Modern Banlist Update - 1/19/15
Modern forum
Posted on Jan. 19, 2015, 10:58 a.m. by GlistenerAgent
Banned: Birthing Pod, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise
Unbanned: Golgari Grave-Troll
Holy shit.
UrbanAnathema says... #2
I'm very surprised at the death of birthing bod. I think most of us saw the blue cards going away from a mile. This is consistent with every other cheap draw multiple cards mechanic they have printed. With that said, I will not mourn the loss of Pod decks...though I do feel for those that have invested.
Happy to be a homebrewer today. :)
January 19, 2015 2:39 p.m.
Voice of Resurgence is also played in Hate Bears and some Zoo variants.
...but I do expect it to drop.
With the banning of Pod, there's going to be a big shift in decks... with so many players having to make new decks, you could see an increase in any key card, like Karn Liberated, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Liliana of the Veil... who knows... it all depends on what becomes the next big deck... I would expect Tarmogoyf may even increase a bit again... maybe to the $225-@240 range.
January 19, 2015 2:48 p.m.
I think Living End may comeback stronger than before. Birthing Pod kicked it's ass all day.
January 19, 2015 3:05 p.m.
I expect alot of people to just drop Modern altogether now.
It's just depressing to spend all this money to make a deck only to have WotC ban hammer the best parts of it, It just doesn't make sense in my mind.
January 19, 2015 3:12 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #9
It may be the case that many people port over to Dark Zoo or Abzan Midrange, as Pod has a lot of the same cards as those decks. Siege Rhino is already being used in Zoo decks, while the mana guys are there as well. Tarmogoyf will be a problem monetarily, but if you were to sell all your one-ofs and such you may be able to get there.
January 19, 2015 3:15 p.m.
CrazyLittleGuy says... #11
@Caligula That's said every time there's a major banning, but Modern has only grown. I can see a lot of Pod players just moving some pieces of there deck around and playing Junk Midrange, or whatever. It's tough, but, well, a lot of people are kind of addicted to the game. They'll work through bannings and shifts in the meta because they enjoy it.
January 19, 2015 3:18 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #12
Btw, $50 price hike on Goyf within hours. Seems legit.
January 19, 2015 3:18 p.m.
I think a lot of people saw the Treasure Cruise banning coming, especially in Modern. The sheer number of bannings is sort of controversial though - no one likes having their favorite deck neutured or nerfed. At least most of the cards in Birthing Pod and Delver of Secrets Flip shells are still good cards in Modern.
January 19, 2015 3:18 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #15
Caligula - I feel like there's always a chance of that happening though, and maybe some people will have to reassess their take on modern, but that's the thing with any older format: yes you don't have rotating legality, but because of that spot bans can make your deck invalid.
January 19, 2015 3:19 p.m.
thergonomic says... #16
Well it was fun ...when did they implement Modern? Anyways now I don't need to spend every other day at our game store.
January 19, 2015 3:27 p.m.
Metroid_Hybrid says... #17
You know, I wasn't sure if I was going to go play Modern this Saturday, but I'm tempted to go now just to hear all of the (former)Pod players crying & bitching about this.. My fingers are crossed to be paired up round 1 against a Delver or Pod player who didn't get the memo beforehand.. Does this make me a bad person?
January 19, 2015 3:29 p.m.
Yes but just "porting" your deck over doesn't make it anywhere NEAR as valid as it once was.
The whole point of making a deck like Pod was to compete with other Tier one decks out there, Now that the banned pod it seems like all the people that play pod either get a playset of Tarmogoyf's (Because let's face it, If you want a tier 1 midrange deck, Your gonna need goyfs.) or GTFO the green.
And like fluffybunnypants just said. A 50$ fucking dollar price hike since the announcement is justifying what I'm saying. Goyf is going to flood modern now, I realize it's just a creature that can be easily removed, But it's gonna warp the format again I think.
January 19, 2015 3:30 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #19
Quick question: why doesn't wizards ban goyf? It's fucking 200 dollars and is so fucking good.
January 19, 2015 3:31 p.m.
People who own goyfs would bomb Wotc probably if they did. They are close with Pod.
January 19, 2015 3:34 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #21
But guyz the meta. I thought wizards banned things to keep the meta fresh and interesting and not have the same creature dominating every green deck ever.
January 19, 2015 3:36 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #22
Technically, Goyf isn't format-warping or dominate like Treasure Cruise or apparently Pod. It gets splashing in things like Twin yeah, but it's not like Burn's running it like they did with Cruise. Then there's the issue of the price tag too- pretty much all of it's inflated by Modern. If it's banned, it drops like a rock and so many collectors and investors lose thousands of dollars.
January 19, 2015 3:39 p.m.
Metroid_Hybrid what kind of numbers you looking at? Pod is 16% at mtgtop8 right now and that's after a long increase. It was 10% around KTK release.
January 19, 2015 3:40 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #24
This just makes it more certain than it already was that Goyf will be reprinted in MM2 so I'm less concerned about the current price spike.
January 19, 2015 3:41 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #26
I'm hoping against hope they already printed mm2 with birthing pod, the amount of sheer anguish that would create would be insane.
January 19, 2015 3:43 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #28
That was linked in the first post of this thread.
January 19, 2015 3:51 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #29
The butthurt from the Pod players reminds me of the butthurt of the Jund players after that went through the first series of bans.
January 19, 2015 3:53 p.m.
I bet even after MM2 hit's and when Goyf get's a reprint it will still be 80-100$.
January 19, 2015 4:04 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #31
Sure, thats about right. Typically the value cuts in half during the initial printing, and then steadily rises to around 2/3 the original price. I agree, they still need to do more, and I think the answer is to make Goyf less of a dominant factor in the meta and certainly less of a "must run" in 
.
I think Wizard's answer would be to stay tuned.
January 19, 2015 4:34 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #33
Goyf is not an issue. Like, ever. Yeah, it is a big beater at times. Yes, I am happy to see it. Yes, my playset was fucking expensive to buy.
BUT, in any given tournament in my LGS for every 3 goyfs I cast; only one will survive to attack. There are way too many removal options when combating goyf. stuff that even gets played maindeck. I have had my goyfs terminated, pathed, bladed, go for the throated, decayed, sunlanced, bolted... you name it. it literally can die to anything. Contrary to popular belief, goyf is actually fragile.
On the other hand, if he is allowed to connect a couple times before he meets his untimely demise, then yes the goyf player in question is eons ahead.
I agree, if WotC banned goyf... I would rage on Renton, WA. It would be called the "Gnarpocalypse" and they would make a card after it. And it too would be broken. Then they would have to unban tarmogoyf just to let everyone have a fighting chance.
For the record: here is my card.
Gnarpocalypse 2RBG
Sorcery
Gnarpocalypse cannot be countereddestroy all cards not named Tarmogoyf from the game. Gnarpocolypse deals damage to each opponent for each card destroyed this way.
"BAN THIS MOTHERFUCKER!"~gnarlicide
January 19, 2015 4:59 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #34
Pod's banning surprised me, even though I can see, following Wizards' (flawed?) logic, why it was done.
Cruise and Dig, though. Seems a little quick, no? 1/3 a season's worth of play data seems a touch thin.
As an 8-Racketeer, I guess things are looking up. But Twin, Tron, Scapeshift, Affinity, and perhaps even Zoo will be surging as well.
Fuck it. Switching to Legacy. 12-Post for days.
January 19, 2015 5:01 p.m.
As-Above_So-Below says... #35
Well, the only thing I have to say is: I wish Birthing Pod could have been restricted to 1-2 copies instead of banned outright, because it didn't deserve that. However, overall, I'm glad this announcement was made.
January 19, 2015 5:02 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #36
"destroy all cards not named Tarmogoyf from the game. "
This made me laugh, haha.
January 19, 2015 5:08 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #37
I wish modern would adopt a 2-of restricted type list. I know it would make some things more confusing but it would be a home for those cards that wizards are kinda "ehhhhhh, it's almost broken" about.
January 19, 2015 5:08 p.m.
HAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA
L O L AT ALL YOU SO ADAMANT ON THINKING CRUISE WASN'T GETTING HIT. Modern might actually be fun again.
January 19, 2015 5:14 p.m.
GlistenerAgent I saw, but for some reason people were still asking for a "reason"
January 19, 2015 5:15 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #41
PValBlanc: False. You need to see my Goyf posts on the infamous wall of quotes of fluffybunnypants... that will get your motor running.
Something about goyfs and a gangbang.
January 19, 2015 5:16 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #42
GoldGhost012 My bad, originally I had it say "remove"... and realized that would not help a freshly unbanned goyf...
January 19, 2015 5:17 p.m.
I don't really understand the Dig Through Time ban.
Maybe i'm just biased coming from the U/W/R Midrange/Control perspective, but Dig Through Time doesn't seem "broken" like Treasure Cruise is in some decks. Wizards said "Banning one but not the other would do little to change the deck." (referring to Delver) - This seems so wrong to me. In a deck like Delver, drawing 3 is so much better than 2. Not to mention, paying UU is a lot more than U. I feel like Dig Through Time is just a really good magic card, but not broken. Is my logic flawed??
January 19, 2015 5:18 p.m.
Soji - that'll teach us idiots who actually listened to what Aaron Forscythe said!
January 19, 2015 5:18 p.m.
tclaw12 - Drawing 2 that you want is actually occasionally better than drawing a random 3. Delver would certainly have just replaced one with the other.
I didn't think either were broken though given that, you know, delver wasn't actually dominating every top 8. Which is usually the traditional way to tell if something is broken - you know, look at the actual results.
January 19, 2015 5:21 p.m.
Misanthropia says... #46
It'll be interesting to see Pod go.To be honest, I'd have liked to see 'Goyf go aswell - it warps green decks as bad as pod does.
January 19, 2015 5:21 p.m.
It would actually be interesting to see what midrange would look like without either goyf OR pod.
January 19, 2015 5:27 p.m.
@ Misanthropia I dunno. Goyf is a powerful card, but it certainly isn't broken. I think it just lacks competition for that slot in decks. And just give it time. I think siege rhino just might grow into a midrange mainstay in its own respect. If goyf gets banned, then so should splinter twin, urza lands, scapeshift and everything else that singlehandedly enables top decks. I may be taking this too far, but basically, ban Goyf and everything on the same power level = everybody plays pauper.
January 19, 2015 5:29 p.m.
Not really because Goyf is an auto-include in basically the only midrange deck left. There are other combo decks that aren't splinter twin. Other ramp decks that aren't Tron etc. Goyf is unique in that it's pretty much going to become the only 'build around' card for an entire deck archetype. Do you see what I mean?
There are many aggro decks, many combo decks, a few control decks, but without pod there are just two midrange decks (1 if you don't count Tron as Midrange).
January 19, 2015 5:33 p.m.
Misanthropia says... #50
The problem with 'Goyf is actually not the general powerlevel of the card (which I feel is fine for modern), but the lack of other candidates.
I've, and I alone, dismissed including any green cards in any brews I make by the single fact that there's no reason to not include 'Goyf if I play green, and I will never purchase 'Goyfs.
There's a fuckton of playable two-drops in green, but why play any of those when there's the Goyf?
Necrotize says... #1
Then we'll see the rise of EDH FNMs as Pod players try to find a way to save their pimped out decks full of "one ofs". :D
January 19, 2015 2:36 p.m.