There are three assumptions at the core of any banlist decision close reading: These are all recurring ban concepts which have proven valuable in subsequent predictions and risk assessments. The Eye ban also reinforced the precedent of surgical ban strikes on the most offensive card in a given deck, and limiting a ban's collateral damage. Some of those findings remain relevant today, especially Wizards' focus on tournament and performance data from Magic: The Gathering Online and Grand Prix as opposed to "gut instinct" and philosophical evaluations. The last time was in April 2016 when I unpacked the Eye of Ugin ban decision line by line on my old site, Modern Nexus. It's been a while since I published a close reading/deep dive of a banlist update. I enjoy trawling Aaron Forsythe's Twitter account as much as the next Moderner, but I'll take official Wizards statements over contextless Tweets any day of the week. R&D is notoriously tight-lipped about its banning process, which forces Modern stakeholders to scrounge Twitter and other mediums for information scraps about how that process works. This is a disservice both to the R&D writers who carefully select their words to justify significant decisions, and a disservice to our own collective Modern understanding.
When Wizards and its Research and Development team announce banlist changes, it is easy to get caught up in the decisions themselves (Bridge is banned) and miss the underlying rationale (the other 650+ words). Instead, I want to focus on the text in the banlist announcement itself. I also don't want to audit Wizards' decision too heavily I have historically condemned ban mania in Modern, and even I admitted the Hogaak abomination was on borrowed time. I don't want to focus too heavily on the deck's performance record. I know I speak for many Moderners, including banlist voters on Reddit and MTGNexus, when I thank for Wizards axing Bridge today. Rather, it was whether or not Wizards would drop the hammer before the upcoming Mythic Championship or wait until August.
GP DFW also saw Hogaak more than doubling the Day 2 share of the next highest decks (poor Humans and Izzet Phoenix), and it still strong-armed two pilots into the Top 8 despite the graveyard-hate crosshairs on its back.īy July 8, the question was not whether or not Hogaak Bridgevine was bannable. In addition to soundbites like Kanister's Tweet, some of its more offensive achievements included: a 32% Top 32 share in an Jonline Challenge, a 28% Top 64 share at Grand Prix Dallas-Fort Worth, and a 25% Top 32 share at a late June 2019 Mythic Challenge Qualifier. Hogaak Bridgevine tyrannized online and paper lists throughout June 2019. The old 2018 Bridgevine never rose to problematic levels. Modern veterans will remember Bridgevine enjoying scattered 2018 success due to new printings like Stitcher's Supplier.
By the time Piotr 'Kanister' Glogowski was creating 100 power on turn three in early June, it was clear the gameplan was just as good in practice as in theory. It could power out armies of 4/3s, 8/8s, and 2/2 Zombies as early as Turn 2, entrench for a grindy game of Gravecrawler and Vengevine recursion, or just topdeck an Altar/Hogaak mill kill at any point in the game. The new Bridgevine strategy looked disgusting on paper. Modern Horizons entrants Altar of Dementia and Carrion Feeder joined the roster with Bridgevine regulars Stitcher's Supplier and Gravecrawler, alongside format icon red Brainstorm Faithless Looting to create a true monster. The newest villain of 2019 Modern took its name from synergies between Modern Horizons newcomer Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and longtime format rogues Bridge and Vengevine. In case you haven't been following the format since late May, or in case Bridge scared you away, the Future Sight enchantment was a cornerstone in a breakout and totally busted new Modern strategy: Hogaak Bridgevine.
#The looter problem mtg free
At the risk of stealing my own thunder, feel free to jump to the " Most Important Takeaways" section at the bottom if you need the TL DR. This will help us understand Wizards of the Coast's banning process for Bridge, and give us unique insights into how Wizards makes ban decisions generally.
#The looter problem mtg update
I'm going to walk us through a detailed, line-by-line analysis of Ian Duke's banlist update article. Instead, I want to analyze the decision itself. This has significant implications for the metagame going into a July and August tournament stretch, but today I'm not here to focus on new decks or all the sideboard slots you can free up (let's be honest: maybe one?). For many other Modern players, July 8's announcement could not have arrived soon enough: Bridge from Below is banned in Modern.
To quote Caleb Durward's Twitch title from Monday, ding dong the Bridge is dead.
0 kommentar(er)
