MTG Salvation

Hi, out of curiosity.. what unbanned Modern card is your favorite? I mean you are happy that card got released from the ban list.

For me it's Bitterblossom. Card has been helpful as a one-of in my BG deck. Helps reach delirium faster when it is put into the yard.
Oh, and of course it allowed UB Faeries to become a deck.

Did not include Grave Troll in the poll.. because he got banned again.


Ban announcement dates:

Valakut, Bitterblossom, JtMS, Ancestral Vision, Sword of the Meek - August 12, 2011 "we are going to allow turn-four combination decks, but not decks that consistently win the game on turn three."

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/welcome-modern-world-2011-08-12

Wild Nacatl - December 20, 2011

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/december-20-2011-dci-banned-restricted-list-announcement-2011-12-20

Bloodbraid Elf - January 28, 2013

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/january-28-2013-dci-banned-restricted-list-announcement-2013-01-28


Unban announcement dates:

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle - Sept 20, 2012.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/september-20-2012-dci-banned-restricted-list-announcement-2012-09-20

Wild Nacatl and Bitterblossom - February 3, 2014.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/top-decks/february-3-2014-dci-banned-restricted-list-announcement-2014-02-03

Sword of the Meek and Ancestral Vision - April 4, 2016.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/banned-and-restricted-announcement-2016-04-04

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf - February 12, 2018.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/february-12-2018-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2018-02-12


Not added to the poll, but worth mentioning:

Golgari Grave Troll - January 19 2015 unbanned, but banned again January 9 2017.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/banned-and-restricted-announcement-2015-01-19

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/january-9-2017-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2017-01-09

Valakut, created basically two decks on it's own with very different playstyles. Sadly, both of them suck nowdays

Greetings,
Kathal

Sword of the Meek was the most hilarious unban. People were on tinterhooks about how broken it would be, only to find out that it wasn't even that good in the context of that meta. It also helped pave the way for more interesting unbans, like JtMS and BBE.

Jace is to me, because it played a part in getting control to be good in Modern after having BGx decks as close as you'd get for a long time.

Has to be valakut without a doubt. The old RUG scapeshift deck (and some newer variants and brews) have been a fantastic addition to the format.

Other cards are flashier or more recent in our minds, but valakut has had the most impact in a positive way. None of the other choices here have both created a new deck and seen reasonable play. Jace is too recent to form an opinion and BBE is a great support card but it's no centrepiece.

Added unban announcement dates and links on first post.

My fav is Sword of the Meek because I really enjoy playing it in UB Tezz, especially with Kaladesh being released soon after and allowing brews to improve the Sword Foundry combo.

I think Valakut brought sme frustrating moments in my experience of Modern, so it's not the most enjoyable to me, even though it had a big impact.
Jace is very symbolical, but I prefer to play it in legacy. In modern it doesn't bring me no excitment.

Quote from Mortal Coil »

Sword of the Meek was the most hilarious unban. People were on tinterhooks about how broken it would be, only to find out that it wasn't even that good in the context of that meta. It also helped pave the way for more interesting unbans, like JtMS and BBE.

Quote from headminerve »

My fav is Sword of the Meek because I really enjoy playing it in UB Tezz, especially with Kaladesh being released soon after and allowing brews to improve the Sword Foundry combo.

I think Valakut brought sme frustrating moments in my experience of Modern, so it's not the most enjoyable to me, even though it had a big impact.
Jace is very symbolical, but I prefer to play it in legacy. In modern it doesn't bring me no excitment.

That was my vote as well. I loved shoving those words back in peoples' faces; "Sword of the Meek" is sooo broken. Lol.

Also it doesn't hurt that I sold 800 play sets of the cards once it was unbanned. That was my biggest 1 day payday in Magic. I made almost as much as I make in 2 months at my regular job.

*Actually I wanted it to be good in Modern. Tested the snot out of UB Tezzeret when it was unbanned, only to find that it lost to my other decks. Not a good place to be (I calculated it's win percentage in my testing to be 40%) Ugh. So, my actual reason for enjoying this unban was tri-fold.

Also it doesn't hurt that I sold 800 play sets of the cards once it was unbanned. Grin That was my biggest 1 day payday in Magic. I made almost as much as I make in 2 months at my regular job.

*Actually I wanted it to be good in Modern. Tested the snot out of UB Tezzeret when it was unbanned, only to find that it lost to my other decks. Not a good place to be (I calculated it's win percentage in my testing to be 40%) Ugh. So, my actual reason for enjoying this unban was tri-fold.

Nice, you were able to stack up funds during that unban. ^__^

I think one reason why it failed to do anything good is because Depths is still banned. It was stated in the official announcement.


From WoTC:

Sword of the Meek makes a powerful, but slow, combination with Thopter Foundry. This combination was part of a format-dominating deck in the Extended format that Modern replaced. However, another element of that deck (Dark Depths, used with Vampire Hexmage) is also banned. Sword of the Meek might enable some slower combo decks, perhaps of the combo-control variety. It could be used as an alternate win condition in Lantern Control, which is powerful when unexpected but not currently a large part of the metagame. To allow for an increase in the number of controlling combo decks in the format, we are unbanning Sword of the Meek.

___________________________________

Another card that blew up when unbanned was Ancestral Vission. Might be wrong in remembering.. but I could have sworn it has reached almost 50$ during the unban announcement. Today, almost don't see it played at all.

AV exploded when it was unbanned. Most annoying price jump ever for me, as I didnt have it, but there was no way I was paying the price expected at the time.

Ancestral Vision actually got to around $60 after the unban. That was one I was a bit disappointed with because by the time I wanted to get in deep, they were already $12 each pre-banning. I still ended up selling around 4-5 play sets of them after the banning, saving a foil set and a non foil set for myself. I know for sure that they went to $60 because I sold some of the first play sets on Ebay for $55 each (or $220 a play set BIN).

There was a particular mtgsalvation user that had 300 play sets. I just wish he had told me sooner, although we only know each other through this site. (that's also when I started to get a few more play sets)

Splinter Twin, once it finally happens

Quote from ElectricEye »

Splinter Twin, once it finally happens

Don't mean to hurt feelings, but this one may take a while.

Jace. For no other reason than I enjoy casting him and activating him. He's not even that good in MOST Modern matchups, and before I picked up UW, I cut him or sided him out in nearly every other build I've forced him into. Every other card that has been unbanned that I have attempted to play has been nothing but disappointment, so it's not surprising to see Jace follow in suit. Luckily he has a friend today to help him not suck so much.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

Quote from ElectricEye »

Splinter Twin, once it finally happens

Don't mean to hurt feelings, but this one may take a while.

It'll come. One day.

Quote from ElectricEye »

Splinter Twin, once it finally happens

If by that time I'm still in this forum.... will make another "what is your favorite unbanned card" poll to see how many people are happy with the Twin unban.

I'm sure there isn't a single right answer but the card I'm glad it got unbanned is Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

The reason behind that is it (hopefully) taught people to be more skeptical and not attack others when it comes to discussions about unbanning cards in Modern. Before Jace unbanning, almost everyone claimed that Jace was the "boogie man" that would break the format bla bla bla and obviously that didn't happen.

I just hope people learned something from this incident with this card as it may hopefully lead to more open-minded future discussions about cards unbanning in Modern.

but the card I'm glad it got unbanned is Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Now they just need to unban Stoneforge Mystic, so we can have Caw-Blade in Modern.

It had to be Bloodbraid Elf. Because Wizards banning honest Green Creatures and unbanning them two times in a row cemented the idea that Wizards has zero clue how to manage their formats.

Jace, AV and Valakut are both in the top 3. Sword of the Meek is the weakest of them all for me, close with Bitterblossom. BBE is very good also.

Nacatl and BBE tied for first for me. Both because they slot into decks I've enjoyed and because they never really deserved the ban in the first place. I suppose SotM didn't deserve it either but I'm less emotionally invested in that one lol.

Found the official wotc announcement for Wild Nacatl and Bitterblossom unban.

Updated the first post.

All were good unbans. There were no bad unbans. Even Golgari Grave-Troll was a good unban and didn't break anything until a Prized Amalgam, Insolent Neonate, and the final nail, Cathartic Reunion, broke it.

Ok, it's now one month into the poll. Looks like a whole lot of people are glad that Jace got unbanned.
Well, he didn't break anything.. so I guess the unban of the blue gatewatch planeswalker is correct.

I took a screenshot, so as a remembrance of what the one month old poll looked like.

I'm posting from the future. My favourite unban was Splinter Twin (Ancestral Vision is a close second).