Treasure Cruise banned in Legacy
Legacy forum
Posted on Jan. 19, 2015, 11:07 a.m. by fluffybunnypants
Woooooooooooow.
This link says it all. I guess it was too oppressive for their tastes.
And restricted in vintage now? That's a shame, man :(
January 19, 2015 11:15 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #4
I find it pretty surprising that they left Dig alone but banned Cruise to be honest.
January 19, 2015 11:19 a.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #5
Dat 1-mana and 1-card difference tho. That would be my guess.
January 19, 2015 11:21 a.m.
This makes me a little sad, as I was building Legacy U/R Delver, but I guess I can keep building it. I have most of the cards aside from 3 Force of Will and 4 Volcanic Island. Either way, I'm sad to see Treasure Cruise go.
January 19, 2015 11:22 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #7
I've been running Dig in Partiot aggro since GPNJ, it's the part where it gets to look at 7 cards. Also, they're removing a very popular aggro deck from functioning, but allowing control decks to keep their variant. Seems lopsided.
January 19, 2015 11:23 a.m.
Servo_Token says... #8
I'm actually happy about this update, because it means that I can pick up copies of Treasure Cruise at like 5 cents each now. Very excited at the prospect of owning all of them. :P
January 19, 2015 11:25 a.m.
I don't understand their reasoning for banning both in Modern but leaving one in Legacy. Today is just weird.
January 19, 2015 11:36 a.m.
the 1 mana difference is absolutely insane in legacy when most decks require only 1-3 mana to run. even worse it's UU instead of U...so it's much much less splashable in decks like burn.
I think this was the right ban.
January 19, 2015 11:40 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #11
The thing is that I really feel like the Legacy meta game was fine with Cruise available. It pushed the meta in an odd direction and bankrupted Shardless BUG, but it's not like it was as dominant as it was in Modern.
January 19, 2015 12:59 p.m.
it wasn't just that it pushed UR delver to high tier 1, but it was the overall effect on the format. BUG delver was pushed out, burn was splashing blue for more advanced late game redundancy.
you have to remember, like JUND when they banned BBE/DRS it wasnt that the deck was winning every PTQ (crushing online though) it was that it made up way to much of the format and decks were either running that or planning against it. Decks in modern legacy were mainboarding GY hate etc... just to avoid this new style of advantage.
January 19, 2015 1:35 p.m.
dragon_slayer says... #13
I don't get why Treasure Cruise got restricted in vintage. Were Delver decks really "hurting the diversity of the format"?
If any deck is dominating the vintage meta, it is MUD (22% of vintage decks on MTGTop 8). That is a higher percentage of the meta than Delver decks had in modern or legacy before today. (16% for modern, 12% for legacy)
January 19, 2015 2:55 p.m.
I would have been surprised if they didn't ban Treasure Cruise in Legacy.
Randy Buehler was commentating on the format during Worlds. He was saying Brainstorm is the Legacy draw spell and the limit R&D measures the format. If it's better than Brainstorm, it's too powerful for the format (the obvious example being Ancestral Recall). He then continued to say Treasure Cruise is stronger than Brainstorm because people were casting it on turn 2 or 3 for less than 3 mana.
Not only was Treasure Cruise pushing Shardless BUG out of the format, it was also pushing out cards like Show and Tell, Dark Confidant, Goblin Ringleader, and Golgari Grave-Troll. Decks running these engines took a serious hit with Treasure Cruise because they had to fight through a bunch of free countermagic, then watched in horror as their opponent Ancestral Recall'd when their hand was empty. Even Jace, the Mind Sculptor isn't as good in an environment with Treasure Cruise.
I'm also surprised they didn't unban Mind Twist in Legacy. In order for it to be better than Hymn to Tourach on turn one, you have to play another Dark Ritual or a Lotus Petal (Dark Ritual -> Dark Ritual/Lotus Petal -> Mind Twist). That's not more powerful than going turn one Dark Ritual -> Entomb -> Animate Dead -> Griselbrand. It's actually easier to get a turn one Griselbrand than it is to get a Mind Twist for more than 2.
Other unbannings they could probably consider are Earthcraft and Goblin Recruiter. The decks that would play them aren't going to do anything Storm or Show and Tell don't do already. Worldgorger Dragon is probably faster and more consistent, anyway.
I'm a little disappointed they restricted Treasure Cruise in Vintage before unrestricting Thirst for Knowledge and Gifts Ungiven. Delver was doing really well in the format, but I don't know how well it can do against Stax players going land -> Mox Sapphire -> Mox Emerald -> Thirst for Knowledge -> threat.
January 19, 2015 3:09 p.m.
Only colored permanent Stax playes play is Phyrexian Metamorph. Tezzerator and Bomberman play Thirst for Knowledge not stax.
In Legacy before bannings Shardless Bug was pretty good in Legacy. Treasure Cruise fitted perfectly to Shardless Bug. Deathrite Shaman made it for your opponent more difficult to play Treasure Cruise and you got 8 draw three effects in your deck instead of 4.
January 21, 2015 12:40 p.m.
@Colgate: Back when it was unrestricted, Stax most definitely played Thirst for Knowledge (an example you can see here). It was the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge that lead to 4 and 5 color Stax to shift entirely into colorless builds more akin to its cousin, MUD.
And no, Treasure Cruise was not all of a sudden an automatic four-of in Shardless BUG. The deck is already overbooked on slots (it often doesn't even run four copies of Force of Will). It also is rather limited in how quickly it can fill up the graveyard, which is a problem in a deck relying on Tarmogoyf as one of its key threats. This is unlike Delver, which can cast multiple free Counterspells, plays 12 one-drop cantrips, and has between 6 and 8 one-drop burn spells.
A quick search on MtG top 8 shows only one person (Benjamin Bouveret) was playing Treasure Cruise in his deck with Shardless Agent. The deck completely fell off the map when Treasure Cruise became legal in Legacy.
GoldGhost012 says... #2
This, I was not expecting. Worldgorger Dragon coming off was unexpected too.
JFC, Wizards really went for the shock factor here.
January 19, 2015 11:13 a.m.