OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
Took me a minute to realize that gem is supposed to be paired with Bolas mechanics wise.
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Magic: The Gathering |OT|
- Thread starter The Technomancer
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I wondered what the significance of those lands was. Now I know. Good thinking.
Agreed. The team involved with the packaging design has been on a roll lately. LOVED the AVR packaging.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Okay - so, last chance to nail down your predictions! What, if anything, gets banned tonight?
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I'm in the camp that says Ponder. Snapcaster would be too outrageous.
Probably Ponder. It doesn't look like Ponder is getting a reprint anyway, and Snapcaster will be around for a whole new block. If they're gonna ban Snapcaster, they'll probably ban him later rather than sooner.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I'm going to laugh so hard when tonight's ban is Mana Leak
"Turns out Cavern wasn't enough!"
divisionbyzorro
Member
Would banning Ponder fix the Delver problem? Or do they just hope that it will slow it down enough until Scars rotates and the deck loses Vapor Snag/Gitaxian Probe/etc?
Ugh. Speculation is high! If Snaps doesn't get banned, I'm going to regret it if I don't pick up a playset this evening...
Ugh. Speculation is high! If Snaps doesn't get banned, I'm going to regret it if I don't pick up a playset this evening...
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
The problem as I see it is that Snapcaster creates far too many cool interactions to outright ban, its just that there are a handful of interactions with him that are fucking annoying
narcosis219
Member
Ponder sounds like the correct ban. Then we'll finally see the death of all them delvers
I LOVE PONDER =(
Banning ponder would nullify a lot of the versatility of the deck, or any deck that utilizes Snapcaster. It's borderline ridiculous, the Ponder and Snapcaster mix.
I wouldn't be surprised to see both Ponder and Leak get the chop, they are both cycling out soon anyways so it'd be a "safe" ban.
People would be pissed about Snappy, but then again people were pissed about Jace/Stoneforge as well and they were worth more then Snappy is so it *could* happen, I doubt it though.
People would be pissed about Snappy, but then again people were pissed about Jace/Stoneforge as well and they were worth more then Snappy is so it *could* happen, I doubt it though.
Delver is really the only deck using Snappy nowadays, beyond occasional 2-3x appearances in Control.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Does anyone think they'd actually ban Delver itself?
It's rarely Delver that's winning the matches, it's usually Geist of St. Traft. Hell lots of newer decks are not even running any Delvers.
I think without Ponder Delver becomes significantly worse. But sure, they could ban him, a 3/2 flyer for 1 is pretty ridiculous.
narcosis219
Member
Delver is fine by himself. He's just way better if you can rig his trigger via Ponder. Take that away and you have another decent 1 drop.
I would rather they ban Delver but I'm not familiar with their banning process so I can't really decide which they'll go with. My reasoning is that Ponder is an enabler while Delver is the actual problem. Delver can still wreck face even without Ponder, but Ponder by itself cannot give its controller such tempo.
Some Delver decks are cutting Delver. Ponder's issue is that it gives U-based decks using it an absurd edge over the field since they can massively reduce variance. (Same issue w/ Sir Snappy)
narcosis219
Member
Ponder is way worse than delver.
Ponder, in a vacuum, gives you so much flexibility because it lets you reorder top 3 or just straight up shuffle if the cards aren't what you want. AND it lets you draw a card on top of that, all for 1 mana. It's really a powerful card by itself.
Delver, in a vacuum, has about a 30-50% chance of flipping over to his 3/2 flying side. If you miss this transformation and can't get him flipped by turn 3 or 4, he's a chump on the board. The transformation is way less threatening later in the game (after turn 3) because every deck will have board presence or mana to deal with him. Also, revealing a Mana Leak kind of helps your opponent to plan around it.
Ponder, in a vacuum, gives you so much flexibility because it lets you reorder top 3 or just straight up shuffle if the cards aren't what you want. AND it lets you draw a card on top of that, all for 1 mana. It's really a powerful card by itself.
Delver, in a vacuum, has about a 30-50% chance of flipping over to his 3/2 flying side. If you miss this transformation and can't get him flipped by turn 3 or 4, he's a chump on the board. The transformation is way less threatening later in the game (after turn 3) because every deck will have board presence or mana to deal with him. Also, revealing a Mana Leak kind of helps your opponent to plan around it.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Snapcaster is dropping on MTGO Traders; it's at the lowest I've seen it yet.
You guys are making me feel very good about making a purchase here soon...
You guys are making me feel very good about making a purchase here soon...
Grab it immediately at Midnight if its not banned.
Keru_Shiri
Member
Ponder makes the most sense. It's common, so no worries from the "spent $100 on rares" camp. It's no stranger to the ban list, and making Delver consistently blind flip instead of getting a second turn setup is probably more in line with what they intended and makes the creature a bit more "fair," IMO.
If it were up to me, I would throw a torch on the entirety of standard and ban Ponder, Snapcaster, Primeval Titan and Phantasmal Image. That would weaken or kill almost all the the top decks in the format, and we would have a metagame shift before the big rotation.
Realisticly? Ponder is probably dead- its a common so there is no money involved, its already banned in Modern, and its not a card that little Timmy is going to show up to FNM with and cry when he gets DQ'd for having an illegal card in his deck. I would like to see Snapcaster go as well, but he probably gets a stay of execution for now- if he is still dominate come the next list, he dies.
Legacy is a bit hazy. I think its finally time for Show and Tell to go. It will weaken Grizzlebrand enough to where the only ways to easily cheat him into play now will be Reanimate (which leaves you at a precarious life total after drawing cards), and Sneak Attack (which only gets him out for 1 hit).
Realisticly? Ponder is probably dead- its a common so there is no money involved, its already banned in Modern, and its not a card that little Timmy is going to show up to FNM with and cry when he gets DQ'd for having an illegal card in his deck. I would like to see Snapcaster go as well, but he probably gets a stay of execution for now- if he is still dominate come the next list, he dies.
Legacy is a bit hazy. I think its finally time for Show and Tell to go. It will weaken Grizzlebrand enough to where the only ways to easily cheat him into play now will be Reanimate (which leaves you at a precarious life total after drawing cards), and Sneak Attack (which only gets him out for 1 hit).
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Well the Titans are basically confirmed to be out, thank god.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Various vague comments basically amounting to "R&D doesn't like the effect the Titans have on the game" as well as how we haven't seen one previewed yet.
divisionbyzorro
Member
It's been known for a while; they don't fit into the number crunch for M13.
Awesome.
Yeah, I didn't think they would reprint them but I also didn't think they'd ban them. No big deal, just means I can do some more creative things with my green deck now--
*realizes he can no longer reliably pull Kessig Wolf Runs*
--Hmmm.
But seriously, screw the Titans. Glad they're gone now.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Oh really? Nice.
divisionbyzorro
Member
Yep! Primal Huntmage is 182; Primordial Hydra is 183.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Midnight EST.
divisionbyzorro
Member
I pulled the trigger and bought a playset of Snapcasters.
Snapcaster banned, confirmed.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Why griselbrand? He's not really broken.
divisionbyzorro
Member
There was a lot of talk of him being stupidly OP in Legacy.
And then last weekend SCG had a Legacy open without a single Griselbrand in the top 8.
By the way, that stream was my first time seeing a legacy Elf deck in action. I think I fell in love...
And then last weekend SCG had a Legacy open without a single Griselbrand in the top 8.
By the way, that stream was my first time seeing a legacy Elf deck in action. I think I fell in love...
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
No chance he gets banned then.
SCG opens don't really count for too much in terms of what gets banned or not.
divisionbyzorro
Member
No, but it will likely give them pause before banning a card two months after its release.
But if he was good enough to be considered bannable in that format then he would have made a more impressive showing, even at a SCG open.
SCG has legacy opens every weekend just about, different regions might have different meta's not to mention their Invitationals for Standard were happening around the same time. Griselbrand is too good for Legacy, just like every other draw 7 card that can be abused. This one is on a 7/7 body that has evasion and lifelink. Even if you were to remove him at instant speed they can still use the effect and in cases like Show/Sneak decks that's 7 new cards to draw a counterspell for your removal. He might get by without being banned tonight but he will eventually end up on the list.
Edit:
If they really wanted to give Griselbrand a fair chance they'd just ban Show and Tell first.
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