WoTC bans card before it even exists

Pauper is made up though
#magicthegathering #mtg #mtgcommunity #mtgcommunity

[@DouglasShulby]

Floating 30 blue mana is them being nice

[@darksideofthesand]

The mana floated wasn't green so it's balanced.

[@harry-pg5ki]

@@darksideofthesand it's not like they need 30 mana when floating one or two blue is more then enough of a threat with the counters lol

[@Xhelos]

"Head this powerful" is great

[@threefoursevenhundred2405]

Wouldn't be the first time-ish *skullclamp noises*

[@kuldana413]

I liked that one

[@leopardbunny]

I would definitely hope it would be.

[@dezmondsunflowerviii8396]

He's right I can't

[@art-o-cart5166]

So. No head? 🦶 💥🛹. 📱💥

[@bryanstrahm9961]

Only 30 mana and just one expletive? The most polite Nadu player you'll ever meet

[@livedandletdie]

blue players in general, aren't that nice. But I wouldn't know, anyways, Island, Go.

[@theEevee098]

To be fair, WotC is not in charge of Pauper. They have their own panel, and Gavin V announced it purely because he has reach not because he works for WotC

[@paulcurran302]

Also pauper has two major events coming up in the weeks after mh3 officially drops, they cannot physically give cranial ram enough time to “simmer” without it completely warping the format due to slotting into grixis affinity

[@ryanbolson23]

To be fair, WOTC doesn’t need people like you defending them and their actions. They make the cards 2 years in advance, if they did their jobs designing them with balance instead of profits this wouldn’t be happening.

[@justinsaunders110]

@@ryanbolson23 I mean it’s a derivative format, it’s ok that wotc isn’t making cards with pauper in mind. You could tell them to make it uncommon but then that affects the limited environment they’re trying to create. I’m not really happy with the way that magic has been going either but this is just a terrible take

[@ryanbolson23]

@@justinsaunders110 the card is a remake of an already banned card at that rarity level. It’s not just indicative of ignoring one format, it’s being blissfully ignorant to card strength and balance. Like 10 of the cards this set are cards already banned but slightly different this time.

[@Crushanator1]

Like cmon friends "do you think we should designing cards for poor people" is barely a joke. It's literally not a consideration of what goes into common, or what creatures go into uncommon, for pauper or pauper commander

[@thefish6235]

*Insert obligatory (Equip protection to Cranial Ram) joke*

[@rixaxeno7167]

I bet the "Head-Game" Designer would appreciate it

[@paulcurran302]

So genuinely I think they made the absolute best decision here. Cranial ram is fine in limited and solid at common without access to the artifact lands, putting it at uncommon would be unnecessary. The main reason they pre banned it in pauper is because there’s a bunch of major pauper events coming up immediately after the release of MH3, so they physically *cannot* give it “time to simmer” because the entire meta *will* warp around it, especially considering how good grixis affinity already is. It is extremely similar to cranial plating, losing flash equip in exchange for additional tempo due to coming in with a body. Also, the pauper format panel is independent of WotC so they have no obligation to design with pauper in mind, common is what made the most sense for limited so that’s what they did. It’s a weird thing to pre ban a card but it absolutely makes the most sense in this scenario. Plus, this isn’t a precedent for pauper or any other format, they explicitly stated that in the official video.

[@evanpeabody3031]

yeah, I'm not sure why people keep making this out as such a big deal. The Modern Horizon sets are designed specifically for Modern. And it's not uncommon for a card to be bad in one format and terrible in another. Honestly, I'm more surprised that the Modern Horizon sets are legal in any sets outside of modern for that very reason.

[@Ariemius]

I would like to point out that just saying this doesn't set a precedent really doesn't mean anything. It does in fact set a precedent now that doesn't mean they will follow the precedent any more.

[@paulcurran302]

@@Ariemius Gavin Verhey released a video on the whole situation. They knew this card would be pretty quickly banned in pauper to keep the meta fresh. The only reason they pre banned it was to preserve the enjoyment of the tournaments coming up and allow people to experience new mh3 cards instead of just the whole meta reverting to cranial plating again. It should not be regarded as a precedent that will be followed because *extremely specific conditions* led to its prebanning, which is unlikely to be repeated again.

[@Ariemius]

@@paulcurran302 right I understand all of that. I'm not arguing whether or not this was a good call for the format. I don't know enough about the format to be honest. Most of the people seem to agree that it was the right call. It is however setting a precedent. You can argue that it's a narrow precedent that's unlikely to see much use. That doesn't mean it's not a precedent.

[@ianohern7855]

Im so confused this isn’t even the first time a committee banned a card before it was released Lutri was and in both instances a committee not contacted to wizards band it, so they have no say in designs.

[@reverbstarlight3405]

God smashed by Nadu today at the prerelease and my opponent wasn’t even playing anything unhinged

[@Red-Tower]

It did some serious work for one of my opponents at prerelease as well. I thought just maybe that outside of comboing with it, it might be reasonable, but no, it's actually just stupid good value. At least I also opened one in my pool of cards, so it gets to be one of my strongest commander cards lol

[@miseryremix]

@@Red-Tower i opened two nadus XD

[@drakegrandx5914]

That's unsurprising. Cards from Unhinged are not legal.

[@IceSki117]

That ending was perfect.

[@thatmtgnerd]

Its a non issue. As much as I love pauper its gonna need to be monitered everyother format is fine with this card and pauper is very susceptible to being broken

[@connorgibson5224]

Lutri: “finally, another one” 😂

[@EnderPryde]

Lutri wasn't even the *first* one :V

[@spiropettas997]

@@EnderPrydewhat was? Cause I’m thought every other one was watchlisted and banned week of release or 2 weeks in and lutri was the first actual pre-emptive ban

[@EnderPryde]

@@spiropettas997 back in January 1994 (before there were even formats), when the first banlist was made, a bunch of cards got restricted but Shaharazad and any cards that interacted with Ante were all banned. But in June of 1994, Legends was released with Rebirth and Tempest Efreet - both cards that interact with Ante, and have never been legal in any official format, ever.

[@dittmar104]

Brother didn’t even watch the announcement video he based his announcement video on

[@JushakF]

...or he ignored it to make a few jokes.

[@RedPandaStan]

commander players freaking out over this... 1) it isnt precedent, pfp made that very clear. it happened bc of 2 upcoming events. 2) we have had 2 nearly identical cards to this b4 that were both unfun and format warping 3) bans are fairly common in lower power formats like pauper :/ and before you complain abt wotc printing this at common. limited exists and is an actual wotc supported format. ofc they prioritize that over pauper

[@HeraldOfOpera]

4) this happened in Commander first anyway with that one companion whose limitation is "you're playing singleton" and therefore had no drawback in Commander.

[@azelia2464]

​@@HeraldOfOperaAnd you know what they should do? Only ban him if used AS THE COMPANION. You know... so people could actually play him. We all know there's other creatures that can actually do Lutri does but better.

[@MildlyOCD]

Did they really just give the Green-Blue Bird wizard a bizarre combination of Explore, Enrage, & Scry so that it synergizes better with Landfall? As a Simic player, Wizards, please, come up with a better mechanic for us. I want something to do than JUST "I draw half my deck & play every land." Being bullied for being a landlord doesn't even bother me anymore. I WANT TO FEEL SOMETHING, WIZARDS!

[@Slime-Mime-Girl]

do you mean heroic? enrage triggers with damage.

[@MildlyOCD]

@@Slime-Mime-Girl "When a creature is dealt damage" vs "when a creature is targeted with a spell" was my though process with that.

[@leunam3004]

Still simic seems that they can only pick between counter shenanigans or landlord behavior and that's kinda fucked up.

[@MildlyOCD]

@@leunam3004 I am suffering from success & I want out.

[@leunam3004]

@@MildlyOCD Yeah that's what I mean. It's like being born rich and everyone hates you for it but you're not allowed to share either, or take any other job then CEO. Although I'm sure a good deckbuilder could make seamonster tribal into a fun deck to play with/against.

[@M12GProductions]

I'm looking at Cythonian Nightmare and Basking Broodscale.

[@deloreigames8641]

I got the Cthonian Nightmare at my prerelease. How do you think it will stack up against the test of time?

[@Adrianovaz2007]

You get your eyes out of my squiggly lizard boi he's done nothing. Yet.

[@thezerowulf2046]

Broodscale was cracked in draft

[@Thoughtmage100]

Broodscale is my sleeper hit from MH3. Its so broken.

[@like17badgers]

apparently their reasoning for the ban is that there's a major Pauper tournament coming up soon and they dont want every existing deck to be murdered, they decided to hit it cause the card is based off of, Cranial Plating, is already hit.

[@carolinemiles4926]

Lutri would.like a word with you, banned even faster than Cranial Ram

[@jyrinx]

That was for just not making sense in singleton formats, though. Pre-banning for sheer power level is unprecedented.

[@EnderPryde]

Timmerian Fiends would like a word with Lutri for stealing the spotlight on "banned before it's even out", considering the Fiends were put on a banlist around 600 days before they were even printed.

[@adaubu3063]

Tbf I don’t think any pauper player is upset yet another anfinity card that breaks the game is banned

[@him1019]

RIP Xenomorph head

[@thomasfrye6335]

Who turned a beheaded xenomorph into a living weapon card? Come on, just admit it and we’ll pay for your lawyer in the inevitable lawsuit

[@darebrained]

The weird part about this is how they originally said they'd just keep it under supervision whether it would be formed warping, but I guess after ATG they aren't willing to roll dice on this one after all.

[@Timmir00]

The pauper rules committee, which isn't affiliated with WotC, specified that it was due to the fact that while normally they would allow it to simmer for three weeks before taking action, there are several pauper tournaments that happen the week after MH3 release. So after doing some testing, and seeing how closely the card resembled Cranial Plating and ATG (the later's banning is rather fresh), it was better to pre-ban to avoid it potentially ruining those tournaments.

[@claytevebaugh1100]

I loved the interview. Thank you for the hard hitting journalism.

[@calhughes6159]

Okay, this was a special case tho... Gavin Verhey made a vid on GMM explaining it

[@KVGMRadio]

The ear placement is incredible

[@Zarzapan]

the spoon, omfg the spoon!

[@jproductions7469]

I mean all that glitters just got banned this is glitters with a body

[@shanesaylor4597]

Are we not allowed to talk about what happened to Mald's wooden spatula?

[@curtmaykur8822]

lutri would like a word

[@nicholasjohnston7350]

Lutri wasn’t banned by wotc.

[@martialartsfan]

​@@nicholasjohnston7350 While true... Lutri was still banned before ever seeing play ever...

[@nicholasjohnston7350]

@@martialartsfan still not a wizards ban, so it is still unprecedented from wizards.

[@martialartsfan]

@nicholasjohnston7350 I know. Hence it is why I stated "While True". Lol I am simply stating that the card in general is not the first to be banned before being printed and released to be played. Lol

[@thecreatorofthedark]

​@nicholasjohnston7350 neither was lutri. The rules committee is an independent entity

[@jakedoe698]

To be fair, this isn't a new trend. Dig through time and treasure cruise were both prebanned in modern before khans of tarkhir dropped

[@comradecameron3726]

Yeah but delve was a mechanic with unrealized potential. Every set now we get tens of cards with entire novels written in their text box. I don’t even play modern but I remember how fucked Modern was until Hogaak was banned. It is not power creep anymore it is sprint to the Yugioh singularity.

[@madgodloki]

​@@comradecameron3726hey at least they realize it and try to ban the ones that are absolutely bonkers in formats ahead of time.

[@comradecameron3726]

@@madgodloki No they don’t. Every set in the last four years has been pushed as hell. The rules committee has to ban more cards than ever because Hasbro just cannot help themselves.

[@madgodloki]

@@comradecameron3726 for some it seems like it's just a fun game and a bonus that it makes people so mad. Let's power everything up and have the most epic game in history and then progressively ban it all in wussy formats lol

[@nicholasjohnston7350]

No they were not? They dropped, and were banned on the next ban list.

[@hayesblackman94]

I would love a sketch where it’s a banlist of cards that literally don’t exist, but are set to come out in like 30 years

[@benjamintim3542]

okay but real shit, that is an absurd common. I don't know anything about pauper but I can see a bunch of commander decks with this in it

[@ianr7014]

Someone burned their wooden spoon 👀 Mald, you have to make sure to UNTAP that bad boy when you’re cooking or else you get mana burned.

[@quackisaurus2287]

bro on prerelease i saw cranial ram and gift of the viper then thought, welp pauper is gunna be fun

[@samditto]

Wait, they still play-test?

[@VolvoxSocks]

They play a game with the cards, if the game doesn't end by turn 4 they shave a mana off each cards' cost and add another line of text.

[@hellbound9418]

+cocaine

[@scapamols-rt9wx]

The wooden spoor is very funny

[@sordid_rose4847]

As usual, he speaks from the heart, and the rest of us nod emphatically 🙂‍↕️

[@squishngoo]

Mald looking dapper in that suit.

[@anthonycannet1305]

The reasons behind it make perfect sense though, and they’ve made it clear this isn’t going to be a precedent. Cranial Ram is extremely similar to the already banned Cranial Plating and recently banned All That Glitters, not to mention Rakdos and Grixis artifact affinity lists are already popular and successful in the format which were tested to easily be able to include this new card to do all the same format warping shenanigans that All That Glitters was doing. Plus ATG was an aura which died when the creature was killed, Cranial Ram is an equipment so it stays a threat after the creature is removed. Add on to that their upcoming pauper event that’s supposed to be held just a week or so after mh3’s release, they don’t want to risk a card with such high potential to warp the format being available to warp the format during the event. As for why it was printed at common despite those reasons to ban it, the set is designed with drafting in mind, this card being a common is a good fit for the mh3 draft environment, and it isn’t very smart for them to worry about needing to design their draft around every other constructed format…

[@XenXenOfficial]

This has already happened to sooooo many cards, unfortunately including my favorite card to be released; Lutri, The Spellchaser 😭

[@fenixmeaney6170]

Lutri was also banned pre release in commander. And that's commander! Wotc's golden child format.

[@joshsmith529]

I demand a pauper formated by dci points like grinding fnm for points allows access to different cards for bannings, based on a set level of banning. More of an "introduced" to player style. Obv playgroup are playgroups but in the dci multiversatility there's a market for this.

[@alexandervantassell3632]

I followed you because of this one.Well done

[@nexmeles8023]

I love how serious some of the people here are... It's amazing.

[@King_Of_Games]

That’s something I had to explain to one of my friends cards only get banned when they are affordable and good if they’re good and expensive then that’s the point

[@WoebringerofDoom]

Well wizards doesn't have any control over the pauper format or commander, I have just took it away from them. You are welcome, now go play with your cards.

[@TheDumbRatMan12]

The fact that Ken Jong is an actual, licensed medical doctor just boggles my mind every time I see shit like that commercial

[@deandrenonya628]

Nadu is a damn nightmare and a solitaire players wet dream.

[@theprogressivecynic2407]

I actually like powerful pauper cards, even if they get banned. It means that they are printing strong stuff outside of mythic and rare slots.

[@Some._.Random._.Person]

If I waste money on a brand new pack and a card in it is banned I’m gonna be peeved

[@marcello9476]

After seeing what happen to commander, i hope and pray that wotc never starts designing cards for pauper

[@zacharythomas5703]

Lutri: Am I a joke to you now?

[@EnderPryde]

No, but peope assuming Lutri was the first one is a big-ole joke

[@Shaggsteryo]

Taking a page out of the RC play book.

[@Atmapalazzo]

Yeah it's almost like Cranial Ram was printed at common for limited reasons.

[@thatoneguyontheinternet4639]

They already banned all that glitters and this is just that but it fits in the exsisting grixis shell

[@cuebicks4627]

You need to transmute that hair into something playable.

[@Uber_Jester]

If only this was the first time a card was prebanned.

[@simplesandcastle1182]

My brother, i need the video on who demolished that spatula...😂😂

[@thetruthisoutthere8714]

"Can't handle head this good"

[@birdie4132]

Lutri: First time?

[@ianwallace3192]

I'm banning that haircut before you go outside

[@ericparham1086]

This feels familiar. Brings back a memory...

[@EnderPryde]

It should: the same thing happened to Timmerian Fiends back in 1995. ... Oh, and some stupid otter much later, but that was significantly less special

[@GeneralJerrard101]

Looking at this Nadu card, and yeah, looks pretty really strong at least. I want to run it with equipment, because a second creature and a Bone Saw is an easy draw 2 every turn. Of course it could be a good equipment like lightning greaves as well. I've got some clone cards I can throw in so the second creature is it for draw 4 every turn.

[@tonysmith9905]

Fun and totally illogical thing about equipment: You can legally equip a creature with an equipment it's already equipped with.

[@EnderPryde]

Meanwhile: Timmerian Fiends asking how this is at all new.

[@wadehansen3085]

To add to the flood of card requests the Midwesterner in me is compelled to ask for the next simic commader. The midwest kaiju Bonny Paul

[@kaalionrjest1059]

"Floated 30 blue mana and told me to go fuck myself." I love it so much holy shit...also yeah I'm pretty sure that was an accurate live interview.

[@grantk8815]

Gavin be like "i only make cards that are $50"

[@XlSlothXl]

Not the first time this was done

[@WilkersonWhittle]

Yes, give me more of these

[@geunglejoose338]

Printing cards knowing that they can't be played is wild.

[@Hashbrown1682]

They should free my boi Lutri

[@basilmemories]

It's pride month, release the otter.

[@Hashbrown1682]

@@basilmemories facts He committed no crime

[@mikegordey2163]

I most certainly can’t afford to get a box of MH3

[@bloomcrawler]

I don't get why, with so much artifact removal and creature removal at common seems crazy to me. Same with "All that Glitter's" put some interaction in the deck.

[@numbbane]

Lutri the spell chaser is still fuming

[@EnderPryde]

Why would it? It wasn't even the first one to be pre-banned

[@SyrinoxNight]

They did that with Lutri in Commander as well.

[@EnderPryde]

And Lutri wasn't even the first

[@LoneSkag]

Easiest fix would have been printing at uncommon. No way this was printed before all that glitters was a known issue.

[@ryanquinn1257]

Maldhound. Not the the content WotC asked for but the content WotC deserves 😂 ❤

[@danielalfonsoh.m.m.goncalv3]

Ohhh giving a powerful head is tight! Actually is super easy, barely an inconvenience Wait! What?!

[@piking6329]

To be fair, he wouldn't talk about poor people like that. He'd just say "poors"

[@Wrynwynn]

Welcome the the YuGiOh community!

[@zzzzzzz8473]

the power creep has become exponential , these new cards are an abomination to balance

[@silentcalling]

Pauper with plating/ram is fine if you don't have a full playset of artifact lands for a mana base.

[@anamazingkobold1564]

This happened before with the Izzet otter companion

[@EnderPryde]

And it happened before *that* with Timmerian Fiends

[@dely9999]

If you know is so powerfull that you had to limit it before it's even released WHY DID YOU MADE IT SO POWERFULL?!

[@tonysmith9905]

You realize you're talking about Pauper right? A format for commons? That wotc themselves don't actually manage?

[@andrewjacobs5686]

Yeah let’s put a cheaper Batterskull in the commons slot and give it an artifact affinity

[@slx]

I thought we sent the poors a clear message with collector boxes.

[@yoyoguy1st]

I wish that they cared about other 60 card formats as much as the pauper committee cares about pauper.

[@garcruncher7271]

Mind you Cranial needed to be banned ahead of release. I play Grixis Affinity. This only makes the deck insane.

[@laytonjr6601]

1) they didn't make it an uncommon because they thought it would be better for draft to have it at common. Pauper has always been "let's do some dumb shit with bad cards and if somehow good cards are printed at common we'll ban them" 2) they knew this card would get banned anyway (just like cranial plating and all that glitters) and they didn't want the upcomming pauper tournament to be plagued by it

[@thecreatorofthedark]

Lutri: I warned you!!

[@EnderPryde]

Timmerian Fiends: kids these days...

[@Rare-vivi]

I need you to do a roast on latriel

[@rantingrepublican4523]

Since I started playing I have only seen this 2 times ( I have been playing since war of the spark block ) and hope it doesn’t become normal ( rip otter )

[@TheGroke-qk5ti]

This has never happened before in magic history! Lutri, the Spellchaser: Am i a fucking joke to you

[@FanOfMostEverything]

Memory Jar: Kids these days think they invented everything...

[@Adrianovaz2007]

​@@FanOfMostEverythingMemory Jar wasn't prebanned but it sure speedrun the process (think it was 14 days from release to ban)

[@EnderPryde]

Timmerian Fiends: Kids these days...

[@TopGBari3077]

Is it just me or does Cranium Ram look like a xenomorph head with legs

[@mariusburger5934]

Nadu's response should have them open up cedh format officially and just ban it in normal commander

[@phillipfaris8624]

Cranial ram alone, in a treasures deck is busted af

[@EliteWoodElf]

I so wish i could like... super like something, this was so fucking good lol

[@ace_v2905]

Makes thing Sells thing Bans thing

[@hotdachsbun]

This might be your best video yet

[@Kagebushin01]

Did we forget when they did this with the otter partner for Commander?

[@EnderPryde]

Based on this comment section, apparently people have forgotten the *other* 3 pre-bans that happened before Lutri :S

[@Kagebushin01]

@@EnderPryde Also depends on when each person started playing. Older players will remember older similar bans

[@shinygrowlithe3882]

*Lutri-nam flashback*

[@counterspellgoon6854]

over powered video causes sub