Will Blade of Selves be banned?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Nov. 15, 2015, 6:54 p.m. by MagicalHacker
On a scale from 0% to 100%, where 0% is absolutely not going to be banned and 100% absolutely going to be banned, how likely do you think it is for Blade of Selves to be banned?
Let's just Brainstorm the precedents for cards like it, and anticipate what action/inaction the EDH committee will take :)
FancyTuesday says... #2
It's not even 6 mana to do something useful, it's 6 mana and do something if you have a creature with an ETB/LTB trigger that can attack and you have more than one opponent.
Late in the game when it's just you and one opponent it's a completely dead draw. Yeah there are a lot of ETB triggers in EDH, but very few of them are as powerful as something like Sylvan Primordial even when multiplied by 4. Seriously, to achieve what Sylvan Primordial does on its own you'd have to swing with Blade of Selves attatched to Woodfall Primus and Wood Elves.
Yes Blade of Selves has the potential to do a lot of damage, but it's dependent. It needs other pieces, it needs time, it needs to be dropped and equipped. In terms of combo pieces it isn't even on par with other powerful pieces like Deadeye Navigator and Prophet of Kruphix, let alone cards that are actually on the banlist for their power absent all other factors like Worldfire or Upheaval.
November 26, 2015 1:21 a.m.
ComradeJim270 says... #3
@IzuKorasu: Sure, but what's your point as regards this discussion? None of that makes it even remotely ban-worthy.
November 26, 2015 1:30 a.m.
Blade of Selves isn't necessarily a bad card. It can be useful and fun. But it's weak without the right creature and without more than one opponent, not to mention it has a higher mana and equip cost than most equipment of its power and requires a creature to attack. Half the time it'll be useless. The biggest thing is it'll be fun to use and that's about it and won't be banned.
But I see a lot of people on here saying that it'll allow colors other than bant colors to have some flicker type effects. Black frankly can reuse and abuse etb and ltb through reanimation effects and red can do it through other more efficient artifacts and clone tricks (think Twinflame). The only thing blade of selves does for these decks is make it marginally easier.
Next I see people trying to compare it combining with things to make it comparable to cards like Worldfire and Biorhythm. It's not. The reason cards like those are banned is they can suddenly change a game completely without any sign of it happening and the ge becomes unfun. With cards like that there is a need for set up and waiting time. You can deal with it easily, while unless you got a counter or done something like ultimated a Narset Transcendent then you can't deal with a Biorythm (and if you had ultimated Narset, you've probably won the game anyways).
Tl;dr: blade of selves shouldn't be banned, it can only make some decks marginally better and stop comparing apples to oranges.
November 26, 2015 12:27 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #5
It's rubbish in commander (where a lot of cards are legendary) so meh, no.
November 28, 2015 6:57 a.m.
Not necessarily. Like there are decks that can use it, and what it's used for is large etb or ltb effects. Which only a few commanders (Prime Speaker Zeganna or Lavinia of the Tenth for example) will use. And even then, the etb or the ltb effects will still happen.
Plus most decks aren't all legendary creatures (unless you're running like Captain Sisay)
Arvail says... #1
Generating value after a significant mana investment is nowhere near worthy of a ban.
November 26, 2015 12:59 a.m.