Banning in Standard

"Jace - seriously.   I'm tired of this.  Shut your mouth, take your crap and get out."

Well.  It's been a long time coming, but finally there are some changes to Standard.  Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic have been banned as of July 1.

Anyone who's been playing either Magic Online or in some of the higher level tournaments will know that a certain kind of deck has been dominating the top spots in those tournaments.  A deck involving these two cards and as much deck manipulation as you can get.  They called it:  "Caw-Blade".

I would point to this article by Tom LaPille.  Back in April, every single deck had 4 of a specific card.  As a developer at WotC, LaPille explains here why we began to think that Jace, the Mind Sculptor would be a little much.  Aside from that, I have my own opinions on the bannings and I'd like to share them with you.

First, I'd like to say I'm both for and against these bannings, but ultimately I'm quite grateful for this game changer.  It seems 1 out of 3 decks on Magic Online, I'd come up against almost the very same deck.  Imagine - the metagame for the past few months has been one of countering this deck.

I won almost every time vs. Caw-Blade and it wasn't that hard.  Most of the time they don't defend themselves until they get one of their Swords out, which you can easily get rid of if you know what's coming.  The harder issue to get around is one of Jace's ridiculous powers.

Jace's abilities are many and varied, but being able to simply return any permanent to your opponent's hand every turn is probably the most ridiculous.  This can set up a removal ramp that your opponent can't handle and then smashing them with the Stoneforge Mystic's artifacts.  For the last good long while, getting rid of the artifacts and Jace has been the entire game.

I know that planeswalkers are supposed to be powerful, but I think the Magic designers are getting out of hand dreaming up "victory conditions".  It's become all about how awesome something is and it seems no one remembers this is a game of numbers - not simply waiting to draw the latest uber powerful mythic rare victory condition.

More reserved design is needed.  This kind of thing needs to be reigned in.  It's become less of a "game" since WotC has decided that each duel should last a certain amount of time, like just a few minutes.  Until someone drops a victory condition that the other player can't handle - and it's generally all the same.  It's invalidating a lot of great strategies because that strategy doesn't include Jace, the Mind Sculptor or some other ridiculous game winning card.  See Wurmcoil Engine, any of the Titans, and few other "Mythic Rares".

As they have now had to admit the design team wasn't thinking about anything when they made Jace, the Mind Sculptor other than how awesome their character had to be, I think we're ready to see some definite changes in the Standard game.  Aaron Forsythe, Director of Magic R&D, wrote a column basically asking us not to hate them because this never occurred to them.  He then explains that they actually tried to fix it my making cards just to counter Jace.  Problem is, that's just adding cards to a confined list and doesn't fix anything.  Do I really have to take Phyrexian Revokers just to compete with Jace?  How linear do you want this to be?

It almost seems as if they have taken to designing power cards in a vacuum.  Instead of testing deck ideas and coming up with new ones, they simply reprint old abilities on new art - or dream up something totally ridiculous.  Like 1 point of damage each round for each mountain in play (Koth).  Or a 6/6 lifelinked deathtouch that you can't immediately kill - no matter what. (Wurmcoil Engine).  I want my games to be battles between wizards - not two guys drawing cards from a deck until one draws the "I WIN" card.

To design a deck for Standard Open Duels even here at the Wargate, it has become - "Choose your Mythic Rare win condition and spend $20.  Now grab a bunch of commons to fill it out to 60.  Congrats!"  It's been like that for a few years, but the cards are getting stupider.  There's almost no board interplay - just "Destroy All" and "Target Opponent Loses".

Unfortunately that's what the presence of these exaggerated victory condition cards have done to the Standard metagame.  They should have never made it through the design process, and I'm of the opinion the designers need to ratchet power levels back - a lot.  You shouldn't be able to win every game you play with your deck simply by drawing a single card.

Mike Flores, the most popular of Magic columnists, has lined out a few of the other powerful offensive strategies that may now come to the fore in Standard.  Most of us have encountered these types before, and they'll probably remain top-level for a while.

Until some new ridiculous mythic rare victory condition comes along.  You're on thin ice, Wizards.