What's everyone still hoping for? Me, it's Counterspell and some more zombies (Carrion Feeder would be a great reprint, but I'm up for anything).
I am hoping that the Red Force is useful. After seeing the White Force, I no longer have any expectations that the Red Force will be a reasonably costed Burn spell, but - at this juncture - I would be over the moon with a Chaos Warp effect.
I'm still betting on Pyrokinesis throwback, but I agree the W one throws off our expectations.
That wurm form card is gross. Between UG canopy land and that, Infect is getting a big boost.
Please stop talking about "wasted" mythic slots... every mythic slot that has a bad card is a success, we want the good cards at common, uncommon and rare in that order preferably.
This x1000. Complaints about unplayable competitive mythics represent a type of uncritical meme that is highly popular/contagious but totally indefensible. We don't want extremely playable mythics. We want playable cards at all other rarities to keep those prices lower. We also don't want the kind of strange, flashy, unique effects we see at mythic that only benefit a few decks. We want clean, generic spells that help multiple decks in the format. These kinds of spells lend themselves to lower rarities anyway.
It feels like midrange is getting the shaft right now up to this point in spoilers, nothing looks that playable yet, not unless Runes slides into Abzan midrange or something.
1. BG Rock will play the BG land. I know you are worried that these lands will further hurt midrange strategies by allowing other decks to refuel on resources, but we simply don't know how this advantage will impact BGx itself. BG Rock has never before had access to this kind of effect, and it might benefit BG Rock more than it does an opposing deck. We know that Rock will be able to play at least a few copies of the land. The Push comparison is also misplaced because Push is simply not a widely played top-tier card right now, which suggests it doens't have much to do with BGx's comparative struggles these days. Top decks just don't play Push: Tron, Humans, Dredge, Phoenix, UW Control, Hardened Scales, Burn, Amulet, Titan Shift, etc. It's really just GDS and the other BGx decks. I personally think a big reason BGx doesn't have desired performance is lack of cantrips and velocity, as the deck struggles to find the right answer to every deck in the format. Basically every other top strategy has their versions of these spells, or just a critical mass of redundant cards. The canopy/horizon lands give BGx a tool it never previously had: a cantripping tool to get it over midgame slumps. We've all seen BGx players fall apart after early disruption into a mediocre clock that an opponent topdecks out of. Hopefully these lands give an extra tool to fight that.
2. As a whole, this kind of observation points to an underlying fear that is just not warranted at this point. 80% of the set is unrevealed, or whatever high percentage is remaining. They might just spoil Vindicate tomorrow for all we know. Or a Wasteland variant that disproportionately benefits midrange. It just takes 1-2 cards out of 250. And this doesn't even count mis-evaluations of known cards. Take a card like Narset from WAR, for example. She's probably the best planeswalker in the set across all formats, or at least a top 3 contender, but she had comparatively little hype when initially revealed. We might already have our Narset and not know it yet. We need to be patient and not give into fearful comments when so many cards are unknown, and the impact of known cards is unknown.
I can't slam the RW one in my burn deck fast enough!
I think my favorite home for this card will be BG Rock. For one, that deck has some life points to spare because of its less painful manabase. More importantly, this directly addresses one of BGx's issues; refueling after early disruption and early traction.
Other hits: UG land is spectacular in Infect. I'd be surprised if GDS didn't want a few copies of the UR land. D&T decks will love the BW land, even if it can't cast TKS. All random mono-colored and two-colored decks get slight buffs as well. Between FoN and the U lands, Merfolk is looking sweet. Oh, and Izzet Phoenix gets yet another boost.
EDIT: Just looking through recent tournament results, it's hard to overstate just how many decks will get boosts from these cards. So many Modern decks can support 1-2 copies and legitimately want the ability to convert unused lands to fuel. It's hard to predict how much this will improve various decks and increase their viability. For instance, does BW Smallpox suddenly become decent now that it can run 4 cantripping lands that were previously unavailable? How much do RUG tempo strategies improve? Can I play these in Mono U Tron alongside FoF? The potential format implications are huge.
These will have widespread format impact. Horizon Canopy is everywhere in decks that can support it, and these enemy colored Canopies are going to slip into manabases across the format. These will probably benefit faster decks more than slower ones, if the Humans/Bogles/Company/Elves/etc. example of Canopy is any indicator.
Also, these will be expensive as they will see play across formats. Probably less expensive than the presale hype point, but still expensive. Buy wisely.
Re: banlist update
This is perhaps the least surprising "No changes" in recent memory, for all of the reasons people have mentioned. That said, there are some key takeaways from this banlist update which are relevant for Modern.
1. Probe is likely never getting unbanned. I know that Pauper =/= Legacy =/= Modern =/= Vintage, but if a card is banned across four formats, that points more heavily towards fundamental design and power problems than it does to niche format considerations. Anyone who bets on this card being unbanned is making a bad bet and is probably totally out of sync with Wizards' banlist management.
2. Modern is currently healthy in Wizards' eyes. So take a snapshot of Modern for the past few months: that's healthy. If you don't like that, you are probably out of sync with Wizards' views on format health.
3. More specifically, the MC had healthy Modern results: "We were happy with the outcome of the Modern portion of Mythic Championship II..." This notably included no deck over 13% of Day 2 and a spread of viable decks. If we see fields like that Day 2 spread or the 24+ point spread, we should assume these too will be considered healthy by Wizards.
4. Wizards will not make predictive bans for the London Mulligan. This means that decks we fear will be too good post-mulligan are safe unless they are proven broken after the rule's implementation.
5. Neoform and Karn decks are not currently problematic: " We've been monitoring the play rates and win rates of these decks and, so far, don't see cause for alarm." Kirin/Conjurant is also on this list but it's a fairly niche corner case. I guess Wizards just wants to cover their bases and address all sensationalist press on all these cards (Gerry T wrote a doozy on that combo). As long as future prevalence/MWP for these decks doesn't exceed current levels, we should not expect bans.
As usual, I am always pleased with banlist updates that include something about Modern. I know some posters and players will flatly disagree with Wizards' assessment of the format, but these are often the same players who have disagreed with it for years. Wizards has consistently signaled their definition of format health since Eldrazi Winter. At this point, there shouldn't be any banlist surprises if you're paying attention to previous "No changes" metagames and the rationale Wizards has given us in many updates since 2016. Unbans, admittedly, remain much harder to predict. But there shouldn't be a lot of uncertainty around bans. I'm increasingly of the opinion that people requesting bans aren't so much trying to predict what Wizards will do, but are just trying to promote a different vision of the format. That's not necessarily wrong but the bar is much higher.
Red likes to force through damage, and hate on Blue. I can see Fore of Red making another spell uncounterable and preventing damage prevention. "Target spell cannot be countered this turn. Damage can't be prevented this turn."
We see this with cards like Exquisite Firecraft, Combust, Inescapable Blaze, etc...
It would also be a cute way of sort of getting Pyroblast into Modern, since it would basically be a red counterspell against blue counterspells.
I expect red force will be like Alliance Pyrokinesis and just damage creatures. These cards appear to be designed as safety valves, not aggro or combo enablers, and a damage splitting spell would accomplish this.
Lots of mentions of UW control as being a prime candidate for FoN, which makes sense, but it is miles worse than FoW at protecting a Walker because you can't cast it for free all the time.
Consider this:
UW player taps out for JtMS. Brainstorm
Opp EoT Lightning Bolt...
I'm not saying FoN is necessarily bad, but the free part being active only half the time, And only hitting non-creatures, sounds like a sideboard card to me. If anything, FoN might just incentivize more instants being played.
This is really only a limitation in the fair matchups, where Ux doesn't need that much help and is mostly doing fine. FoN could still be valuable in this scenario if an opponent blows up T4 JTMS and then tries to follow up with any noncreature counterplay.
This scenario is less of an issue in the unfair matchups, where opponents aren't typically holding up interaction mana, or even playing those spells to begin with. The archetypal example is, again, Gx Tron. You currently can't run out T2 Search into T3 Tron on the draw or you just lose to Karn Liberated while tapped out. Same with T3 Teferi/Narset or T4 JTMS. Tron isn't suddenly evolving back to RG Tron with Bolts to deal with these lines. It's just going to walk into them, which allows Ux players to get on the board in a matchup where they are otherwise always on the backseat and waiting for Tron inevitability. This is very relevant in the URx decks, particularly Jeskai, which have horrible 30-70 MWP matchups against Tron. Even getting that to 40-60 or better is a major advantage for Jeskai players.
FoN may be a decent shot in the arm for fish and Fae.
Both of these decks will likely benefit from FoN, especially Faeries which needs to deploy some of its better threats at sorcery speed, notably BB and JTMS. Merfolk also benefits for the same reason, although to some extent it can get the job done with Vial alone. By contrast, there was no playable Vial equivalent that allows Fae to get BB or JTMS on the table on curve without dropping shields.
I am super hesitant to touch this topic because I've seen it go poorly in many different online contexts. But at least it's more Modern-specific in that Hermit is Modern-legal, so I'll give it a chance.
The cleanest answer to this is that Deranged Hermit and Deep Forest Hermit are not functionally identical because they don't have the same abilities. They don't have the same abilities either in the literal sense, in that Vanishing replaces Echo, and in the practical sense, in that Vanishing and Echo present distinct upsides and downsides between one another. Echo requires a 5 mana investment the turn later, but then you keep DH for good. This gives players the option to keep DH on the battlefield, which I know many players exercised back when Urza's block was around. If you don't pay the Echo cost, you lose the DH the turn after you play it. We can envision a scenario where a player wants to Overrun with DH/squirrels on the board but can't because they need to pay DH's Echo cost. Contrast this with Vanishing which allows you two turns of swinging with the 2/2 x4 team, but then you lose DFH no matter how much mana you're willing to invest.
So no, Wizards has not broken the rules of the policy. Wizards is free to reprint versions of RL cards with changed abilities. They can change colors and even make better versions of cards. Look at *****ty Mirage Canopy Dragon and compare to Hellkite Tyrant. Or Archon of Valor's Reach. Or Roalesk, Apex Hybrid. Unless you're wedded to Mono G or facing a lot of Crushing Canopy or something similar, these other cards are generally just going to be WAY better Canopy Dragons. Or compare garbage Aku Djinn to big man Doom Whisperer. Unless you're playing a strategy that tries to grow opposing creatures, Djinn tribal, facing Baneslayer Angel, or fighting all those Crushing Canopies, Whisperer is also just way better. There are tons of examples where Wizards prints virtually upgraded RL cards or RL reskins with different abilities. This doesn't violate RL policy any more than DH vs. DFH.
Force of negation lets UW players tap out for turn 4 jace vs every deck. Normally if you tap out vs tron or combo you lose, this is no longer the case.
You still plausibly lose to Gx Tron if you tap out for Jace, the Mind Sculptor and they go for a Turn 4 creature. Jace TMS can bounce Wurmcoil Engine, but Walking Ballista kills him before he can bounce it if Jace TMS goes for the +0, and woe if Gx Tron Magical Christmas Lands 10 mana by Turn 4-5 and hits Jace TMS with an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger you could have countered and not have to suffer 10 damage and 20 exile mill a turn from. Post-board, Thragtusk isn't too pleasant to face.
That Jace TMS line does look plausible against combo and control, though.
This can happen, but the lines of T4 Ulamog or T4 Ballista are rarer than the lines that T4 JTMS + FoN beat. Those lines include T4 O-Stone, T4 Ugin, T4 Karn Liberated, and T4 Karn TGC. Something like 98%+ (MTGoldfish stats) of Gx Tron decks are playing 2 Ballista and 2 Ulamog main. Using the same #s, about 100% are also playing 4 Karn Liberated, 2 Ugin, 4 O-Stone, and 2-4 KTGC. If I'm a betting man, I'm betting on T4 JTMS with FoN backup beating 12-14 of their lines and not worried about the 4 that will punish me, especially when the Ulamog line also required the 2nd Tower.
In G2-G3, the Tron plan changes a bit with more creature-based threats, but the Ux player is still ahead if the counterplay to a T4 JTMS is a Thragtusk. Overall, I'm digging FoN in this matchup.
The card could hilariously become parts of humans or UW spirits SB. It's very weak against those decks, at the very least, and allow them to tap out against combo. It's especially good in spirits since it pack a good amount of blue cards.
This card could be playable in the Humans SB. It has enough blue cards to take advantage of FoN using the 16+ Legacy FoW rule (4 Meddling, 4 Mantis, 4 Reflector, 4 Image, 0-3 Deputy, 1+ FoN).
By a similar token, this card will definitely give that same advantage to other Ux creature based strategies. Examples of other decks that will try and may benefit from this card are DS variants, Delver variants, UW Spirits, Merfolk, and others. These decks will benefit from FoN for the same reasons Ux decks will: it gives them counterplay to T1/T2 combo/ramp engines that otherwise can't be addressed, and it allows them to develop board position while countering cards that would stop that advantage.
That said, I think Ux controlling strategies will benefit more from this card because they currently aren't able to develop their boards at all in most matchups. FoN gives them a totally new play line they couldn't previously use. Decks like Humans and Spirits were already doing this to at least some extent with Meddling Mage, Reflector Mage, Freebooter, Wanderer, GDS with Stubbs backup, and other cards that both advance the board state and stop opposing haymakers. Ux control wasn't able to do this at all until T5 at earliest with Teferi + Logic Knot. Now they can do it as early as T2 and, most importantly, resolve their huge T3 and T4 walkers with the benefit of protection.
Perhaps the best advantage of this card is allowing Ux players to develop a board and not hold up mana. This benefits tempo/fish decks which can deploy threats and protect them or stop haymakers, and it benefits control decks that can play T2 Search or T3 Teferi/Narset without dropping shields.
Overall, I am very pleased with this card and look forward to playing it.
Force of negation lets UW players tap out for turn 4 jace vs every deck. Normally if you tap out vs tron or combo you lose, this is no longer the case.
Going to quote myself and rickster here to again highlight the most important function of this card. It's not just that FoN allows Ux decks to stop T1/T2 plays that would normally have no counterplay, especially on the draw. This is an important function of FoN and one of the reasons it's playable, but it's not the reason the card is so exciting. The reason it's so exciting to me is that it opens up so many more windows where you can tap out for T2 Search, T3 Narset/Teferi, T4 JTMS, etc. and either protect your board presence or stop the opponent from doing something broken.
Ux decks have a serious problem with traction right now because they need to hold up mana on all their turns to handle opposing stuff at instant speed. This means Ux decks are waiting until T5+ before they can actually get some board presence, and they are always playing on an opponent's initiative. FoN changes this and allows Ux players to get on board and stick something important without dropping shields. Ux decks have previously been unable to do this in Modern, and this is the very reason we don't see FoW-like effects in Standard; tapping out for a walker and still having protection spells is too strong for that format. Now, Ux decks can enjoy this edge, an edge they haven't really had before in Modern. Your only other option was Shoal, which was simply too narrow.
Deep Forest Hermit: Deranged Hermit Elf Druid with Vanishing 3 instead of Echo, only +1/+1 for your squirrels. FORCE OF NEGATION: 1UU Instant, If it's not your turn you may exile a blue card from hand rather than pay mana cost. Negate but card is exiled.
Hermit is a cool throwback, probably not playable. Next.
FORCE OF NEGATION. So first, FoW is probably out. That's fine. Let's talk about FoN. This is similar to one of the FoW Negate variants I speculated on a few pages ago, and it's definitely a Modern game-changer. The majority of early non-games with broken decks come down to non-creature spells resolving and setting up broken lines. This stops all the major engines of most decks: Vial, Looting, Opal, Stirrings, Scrying, Map, Amulet, etc. Some decks can play around it (Ad Naus winning at instant speed, EoT Goryo's/Breach in other decks). Some decks/cards aren't affected by it (Electromancer/Baral, Prime Time, etc.). But overall, this will be a maindeckable catchall for most Ux strategies. Perhaps the best advantage of this card is allowing Ux players to develop a board and not hold up mana. This benefits tempo/fish decks which can deploy threats and protect them or stop haymakers, and it benefits control decks that can play T2 Search or T3 Teferi/Narset without dropping shields.
Overall, I am very pleased with this card and look forward to playing it.
If no counterspell I think it's time to sell my stuff. Prohibit is just ***** by comparison.
I would discourage you from selling your cards based on the inclusion/exclusion of one possible reprint. Every set introduces new and surprising additions to Modern decks and so many are viable from so many different ends of the archetypal/strategic spectrums. If you prefer Ux Control, there will undoubtedly be strong options for you and other players to consider, whether in MH1 or future sets.
Goblin Matron is a sweet reprint. Here's hoping for Ringleader next!
I'm still betting on Pyrokinesis throwback, but I agree the W one throws off our expectations.
That wurm form card is gross. Between UG canopy land and that, Infect is getting a big boost.
This x1000. Complaints about unplayable competitive mythics represent a type of uncritical meme that is highly popular/contagious but totally indefensible. We don't want extremely playable mythics. We want playable cards at all other rarities to keep those prices lower. We also don't want the kind of strange, flashy, unique effects we see at mythic that only benefit a few decks. We want clean, generic spells that help multiple decks in the format. These kinds of spells lend themselves to lower rarities anyway.
1. BG Rock will play the BG land. I know you are worried that these lands will further hurt midrange strategies by allowing other decks to refuel on resources, but we simply don't know how this advantage will impact BGx itself. BG Rock has never before had access to this kind of effect, and it might benefit BG Rock more than it does an opposing deck. We know that Rock will be able to play at least a few copies of the land. The Push comparison is also misplaced because Push is simply not a widely played top-tier card right now, which suggests it doens't have much to do with BGx's comparative struggles these days. Top decks just don't play Push: Tron, Humans, Dredge, Phoenix, UW Control, Hardened Scales, Burn, Amulet, Titan Shift, etc. It's really just GDS and the other BGx decks. I personally think a big reason BGx doesn't have desired performance is lack of cantrips and velocity, as the deck struggles to find the right answer to every deck in the format. Basically every other top strategy has their versions of these spells, or just a critical mass of redundant cards. The canopy/horizon lands give BGx a tool it never previously had: a cantripping tool to get it over midgame slumps. We've all seen BGx players fall apart after early disruption into a mediocre clock that an opponent topdecks out of. Hopefully these lands give an extra tool to fight that.
2. As a whole, this kind of observation points to an underlying fear that is just not warranted at this point. 80% of the set is unrevealed, or whatever high percentage is remaining. They might just spoil Vindicate tomorrow for all we know. Or a Wasteland variant that disproportionately benefits midrange. It just takes 1-2 cards out of 250. And this doesn't even count mis-evaluations of known cards. Take a card like Narset from WAR, for example. She's probably the best planeswalker in the set across all formats, or at least a top 3 contender, but she had comparatively little hype when initially revealed. We might already have our Narset and not know it yet. We need to be patient and not give into fearful comments when so many cards are unknown, and the impact of known cards is unknown.
I think my favorite home for this card will be BG Rock. For one, that deck has some life points to spare because of its less painful manabase. More importantly, this directly addresses one of BGx's issues; refueling after early disruption and early traction.
Other hits: UG land is spectacular in Infect. I'd be surprised if GDS didn't want a few copies of the UR land. D&T decks will love the BW land, even if it can't cast TKS. All random mono-colored and two-colored decks get slight buffs as well. Between FoN and the U lands, Merfolk is looking sweet. Oh, and Izzet Phoenix gets yet another boost.
EDIT: Just looking through recent tournament results, it's hard to overstate just how many decks will get boosts from these cards. So many Modern decks can support 1-2 copies and legitimately want the ability to convert unused lands to fuel. It's hard to predict how much this will improve various decks and increase their viability. For instance, does BW Smallpox suddenly become decent now that it can run 4 cantripping lands that were previously unavailable? How much do RUG tempo strategies improve? Can I play these in Mono U Tron alongside FoF? The potential format implications are huge.
These will have widespread format impact. Horizon Canopy is everywhere in decks that can support it, and these enemy colored Canopies are going to slip into manabases across the format. These will probably benefit faster decks more than slower ones, if the Humans/Bogles/Company/Elves/etc. example of Canopy is any indicator.
Also, these will be expensive as they will see play across formats. Probably less expensive than the presale hype point, but still expensive. Buy wisely.
This is perhaps the least surprising "No changes" in recent memory, for all of the reasons people have mentioned. That said, there are some key takeaways from this banlist update which are relevant for Modern.
1. Probe is likely never getting unbanned. I know that Pauper =/= Legacy =/= Modern =/= Vintage, but if a card is banned across four formats, that points more heavily towards fundamental design and power problems than it does to niche format considerations. Anyone who bets on this card being unbanned is making a bad bet and is probably totally out of sync with Wizards' banlist management.
2. Modern is currently healthy in Wizards' eyes. So take a snapshot of Modern for the past few months: that's healthy. If you don't like that, you are probably out of sync with Wizards' views on format health.
3. More specifically, the MC had healthy Modern results: "We were happy with the outcome of the Modern portion of Mythic Championship II..." This notably included no deck over 13% of Day 2 and a spread of viable decks. If we see fields like that Day 2 spread or the 24+ point spread, we should assume these too will be considered healthy by Wizards.
4. Wizards will not make predictive bans for the London Mulligan. This means that decks we fear will be too good post-mulligan are safe unless they are proven broken after the rule's implementation.
5. Neoform and Karn decks are not currently problematic: " We've been monitoring the play rates and win rates of these decks and, so far, don't see cause for alarm." Kirin/Conjurant is also on this list but it's a fairly niche corner case. I guess Wizards just wants to cover their bases and address all sensationalist press on all these cards (Gerry T wrote a doozy on that combo). As long as future prevalence/MWP for these decks doesn't exceed current levels, we should not expect bans.
As usual, I am always pleased with banlist updates that include something about Modern. I know some posters and players will flatly disagree with Wizards' assessment of the format, but these are often the same players who have disagreed with it for years. Wizards has consistently signaled their definition of format health since Eldrazi Winter. At this point, there shouldn't be any banlist surprises if you're paying attention to previous "No changes" metagames and the rationale Wizards has given us in many updates since 2016. Unbans, admittedly, remain much harder to predict. But there shouldn't be a lot of uncertainty around bans. I'm increasingly of the opinion that people requesting bans aren't so much trying to predict what Wizards will do, but are just trying to promote a different vision of the format. That's not necessarily wrong but the bar is much higher.
I expect red force will be like Alliance Pyrokinesis and just damage creatures. These cards appear to be designed as safety valves, not aggro or combo enablers, and a damage splitting spell would accomplish this.
This is really only a limitation in the fair matchups, where Ux doesn't need that much help and is mostly doing fine. FoN could still be valuable in this scenario if an opponent blows up T4 JTMS and then tries to follow up with any noncreature counterplay.
This scenario is less of an issue in the unfair matchups, where opponents aren't typically holding up interaction mana, or even playing those spells to begin with. The archetypal example is, again, Gx Tron. You currently can't run out T2 Search into T3 Tron on the draw or you just lose to Karn Liberated while tapped out. Same with T3 Teferi/Narset or T4 JTMS. Tron isn't suddenly evolving back to RG Tron with Bolts to deal with these lines. It's just going to walk into them, which allows Ux players to get on the board in a matchup where they are otherwise always on the backseat and waiting for Tron inevitability. This is very relevant in the URx decks, particularly Jeskai, which have horrible 30-70 MWP matchups against Tron. Even getting that to 40-60 or better is a major advantage for Jeskai players.
Both of these decks will likely benefit from FoN, especially Faeries which needs to deploy some of its better threats at sorcery speed, notably BB and JTMS. Merfolk also benefits for the same reason, although to some extent it can get the job done with Vial alone. By contrast, there was no playable Vial equivalent that allows Fae to get BB or JTMS on the table on curve without dropping shields.
The cleanest answer to this is that Deranged Hermit and Deep Forest Hermit are not functionally identical because they don't have the same abilities. They don't have the same abilities either in the literal sense, in that Vanishing replaces Echo, and in the practical sense, in that Vanishing and Echo present distinct upsides and downsides between one another. Echo requires a 5 mana investment the turn later, but then you keep DH for good. This gives players the option to keep DH on the battlefield, which I know many players exercised back when Urza's block was around. If you don't pay the Echo cost, you lose the DH the turn after you play it. We can envision a scenario where a player wants to Overrun with DH/squirrels on the board but can't because they need to pay DH's Echo cost. Contrast this with Vanishing which allows you two turns of swinging with the 2/2 x4 team, but then you lose DFH no matter how much mana you're willing to invest.
So no, Wizards has not broken the rules of the policy. Wizards is free to reprint versions of RL cards with changed abilities. They can change colors and even make better versions of cards. Look at *****ty Mirage Canopy Dragon and compare to Hellkite Tyrant. Or Archon of Valor's Reach. Or Roalesk, Apex Hybrid. Unless you're wedded to Mono G or facing a lot of Crushing Canopy or something similar, these other cards are generally just going to be WAY better Canopy Dragons. Or compare garbage Aku Djinn to big man Doom Whisperer. Unless you're playing a strategy that tries to grow opposing creatures, Djinn tribal, facing Baneslayer Angel, or fighting all those Crushing Canopies, Whisperer is also just way better. There are tons of examples where Wizards prints virtually upgraded RL cards or RL reskins with different abilities. This doesn't violate RL policy any more than DH vs. DFH.
This can happen, but the lines of T4 Ulamog or T4 Ballista are rarer than the lines that T4 JTMS + FoN beat. Those lines include T4 O-Stone, T4 Ugin, T4 Karn Liberated, and T4 Karn TGC. Something like 98%+ (MTGoldfish stats) of Gx Tron decks are playing 2 Ballista and 2 Ulamog main. Using the same #s, about 100% are also playing 4 Karn Liberated, 2 Ugin, 4 O-Stone, and 2-4 KTGC. If I'm a betting man, I'm betting on T4 JTMS with FoN backup beating 12-14 of their lines and not worried about the 4 that will punish me, especially when the Ulamog line also required the 2nd Tower.
In G2-G3, the Tron plan changes a bit with more creature-based threats, but the Ux player is still ahead if the counterplay to a T4 JTMS is a Thragtusk. Overall, I'm digging FoN in this matchup.
This card could be playable in the Humans SB. It has enough blue cards to take advantage of FoN using the 16+ Legacy FoW rule (4 Meddling, 4 Mantis, 4 Reflector, 4 Image, 0-3 Deputy, 1+ FoN).
By a similar token, this card will definitely give that same advantage to other Ux creature based strategies. Examples of other decks that will try and may benefit from this card are DS variants, Delver variants, UW Spirits, Merfolk, and others. These decks will benefit from FoN for the same reasons Ux decks will: it gives them counterplay to T1/T2 combo/ramp engines that otherwise can't be addressed, and it allows them to develop board position while countering cards that would stop that advantage.
That said, I think Ux controlling strategies will benefit more from this card because they currently aren't able to develop their boards at all in most matchups. FoN gives them a totally new play line they couldn't previously use. Decks like Humans and Spirits were already doing this to at least some extent with Meddling Mage, Reflector Mage, Freebooter, Wanderer, GDS with Stubbs backup, and other cards that both advance the board state and stop opposing haymakers. Ux control wasn't able to do this at all until T5 at earliest with Teferi + Logic Knot. Now they can do it as early as T2 and, most importantly, resolve their huge T3 and T4 walkers with the benefit of protection.
Going to quote myself and rickster here to again highlight the most important function of this card. It's not just that FoN allows Ux decks to stop T1/T2 plays that would normally have no counterplay, especially on the draw. This is an important function of FoN and one of the reasons it's playable, but it's not the reason the card is so exciting. The reason it's so exciting to me is that it opens up so many more windows where you can tap out for T2 Search, T3 Narset/Teferi, T4 JTMS, etc. and either protect your board presence or stop the opponent from doing something broken.
Ux decks have a serious problem with traction right now because they need to hold up mana on all their turns to handle opposing stuff at instant speed. This means Ux decks are waiting until T5+ before they can actually get some board presence, and they are always playing on an opponent's initiative. FoN changes this and allows Ux players to get on board and stick something important without dropping shields. Ux decks have previously been unable to do this in Modern, and this is the very reason we don't see FoW-like effects in Standard; tapping out for a walker and still having protection spells is too strong for that format. Now, Ux decks can enjoy this edge, an edge they haven't really had before in Modern. Your only other option was Shoal, which was simply too narrow.
Deep Forest Hermit: Deranged Hermit Elf Druid with Vanishing 3 instead of Echo, only +1/+1 for your squirrels.
FORCE OF NEGATION: 1UU Instant, If it's not your turn you may exile a blue card from hand rather than pay mana cost. Negate but card is exiled.
Hermit is a cool throwback, probably not playable. Next.
FORCE OF NEGATION. So first, FoW is probably out. That's fine. Let's talk about FoN. This is similar to one of the FoW Negate variants I speculated on a few pages ago, and it's definitely a Modern game-changer. The majority of early non-games with broken decks come down to non-creature spells resolving and setting up broken lines. This stops all the major engines of most decks: Vial, Looting, Opal, Stirrings, Scrying, Map, Amulet, etc. Some decks can play around it (Ad Naus winning at instant speed, EoT Goryo's/Breach in other decks). Some decks/cards aren't affected by it (Electromancer/Baral, Prime Time, etc.). But overall, this will be a maindeckable catchall for most Ux strategies. Perhaps the best advantage of this card is allowing Ux players to develop a board and not hold up mana. This benefits tempo/fish decks which can deploy threats and protect them or stop haymakers, and it benefits control decks that can play T2 Search or T3 Teferi/Narset without dropping shields.
Overall, I am very pleased with this card and look forward to playing it.
I would discourage you from selling your cards based on the inclusion/exclusion of one possible reprint. Every set introduces new and surprising additions to Modern decks and so many are viable from so many different ends of the archetypal/strategic spectrums. If you prefer Ux Control, there will undoubtedly be strong options for you and other players to consider, whether in MH1 or future sets.
Goblin Matron is a sweet reprint. Here's hoping for Ringleader next!
There are some uncommon previews before the next round, and then some rare previews later.