While it is really crappy to see a deck be banned out (Pod), I kind of expected this to happen some time ago. Cruise had to go, but I think we should have had a chance to have Dig legal without Cruise to see how things worked out. Unless I am mistaken, the Troll could have been unbanned some time ago and Wizards has just been putting it off.
The loss of Cruise in Legacy was obvious, however the ubanning of the Dragon is definitely unexpected.
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Treasure Cruise getting banned in Modern was a no-brainer and very much expected by, well, pretty sure everybody.
Dig Through Time was a bit more surprising. It was definitely a candidate, but it still felt the safer of the two to remain legal.
Pod was somewhat unexpected. I know talk of banning it has been thrown around before, it was more or less the top deck, but the ban just feels..I dunno, they completely killed a very fun and interesting archetype in one fell swoop, and I don't even really think Pod was that much of a problem deck.
GG Troll had no business being banned in the first place and I expect the unban to have very little actual impact on the format. It'll be nice for Vengevine decks, but without Dread Return available don't expect dredge to ever become a thing (still).
Legacy was a bit more interesting for me to see the update for. Did not expect any changes here at all, let alone a Treasure Cruise ban. It shook things up in a good way IMO, I mean Wasteland was even starting to see less play because of it. Worldgorger coming off the list is pretty fun though, I approve.
Vintage-wise, restricting Cruise does seem like a more understandable move here. Gifts making its way back into the format should be interesting. I don't really play vintage enough (at all) to make a real call here.
Happy about Pod losing their tutor piece because I hate that deck, and I hope everyone saying TC wouldn't get banned in Legacy feels like they got a punch to the teeth.
So apparently wizards actually checks how Vintage is going.
GG troll is useless in this format. Maybe in a combo deck milling yourself and winning with the maniac.
TC and DTT were expected. So was Pod in a way, though I expected to ban cards that pod could fetch first and then ban pod if it wasn't destroyed by then.
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Pod was going to go sooner or later, better now when only some people have bought into the deck, rather than when a LOT of people had bought into the deck. Birthing Pod just added too much consistency to an already good creature deck. For all those building the deck just switch to Junk mid-range it is close to the same deck.
Birthing Pod was like a $5-$6 card. Avoiding an entire archetype of the game, let alone one with WOTC/Pro Tour support because you're fearful of not getting back your investment seems silly. This is still a card game, after all. You're not buying stock. What is the value of your entertainment dollar? The time invested being greater than zero means that your entertainment dollar has to be greater than zero. There's multiple archetypes over a wide array of multiple formats with new sets coming out every three months. If the banning of a card in one format discourages you from ever considering "buying into" said format, then this hobby is one that is going to leave you quite conflicted. Magic is certainly never going to get any cheaper.
EDIT: I guess that might overly simplify things as anyone that got the POD deck, obviously would have had to get cards other than Birthing Pod itself. However my point was simply if you get cards & get to play with them, the time spent playing with them should still matter, not just the time that you can't play with them anymore. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last time, that changes are made to a format. It just goes with the territory of competitive play in trying to maintain healthy metagames.
I care, and am disappointed. As I said in the thread on the EDH forum, I don't necessarily advocate change for the sake of change, but I do feel that the format could at least benefit from seeing some things unbanned if nothing else. And with this being the shortest time between ban updates that I can think of with Dragons releasing in March, this just seems like the safest time to test things out with a quick turn around if they need to be rebanned. Also really wanted to see Iona at least go.
Well I didn't see Pod coming. It's a powerful card, maybe they feel like it impacted their design space too much after seeing Siege Rhino being played. Regardless, I feel like Abzan will live on.
The pod ban wasn't especially surprising to me, before KTK pod was the top deck and with TC going and rhino here to stay it's safe to say that it would have been a/the dominant force in modern again.
Birthing Pod
The value this thing could generate over a game was pretty dang insane.
It also consistently allowed a player to make massive comebacks even if their opponent did everything right. Any single creature pod topdecked into would start the chain all over again.
This utility and consistency was steadily finding more and more power cards to put in with each set. Hooray for Siege Rhino
Above all, Birthing Pod suppressed many fair decks.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
Looks good other then banning Birthing Pod. Might be time to quit Modern.
I been playing Pod for years and I like the deck, it is powerful but there are answers. Issue is recently Pod's bad match ups Scapeshift, Tron and Twin got pushed out of the format by Treasure Cruise decks. With Treasure Cruise banned it would go back to before where Pod was balanced out by those decks.
While I do enjoy both of those creatures, seeing that spelled out demonstrates how amazing Birthing Pod is. It doesn't require a discard, it puts the creature directly into play instead of casting it and the cost is usually 1G at most.
I'm sad the card is gone, because I've been using it since the inception of the format, but it probably does inhibit design space and creates a level of consistency that many other decks can't touch. It was fun while it lasted, but there are plenty of other things to try out now.
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I care, and am disappointed. As I said in the thread on the EDH forum, I don't necessarily advocate change for the sake of change, but I do feel that the format could at least benefit from seeing some things unbanned if nothing else. And with this being the shortest time between ban updates that I can think of with Dragons releasing in March, this just seems like the safest time to test things out with a quick turn around if they need to be rebanned. Also really wanted to see Iona at least go.
I'll be honest, it really does sound like you're advocating change for the sake of change.
The loss of Cruise in Legacy was obvious, however the ubanning of the Dragon is definitely unexpected.
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
Dig Through Time was a bit more surprising. It was definitely a candidate, but it still felt the safer of the two to remain legal.
Pod was somewhat unexpected. I know talk of banning it has been thrown around before, it was more or less the top deck, but the ban just feels..I dunno, they completely killed a very fun and interesting archetype in one fell swoop, and I don't even really think Pod was that much of a problem deck.
GG Troll had no business being banned in the first place and I expect the unban to have very little actual impact on the format. It'll be nice for Vengevine decks, but without Dread Return available don't expect dredge to ever become a thing (still).
Legacy was a bit more interesting for me to see the update for. Did not expect any changes here at all, let alone a Treasure Cruise ban. It shook things up in a good way IMO, I mean Wasteland was even starting to see less play because of it. Worldgorger coming off the list is pretty fun though, I approve.
Vintage-wise, restricting Cruise does seem like a more understandable move here. Gifts making its way back into the format should be interesting. I don't really play vintage enough (at all) to make a real call here.
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Wonder why Black Vise isn't unbanned.
GG troll is useless in this format. Maybe in a combo deck milling yourself and winning with the maniac.
TC and DTT were expected. So was Pod in a way, though I expected to ban cards that pod could fetch first and then ban pod if it wasn't destroyed by then.
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Will dig simply replace TC in that format?
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Isn't that what dredge is?
Figured some people here would care.
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EDIT: I guess that might overly simplify things as anyone that got the POD deck, obviously would have had to get cards other than Birthing Pod itself. However my point was simply if you get cards & get to play with them, the time spent playing with them should still matter, not just the time that you can't play with them anymore. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last time, that changes are made to a format. It just goes with the territory of competitive play in trying to maintain healthy metagames.
I think they did? With Second Sunrise. It really slowed down Eggs huhu
On another note, the Pod Ban took me by surprise too. Shame though, a guy I just met recently finished fixing up his Pod deck. Crazy.
EDH DECKS
[to be updated
OTHER DECKS
I care, and am disappointed. As I said in the thread on the EDH forum, I don't necessarily advocate change for the sake of change, but I do feel that the format could at least benefit from seeing some things unbanned if nothing else. And with this being the shortest time between ban updates that I can think of with Dragons releasing in March, this just seems like the safest time to test things out with a quick turn around if they need to be rebanned. Also really wanted to see Iona at least go.
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TC and Dig were no doubt getting banned.
No surprise.
Birthing Pod
The value this thing could generate over a game was pretty dang insane.
It also consistently allowed a player to make massive comebacks even if their opponent did everything right. Any single creature pod topdecked into would start the chain all over again.
This utility and consistency was steadily finding more and more power cards to put in with each set. Hooray for Siege Rhino
Above all, Birthing Pod suppressed many fair decks.
Golgari Grave-Troll
Neat.
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I been playing Pod for years and I like the deck, it is powerful but there are answers. Issue is recently Pod's bad match ups Scapeshift, Tron and Twin got pushed out of the format by Treasure Cruise decks. With Treasure Cruise banned it would go back to before where Pod was balanced out by those decks.
You, I like the way you think.
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So you're trying to argue that a more expensive to use, multi-card Survival of the Fittest is the same thing as Pod, yeah...no.
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While I do enjoy both of those creatures, seeing that spelled out demonstrates how amazing Birthing Pod is. It doesn't require a discard, it puts the creature directly into play instead of casting it and the cost is usually 1G at most.
I'm sad the card is gone, because I've been using it since the inception of the format, but it probably does inhibit design space and creates a level of consistency that many other decks can't touch. It was fun while it lasted, but there are plenty of other things to try out now.
I'll be honest, it really does sound like you're advocating change for the sake of change.