So how about that Modern eh? Between the bans and the Eldrazi explosion it’s been a very crazy month. To be honest, I was pretty happy, albeit surprised, by the Twin ban. It was an annoying deck that was making an otherwise fun format pretty boring and stale. Unfortunately when Twin (and Bloom) were wiped out there was a pretty large hole left to be filled. Last weekend Eldrazi made up more than half of the top 32 and day two overall was 47% Eldrazi. In spite of this Wizards has already come out saying that there won’t be an emergency ban so we’re stuck with this for the foreseeable future. This is an indicative of a much larger problem: Wizards questionable treatment of the ban list, for all formants.
This isn’t the first time I’ve discussed my dislike of how Wizards handles bands, however, in the past I’ve been far more specific when discussing what is leaving me disgruntled. Every format at some point in the last year has been overly dominated by something whether it be Siege Rhino in Standard, Eldrazi in Modern or Omni-Show in Legacy. Siege Rhino has calmed down since new sets have been released and Omni-Show was finally addressed but Eldrazi is being mysteriously ignored. This isn’t the first time they’ve completely ignored a deck that is dominating a format. I’ve written about it before.
I’m sure the art of banning and un-banning cards is an extremely complicated art that I don’t have the skills for. You never know what can happen when you ban a card. The problem seems to be though that Wizards is so worried about shaping metagames how they want that they forget about how the players feel. They definitely aren’t thinking about players as they ignore this Eldrazi mess declaring that there will be no emergency bannings. Eldrazi isn’t the only deck, they ignored Twin for years before they addressed it and they’re still ignoring Miracles in Legacy. I can understand why they are hesitant to address the Eldrazi decks. I’m sure it’s selling Oath packs with Eldrazi seeing play in both Modern and now Legacy but if this keeps up how many people are going to want to play? I love Modern but I’ve been avoiding it since this nonsense started and I’m not the only one.
With Aaron Forsythe’s announcement regarding the fact that there would be no emergency ban, there was quite a bit of (vile and unnecessary) hate. Someone shared the quote with me that, “At least we have confirmation that it’s wise to take a break from modern until April,” which seems about right to me. I see no point in playing Modern, which until further notice will now be known as the Eldrazi format.
Bans have a major impact on players financially and emotionally. I hope Wizards understands the power that it holds over its players when it decides to ban or not to ban a card. Magic is a game, a hobby, it’s something that we all do to have fun. Sometimes it feels like it’s forgotten that Magic is a game that people go to play to escape their everyday lives. I have a feeling that it’ll be awhile until Wizards changes how they address bans but hopefully this Eldrazi madness will be a wake up call.
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.