Spootyone nice job. So here are some of my thoughts on Twin, well the cliffnotes version. Scour the Modern forum for my other rambling.

Summer Bloom was pretty much expected to be banned, hence why everyone is mellow about it. Twin... well that came out of left field. Furthermore, Wizards reasoning runs hollow because Twin only took up 11% of the meta.

Also, yes, Twin is stagnating in a sense that it restricts Control decks, but it also served a key purpose in keeping certain decks in check. One of the problems with Modern is that the tools for a legitimate control deck simply don't exist in a strong enough capacity. It would be much more advisable for WotC to unban cards rather than continue to ban cards.

We should totally talk more about this at some time. :D

Pre-release was a blast. I came second and pulled three expeditions overall :3

The Splinter Twin ban makes me sad, as a former Twin player. I've moved on to Delver until I can build Grixis control. Summer Bloom ban was seen from miles away.

I also wanna say, I love that this is a recording. I listened to this while doing work and typed my comment as things came to me. The audio atricle format works well. I'm not sure if it's your first one Spooty but keep it up.

TheHroth, I'm Eric (the other guy that isn't Spooty). It's a podcast, and this is actually our 5th/6th episode! If you click one of the links at the bottom of the article, or look us up in your favorite podcast app, you can listen to them all!

I realized that after my comment! Thanks a lot for the content guys. I need to go listen to previous ones now!

It's cool that you're still using the intro music I wrote.

CanadianShinobi: Thank you so much for your response and opinions! You're this week's first comment winner! You'd won the chance to get first comment next episode! :P

I like to be a relatively positive person, so my frame of mind on the subject of these bannings is that I kind of hope we are all mostly wrong and that the splinter twin ban results in people wanting to expand on the UR and Jeskai and Temur color combinations playstyles to result in a plethora of new archetypes arriving to Modern, surely as WOTC would desire to occur. I would personally love to see some dedicated control archetypes and the like to arrive on the Modern scene once again.

TheHroth: I think EAK1791 put it best! We're both glad to have you on as a listener and we hope you enjoy what we've created and what is to come! (And hey, if you really enjoy it, we'd really appreciate a review/rating on whatever podcasting site/app you use!)

Also, you've got the luck of a saint as well, it would seem. I still have yet to open an expedition... lol

ChiefBell: Of course! You've got talent, man. This podcast series would be a lot less professional and of a much lower quality without the music you provided for us. I hope you're also enjoying the content!

I think one of the problems is that Izzet just isn't that strong in modern generally. The card draw is relatively weaker and given the prevalence of creatures with more than 3 toughness bolt is ok, but not a sure-fire win.

This is why I don't think removing Twin has necessarily made a whole host of izzet decks super viable. Yes it's meant that you can play different variations and they're not just "worse than twin". BUT you still don't have access to cards that can threaten like T1 Noble Hierarch into T2 Geist of Saint Traft into T3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant etc. Like the creature decks have an advantage because their tempo is just so high. The tempo of control decks is just a tad too low.

So you could maybe discuss something to do with how we can address this imbalance. Because blue actually isn't /that/ strong in modern, and it could do with something.

Some suggest Counterspell but I think that's mad. We need counterspells that are good at one point in time but not necessarily another. I don't think having a universal "always good" counterspell is heavy. But maybe having better instant speed card draw would be something worth discussing.

Go and look at how much blue is played in modern and then come back and tell me it doesn't need something haha.

Oh I'm TOTALLY a person who is in the camp of #bluelivesmatter.

I really think they should have unbanned Ancestral Vision with this recent banning. I know they are saying that they will look at it in the future (which I forgot to address in the podcast), but if they really wanted to shake up the meta and look towards what the player base wants, that would have been the first step in doing so.

Besides, it would be cool to see the tug and pull of visions and processing cards like Wasteland Strangler. There would actually arise gameplay and strategy out of something so little, and that's something to value in a format like Modern.

I also hate the argument that "control decks make games boring and unfun". Frankly, if people don't want to experience a control game, they need to find another format or -frankly- another game. (And Spoilers, most card games worth their salt have control archetypes)

Matchups like midrange v control and aggro v control allow for a lot more gameplay than something like aggro v aggro does, even if a majority of it is "bolt your dude" and "counter it". And that's something I think a lot of people fail to understand.

Fail to understand? Spootyone there are several people who simple refuse to understand. I remember that I simply gave up on the game for a few months prior to getting into Modern because I kept running into people who would harass me over playing Control.

Actually, speaking of Control. My first game of Magic was me playing some shitty aggro deck against UWR Control in the RTR-ISD Standard days. I lost handily. But, that game showed me what Control was and I pretty much fell in love with it. When you play with or against Control you're playing a mental game of chess. Your opponent also needs to learn to draw out counters and removal. Honestly, it's much more interesting to watch two players attempt to gain that leverage on one another.

As for what Control needs in Modern. I'd disagree with ChiefBell. I think you need a constantly good counterspell. That or you need something cheap with an aggressive draw. Draw 2-3 would be ideal at Instant speed.

I'm not saying they don't need it. I'm saying it's probably not suitable for the format. Probably.

I'd be very interested in seeing what Counterspell would be like in Modern. There would certainly be more control going around if that were the case, and maybe Snappy would end up making it a little too unpleasant, but when you have 2 mana 5/6s and T3 Wurmcoil Engines, etc., it almost feels like Counterspell is fair game.

Maybe the worry is that despite being to cast, it would still be too splashable into archtypes that are already powerful?

Perhaps, but that seems a stretch. Modern can certainly support that style of play with its excellent mana base, but you'd be compromising some elements of your deck, not to mention life total, just to counter a few things.

I think, if it were ever reprinted and made its way to modern that counterspell would find its home where it belongs, in control decks and some combo decks.

Just so I am more understanding on things, an unban of Ancestral Vision wouldn't break Living End right? They seem to mostly want to cascade into the combo piece and that's it, I think. Please correct me if I'm wrong, though.

Furthermore, Ancestral Vision shouldn't really help out Storm to such a degree that it'd be a problem, since it takes the number of turns that it does to resolve as well as the fact that Storm wants to have as many spells to cast at once as possible (thus they want draw they can get on the combo turn).

Lastly, Delver decks would probs use Ancestral Vision, but I would have to assume that it wouldn't be nearly as problematic as when Treasure Cruise was legal, since they would much rather cast said Delver on T1, or if not then Serum Visions to dig for what they need (since they wouldn't have an early Delver of Secrets  ^Flip in that case). Again, I'd like to know if you all think this is incorrect!

Spootyone you're pretty much correct. But, without actually seeing it in action, who can say? I mean shutting down Living End isn't exactly hard considering that grave hate is easily accessed in Modern.

As for delver (I know too little of Storm to make an assessment). You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. What made TC so powerful in Delver was the fact that you got 3 cards immediately. Ancestral Vision requires you to wait. But, WotC is fairly timid when it comes to giving Blue anything in Modern and even more so if it comes to unbanning something.

And this is where I think the crux of Modern's problems lie. WotC is afraid to let Modern be itself. They're shaping it into a slightly more powerful Standard. But, even Standard has a Draw-Go Control deck right now. So, I'm concerned that moving forward WotC may botch something.

I think personally that the banning of twin was fine but with out an unbanning of anything it doesn't make playing blue anymore viable. I may be on the extreme and say the mind sculpture could enter the modern format.

I think the format has enough now to awnser him when he was simply way to powerful in standard with the caw blade deck. Jace yes has Insaine modes and uses but in a format where aggro, and midrange with a plethora of awnsers such as Maelstrom Pulse,Hero's Downfall,Dreadbore Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt, Atarka's Command, and Boros Charm can all more or less remove jace is he really a menace that can't be awnsered in modern? I mean he would make USA control a viable deck in my opinion. It would allow an archtype that is dormant to rise once more. If he was brought back do you really think every player is going to jam him into their deck? No he's not easy to splash and to win with him you must truly protect him.

Agreed on the Jace unbanning, they never even gave him a chance in modern so I think it is worth an attempt. Turn 4 i drop jace... that isn't going to help me with aggro decks looking to lethal me next turn. Against tron it will give me a way for dealing with their bullshit, but Karn can totally mess with jace and karn gets played on 3 sometimes.