Hey folks Code here with the hot news, we got a new ban wave coming in perfect timing after the Pioneer masters dropped, let’s take a look.
Pioneer
Jegantha, The Wellspring is banned.
The WoTC argument on Jegantha is that is hurting diversity by being in the companion slot and forcing a deck where no double symbol cards are present and having an ever available card at your disposal.
In the interest of increasing card diversity in the format, Jegantha, the Wellspring is banned in Pioneer.
Modern
The One Ring is banned.
Amped Raptor is banned.
Jegantha, The Wellspring is banned.
Mox Opal is unbanned.
Green Sun's Zenith is unbanned.
Faithless Looting is unbanned.
Splinter Twin is unbanned.
This is the center of attention for today’s ban a clear cut adjustment in the Modern direction while in August Nadu, Winged Wisdom was banned it seems it wasn’t enough, what everybody was expecting The One Ring has been cast into the Fires of Mount Doom, a most needed and expected banned for Modern its commitment cost is low and it could delay the inevitable, a card able of guaranteeing the next turn for you as you have a board set up with a clear weakness you could protect your win condition by extending one more turn be it one more attack, one more draw, one more iteration of combo present, The One Ring could make it happen.
As for Amped Raptor it was a surgical decision intended for Boros energy without crippling the archetype by reducing a simpler energy production strategy and not affecting other archetypes.
Jegantha, The Wellspring The same above reasoning applies here Jegantha is a forever available wild card you don’t need to draw a 5/5 as is ever available as companion and hurts the double symbol cards into making it into the deck.
Mox Opal was initially banned during the first coming of Modern Horizons with Urza, Lord High Artificer making it into the scene without the Opal advantage since then there’s plenty of ways to deal with Artifacts so by today’s age criteria Mox Opal has another chance to breathe in life into Modern.
Green Sun's Zenith banned since 2011, back there mono green had a higher chance appearing, nowadays you rarely see a mono green deck
the card offered a level of consistency and flexibility that was difficult to combat
Things are a bit more explosive nowadays so the reasoning for the Green Sun’s unban is to make Green Great Again and give a push into the right direction for mono green.
Speaking of nowadays there’s plenty of stuff that deals against graveyard recursion so it could safe to say that Faithless Looting has another chance to make it big without tipping the scales too much.
The Sweetspot for today’s ban is that the #Twinsfree finally happened your cheeky copycat enchantment is here! Splinter twin 8 years have past since its ban and WoTC thinks the format has grown a lot to deal with the Twins shaking the board.
But the whole point of today’s reversed bans is to call back to the Modern of yesteryear
This takes me back when Splinter Twin and Deciever Exarch could trivialize the board by 4th turn.
Legacy
Psychic Frog is banned.
Vexing Bauble is banned.
Pyschic Frog is just too good for it-s own luck, it can be a threat as well a part of your draw engine for reanimator decks in mind and aswell for Frog Murktide archetypes.
As for Vexing Bauble you know your boy Code by now is all about counterspell hate but Free Counterspell is what holds together Legacy it is the basis of attrition that keeps the format together, first turn combos? counterspelled!
decks are happy to include a one-mana artifact that can replace itself when it’s no longer useful.
Explorer
Jegantha, The Wellspring is banned.
Explorer will continue to match Pioneer’s bans as we intend to provide a true-to-tabletop experience for the format.
Final Thoughts
This bans are certainly are pointed in the right direction, The One Ring effect has been dealt with, eliminating the ability of decks of using a last minute resource to a win condition, keeping the decklist open to more possibilities by disabling a 5/5 wildcard Jegantha, The Wellspring, The Twins are now free to more copycat strategies let’s see what the playerbase comes up with, and Faithless Looting making things a bit more easy into drawing sinergies, and the Green Sun's Zenith shedding light into Green Power outburst! even though in Legacy my dear Vexing Bauble got hit by the greater good in the format, is reassuring that WoTC takes the format seriously enough and keeping it healthy for everyone.
Until the next time, may your spells be forever protected against counterspells.
Code out!.
