Quote from Bearscape »If you haven't tried Baneslayer/Lyra in the side yet you definitely should - they have been completely absurd to me in so many matchups
Whoever came up with that innovation deserves a medal
Truth.
This is the earliest competative finish for a UWx Midrange/Control deck running Baneslayer Angel that I could find on MTGTop8. The deck is labeled 'UW Angels' - and is very similar to Jeskai Midrange / Geists lists that appear in 2013, also with Baneslayer in the side.
'UW Angels - Emanuel Sutor - Grand Prix Lyon 2012, 2nd Place
https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=4233&d=224725&f=MO
'Jeskai Midrange' - Mitchell Manders- Grand Prix Bilbao 2013, 1st Place
https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=4233&d=224725&f=MO
And then this is the first occasion I could find Baneslayer in a UW(x) Control list in the Eldrazi era.
https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=15029&d=290968&f=MO
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List of colorless matters cards that have pumped Tron since Zendikar block:
-Thought Knot Seer
-Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
-Walking Ballista
-Sanctum of Ugin
-World Breaker
-Warping Wail
-Spatial Contortion
-Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
-Emrakul, the Promised End
-Karn, the Great Creator
List of modern playable equipment printed since Batterskull:
-I guess Smuggler's Copter if you squint real hard
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My point is that people adapting does not immediately mean a format is healthy. The red thread of Modern has become that it's better to be linear and be hard to interact with than to try to interact. Triggering Phoenix off casting Surgical Extraction is one thing, but when UW runs mainboard Surgical, a card with virtually no text except against the decks where you basically need it in your opener because your deck of counterspells and removal doesn't really interact well, I say the format is warped. Benjamin Nikolich is running 3 mainboard Relics in his Snapcaster deck!
Another example of a format being beatable but still warped would be the Vintage metagame, where everyone's sideboard and some mainboard has to greatly invest into beating Dredge. Dredge isn't broken in Vintage, it's not even the best deck, but you really need to be ok with half the cards in your deck being textless in many matchups to enjoy playing it.
The format adapts and so do my decklists (to be on a more positive note, Narset and Ashiok from WAR are fantastic additions to Modern) but that does not mean I have to be happy with how the format adapts. And although there is no real single broken deck in the format, the type of strategy you should be playing if your sole intent is spiking a big tournament is, in my opinion, incredibly miserable and unfun.
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In short, mainboardable Surgical Extraction means the format is too unfair for my taste, and it is very easy to post a Simpson's clip and say "just adapt".
When Mirrodin block became so inbred people mainboarded 4x Oxidize, they also adapted, but that does not mean the format wasn't warped.
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The math of doublecasting also stays the same, your untapped sources ALSO stay the same. Keeping a hand with too many colorless sources would be a bad hand with a spell in that 26th land slot just as well.
You have a jar with 20 red marbles, 5 green ones and 35 blue ones. If you replace a blue marble with a green marble your odds of taking out a red marble stay the same.
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If you want to rush to the combo there are much quicker options and if you want to control to end with a lock JtMS and bigTef already do this.
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Both Teferi Time Reveler and Teferi Mage of Zhalfir create a softlock with Knowledge Pool. With one of those Teferis and Knowledge Pool on the table, whenever your opponent casts a spell from hand it will get exiled. They then get to choose a spell under Knowledge Pool to cast but since this is a triggered ability, they are casting whatever they are casting at instant speed (even when cast in their own main phase). Both Teferis forbid this, so the opponent can't cast any spells.
Lavinia Azorius Renegade does effectively the same thing as these Teferis, and Spell Queller's cast on death trigger interacts similarly to Knowledge Pool with Lavinia and Teferis.
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Big question becomes why you are playing that combo and not something else like Devoted Druid.
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Ban policy appears to have shifted, this coincides with RnD preparing the upcoming nonrotating format. No mention of impending doom.
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