Mana to cast one after World fire could have been something they expected, and possibly even intended. Sending the message not to print cards intended to abuse the fact that the commander is available in a special zone would have been as important as sending the message not to print table flip cards. I think if this is the case, the ban was successful in reducing the number of lol nuke everything cards, or cards that generally invalidate everything that came before, while only being marginally successful at clamping down on cards that abuse the presence of a commander (there's been numerous problems there but they all either explicitly reference the existence of a commander or are abilities of the commander itself, rather than cards that just happen to work better when you have a commander in the command zone).

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cryogen
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Post by cryogen » 2 years ago

Iirc, the only real sin was that design missed not emptying the mana pool, thus making commander an exploit where you were able to float mana and cast your commander. If not for that I think someone on the rc said it wouldn't have been banned.
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