MTG Salvation

Banning duals would be very interesting, but they won't do this because they are not really that interested in managing the legacy format. Top was the last card banned and that was only because it interfered with tournaments causing them to go to time each round.

Skirk Prospector is for a very different deck than gifts Storm. I think someone will find a way to use it, but it won't be this deck.

Speaking of Dominaria: what do people think will happen with Damping Sphere? Should we go up to 2 Shattering Sprees to help combat this card? Or is one Spree + mainboard Repeal and possibly another mainboard bounce effect good enough?

That seems about right.

If you banned the fetchlands, players would have to play more duals. This increases the costs of manabases and makes blood moon / back to basics even better. It would certainly shake up the format quite a bit.

If you banned the dual lands, that would greatly reduce the cost of manabases and it would be interesting. But people who own duals would be very upset. I can't see it happening because they have been around since the beginning and they are so iconic.

I think to some extent new cards can improve this situation without necessitating a rules change. But this means more reactive cards like Timely Reinforcements would need to be printed.

I do believe this could happen in standard and limited if they change their design philosophy a bit to favor reactive elements in the game rather than aggressive ones.

In modern, there are such a huge variety of threats that it is very difficult to line up the correct answers to all of them. This is one of the major complaints with the format. Aether Vial / Cavern blanks counterspells. Hexproof creatures / non-creature decks blank removal spells. And so forth.

In legacy, control is a bit better. Force of Will helps the player on the draw quite a bit. The ability to set up one-mana board wipes with terminus is a thing. Going first is still an advantage, but I think its not as significant as in standard and modern because of all of the cheap interaction going around.

Solution: print lots of new reactive/answer cards for standard, and thus limited and modern. Its possible that play design will help get this done, but we can't guarantee it. It's much easier to remediate standard in this way than it is to remediate modern.

Shalai doesn't come down turn 4, she comes down turn 3 because you are most likely playing her in a deck with green and therefore mana acceleration.

I can see her in some sort of Chord of Calling or Eldritch Evolution list. Unfortunately she doesn't play well with CoCo

Fun land cycle for limited / standard / commander. The green one may even show up in modern as it seems like the best one

Vs Jund and Jeskai decks, is it correct to board out all of the creatures and swap them with Pieces of the Puzzles and Empty the Warrens?

I think this could work well because they have so much creature spot removal that your guy is never going to live. What does everyone think?

Modern continues to look fantastic and "surprise surprise" Jace is not destroying the format. nor is Bloodbraid Elf for that matter

With the reprints of Sundering Titan and Chalice of the Void in Masters 25, I'm thinking of building Mono Blue Tron.

How many Chalice are typically played between main and side? Hopefully its price drops to sub $50 levels. Gosh I remember when that card was $10 a pop

Outside of Ancient Stirrings on the watchlist, there's nothing in the current format I would ban. Stirrings adds a bit too much consistency to Tron and lantern.

Jace and BBE are fine. Jace's main problem is his price, not his power level.

I would unban Stoneforge Mystic and Splinter Twin next. After those two, maybe Green Sun's Zenith as the next safest unban.

I personally love me some Chrome Mox but I can see why they would err on the side of caution with that one. It might make belcher finally playable though

Would Dread Return even do anything if it were unbanned? Again, like Blazing Shoal, it's probably better just to leave it banned. But I doubt if it would even impact the format at all

Field of Ruin is great, and it gives control/midrange a better chance at beating Tron which was normally a very difficult matchup.

This is the 3 mana counterspell i want Wizards to print

Counterspell/Boomerang Mashup 1UU
Instant
Choose one:
. Counter target spell
. Return target permanent to its owner's hand

Oh look, another set that will barely impact standard.

I don't understand how wizards can print a set with such a high power level as Kaladesh Block and then one with such a low power level as Ixalan and expect anyone to buy the new product. Were they expecting Kaladesh to rotate out by the time this set was released?

Looks like the last batch is mostly limited filler.

4 mana, sorcery speed murder? Really?

Strictly worse Coercion reprint with a new name? Why?

Straight up reprints from Ixalan? What's going on here?

This is why Play Design's impact cannot come soon enough.