Quick Thoughts on the April 4 Magic the Gathering Ban List Update

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

The much anticipated Magic the Gathering ban list update has come. Two of the decisions were pretty much obvious choices. But there were a couple of surprises, including a Vintage restriction which will definitely affect that format.

Eye of Ugin was the right choice for the ban. As Wizards explained in their press release, banning Eldrazi Temple wouldn't have stopped the deck. So the deck is still playable, just much less explosive.

Ancestral Vision deserved to come back for a long time. We need this card in Modern, as even suspended, it's good card advantage for Blue decks. It's nowhere as broken without Bloodbraid Elf around. But I think it bringing it back helps add diversity to the format. And there are other cascade cards that could make it work. I'm excited to see what this card does for a variety of decks.

Sword of the Meek was a bit of a surprise, but Thopter Foundry is a slow combo. It's really not as busted as it is in Legacy. As Wizards said, that combo often played as an alternate win-condition to Dark Depths in Legacy. Depths is banned in Modern, so no issue there. Still, happy to see this too. More diversity is good.

What I find most interesting is that Wizards KNEW the Oath of the Gatewatch Eldrazi would be good. Just not quite THIS good! They really underestimated how good Eldrazi Mimic truly was in combination with Reality Smasher. I'm happy with these Modern updates.

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The one that surprised some people was the Vintage restriction announcement. Lodestone Golem is now limited to only a single copy. Workshop decks are among the top decks in the Vintage format, named after their primary mana source, Mishra's Workshop. Lodestone Golem is a big part of those decks. Losing 3 copies will definitely change how that deck runs. It will be interesting to see how the format shifts after such a fundamental change in strategy is forced.

While Vintage is today mostly a Magic Online format, it's still relevant due to the presence of reprinted Power 9 cards that make the format accessible to a good number of players. Perhaps this restriction will open up the field to a wider number of decks, which is what Wizards is hoping. Good to see that they are concerned for the health of the format.

Do you agree with these changes? Were there other cards that deserved to be unbanned on this list update? How would you be brewing with Ancestral Vision or Sword of the Meek? Let us know in the comments!

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