January 2015 B&R Update

Quite an eventful B&R update today, with shake-ups to Legacy, Vintage and Modern as listed below, with my comments as follows.

Legacy

• Treasure Cruise is banned
• Worldgorger Dragon is unbanned.

I'm mildly surprised to see Treasure Cruise banned, as Legacy is a format that can handle all but the most degenerate strategies, and Treasure Cruise, while powerful, doesn't quite qualify. However, this ban certainly doesn't come out of nowhere, as it gives incredible resilience and staying power for low mana cost as well as opportunity cost with respect to deck construction. The card allowed for some enjoyable matchups where a Treasure Cruise player was behind, but could get back into it by topdecking and perhaps chaining multiple Cruises, but it allowed for far more where a topdecked Cruise from an advanced or equal board state would simply allow a player to bury an opponent in card advantage. I believe the format is a more enjoyable one with Treasure Cruise gone.

This update probably pushes UR Delver from the consensus deck to beat to a tier 2 strategy, and probably gives rise to the traditional RUG Delver (Canadian Threshold) and UWR Delver again. BUG Delver (Team America) likely sees a rise as well, as the discard element it brings to tempo matchups isn't fundamentally outclassed by a topdecked Treasure Cruise. Deathblade and Shardless BUG are likely benefit for the same reasons, as both had somewhat weaker matchups against UR Delver but are favored against most of the other Delver variants. Jund becomes playable once again, as it can better trade resources via discard and removal; moreover, Dark Confidant and Liliana aren't obsolete in a field full of Lightning Bolts and Young Pyromancers. Decks like Elves, Infect, and Death and Taxes, which were somewhat suppressed by the rise of Forked Bolts and Pyroclasms in the meta, are once again in my short list of best decks in the format.

Aside from UR Delver, decks like UWR Stoneblade and Jeskai Combo also suffer from the loss of Treasure Cruise. Storm likely suffers, as the presence of Treasure Cruise resulted in fewer copies of Spell Pierce and other forms of cheap interaction in the meta; moreover, much of the representation of UR Delver (a slightly favorable matchup) in the former meta turns into RUG Delver, UWR Delver, and BUG Delver (matchups which range from even to very unfavorable). I know I had been set on playing ANT at the Mirkwood event for dual lands this weekend with the expectation of no changes to the B&R list, but everything is up in the air at this point.

I'm also surprised to see Worldgorger Dragon unbanned, but only because there are quite a few harmless cards on the B&R list that the DCI rarely bothers to remove. In a format where you could bin Griselbrand and bring it back in one of several ways, I do not see Worldgorger Dragon being a significant factor when you are restricted to second-tier reanimation effects like Animate Dead and Necromancy and require a third card to actually combo off, even if it allows for the potential of annoying draws.

Vintage

• Treasure Cruise is restricted.
• Gifts Ungiven is unrestricted.

I'm not as knowledgeable about Vintage as I am about Legacy, but the restriction of Treasure Cruise comes as absolutely no surprise to me. Prior to the printing of Khans, Jace, the Mind Sculptor was regarded as the most likely candidate for restriction (as the most powerful unrestricted card that doesn't represent a "pillar" of the format), and Treasure Cruise dwarfs it in many ways (in addition to powering up Young Pyromancers which frequently overwhelm Jace). Moreover, with the changing of the Delver mechanic, the ability to draw three cards through the taxing effects of Shops was absolutely disgusting.

I'm a fan of the unrestriction of Gifts Ungiven. I don't know what shenanigans Vintage masters can concoct given access to four copies to chain into alongside the likes of unrestricted Regrowth and Snapcaster Mage, neither of which were available the last time Gifts was legal in Vintage. It's very scary, but it's possible that the format has sped up enough to make this card reasonable, and in any case, Vintage is the format of truly broken spells. Gifts is one of the most skill-testing cards in all of Magic, and I think this is an exciting change to the format.

Modern

• Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and Birthing Pod are banned.
• Golgari Grave-Troll is unbanned.

Not at all surprised to see Dig Through Time or Treasure Cruise get banned, as they offer card advantage and selection far beyond what is acceptable in Modern. I was a bit surprised to see Jeskai Ascendancy escape the axe though: despite the lack of dominance in results, other combo cards have been banned for as much or less, and its fundamental turn is significantly faster than what the DCI has previously allowed in Modern.

I'm extremely disappointed that Birthing Pod got banned, even though I know it was on the DCI's radar. Coming from the perspective of an older player who primarily plays Legacy, Birthing Pod was a sweet engine card that sought to gain incremental value through toolbox creatures, something that has been missing from Legacy ever since Survival of the Fittest got chopped: Elves exists but has less toolbox versatility, while Nic Fit isn't really a top-tier deck. It was really the only redeeming feature of the Modern format to me, as aggro, control, ramp, midrange, two-card combo (e.g. Splinter Twin), and engine-combo (e.g. Storm, Ascendancy) all exist in Legacy in faster and more resilient forms that allow for more interaction on both sides.

Pod was clearly one of the top two decks in the Khans Modern format, but its level of dominance was nowhere near that of Survival in Legacy, nor that of other offensive "fair" decks that had key components removed from Modern. Whereas Modern fair decks have survived with the banning of key cards such as Wild Nacatl, Punishing Fire, Bloodbraid Elf, or Deathrite Shaman, substituting them with suboptimal replacements, this is the first time in Modern that the key engine card of a fair deck was banned. It will certainly kill the entire archetype.

Without the burst card advantage afforded by the likes of Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise and without the midgame engine of Birthing Pod to keep things in check, fair midrange value GBx decks like Junk and Jund likely become the decks to beat in the new format. While I have the cards available to play these decks, the GBx-dominated midrange derp-fest that put 6 copies into the top 8 of GP Detroit was a miserable one that I wanted no part of back in 2013, and it's one that I want no part of anymore.