Mox Opal and Splinter Twin Have Been Unbanned

[@Dotesmite]

the monkeys paw curls and the best twin shell is boros energy

[@astrograph7875]

oh god.... If it actually becomes the best twin shell I'm gonna cry

[@demiurge2501]

you can double the token copies with ocelot pride lmao

[@erikedelkamp473]

@@demiurge2501 bruh…

[@danieldelmara]

Sadly yeah. As far as I know abt the current meta, with Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride, it's going to be the best place for it, and with raptor gone they have 4 slots empty, and cutting four more slots they can fit in FOMO for the infinite combo.

[@seangoldman6833]

@@danieldelmara Good news! The ring was banned too so those slots are open as well.

[@zonko]

I was google searching you 5 seconds ago trying to find if you talked about this then the notif hits lol

[@PleasantKenobi]

I gave it a day, and played some Modern first.

[@colinhobbs7265]

I don't think Jegantha was banned for being too good, it was banned for being too boring.

[@Hapkins-le6xf]

Banned for being too free. Majority of decks playing it didn't need to make any deck building choices, they could naturally run it so they did.

[@d.barrett578]

Ya. It is definitely because it discourages deck diversity. Not because it was too strong.

[@epochsgaming]

​@@d.barrett578not really. A lot of decks fit the requirement without even considering Jegantha. Well see if removing him causes lists to change and add double pips, but i don't think that happens much. I she this one wasn't strictly based on power but rather lack of sacrifice to get the bonus

[@d.barrett578]

@epochsgaming Right, so what I meant is that it may have killed small variations people may have made in their decks. Like certain sideboard cards not being played or certain 1 or 2 ofs that people may have experimented with that they just didn't because of the restriction not affecting the most important cards in the deck. It is the cards passive potential to further limit card diversity within a specific deck that, while not dire, just serves to make the format have less expression and experimentation.

[@epochsgaming]

@d.barrett578 well said. Also, seems accurate

[@tomnookyankees3761]

I remember when stoneforge first got unbanned and you immediately were about getting splinter unbanned back in 2019. Truly ahead of the curve.

[@thergonomic]

Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Birthing Pod's unban next.

[@Grumpollion]

Oh my God. The tasteful thickness of it. It even has a watermark.

[@joehemmerling6793]

I can’t believe Grumpillion likes thergonomic’s unbans more than mine.

[@thatguyintherain3168]

The bans were coming, but the unbans are so fricking surprising

[@jasonking3182]

You just know the Infinity gauntlet is going to make The One Ring look like JuJus Bubble in a few years!

[@EbonAvatar]

I knew you'd be frothing at the gash over this news!

[@PleasantKenobi]

You know me too well!

[@EbonAvatar]

@@PleasantKenobi By the by, I used that phrase in conversation with my wife once. She thought it was the grossest thing she'd ever heard in her life. Well done, mate, you coined a good one!

[@screwthisin]

I was expecting a PK video the day of the B&R announcement.

[@refundreplay]

WotC saw people playing "Modern 2015", and said... "Wait wait wait... What if it was an official format, then you could give us more of your money? That sound good?"

[@LeifTheRogue]

“But they were all of them were deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of-“

[@Kryptnyt]

"-the Elder Scrolls Universes Beyond set, a modern legal product, there was The Mundane Ring-"

[@DAsrada]

> Lord of the Rings is a well designed set. I try and tell my new playgroup this over and over. For some reason, in a group that includes Jodah the Unifier and Meren, it's SARUMAN THE WHITE HAND that's the "overpowered design mistake".

[@minerman60101]

Big creature scary... anyway on my upkeep I'll sacrifice Viridian Emissary to Smothering Abomination--get a land tapped draw a card--then I'll play Wood Elves--get a forest untapped--and then cast Primal Growth sacrificing the Wood Elves--draw a card--getting two untapped basics I'll use to cast Sakura Tribe Elder and sac it--get a land tapped, draw a card--and then Meren brings back Wood Elves on my end step--get an untapped forest--and I'll use that to sac it to Evolutionary Leap--draw a card, draw the next creature card from the top of my library.

[@nickjoseph77]

Remember when they banned the summer bloom or whatever it's called for amulet titan and almost nothing happened to their results?

[@LakeVermilionDreams]

Amulet Titan is a fine deck to have in Modern! If it's ever too good, Tron can come and beat us down!

[@TheArcv2]

I will always associate amulet bloom with that one guy who would palm unbeatable amulet bloom opening hands

[@boringmonkey6958]

I'm honestly heartbroken that Boros Energy is allowed to carry on running rampant in Historic. I read an article recently about how diverse Historic is, and the article implied the meta was the most diverse meta ever seen... But all I ever seem to get is Boros Energy Boros Energy Boros Energy. PLEASE! I'm EXHAUSTED of Ajani + Goblin Bombardment. So many decks just CAN NOT deal with it!

[@ephyewt00]

As a Hollow Bois player, the Faithless Looting unban is hnng

[@Rev3rberations]

The prophecy has come to pass. "Every few years, when the moon sits high and full in the sky, Dredge will get -a new toy- an old toy back." Welcome back, Faithless Looting.

[@Mischievous_Moth]

Ugh, as though Mox Opal wasn't expensive enough as it is...

[@kylegonewild]

If they bring it off and decide it can stay off it incentivizes them to use it to sell future packs.

[@Maker_of_manners]

The other side of the coin are people like me. Modern horizons caused me to quit modern as the format sped up and the ban had me move opals to edh or a binder. I agree that the expensive pay to play aspect is unfortunite. I want to play 93/94 and I dont own power. End the ban list and reprint expensive singles!

[@L_Zant]

I own 1. So I'll proxy 10 😊

[@gearframe87]

It's nice to know some of the Formats most powerful decks will be back, and some of them will be almost playable against post 2019 MTG.

[@DerekScottBland]

GSZ surprised me, seeing as the reason for banning it was "it makes us have to evaluate every green creature printed and make sure it can't be abused with GSZ, so banning GSZ is easier."

[@edwardsperring9214]

We now have Chord, Finale and Invasion of Ikoria. The days of GSZ being the best and only real tutor to field in its class are long gone so it's much safer now.

[@DerekScottBland]

@@edwardsperring9214 - GSZ costs less.

[@somethingelse1339]

0:33 That's the only Sonic quote I know!

[@atingley0913]

Just started the video and maybe you'll answer this in the vid, but i hope this means more Modern play content from you! Love watching you play modern! 💜

[@dyne313]

I wish they would just revert the Companion mechanic back the original wording and just ban every card using the mechanic in every format, like they do with ante and some conspiracy nonsense.

[@houndoom73]

They should have put the burden counters on the player. That way you can't just reset the amount of life lost when you play the one ring. Or they could have made it say you can only have one copy of the one ring. Hell they could have even made similar to the old legend rule that if another player also plays the one ring then they are both destroyed or maybe the old one goes away. It would have been more flavorful to it being THE ONE RING

[@calebbarnhouse496]

Deck limit one, if another one ring enters the battlefield, all one rings are exiled from play and cannot be casted for the rest of the game.

[@seandun7083]

Would love to see Simian Spirit Guide and Deathrite Shaman. It's always seemed weird to me that they were all about removing fast mana and then just decided that Eldrazi/Tron still gets to have some with Ugin's Labyrinth, and now artifact decks get some with Mox Opal. These days there are worse things than T1 Chalice of the Void. I don't get why Deathrite should remain banned when Ragavan is allowed. Both are off color conditional mana dorks that give 3 total stats and have 2 other abilities. Both are banned in legacy, but I think at this point neither is an issue in the current card pool. The extra toughness also helps bring back mana dork decks that have been shredded to bits due to Bowmasters, W&6, Goblin Bombardment, Yawgmoth, Fury, etc over the past few years and it gives an interesting choice when compared to delighted halfling while also helping to reign in Faithless Looting if it ends up being too strong.

[@Jack-o-lantern-92]

Deathrite is much stronger than ragavan, but it could likely come back

[@nickjoseph77]

Mox Opal was crazy. Faithless Looting was mad. Splinter Twin is probably fine. I totally missed the Green Sun but that's neat. I still wish One Ring was the first restricted to one of card in modern but I can totally respect actual modern players not wanting anyone top decking their one of copy and making people table flip.

[@johngibbons2646]

Tron/karn decks would be the best ring deck cause you could always just tutor it up

[@gannonkendrick9343]

Jegantha is FAR from a free vanilla 5/5. The ways I've seen that mana ability broken are almost too many to count. It's not 'just flavor text'. It's what makes it a good card. Cheat it in and give it haste. It's not that hard to do. Untap it with Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner. You've got WWUUBBRRGG, potentially on turn three or four. On paper, it seems extremely slow. But there's so much ramp, cheat, and graveyard shenanigans available to us that, in practice, it wins games. So no. It's not just a problem with companion. The companions that have been banned are genuinely just that good. Also, the majority of companions are available to play. Zirda, Obosh, Keruga, Lutri, Umori, Gyruda, and Kaheera are all still legal in modern, and are all certainly more powerful than a vanilla 5/5. The companions they've banned are literally just Lurrus, Yorion, and Jegantha. Actually, Jegantha is less like a free 5/5, and more like a free Chromatic Orrery.

[@SyntheticEvil]

Hardened Scales Affinity is back! BABY!

[@scottmacwatters]

I think Static Prison needs the ban between the two. Sun Cleanser is great hate against most of energy EXCEPT static prison handles it for 1 mana. Discharge can’t remove cleanser. Make people go down on their energy synergy. Prison outside of energy is also get rid of anything for 2 turns. 2 turns in modern is amazing.

[@LakeVermilionDreams]

A 3/x First Striker blocks infinite FOMOs all day long!! Now if only there was one for 2 generic mana.... Lol idc if Twin sucks, I'm loving that it's back!!

[@IronMiridian]

Check out Porcelain Legionnaire! A measly 2 life for exactly what you're looking for!

[@Azeria]

I was shocked when they mentioned Fear of Missing Out in the Standard part of the article, I’ve never seen it played. There’s like half a dozen better ways to fuel your graveyard in Standard alone right now and most of them aren’t in a colour you don’t want to be playing in your graveyard decks!

[@thefluffymunchkin5430]

It's really nice seeing you excited about modern again!

[@Zetimenvec]

I'm gonna see if I can put back together my lantern top deck. Maybe I'll actually start playing magic again.

[@worstcyberpunkdystopia2188]

Shortly after the card came out, someone really drove it home for me when they said it was "kind of a colorless ancestral recall stapled to kind of a time walk"

[@storeblaa]

Were soooooo back , looove it so much ive already loved modern, but it is way more fun when everyone is happy!

[@olipod5470]

Just as I’ve been searching if you’ve done a video about it, how convenient

[@WorldofSoupS]

I like their idea of diverifying the top card pool by adding classic powerhouses

[@ecpracticesquad4674]

I am super excited for the unbanning of opal and looting, two of my personal favorites. However, I do think, both, looting and opal are the most likely to break the format, again, and be re-banned in the future.

[@NeverDauntedRadioNetwork]

Lantern Control will draw the appropriate amount of tears.

[@brandtthebrent7227]

I'm super excited about the Vexing Bauble ban in legacy, because it means I can actually run my budget Mississippi River list and then lose to hate in game 2 and 3 instead of game 1. I'm also really excited to see Mox Opal unbanned in modern as it was present in many of my favorite lists, and I'm excited to see what non-Urza artifact lists it can find a home in. I'm most hoping it gives Lantern Control a chance to stand back up again, but I fear the horizons sets (and honestly over five years of power creep) have probably done too much damage to the speed of the format and the power of threats to make that kind of list viable in general.

[@ecoKady]

That flashback to 29 year baby PleasantKenobi was adorable. He is soooo cute!

[@TheForeverRanger]

I think a simple fix would have tied the burden counters to the player rather than the card. Would have limited the stacking of The One Ring.

[@MrPiotrV]

but, other than companions, they _never_ errata stuff, and for good reason. once cards have been printed, the text is fixed and there's no changing that. erratas make the game very strange since what's written on the card is not what the card does.

[@dougfile6644]

I don't play modern so I shouldn't get a vote anyway, but thematically I'd have loved to see it restricted to 1 copy

[@michaelsparks1571]

Decks that would otherwise love GSZ but want non-green creatures with MV4-or-less already have that. It's called Lively Dirge, or what I affectionately call it "Black Green Sun's Zenith" The One Ring I think just from a flavor aspect should have been used to test a "self-Restricted" mechanic like the inverse of the "You can run any number of..." where your deck can only have one period. Call it something like Unique or Iconic or some such.

[@seandun7083]

Sure, though it's not also a mana dork

[@Hapkins-le6xf]

Yorian is in pioneer. It's not a free card like jegantha though. Rakdos played jegantha because they could, no deck building choices were needed naturally. Yorian requires choices to be made and the deck needs to actually want yorian for it to be worth it. Niv to light and enigmatic use yorian, people have tried control yorian but it doesn't work well. I'd be fine with banning yorian, but I don't think it's a problem and the decks using it a pretty unique and neat.

[@posisteve]

I'm excited but this could backfire with the power of these cards

[@JoshOfFire]

When the original companion rule was around I floated a potential change for it to my friends, and I still think my change would've been better than the one we got. I thought they should've changed the mulligan rule so you put an extra card back if you have a companion. It would've meant build-around decks that actually want the companion's effect still get reliable access to it, but puts a real cost on it for decks running it just because. Maybe it still would've needed more, but it definitely would'vs avoided the 8th card problem.

[@d.barrett578]

My argument from this unban is that Green Sun might still end up being too strong. Not saying this is a sure thing, but out of everything unbanned it seems to have the most potential to be broken. We will definitely give it a few months for the meta to settle. But I will be unsurprised if it's too good.

[@nosrin1988]

too little too late to be honest. I doubt they'll have any real impact given all the power creep. There are some who think they just need to remove the horizon sets, and other non-standard sets, for a start. Me, I dunno, never got into modern, no chain lightning or price of progress. :(

[@drmajalis1583]

I'm worried that these unbans will just result in Ruby Storm being the new meta defining deck

[@langstoncoates1636]

I'm patiently awaiting the next installment of DBZ bees combo deck with green sun's zenith :D

[@collardcow4183]

10:40 Kappa Cannoneer was actually a card born of commander precons, and was later brought to modern via a horizons set, but the card wasn’t initially intended for modern play. Akshully 🤓

[@Bobalini1]

4:00 To clarify, companion was another clear attempt from WotC to steal the commander format or otherwise test very obvious "for commander" style mechanics while failing to understand that EDH first and foremost power limit is player intention.

[@vincentkuijpers9219]

should wizzards reprint all the the cars they unban?

[@sokas3000]

Most exciting to me personally is the Maverick style toolbox-y deck enabled by Green Sun's being unbanned. I hope if Amulet gets too strong they don't re-ban GSZ and just hit something specifically played in Amulet. Toolbox decks are really cool and I'm a big fan of them and I hope it's good enough to see a good amount of play.

[@Pimpulus]

are we sure that sonic said that?

[@kennedyrichards89]

Now the age old question: if they could unban Primeval Titan in Commander, that would be the next light of days that would bring a tear to my eye 🥲🥹

[@AJHaydenTV]

I'm not unhappy about any of the changes made; however, I wish they had hit Phlage. It's too hard to interact without a bunch of exile effects, and when you can't exile it, it's crazy powerful.

[@DaWasabiHD]

Im ready to lose with my Rootwallas and my Faithless Looting alongside Lilly of the Veil.

[@McLelland91]

Was funny to see the price spike on Mox Opal on TCG Player on the 12-14th weekend.

[@ThisProgram]

I am going to use this in my next campaign. Great system.

[@NarrativeStudies]

The universe and planet have been saved

[@wehpudicabok6598]

I feel like it's only a matter of time before they have to ban Looting again. It was *ubiquitous* back in 2019.

[@ctomsky]

Love me some Twinter Splin

[@screwthisnaming]

would you share the maverick list? :) i hope the twin list that wins out is temur, but it pribably will be jeskai stoneblade or something

[@dashkatae]

Twin probably main decks Vexing Bauble to help combat free spells and plays a control shell with it. Vexing Bauble against Mox Opal is kinda funny as well.

[@whitehawkomega]

Kahiera is the only companion I ever really played, and that was in a cat deck.

[@someguy1ification]

I'd rather they unban Bridge From Below.

[@thenotoriouspie]

cherri0s is going to become the next protector of the format istg

[@Tsunamiis]

I Feel like twin is just like an energy version of the old felidar blink shell with walkers and one combo wincon

[@Aaron.Seabolt]

The bans were good, the unbans just shows the power creep thanks to modern horizons. I don’t think the unbans really matter that much, aside from Faithless Looting.

[@cerilious]

If guide of souls is the only thing holding together the architype is it really a good archetype?

[@brettwalker8694]

Unban simian spirit guide!

[@seandun7083]

Yeah. Axing that while saying "we don't want fast mana in modern" then printing Ugin's Laberinth was rude. If they are giving us back Mox Opal, then they should free the monkey.

[@LaBlueSkuld]

Kinda wish I bought the set of Mox Opals when I had been thinking about it. Oh well. I'll still build Mardu Pyromancer or Izzet Phoenix at the very least.

[@kartoffelnpommesgut]

Well, finally, I can play dredge again.

[@Alikaakui808]

I was kind of hoping for the bracket system to be announced.

[@maclenag91]

JUND delirium is a big modern deck that's gonna want faithless looting . Twin is back baby!!!!

[@dogeparut]

Trust me they don't need to ban the other companions in modern. They are hard to build around

[@atlys258]

TWIN IS BACK BABY!!!

[@zakskiver]

They need to unbanned deathrite shamen. I feel like it would be perfectly fine.

[@edwardsperring9214]

Shaman is an insanely good card, it slots into a lot of decks, and it enables a lot of the Modern Horizons stuff. It also enables the 4-5c soup decks super hard. We don't want the return of decks like Omnath with just a pile of broke Modern Horizons mythics and that is what DRS does.

[@zakskiver]

@@edwardsperring9214 I think feel like it would be fine in modern. it's a whole different format than it was back when the card was legal. I think it can make some decks more powerful, but I see no harm in it ever coming back.

[@OniXraxis]

Bought a Foil Mox Opal last month... turns out I made a good decision to not wait til the new year. lol.

[@DaniDoyle]

i first started playing magic a month before the twin ban. makes me feel old....

[@refundreplay]

Imagine playing when Ice Age was a new set. 🥲

[@syndicate5357]

We're back!

[@tomcadden8054]

Do we think The One Ring would get banned if it had the flavorful line of text "A deck may only play 1 copy of The One Ring"?

[@korsvisscher4898]

If Phoenix is a real deck again, I might, might get back into modern

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

this means the power creep has out creeped these cards. that said since i played back in 2016 / 17 i was very much in the camp that splinter twin should have never been banned, eldrazi and lantern control was much more oppressive, it was banned because of its versatility, you could fit it in any red blue engine yes but i am not to sure that was a valid reason, and it was a massive mistake.

[@astrograph7875]

16:08 but it just looks so damn COOLLLLLLLLLL

[@Rabid_Wombat]

Ban something busted and unban something even more busted. Business as usual.

[@cannibalskitchen8421]

I kinda wanna see hogaak bridge vine vs boros energy.

[@haileydee9954]

Fatal Push is in 53% of Pioneer decks with an average of 3.9 per deck, should it be banned? That seems over represented.

[@marcobiraghi]

Push doesn’t win games.

[@PedroFigs]

I get your point, but Fatal Push is just an answer, not a threat. There are games when it will just sit in your hand and do nothing.

[@Jack-o-lantern-92]

S tier bait

[@Maker_of_manners]

Green suns will be good for human toolbox architypes

[@martonlerant5672]

Man, don't you recall summer bloom ban?

[@samuelhain2160]

Another problem with vanilla creature companion is just how splashable cards are in general. watsee has made it a habit to not have double of the same mana symbol. We are at the crazy point where multicolor cards are more splashable than single color cards with double color pips, and then watsee uses "color restrictions" to justify the power creep on those cards. It's just bad design IMO. tl;dr: the restriction on this, and all the best, companion is too lax.

[@richardanderson9092]

The real question is - do these bannings and unbannings help mono-red Tron?

[@WhipLash42o]

Sure.

[@chaoticjexak]

this list kind of makes me wanna play modern, mostly becuase a few people i know are very salty about one ring bans.

[@TyrWolf88]

Fake news. Sonic was dead when the human girl kissed him, so he said nothing. Also, gonna point out again that Companion as a mechanic isn't the problem. Keruga is kinda bad, Umori is for meme decks, and Kaheera is one of the "just okay"est cards I've ever seen (although they have made a bunch of strong cats this year), and that's without considering you can just main deck them. The problem comes from specific Companion costs being far less restrictive than what was likely intended on creatures with too much value on them, like Lurrus.

[@ryanlatimer9447]

Doesnt change the real, underlying problems with Modern,

[@samuelhain2160]

If Companions need to be part of the game, they need to go all in. There is no balance where there will be companion and non-companion decks. Remove the errata and make all formats commander lite, or just get rid of them entirely. There is no middle ground here.

[@nickjoseph77]

Fear of Missing Out can't go infinite. You would draw your deck and lose. How does that deck win against a board?

[@ClubbingSealCub]

am I the only one not excited by the new banlist? boros is still withnout a doubt a top dog deck, faithless looting and mox opal means dumb bullcrap like vengevine-hollow one and affinity casting kappa canoneers on t1 are back on the menu, and splinter twin is now a deck that has access to free countermagic (flare of denial)

[@Tempest_Murder]

Remember when Stoneforge Mystic did nothing wrong?

[@pierrebaillargeon9531]

Just need to ease up on hate for X/1 creatures now... yeah, that would be a bowmaster ban. You'd still have your wren and six, plague engineers and what not, but it would be a start.

[@PedroFigs]

I hate this energy deck because almost every card is a one for two. So long, good bye, damn dinosaur! The deck has lost an important key to it, but I think it’s still pretty strong.

[@gannonkendrick9343]

For as long as I live, there will never be a card I hate more than I hated the One Ring. If it didn't exist and wasn't advertised to dishonestly promote collector boxes, I might have actually bought some of Tales of Middle Earth. I might have participated in modern. It's everything wrong with Wizards of the Coast. Its banning was too late. And its existence takes the joy of this hobby for me and taints it. I will never feel about this game the same way I did before the One Ring's introduction. And that's a little sad to me.