Lately, Modern community members have expressed interest in talking holistically about the challenges and problems facing Modern. Whether or not Modern has "challenges" or "problems" is up for debate, but what is clear is that people want to talk about all of these issues in one unified setting.
As such, Modern staff are opening this thread as a replacement for the old "Banlist Discussion" thread and the "State of the Meta thread." You can use this thread to talk about any and all of these varied Modern issues and their intersection. This thread will be heavily moderated, so be sure to read the rules before posting; anyone who posts in this thread is assumed to have read and understood these rules.
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Here are some reasons that cards are banned in Modern:
Some cards enable a top tier deck to consistently win on turn 3 or earlier. Because this violates the "turn 4" rule of the format, the following cards have been banned:
Other cards have been banned because they make certain decks too consistent/reliable and thus stagnate the format. Here are some examples of these cards:
Some cards, currently only one, are banned because they were just mistakes. This card is one of the most broken cards of all time and has been banned in almost every format where it was or is legal:
There are also some cards that were banned for logistical reasons. These cards made tournaments last too long and were banned to make events run smoother. They were not necessarily banned for power reasons.
Can't say I'm surprised to see no changes but I would have really liked to see something. Despite the waves that WAR is making and with even just early previews MH1 looks very impactful, this could have been a good point to release something like SFM because there seem to be some powerful safety valve in MH1.
As mentioned in the locked thread: Usual disappointment of another lack of unbannings, accompanied by an absolute gutting and slaughter of blue decks in Pauper. I expect nothing less from them at this point.
Modern is still in desperate need of anything to make it less frustrating to play.
Ugin's Conjurant + Celestial Kirin was a "concern", it seems. Uh...I mean, I was aware of the combo, but it seems like a waste of word count to mention it in the same sentence as Neoform or Karn.
P.S.
1) a round of applause for Gitaxian Probe, which managed to get banned in Modern, Legacy, Pauper, and the next closest thing to banned in Vintage
2) I couldn't read "Augur of Bolas was still on the table for discussion" with a straight face. Full disclosure, I don't play Pauper, so the things that make Augur ban-worthy elude me. Then again, Bloodbraid Elf was once banned, so congratulations on not making the same mistake twice, I guess?
When I saw there was a DailyMTG spoiler on the same day as the B&R announcement I allowed myself to hope they would unban SFM and include it in MH1, but that has not happened. Oh well, business as usual.
Ugin's Conjurant + Celestial Kirin was a "concern", it seems. Uh...I mean, I was aware of the combo, but it seems like a waste of word count to mention it in the same sentence as Neoform or Karn.
P.S.
1) a round of applause for Gitaxian Probe, which managed to get banned in Modern, Legacy, Pauper, and the next closest thing to banned in Vintage
2) I couldn't read "Augur of Bolas was still on the table for discussion" with a straight face. Full disclosure, I don't play Pauper, so the things that make Augur ban-worthy elude me. Then again, Bloodbraid Elf was once banned, so congratulations on not making the same mistake twice, I guess?
In pauper, in which blue spellslinger strategies dominate, a 2cmc creature with 3 toughness is very hard to get around. Augur can block aggro plans for days. If it was a 1/1 it wouldn't be a problem. This is similar to Deathrite Shaman have 2 toughness, thus being all the more strong.
As a combo player I am going to use fact or fiction A LOT, but I'm not sure that card was a good idea. I'm not complaining though, EOTFOFYL.
I like the green force too. And seasoned pyromancer look like another looting effect for dredge that makes it's own token and has a body.
Seeing all these cards as of late is really depressing as a fair player. Blue is getting so many toys...and GBx is just...not.
We got Trophy, but it's only used in Rock. GBx doesn't need more removal it needs other things. It's definitely difficult not to be envious of the other fair decks.
I absolutely cannot see Shadow or GBx decks fairing whatsoever from all of this without some big reveals from Horizon. We need something along the lines of Hym, Sylvan Library or cabal...and I sure as hell know that isn't happening. It seems like WOTC keeps thinking, "hey, look, here's more removal for midrange decks, that should solve it all".
The only viable looking midrange deck right now is Rock. GDS is getting hit big time with so many bad matchups and those decks looking even better with Horizon and WAR.
Ugin's Conjurant + Celestial Kirin was a "concern", it seems. Uh...I mean, I was aware of the combo, but it seems like a waste of word count to mention it in the same sentence as Neoform or Karn.
P.S.
1) a round of applause for Gitaxian Probe, which managed to get banned in Modern, Legacy, Pauper, and the next closest thing to banned in Vintage
2) I couldn't read "Augur of Bolas was still on the table for discussion" with a straight face. Full disclosure, I don't play Pauper, so the things that make Augur ban-worthy elude me. Then again, Bloodbraid Elf was once banned, so congratulations on not making the same mistake twice, I guess?
I feel the same way about Celestial Kirin/Ugin's Conjurant. Even though it is a 4 mana + 0 mana Armageddon, I can't imagine this deck doing all too much.
And Augur of Bolas. The other day when I got an FNM Promo (actually both weeks when I did), I mentioned that this is a terrible card. I still think it is a terrible card and I must have missed it when I skimmed through this B and R announcement.
@Spsiegel1987 - I wouldn't give up so soon. There are still cards to spoil and I have a feeling that Daze may be on the horizon. I really hope(d) not, but I think it has a shot. (I don't think it should have a shot, personally.)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Seeing all these cards as of late is really depressing as a fair player. Blue is getting so many toys...and GBx is just...not.
We got Trophy, but it's only used in Rock. GBx doesn't need more removal it needs other things. It's definitely difficult not to be envious of the other fair decks.
I absolutely cannot see Shadow or GBx decks fairing whatsoever from all of this without some big reveals from Horizon. We need something along the lines of Hym, Sylvan Library or cabal...and I sure as hell know that isn't happening. It seems like WOTC keeps thinking, "hey, look, here's more removal for midrange decks, that should solve it all".
The only viable looking midrange deck right now is Rock. GDS is getting hit big time with so many bad matchups and those decks looking even better with Horizon and WAR.
When did GDS get bad again? It was fine as little as a month ago. Rock, is a niche deck because actual legit fair decks, are niche decks.
Seeing all these cards as of late is really depressing as a fair player. Blue is getting so many toys...and GBx is just...not.
We got Trophy, but it's only used in Rock. GBx doesn't need more removal it needs other things. It's definitely difficult not to be envious of the other fair decks.
I absolutely cannot see Shadow or GBx decks fairing whatsoever from all of this without some big reveals from Horizon. We need something along the lines of Hym, Sylvan Library or cabal...and I sure as hell know that isn't happening. It seems like WOTC keeps thinking, "hey, look, here's more removal for midrange decks, that should solve it all".
The only viable looking midrange deck right now is Rock. GDS is getting hit big time with so many bad matchups and those decks looking even better with Horizon and WAR.
IMO, Sylvan Library would be a fine addition to the format, but I could see Shadow being the sole reason why WotC might ultimately decide against it.
I'm not calling for the sky falling or anything. We still have more horizon spoilers. I just mean it's a little hard not to be envious of blue getting this flood of viable toys after it struggled in modern for so long.
Sylvan library would make shadow players have to play jund or 5c which hasn't appeared oppressive or too good for the meta to adapt.
Fair decks needs some kind of card filtering. Or some amazing drs efficient threat. Loot really helped give this flavor of some fair decks doing unfair things.
I'm happy control decks are getting lovenox it just feels like midrange Is lacking love by wotc.
Gds is a good deck, it didn't become bad. Ita just at the moment the meta is awful for it, even at an fnm level. Some high level gds players feel itd very poorly positioned right now. Humans wish tron, dredge and uw...very brutal to hope to dodge so much.
When did GDS get bad again? It was fine as little as a month ago.
GDS is just a high variance deck, masquerading as consistent. Either it does its thing and kills you fast with 1 mana protection, or it flounders and does nothing after dealing damage to itself and watching its only threat get killed. I personally hated the feeling from my side of the table when the outcomes of most games felt mostly out of my hands. Either I had a good draw with Stubbs in hand and won, or I didn't and I lost. Perhaps others feel the same way.
I think rick is just missing some sticky CA engines. Green gives you stuff like tireless tracker and black gives you bob, but they are pretty easy to answer. None of the playable GB walkers, enchantments, etc give CA. Lili is card parity if she sticks around and you hope to out top deck your opponent. I don't know what they could print outside of something like library like already mentioned that wouldn't feel out of place or cause a bunch of splash damage in the format.
Not sure what the answer is, but blue is getting a metric ton of toys lately I agree.
When did GDS get bad again? It was fine as little as a month ago.
GDS is just a high variance deck, masquerading as consistent. Either it does its thing and kills you fast with 1 mana protection, or it flounders and does nothing after dealing damage to itself and watching its only threat get killed. I personally hated the feeling from my side of the table when the outcomes of most games felt mostly out of my hands. Either I had a good draw with Stubbs in hand and won, or I didn't and I lost. Perhaps others feel the same way.
That's literally a description of every deck. "Either you get a good hand and win, or you get a bad hand and lose."
When did GDS get bad again? It was fine as little as a month ago.
GDS is just a high variance deck, masquerading as consistent. Either it does its thing and kills you fast with 1 mana protection, or it flounders and does nothing after dealing damage to itself and watching its only threat get killed. I personally hated the feeling from my side of the table when the outcomes of most games felt mostly out of my hands. Either I had a good draw with Stubbs in hand and won, or I didn't and I lost. Perhaps others feel the same way.
That's literally a description of every deck. "Either you get a good hand and win, or you get a bad hand and lose."
It seems a little more impactful when your only real win conditions are attacking with one of eight vanilla ground creatures. You play it? If opponents have removal or you don't have your Stub, the deck does a whole lotta nothin.
When did GDS get bad again? It was fine as little as a month ago.
GDS is just a high variance deck, masquerading as consistent. Either it does its thing and kills you fast with 1 mana protection, or it flounders and does nothing after dealing damage to itself and watching its only threat get killed. I personally hated the feeling from my side of the table when the outcomes of most games felt mostly out of my hands. Either I had a good draw with Stubbs in hand and won, or I didn't and I lost. Perhaps others feel the same way.
That's literally a description of every deck. "Either you get a good hand and win, or you get a bad hand and lose."
Not really. GDS has a lot of air compared to most other decks in the format, and its not cantrip's like Phoenix.
Either way. GDS remains a good deck, maybe the new Teferi and Veto are doing enough to push UW which has been a bad match up for GDS in the past, and Humans WAS a bad match up. GDS remains very strong however.
No. Humans is a bad matchups for the deck. Period. It takes a ton of dedicated sideboard to make it decent. There's a reason it wasn't big in the mythic championship and performed poorly in it. The deck is strong, the deck is in this meta---is really awful. Not sure why you aren't getting this.
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.
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.
WOTC things an abundance of high variance graveyard abuse is healthy. I guess it's time to sell out of the format? I have heard many people compare the past few months to how awful the GGT/Probe meta was, and I agree with them. I'm curious how many at WOTC actually play competitive Modern, instead of simply look at excel spreadsheets of deck labels and card names.
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.
WOTC things an abundance of high variance graveyard abuse is healthy. I guess it's time to sell out of the format? I have heard many people compare the past few months to how awful the GGT/Probe meta was, and I agree with them. I'm curious how many at WOTC actually play competitive Modern, instead of simply look at excel spreadsheets of deck labels and card names.
You've posted this same sentiment about every meta since the Twin ban. I honestly do not understand why you continue to play Modern when you've seemingly hated the format for the entirety of the last 3.5 years. Modern is in a healthy spot right now, with a generally self-policing meta and the ability for multiple strategies to cycle through Tier 1 status as new printings have created new decks or updated old ones.
I've also been playing Modern since before the Twin ban, and to say that the current format is anything like the GGT/Probe one is just absurd. That meta was problematic because the undisputed best decks either killed you on turn 2/3 (Infect and DS Zoo) with perfect information, or presented unbeatable inevitability that required a minimum of 4-6 sideboard cards to overcome (Dredge). The closest thing to that level of degeneracy currently seeing play is Neoform, which is still struggling to put up consistent results and is not even close to the meta share that those three decks occupied at that time.
If you knew, for certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Twin was never being unbanned, would you actually still be playing the format? It really just seems like you're always just hoping for a Twin unban, and literally nothing else is worth considering.
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.
WOTC things an abundance of high variance graveyard abuse is healthy. I guess it's time to sell out of the format? I have heard many people compare the past few months to how awful the GGT/Probe meta was, and I agree with them. I'm curious how many at WOTC actually play competitive Modern, instead of simply look at excel spreadsheets of deck labels and card names.
Well, based on the announcement itself, it seems like they were focused on the MC results to assess Modern's health:
We were happy with the outcome of the Modern portion of Mythic Championship II
Which seems super loose after some months of Phoenix dominance (at least in metagame share).
We already know that we shouldn't make conclusions from a small sample size and that PTs MCs are not the greatest data source since it combines limited and players are trying to metagame everyone else as there aren't that many players compared to a GP, so using the London MC that tested a new mulligan rule and also gave decklist information, seems rather questionable.
I agree that no changes is probably the best outcome for Modern right now but I didn't like that they used the MC as an indicator of how Modern fares to be honest.
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Lately, Modern community members have expressed interest in talking holistically about the challenges and problems facing Modern. Whether or not Modern has "challenges" or "problems" is up for debate, but what is clear is that people want to talk about all of these issues in one unified setting.
As such, Modern staff are opening this thread as a replacement for the old "Banlist Discussion" thread and the "State of the Meta thread." You can use this thread to talk about any and all of these varied Modern issues and their intersection. This thread will be heavily moderated, so be sure to read the rules before posting; anyone who posts in this thread is assumed to have read and understood these rules.
Allowed topics
Prohibited topics and behavior
The mod team will strictly enforce these rules. Please make this a place where people are unafraid to post constructive thoughts.
Due to the history of flaming and trolling in the thread effective immediately any infraction for trolling or flaming will result in a week suspension.
Update from the May 20, 2019 B&R Announcement:
No Changes.
Next B&R Announcement:
July 8, 2019
Current DCI Modern Banned List
Here are some reasons that cards are banned in Modern:
Second Sunrise
The following are links to WotC's in-depth explanations as to why cards have or have not gotten banned since the beginning of the format:
Krark-Clan Ironworks is banned
Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf unbanned
October 2017: No changes
March 2017: No changes
Gitaxian Probe and Golgari Grave-Troll are banned
Eye of Ugin banned, Ancestral Vision and Sword of the Meek unbanned
Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin banned
Birthing Pod/Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time banned, Golgari Grave-Troll unbanned
Bitterblossom/Nacatl unbanned. DRS banned
Addition of Second Sunrise
Addition of Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song
Removal of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3rd Banned List change with explanations
2nd Banned List change with explanations
1st Banned List change with explanations
Community Cup Announcement with the Initial Ban List.
Old threads:
11/03/2019 - 20/05/2019
21/01/2019 - 11/03/2019
26/11/2018 - 21/01/2019
01/10/2018 - 26/11/2018
08/20/2018 - 01/10/2018
07/02/2018 - 08/20/2018
04/16/2018 - 07/02/2018
02/10/2018 - 04/16/2018
01/15/2017 - 02/10/2018
10/27/2017 - 01/15/2017
7/18/2017 - 10/27/2017
3/23/2017 - 4/24/2017
3/13/2017 - 3/23/2017
1/9/17 Banlist Update
12/8/2016 - 3/13/2017
9/28/2016 - 12/10/2016
7/18/2016 - 9/30/2016
4/4/2016 - 7/18/2016
1/16/2016 - 4/4/2016
7/13/2015 - 1/16/2016
1/19/2015 - 7/13/2015
7/14/2014 - 1/19/2015
2/9/2014 - 7/14/2014
1/20/2014 - 2/10/2014
6/23/2014 - 1/20/2014
4/22/2013 - 6/23/213
1/27/2013 - 4/22/13
9/20/2012 - 1/27/2013
7/19/2012 - 9/20/2012
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
If you like Modern, you'll still like Modern.
If you dont like Modern, you'll still not like Modern.
Here's hoping Horizon's cards can do the trick.
Spirits
Modern is still in desperate need of anything to make it less frustrating to play.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
P.S.
1) a round of applause for Gitaxian Probe, which managed to get banned in Modern, Legacy, Pauper, and the next closest thing to banned in Vintage
2) I couldn't read "Augur of Bolas was still on the table for discussion" with a straight face. Full disclosure, I don't play Pauper, so the things that make Augur ban-worthy elude me. Then again, Bloodbraid Elf was once banned, so congratulations on not making the same mistake twice, I guess?
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
In pauper, in which blue spellslinger strategies dominate, a 2cmc creature with 3 toughness is very hard to get around. Augur can block aggro plans for days. If it was a 1/1 it wouldn't be a problem. This is similar to Deathrite Shaman have 2 toughness, thus being all the more strong.
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
Also Fact or Fiction is a nice add.
I like the green force too. And seasoned pyromancer look like another looting effect for dredge that makes it's own token and has a body.
We got Trophy, but it's only used in Rock. GBx doesn't need more removal it needs other things. It's definitely difficult not to be envious of the other fair decks.
I absolutely cannot see Shadow or GBx decks fairing whatsoever from all of this without some big reveals from Horizon. We need something along the lines of Hym, Sylvan Library or cabal...and I sure as hell know that isn't happening. It seems like WOTC keeps thinking, "hey, look, here's more removal for midrange decks, that should solve it all".
The only viable looking midrange deck right now is Rock. GDS is getting hit big time with so many bad matchups and those decks looking even better with Horizon and WAR.
I feel the same way about Celestial Kirin/Ugin's Conjurant. Even though it is a 4 mana + 0 mana Armageddon, I can't imagine this deck doing all too much.
And Augur of Bolas. The other day when I got an FNM Promo (actually both weeks when I did), I mentioned that this is a terrible card. I still think it is a terrible card and I must have missed it when I skimmed through this B and R announcement.
@Spsiegel1987 - I wouldn't give up so soon. There are still cards to spoil and I have a feeling that Daze may be on the horizon. I really hope(d) not, but I think it has a shot. (I don't think it should have a shot, personally.)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)When did GDS get bad again? It was fine as little as a month ago. Rock, is a niche deck because actual legit fair decks, are niche decks.
Spirits
IMO, Sylvan Library would be a fine addition to the format, but I could see Shadow being the sole reason why WotC might ultimately decide against it.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
Sylvan library would make shadow players have to play jund or 5c which hasn't appeared oppressive or too good for the meta to adapt.
Fair decks needs some kind of card filtering. Or some amazing drs efficient threat. Loot really helped give this flavor of some fair decks doing unfair things.
I'm happy control decks are getting lovenox it just feels like midrange Is lacking love by wotc.
Gds is a good deck, it didn't become bad. Ita just at the moment the meta is awful for it, even at an fnm level. Some high level gds players feel itd very poorly positioned right now. Humans wish tron, dredge and uw...very brutal to hope to dodge so much.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Not sure what the answer is, but blue is getting a metric ton of toys lately I agree.
That's literally a description of every deck. "Either you get a good hand and win, or you get a bad hand and lose."
It seems a little more impactful when your only real win conditions are attacking with one of eight vanilla ground creatures. You play it? If opponents have removal or you don't have your Stub, the deck does a whole lotta nothin.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Not really. GDS has a lot of air compared to most other decks in the format, and its not cantrip's like Phoenix.
Either way. GDS remains a good deck, maybe the new Teferi and Veto are doing enough to push UW which has been a bad match up for GDS in the past, and Humans WAS a bad match up. GDS remains very strong however.
Spirits
If GDS also falls to Tron, then yes, its in a very bad spot among the winners meta right now.
EDIT: Should say, its still a strong strategy, simply in a poor position in the meta and those are not the same thing.
Spirits
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.
WOTC things an abundance of high variance graveyard abuse is healthy. I guess it's time to sell out of the format? I have heard many people compare the past few months to how awful the GGT/Probe meta was, and I agree with them. I'm curious how many at WOTC actually play competitive Modern, instead of simply look at excel spreadsheets of deck labels and card names.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
You've posted this same sentiment about every meta since the Twin ban. I honestly do not understand why you continue to play Modern when you've seemingly hated the format for the entirety of the last 3.5 years. Modern is in a healthy spot right now, with a generally self-policing meta and the ability for multiple strategies to cycle through Tier 1 status as new printings have created new decks or updated old ones.
I've also been playing Modern since before the Twin ban, and to say that the current format is anything like the GGT/Probe one is just absurd. That meta was problematic because the undisputed best decks either killed you on turn 2/3 (Infect and DS Zoo) with perfect information, or presented unbeatable inevitability that required a minimum of 4-6 sideboard cards to overcome (Dredge). The closest thing to that level of degeneracy currently seeing play is Neoform, which is still struggling to put up consistent results and is not even close to the meta share that those three decks occupied at that time.
If you knew, for certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Twin was never being unbanned, would you actually still be playing the format? It really just seems like you're always just hoping for a Twin unban, and literally nothing else is worth considering.
Well, based on the announcement itself, it seems like they were focused on the MC results to assess Modern's health:
Which seems super loose after some months of Phoenix dominance (at least in metagame share).
We already know that we shouldn't make conclusions from a small sample size and that
PTsMCs are not the greatest data source since it combines limited and players are trying to metagame everyone else as there aren't that many players compared to a GP, so using the London MC that tested a new mulligan rule and also gave decklist information, seems rather questionable.I agree that no changes is probably the best outcome for Modern right now but I didn't like that they used the MC as an indicator of how Modern fares to be honest.