I think that the banning of Pod, BBE, and Twin were some of the best bans for the format.
Just saying, nothing opened up after the BBE ban, it only opened up after the Deathrite Ban. GBx went to new heights after BBE was banned.
Control and other non-Jund mid-range got a lot better with BBE being banned. This is a baloney cry that people will say "BBE payed for DRS crimes" etc.. no BBE was already broken and DRS was just another broken card that powered out the other broken card quicker. BBE is Card Advantage plus Fast Mana stapled onto a hasted creature body, it lets you run less of your situational spells because you can just run 4x BBE as the functional other copies and again it lets you get the card and cast it for free.
I think that the banning of Pod, BBE, and Twin were some of the best bans for the format.
Just saying, nothing opened up after the BBE ban, it only opened up after the Deathrite Ban. GBx went to new heights after BBE was banned.
Control and other non-Jund mid-range got a lot better with BBE being banned. This is a baloney cry that people will say "BBE payed for DRS crimes" etc.. no BBE was already broken and DRS was just another broken card that powered out the other broken card quicker. BBE is Card Advantage plus Fast Mana stapled onto a hasted creature body, it lets you run less of your situational spells because you can just run 4x BBE as the functional other copies and again it lets you get the card and cast it for free.
If a 3/2 haste came into play and killed one of your creatures and that causes you to lose your temper and the game... Your deck is bad, you made a bad play or both.
I think that the banning of Pod, BBE, and Twin were some of the best bans for the format.
Just saying, nothing opened up after the BBE ban, it only opened up after the Deathrite Ban. GBx went to new heights after BBE was banned.
Control and other non-Jund mid-range got a lot better with BBE being banned. This is a baloney cry that people will say "BBE payed for DRS crimes" etc.. no BBE was already broken and DRS was just another broken card that powered out the other broken card quicker. BBE is Card Advantage plus Fast Mana stapled onto a hasted creature body, it lets you run less of your situational spells because you can just run 4x BBE as the functional other copies and again it lets you get the card and cast it for free.
If a 3/2 haste came into play and killed one of your creatures and that causes you to lose your temper and the game... Your deck is bad, you made a bad play or both.
And that is why you play Jund when BBE is legal because yes no other mid-range strategy has access to such a broken card, its why I played Jund when it was legal. It is a card that does broken things, WotC R&D agree that Cascade is busted mechanic and the only reason that the other Cascade cards are not nearly as broken as BBE is exactly because it isn't attached to relevant permanent, they are not going to simply generate a 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 without jumping threw a bunch of deck construction restricting hoops. because you know getting to cast a LotV or Goyf or list any other number of super efficient card for free out of your deck is totally a fair play.
I would like you to explain the correct method of making a 1 for 1 play against BBE?
I think that the banning of Pod, BBE, and Twin were some of the best bans for the format. Opened up the variety of decks that can be played in the format by removing the various decks that stifled the validity of large swaths of the current Tier 2 playable decks. Those bans did more for the format reaching the goals WotC has put forward towards having as large a possible pool of viable decks.
What the format really needs are things that don't exist. Better ways to deal with Planeswalkers, better ways to interact with Eldrazi like 10 drop Ulamog, tch or World Breaker etc... but they also need to be highly accessible to a variety of strategies and color combinations. The problem with Fatal Push was that it just improved the best mid-range decks in the format that kind of already had the tools to deal with the problems that Push deals with. Black isn't a color that needs much help as that color literally has a clear winner and or contender for the most powerful card available at 1,2,3 c.c.
Maybe WotC should consider another "time sprial" set to A- Give break to the standard story line a nice vacation from the same old same old. And also allow them to inject some unique spells and affects into the game and the modern card pool while affording them the ability to say that it is just a once in awhile divergence from the Magic Standard players love so much.
I'm a firm supporter of this idea. I mentioned something similar except it was only in regards to Modern Masters; now that you mention it, a Time Spiral/MM combo is the perfect description for it. Basically whatever your typical MM set list would be plus one or two reprints of cards which are currently not modern legal (e.g. counterspell). However, I think another Time Spiral set would be even better; it would definitely give me a reason to open up the wallet and give WoTC booster money that I normally wouldn't spend on standard products.
Attention! At the urging of ktk, I will be opening a poll back up to the public. This poll is to decide if we will move forward starting at the current proposed banlist, or if we start with No Banlist and work from there. Please respond to the poll here: http://www.strawpoll.me/12312112. Thank you for taking the time to do so.
This poll will close on February 21, 2017. Get your responses in before then.
I wish that WotC would have banned nothing from the start, I've been saying it in the forums for over a year and am glade that others are starting to see the light. only Ban things that are actually problematic don't just ban this or that because of how it worked out in a different format.
I'm all for T2 marit lage'ing people in modern lol. It's not too hard to do in legacy as it is and I feel like there are waaaayyyyy less effective interactions in modern (no force, daze, stifle, wasteland, karakas, crop rotation, etc.).
If you think you can consistently swing with Lage on turn 2, then I say go for it! If the data's there to show that we need to do something about it, something will be done about it.
I can access it, and we've gotten 6 more responses to the poll since I've posted it. It might just be you. Or it might be half the people checking out this thread...
Yeah. Very quickly the Discord group became a circle jerk of unban everything, with the reasoning that things can be rebanned if it's an issue. Right now they are talking about Dark Depths possibly being safe, and are seemingly against starting at a known point and moving forward. Instead it's all about unbanning everything but Mistep and Skullclamp.
With that in mind, I'm pulling out of their discussion, and believe this project is going to fail. They want to make changes that would massively alter the meta game over night, and continue to do so. Many seem to value a small ban list over healthy and diverse formats which is just not something I can get behind.
My opinion on starting with no ban list is to assess cards and then propose a new ban list from the results. It is also an option to start with a ban list of just really obvious problem cards such as mental misstep and urban the sub set that we want to test. There is a lot of talk of stoneforge mystic for example.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yeah. Very quickly the Discord group became a circle jerk of unban everything, with the reasoning that things can be rebanned if it's an issue. Right now they are talking about Dark Depths possibly being safe, and are seemingly against starting at a known point and moving forward. Instead it's all about unbanning everything but Mistep and Skullclamp.
With that in mind, I'm pulling out of their discussion, and believe this project is going to fail. They want to make changes that would massively alter the meta game over night, and continue to do so. Many seem to value a small ban list over healthy and diverse formats which is just not something I can get behind.
My opinion on starting with no ban list is to assess cards and then propose a new ban list from the results. It is also an option to start with a ban list of just really obvious problem cards such as mental misstep and urban the sub set that we want to test. There is a lot of talk of stoneforge mystic for example.
I think that's probably the best way to go about this, but ultimately, we'll leave it up to the poll (http://www.strawpoll.me/12312112).
I voted for starting with the current ban list and then unbanning things. Going straight to no ban list modern seems incredibly hard to gather accurate data of what is and isn't safe when we suddenly add 30+ cards and create a volatile format.
A thought mentioned earlier in the thread was rolling back to pre splinter twin banning and I'm in favor of starting there. While I think Twin was oppressive to other blue strategies I think it also did a lot of good for the format. If we can work to create an enviornment where twin isn't the only viable UX(y) strategy, combo exists in more ways than just ad nauseum and titan shift; I think thats a good initial goal to aim for.
Wow, the results are pretty much neck-and-neck at >200 votes.
I voted for starting with no banlist. I think they're both good starting points, as is Sheridan's suggestion of rolling back to pre-Twin ban but maintaining the Eye of Ugin ban. I think the format will start out stronger if you do that or start with your smaller banlist, but this is the best chance to gather data on NBL we'll probably ever see. So that's why I voted the way I did. I definitely see the merit of going with the smaller list, though, as it will give a lot of weight to arguments for/against unbanning particular cards.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
What metrics are going to determine safe or unsafe ? Is the team sticking with WOTC's loose guidelines of Turn 4 rule etc, or are the testing team going to come up with different metrics to determine safe/unsafe. Because IMO you can throw all that out the window with NBL where it's basically the wild west, while with a shrunk ban list, you can still test according to the format guidelines set by WOTC.
Edit to clarify: Will the team be sticking to the criteria (loosely based on WOTC's own format 'rules') posted on page 1 if testing is based on NBL ?
Guys please opinions on japanese cards. Lost a 3/3 creature against Japan celestial colonade. This guy played all creatures and spells in english cards, but some cards in his manabase was japanese. I dont registrated this really ( my brain say its all fine and all english to me lets attack his empty board)...and i am sure it is a Kind of legal cheating. It is not ok, but i know legal. I Hate such people. I never forget colonade normally, but with this Tricks it can happen one time in 3 years and such people take advantage of this
If I am a customer spending premium amount of dollars, I expect a premium service. Jund falls into the category of a premium deck costing more dollars than a majority of the rest of the format. I'm not getting the desired performance ratio per dollars spent out of the Jund deck because WOTC decided to make the format more diverse.
What metrics are going to determine safe or unsafe ? Is the team sticking with WOTC's loose guidelines of Turn 4 rule etc, or are the testing team going to come up with different metrics to determine safe/unsafe. Because IMO you can throw all that out the window with NBL where it's basically the wild west, while with a shrunk ban list, you can still test according to the format guidelines set by WOTC.
Edit to clarify: Will the team be sticking to the criteria (loosely based on WOTC's own format 'rules') posted on page 1 if testing is based on NBL ?
So I've spoken and typed lots on the Discord Chat, I'm gonna take sometime and post some of my thoughts with discussion here as well.
1. I think starting with a No Ban list just causes most of us who are willing to test to simply have a bunch of pissing matches against each other. I've already posted a decklist of Thopter-Depths (with Chrome Mox) being legal and I lost one game in eight separate matches. That was simply me brainstorming for 30 minutes, and not even a refined decklist. I couldn't imagine having multiple people break the format in different ways, simply racing each other, then calling for bans.
In summary, I think we should start CLOSER to a no-ban list, but have some obvious inclusions if we want this format to be taken seriously at a competitive level.
I would even argue, that this list should include Simian Spirit Guide and Mox Opal, but unless someone can prove those to be broken I won't include them in my personal starting point.
2. We can't follow the turn 4 rule. I believe the turn 4 rule, is what completely destroyed the current Modern format, you begin to "nerf" decks instead of just simply banning violators. The best possible mechanics we could have are simply having more police cards in the format, and this is why I feel we need to extend the starting point of this format - We need Mercadian Masques forward. We need Daze, Snuff Out, and Rishadan Port.
I believe enforcing a turn 4 rule, is a sub-effective method of simply trying to enforce all archetypes to have a balanced existence in the top ranks. If you have enough control, aggro, combo, ramp, and midrange, the turns will regulate themselves, and the interaction between all decks will emerge.
3. We need to divide & simplify the banned list, and categorize how we will initialize testing, as in "what cards are likely, versus unlikely to be removed from the current banned list" - We need more consensus and discussion on this one.
Anyway those are my current thoughts, I'll be on for chat/discussion later tonight 6:30 Western time.
So I've spoken and typed lots on the Discord Chat, I'm gonna take sometime and post some of my thoughts with discussion here as well.
1. I think starting with a No Ban list just causes most of us who are willing to test to simply have a bunch of pissing matches against each other. I've already posted a decklist of Thopter-Depths (with Chrome Mox) being legal and I lost one game in eight separate matches. That was simply me brainstorming for 30 minutes, and not even a refined decklist. I couldn't imagine having multiple people break the format in different ways, simply racing each other, then calling for bans.
In summary, I think we should start CLOSER to a no-ban list, but have some obvious inclusions if we want this format to be taken seriously at a competitive level.
I would even argue, that this list should include Simian Spirit Guide and Mox Opal, but unless someone can prove those to be broken I won't include them in my personal starting point.
2. We can't follow the turn 4 rule. I believe the turn 4 rule, is what completely destroyed the current Modern format, you begin to "nerf" decks instead of just simply banning violators. The best possible mechanics we could have are simply having more police cards in the format, and this is why I feel we need to extend the starting point of this format - We need Mercadian Masques forward. We need Daze, Snuff Out, and Rishadan Port.
I believe enforcing a turn 4 rule, is a sub-effective method of simply trying to enforce all archetypes to have a balanced existence in the top ranks. If you have enough control, aggro, combo, ramp, and midrange, the turns will regulate themselves, and the interaction between all decks will emerge.
3. We need to divide & simplify the banned list, and categorize how we will initialize testing, as in "what cards are likely, versus unlikely to be removed from the current banned list" - We need more consensus and discussion on this one.
Anyway those are my current thoughts, I'll be on for chat/discussion later tonight 6:30 Western time.
I'm on mobile right now, so I can't offer an in-depth response. What I will say is I don't think we should try including other sets. We aren't trying to change the definition of what Modern is, we're just trying to change the management of the banlist. There's no precedent for changing the starting point, and in my opinion, that would just turn modern into more or less "Legacy Lite."
I voted for starting with the current banlist without a doubt. Starting without Banlist just takes up too much time. You will have to ban at least 10 cards for sure. Maybe SFM, Jace and BBE stay there without a voice but to me those cards belong there with our current cardpool.
Considering there won't be reprints like Counterspell, Baleful Strix, etc, my intial guess is to go something like this:
Add to Banlist: Simian Spirit Guide, Mox Opal and Deceiver Exarch.
Remove from Banlist: Splinter Twin, 1 or 2 Artifact Lands and Summer Bloom OR Seething Song.
I've already posted this changes before. However, this is not where i would want to be IDEALLY. What do i mean by this? The format will never be perfect with Splinter Twin available. Why? Because UR/x Twin builds have shown to us that they can be the best deck in the format, and be a "safe" bet to compete at higher level like Grand Prix events or SCG Tour, WMCQ,etc. To me this is just bad because it would make Modern like Legacy in the sense that there´s a "safe" choice for any given metagame. However, i prefer the format to be policed by a control deck that wins on T4 and has a high skill ceiling than a T3 or T2 russian roulette deck.
Also, i'm against adding expansions artifically. The further i would go is to just take out 8th and 9th edition and get rid of the vicious hosers like Moon and Bridge that make up for unfun games. Blood Moon without SSG should be mostly fine though.
I understand the perspective of keeping the Modern format starting point the exact same. You can't enforce a turn 4 rule if you do though. That ruling is problematic and difficult to enforce, and even more difficult to justify. You have no fail safe, you will simply increase an arbitrary banned list like we currently have now, where you make dozens of exceptions to the rule based on personal perception.
I understand the perspective of keeping the Modern format starting point the exact same. You can't enforce a turn 4 rule if you do though. That ruling is problematic and difficult to enforce, and even more difficult to justify. You have no fail safe, you will simply increase an arbitrary banned list like we currently have now, where you make dozens of exceptions to the rule based on personal perception.
If I'm not mistaken the whole point of this venture is to have a group of people who want to test and help re-evaluate the ban list, not to just create a new format, which changing the starting point would do. I'm also not really sure what you mean by no fail safe, the ban list is the fail safe for modern with the turn 4 rule being one of the criteria for a card to be banned currently.
I voted for starting with the current banlist without a doubt. Starting without Banlist just takes up too much time. You will have to ban at least 10 cards for sure. Maybe SFM, Jace and BBE stay there without a voice but to me those cards belong there with our current cardpool.
Considering there won't be reprints like Counterspell, Baleful Strix, etc, my intial guess is to go something like this:
Add to Banlist: Simian Spirit Guide, Mox Opal and Deceiver Exarch.
Remove from Banlist: Splinter Twin, 1 or 2 Artifact Lands and Summer Bloom OR Seething Song.
I've already posted this changes before. However, this is not where i would want to be IDEALLY. What do i mean by this? The format will never be perfect with Splinter Twin available. Why? Because UR/x Twin builds have shown to us that they can be the best deck in the format, and be a "safe" bet to compete at higher level like Grand Prix events or SCG Tour, WMCQ,etc. To me this is just bad because it would make Modern like Legacy in the sense that there´s a "safe" choice for any given metagame. However, i prefer the format to be policed by a control deck that wins on T4 and has a high skill ceiling than a T3 or T2 russian roulette deck.
Also, i'm against adding expansions artifically. The further i would go is to just take out 8th and 9th edition and get rid of the vicious hosers like Moon and Bridge that make up for unfun games. Blood Moon without SSG should be mostly fine though.
I think hosers like moon are a boon to the format, and are part of what makes modern different from just "Standard+." Blood moon helps check things like Tron, and punishes greedy manabases.
I understand the perspective of keeping the Modern format starting point the exact same. You can't enforce a turn 4 rule if you do though. That ruling is problematic and difficult to enforce, and even more difficult to justify. You have no fail safe, you will simply increase an arbitrary banned list like we currently have now, where you make dozens of exceptions to the rule based on personal perception.
This, I honestly don't understand at all. The fail safe is the banlist. And unlike Wizards, we have certain statistical guidelines that tell us when there's an issue. If you really want to insinuate that we'll "make dozens of exceptions to the rule based on personal perception," then you're challenging the integrity of everyone involved in this project. We have numbers in place. If you think we'll break one rule, what makes you think we won't break others? Quick point: We won't. We aim to stick by our numbers on each and every one of our rules. It is possible — simple, even — to have a turn 4 rule that isn't arbitrary.
Given my experience in frontier, ban treasure cruise but leave dig through time. The later is no worse than coco and mostly got nailed for looking like cruise.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Interesting idea. I think starting with a modified version of the current ban list makes the most sense. There would be too many variables and too much wasted time with no ban list.
However, I think there are too many cards being considered for the initial wave of unbannings, the first being Birthing Pod. It just provides too much consistency at too little a cost and, like the argument that was made when it was banned, it only has gotten better with new creatures being printed (Renegade Rallier, for example).
Also, I think Chrome Mox should not come off the list. It would never be played in any deck remotely trying to play "fair" Magic, and is a stroke against the unbanning of other more manageable cards, like Dark Depths, which would be Bah-roken with the mox.
The last card I think shouldn't be released is Gitaxian Probe. As much as I personally love the card - I play Delver often - it is just the perfect example of a mistake that enables broken things, and I feel the metagame is better off without it.
Additionally, I think the artifact lands should be considered for unbanning, if not initially then soon thereafter.
Finally, I'd caution anyone thinking this will solve any and all problems with the current Modern format. The meta doesn't seem particularly oppressive to any one type of deck or strategy (besides draw-go...), and Wizards has already begun the process of introducing good "police" cards a la Fatal Push. In time, the "official" Modern format may fix its generally small balance problems.
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Modern enthusiast
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Just saying, nothing opened up after the BBE ban, it only opened up after the Deathrite Ban. GBx went to new heights after BBE was banned.
Control and other non-Jund mid-range got a lot better with BBE being banned. This is a baloney cry that people will say "BBE payed for DRS crimes" etc.. no BBE was already broken and DRS was just another broken card that powered out the other broken card quicker. BBE is Card Advantage plus Fast Mana stapled onto a hasted creature body, it lets you run less of your situational spells because you can just run 4x BBE as the functional other copies and again it lets you get the card and cast it for free.
If a 3/2 haste came into play and killed one of your creatures and that causes you to lose your temper and the game... Your deck is bad, you made a bad play or both.
And that is why you play Jund when BBE is legal because yes no other mid-range strategy has access to such a broken card, its why I played Jund when it was legal. It is a card that does broken things, WotC R&D agree that Cascade is busted mechanic and the only reason that the other Cascade cards are not nearly as broken as BBE is exactly because it isn't attached to relevant permanent, they are not going to simply generate a 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 without jumping threw a bunch of deck construction restricting hoops. because you know getting to cast a LotV or Goyf or list any other number of super efficient card for free out of your deck is totally a fair play.
I would like you to explain the correct method of making a 1 for 1 play against BBE?
I'm a firm supporter of this idea. I mentioned something similar except it was only in regards to Modern Masters; now that you mention it, a Time Spiral/MM combo is the perfect description for it. Basically whatever your typical MM set list would be plus one or two reprints of cards which are currently not modern legal (e.g. counterspell). However, I think another Time Spiral set would be even better; it would definitely give me a reason to open up the wallet and give WoTC booster money that I normally wouldn't spend on standard products.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
This poll will close on February 21, 2017. Get your responses in before then.
If you think you can consistently swing with Lage on turn 2, then I say go for it! If the data's there to show that we need to do something about it, something will be done about it.
My opinion on starting with no ban list is to assess cards and then propose a new ban list from the results. It is also an option to start with a ban list of just really obvious problem cards such as mental misstep and urban the sub set that we want to test. There is a lot of talk of stoneforge mystic for example.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I think that's probably the best way to go about this, but ultimately, we'll leave it up to the poll (http://www.strawpoll.me/12312112).
A thought mentioned earlier in the thread was rolling back to pre splinter twin banning and I'm in favor of starting there. While I think Twin was oppressive to other blue strategies I think it also did a lot of good for the format. If we can work to create an enviornment where twin isn't the only viable UX(y) strategy, combo exists in more ways than just ad nauseum and titan shift; I think thats a good initial goal to aim for.
I voted for starting with no banlist. I think they're both good starting points, as is Sheridan's suggestion of rolling back to pre-Twin ban but maintaining the Eye of Ugin ban. I think the format will start out stronger if you do that or start with your smaller banlist, but this is the best chance to gather data on NBL we'll probably ever see. So that's why I voted the way I did. I definitely see the merit of going with the smaller list, though, as it will give a lot of weight to arguments for/against unbanning particular cards.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Edit to clarify: Will the team be sticking to the criteria (loosely based on WOTC's own format 'rules') posted on page 1 if testing is based on NBL ?
We will use the criteria on page 1.
1. I think starting with a No Ban list just causes most of us who are willing to test to simply have a bunch of pissing matches against each other. I've already posted a decklist of Thopter-Depths (with Chrome Mox) being legal and I lost one game in eight separate matches. That was simply me brainstorming for 30 minutes, and not even a refined decklist. I couldn't imagine having multiple people break the format in different ways, simply racing each other, then calling for bans.
In summary, I think we should start CLOSER to a no-ban list, but have some obvious inclusions if we want this format to be taken seriously at a competitive level.
My starting list would include the following;
Blazing Shoal
Chrome Mox
Cloudpost
Dark Depths
Dig Through Time
Dread Return
Eye of Ugin
Glimpse of Nature
Hypergenesis
Mental Misstep
Rite of Flame
Skullclamp
Second Sunrise
Sensei's Divining Top
Treasure Cruise
I would even argue, that this list should include Simian Spirit Guide and Mox Opal, but unless someone can prove those to be broken I won't include them in my personal starting point.
2. We can't follow the turn 4 rule. I believe the turn 4 rule, is what completely destroyed the current Modern format, you begin to "nerf" decks instead of just simply banning violators. The best possible mechanics we could have are simply having more police cards in the format, and this is why I feel we need to extend the starting point of this format - We need Mercadian Masques forward. We need Daze, Snuff Out, and Rishadan Port.
I believe enforcing a turn 4 rule, is a sub-effective method of simply trying to enforce all archetypes to have a balanced existence in the top ranks. If you have enough control, aggro, combo, ramp, and midrange, the turns will regulate themselves, and the interaction between all decks will emerge.
3. We need to divide & simplify the banned list, and categorize how we will initialize testing, as in "what cards are likely, versus unlikely to be removed from the current banned list" - We need more consensus and discussion on this one.
Anyway those are my current thoughts, I'll be on for chat/discussion later tonight 6:30 Western time.
I'm on mobile right now, so I can't offer an in-depth response. What I will say is I don't think we should try including other sets. We aren't trying to change the definition of what Modern is, we're just trying to change the management of the banlist. There's no precedent for changing the starting point, and in my opinion, that would just turn modern into more or less "Legacy Lite."
Considering there won't be reprints like Counterspell, Baleful Strix, etc, my intial guess is to go something like this:
Add to Banlist: Simian Spirit Guide, Mox Opal and Deceiver Exarch.
Remove from Banlist: Splinter Twin, 1 or 2 Artifact Lands and Summer Bloom OR Seething Song.
I've already posted this changes before. However, this is not where i would want to be IDEALLY. What do i mean by this? The format will never be perfect with Splinter Twin available. Why? Because UR/x Twin builds have shown to us that they can be the best deck in the format, and be a "safe" bet to compete at higher level like Grand Prix events or SCG Tour, WMCQ,etc. To me this is just bad because it would make Modern like Legacy in the sense that there´s a "safe" choice for any given metagame. However, i prefer the format to be policed by a control deck that wins on T4 and has a high skill ceiling than a T3 or T2 russian roulette deck.
Also, i'm against adding expansions artifically. The further i would go is to just take out 8th and 9th edition and get rid of the vicious hosers like Moon and Bridge that make up for unfun games. Blood Moon without SSG should be mostly fine though.
If I'm not mistaken the whole point of this venture is to have a group of people who want to test and help re-evaluate the ban list, not to just create a new format, which changing the starting point would do. I'm also not really sure what you mean by no fail safe, the ban list is the fail safe for modern with the turn 4 rule being one of the criteria for a card to be banned currently.
I think hosers like moon are a boon to the format, and are part of what makes modern different from just "Standard+." Blood moon helps check things like Tron, and punishes greedy manabases.
This, I honestly don't understand at all. The fail safe is the banlist. And unlike Wizards, we have certain statistical guidelines that tell us when there's an issue. If you really want to insinuate that we'll "make dozens of exceptions to the rule based on personal perception," then you're challenging the integrity of everyone involved in this project. We have numbers in place. If you think we'll break one rule, what makes you think we won't break others? Quick point: We won't. We aim to stick by our numbers on each and every one of our rules. It is possible — simple, even — to have a turn 4 rule that isn't arbitrary.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
However, I think there are too many cards being considered for the initial wave of unbannings, the first being Birthing Pod. It just provides too much consistency at too little a cost and, like the argument that was made when it was banned, it only has gotten better with new creatures being printed (Renegade Rallier, for example).
Also, I think Chrome Mox should not come off the list. It would never be played in any deck remotely trying to play "fair" Magic, and is a stroke against the unbanning of other more manageable cards, like Dark Depths, which would be Bah-roken with the mox.
The last card I think shouldn't be released is Gitaxian Probe. As much as I personally love the card - I play Delver often - it is just the perfect example of a mistake that enables broken things, and I feel the metagame is better off without it.
Additionally, I think the artifact lands should be considered for unbanning, if not initially then soon thereafter.
My ideal (re)start would be...
Notable unbanned cards from the current banned list:
Bloodbraid Elf
Dark Depths
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Preordain
Seething Song
Stoneforge Mystic
Splinter Twin
Possible cards for near-future unbanning:
Ancient Den
Great Furnace
Seat of the Synod
Tree of Tales
Vault of Whispers
Finally, I'd caution anyone thinking this will solve any and all problems with the current Modern format. The meta doesn't seem particularly oppressive to any one type of deck or strategy (besides draw-go...), and Wizards has already begun the process of introducing good "police" cards a la Fatal Push. In time, the "official" Modern format may fix its generally small balance problems.