gkourou wrote: ↑4 years ago
I think
3. Do nothing. Modern is, as Modern has been for almost 2 years. Ban the most offensive deck every 3-6 months.
is the most possible. Mox Opal is the next card to be banned, then we will move to something else.
I would really love to go back to 2014 or 2015, where you could play Voice, Remands, and fair magic. For this to happen, we need other bans than Mox Opal though, and I bet Wizards is just going to ban this one.
What's also going to happen is Twin and Pod rotting for an eternity in the Banlist, and we will be asking during 2012, why are those cards still banned? It's a shame really. But, what can we do?
You keep banging the "ban Opal" drum, but you still ignore the realities of the card and what it offers to the format. You keep haranguing about Urza decks, when:
1. It's still too early
2. It's probably not even the problematic deck
The deck existed FOR YEARS without a problem and somehow after Urza AND Emry, Opal is the problem? You seem content to kill off ALL artifact strategies with an Opal ban, because you don't like the decks that use it.
Are you OK with someone telling you to ban Amulet or Cryptic or Terminus or Goyf or Liliana or Shadow or whatever random cards from T1, just because you don't like their playstyle or lines that they have? Where's your call for bans on Infect or Storm? Or hell, Amulet, it can kill on T3 and T2 with a god hand, yet you're hellbent on an Opal ban when (the relevant) Urza decks rarely win before T4.
Hell, 2014-2015 Modern was in no way shape or form any fairer, you just have a nostalgia about Twin (and maybe Pod). You had Tron, Storm, Scapeshift and T2 Infect kills. Remember, BGx had Deathrite during that period. After came the Cruise/Dig era. Then Eldrazi Winter. Where's that famous "Golden Age" of Modern? I reckon it's more like Gilded Age, since you ignore the unfairness that existed back then.
Deal with it, Modern never was "fair". It had "fair" decks in the top, as it does now, but it never was under ANY circumstance wholly fair.
Pioneer will have the same problems as Modern, especially since it lacks significant land-hate (a la Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter) or strong artifact hate (Shatterstorm/Shattering Spree, Stony Silence) and lousy counters (no Force of Negation). The format will be as unfair as Modern, if not more because of this. Pioneer is not a "midrange paradise" or a fair format NOW. I really don't get where you're basing it on.
[mention]idSurge[/mention] No card is problematic in a vacuum. This goes for both Stirrings and Opal. However, without Opal, Affinity (Robots) and Scales cease to exist. Completely. They can't compete in Modern without the speed and consistency that Opal gives them because modern design philosophy has nuked artifact mana to the ground (arguably for the better). If there were other avenues of artifact ramp (if Mox Tantalite had Suspend 1 instead of 3 for example) , then I'd be open to discussing an Opal ban, but there isn't. As such, without Opal artifact strategies will either cease to exist (Lantern/Affinity/Scales) or morph into something even more degenerate and meme-tastic, like Emry Ascendancy. Lastly, it matters whether a card enables different play styles, Wizards cited that specific reason for NOT banning Opal or Stirrings during their KCI ban announcement.
Of course, they go on and say if decks consolidate around these cards and the best cards that support those, then they'll change their stance (see Faithless Looting). However, even now with Urza decks being the hot thing, there are 3 distinct playstyles under that category. Plus, the online metagame seems to have adjusted to Urza decks in general. Especially the past couple of weeks.
That's why I see an Opal ban as silly -at the moment-, even though it can be considered "problematic". I'm not even calling for a Stirrings ban, the card sure is stupid, but the numbers don't support a banning, only the feelings do.
Edit:
gkourou wrote: ↑4 years ago
Ban Urza's Tower, Mox Opal, Faithless Looting(this happened).
Unban Splinter Twin, Birthing Pod.
In such a meta, I fear about GDS being too good a little bit, but probably not. It's going, with Twin, check most unfair decks.
Unfair decks will still exist: Storm, Amulet, Scales Affinity, Ad Naus, Burn, etc.
Fair decks like BGx, Pod(I think it's fair, but whatever), Twin(it's a fair card. People saying it's an unfair combo are wrong, because the shell itself is fair), will also exist.
Diversity will also be the case, with many other decks being viable.
Lol, at chopping Tron and Opal decks, while leaving Amulet alive. As said, Opal getting banned kills off Affinity AND Scales, so grats on "increasing" diversity. More like "kill off decks
I don't like".