This week Wizards did what I’ve always wanted it to do but I never believed would actually happen—they banned Splinter Twin in Modern. I’m not the only one who was shocked by this. I’m pretty sure the whole world was surprised to see anything besides an unbanning of Stoneforge Mystic (thought it seems no one was shocked to see Summer Bloom banned). Twin has been the bane of my existence for quite some time, with its ability to win seemingly out of nowhere. Just knowing you were playing against Twin would slow down most decks. Always afraid to tap out against them if they had the ability to make four mana on their next turn. While my well known love for Tron, Infect and Jund contribute to my happiness that Twin has now been banned, it actually runs much deeper than that.
Twin has been a huge part of the Modern metagame for a long time, stifling the format. It’s been almost 15% of the metagame at times for a couple of years now, which is not a small number. If this complaint sounds familiar it’s because I said the exact same thing about Miracles when I wrote about how I feel about that deck. Wizards’ first line in the B&R announcement when discussing why Twin was banned was, “We also look for decks that hold a large enough percentage of the competitive field to reduce the diversity of the format.” So my question to Wizards is why are you still ignoring Miracles? I know that Modern and Legacy are not the same format and that Modern gets special treatment since it’s featured in the Pro Tour, but this seems like a rule that applies across all formats. The section on Splinter Twin in the B&R ends with the statement, “In the interest of competitive diversity, Splinter Twin is banned from Modern.” Why is competitive diversity only an issue they address in Modern? I think for any format to be healthy that needs to be encouraged.
A big part of Wizards’ argument for banning Twin is that it has been in almost every Modern top 8 for the entire existence of the format. This can be said of Miracles as well, at least for the past few years. If you look at the ‘Decks to Beat’ section Miracles is number one for every month back to last June when it was still number one but tied with OmniTell (which is no longer a deck). I know that those calculations include dailies, but considering how little Legacy is offered in large swaths of the country you can’t discount tournaments like these that help keep Legacy going.
I hope that Wizards’ decision to ban Splinter Twin in Modern because of its extended dominance of the metagame means that they will take the time to address the same issue with Miracles in Legacy. Right now everyone is talking about how Wizards has abandoned Eternal formats such as Legacy and Vintage, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. Even ignoring the rumors regarding an Eternal Masters set Wizards has directly come out to say that they aren’t abandoning Eternal formats and I think we need to take their word at face value. Though if Wizards wants the Legacy community to trust them then they need to put the same amount of thought into the Legacy banlist that they put into the Modern banlist. I know Legacy isn’t a huge moneymaker for them but it’s full of die-hard Magic fans who are loyal and still buy product. Overall I think it’s important that Wizards make the small sacrifice of actually putting the same time and effort into Legacy’s banlist as they do for Modern’s.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH or Standard if she’s desperate.
