Wizards of the Coast shocked the Magic community this morning by unbanning Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf in Modern.
In their announcement, Wizards said that the power level of the Modern format had caught up to Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which has been on the Modern banlist since its inception in 2011. Combine that with the fact that true control decks have always struggled in the format and Wizards felt it was safe to give them a powerful way to close out games.
One of the best follow ups to a Turn 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor has always been a Turn 4 Bloodbraid Elf, which Wizards also unbanned today. Bloodbraid was banned in 2013 because Wizards felt that it was suppressing other midrange green strategies, resulting in Jund being the dominant deck in Modern. Wizards said this morning that green has evolved enough alternative midrange strategies in the past 4+ years that unbanning Bloodbraid Elf can both provide green players with an efficient answer to Jace while not also forcing them to play Jund.
These surprise unbannings come on the heels of a week of speculation about possibly banning cards from Lantern Control, the deck that won Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan last weekend in the hands of Luis Salvatto. While accepting his trophy, Salvatto said that he believed Lantern Control was broken and he had been concerned that it would be banned before the Pro Tour. Calls for a Lantern Control ban quieted over the weekend, however, as Grand Prix Toronto was dominated by assertive strategies and featured a final between Boggles and Burn.
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Read Wizards of the Coast’s announcement unbanning Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf here.