Standard Bannings

Both Ramunap Red and Temur Energy have been dominant for a long time in standard. Temur and Ramunap Red combined made up roughly 40% of the meta-game appearing at most tournaments, with both decks having massively positive win rates against the rest of the format. Temur has easily been dominant for 5+ months now (depending on the colour and energy variants) and any attempt at weakening the archetype with rotation/new set introduction hasn’t worked. In the past it is within this time that other decks are given opportunities to try and find answers to the top tier decks, unfortunately Temur has rolled over all of them.

Standard and Modern bannings

Not since the days of Caw-Blade has the ban hammer come down on standard in Magic. It's been five long years since Jace The Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic bowed out after a lengthy rein of standard domination, so what's getting the boot this time? 

Smuggler's Copter: I don't think anyone can deny this card power from the moment it was spoiled, it almost seemed to good to be true, however the Copter has now smuggled its last, in standard anyway. Having it on turn two was such a beating and the fact that it was colourless mana, and only two mana to play, meant that I could fit nicely on curve in pretty much any deck. Adding in the Crew 1 ability meant Smuggler's Copter was difficult to hit with creature removal outside of combat but very easy to enable. Three power with a loot ability (draw a card then discard a card) when attacking or blocking would all be fine at four, maybe five mana, and definitely in a colour to add some restriction to its play-ability. This may be more of a hindsight view of Smuggler's Copter though, one that may have been shared by many a player that have been on the receiving end of one in standard. I think we can all agree that playing with a card with this much power felt unfair and playing against it didn't feel fun at all.

Emrakul, the Promised End: Speaking of no fun, it looked for a while like Emrakul was going to dictate standard for the months to come. If you weren't playing a Delirium build or Aetherworks Marvel, and most people were, then you were futilely trying to find a way to beat the 13/13 with added Mind Slaver. Even though it had its bad days, Delirium and Marvel decks were still the top tier decks to beat, solely because of Emrakul and the worst part being, even if you could deal with the 13/13 body, and the protection from instants made that really hard, the "Take your turn" effect was as a result of casting Emrakul anyway which is a lot harder to answer than an enter the battlefield trigger. As flavorful as it is, Emrakul was very pushed and I think if left unrestrained could have warped the meta game, creating one end goal for the majority of decks which takes away from the variety and diversity of Magic.

                                        

                       

Reflector Mage: A little odd this one. Reflector Mage isn't by any means a format warped though it is very powerful. U/W flash is the other big deck of the moment and having a creature that is able to bounce an opposing creature and delay the replay of that creature without any additional cost, not to mention being able to Crew your Smuggler's Copter in the and turn for more of a tempo control strategy, can be devastating. In my opinion Reflector Mage hasn't been banned because it's super powerful or unfair, but in conjunction with Copter and Emrakul, you can't get rid of the best without keeping an eye on what could take its place. I'm not saying Reflector Mage could've  taken over standard but if left untamed it definitely would have shown it's power just like in its Collected Company days and could have shut down aggro decks left right and center. A nice ability on a low cost creature, just not its time for play right now.

         

               

Golgari Grave-Troll: Grave Troll has been on and off the banned list in modern over the years, part of the reason I can think they keep taking it off the list is to test how good the modern format is. Dredge is easily a top tier deck with or without Golgari Grave-Troll but when you have access to a dredge 6 not just once but multiple times per turn, it gets quite a big speed boost. A lot of decks pack their sideboard with graveyard hate because of dredge, but I guess modern isn't consistent enough to beat it with Grave-Troll so back on the list it goes, but like I said, dredge is still a big thing so beware.

 

Gitaxian Probe: Phyrexian mana (coloured mana that you could pay 2 life for as an alternative cost) was absurd. At first, 2 life seems reasonable, maybe even a little much for certain spells or depending how much Phyrexian mana they have in their cost, but then you start playing with spells like Gitaxian Probe and it very quickly becomes negligible in comparison to the benefit you gain. Peek was an alright card, it was an instant so you could play it at the end of your opponents turn to get maximum value, Gitaxian Probe isn't an instant but it makes up for that deficiency by being free. If you're on the play, you can start with a Git Probe to get perfect information on your opponents hand and it replaces itself. It sits nicely in combo decks to let you know if the coast is clear and it adds to your storm count, oh and it's FREE! I think the reason for the banning here is the versatility more than anything, it's not particularly unfair but when you give this effect to any deck for real low cost of 2 life, you should probably keep an eye on it.

These bans take effect on the 20th of January 2017, so that gives everyone out there time to reconfigure their decks for any upcoming tournaments, instead of being blind sided with major meta game bans a week before. I'm sure some people are happy with the standard bans but I'll say now, Wizards don't like banning cards and try to do it as little as possible but there are some times when it is unavoidable. They action these bans to keep the game that we all love fresh and balanced not to alienate players, however I'm sure there will be players out there outraged at these bans.

Keep checking back to Game Changers for more news and updates

Aether Revolt Spoilers: Masterpieces!

Along side the one hundred and eighty four cards in Aether Revolt, there are fifty four special cards. Today I'm looking at twenty two of those cards that fall under the new "Masterpiece" feature started in Kaladesh, also known as the Inventions. The Masterpieces are going to be a group of special cards that aren't specifically part of the released set but will appear in boosters of that set. Masterpieces will tie into a theme of the set as well, for example the Masterpieces printed along side Kaladesh and Aether Revolt are called Inventions, as both sets revolve around artificial creations. In limited formats (Sealed and Draft), if you open one of these in one of your boosters you can play it in your deck. This can be back-breaking for your opponent as these cards are very powerful and very difficult to deal with.The Inventions are a mix of new cards from the current set and reprints of cards that first appeared in older sets, with new art and frame and a new set symbol. Did I forget to mention they are usually worth quite a bit of money? Well..., they're worth quite a bit of money. We'll start with the three cards that appear both in Aether Revolt the set and the Inventions group.

Firstly, two brand new cards...

Paradox Engine

This card will be a bomb in limited, allowing you to commit more to an attack for example, providing you have a post main phase spell to untap your attackers or even an instant, effectively making that spell a combat trick and enabling a surprise block. I love this card as it gets my combo brain going. I would love to see this in constructed, maybe being using in combination with mana producing elves or mana rocks (low cost artifacts that produce mana). If you can net mana while creating some sort of draw engine (way to draw cards reliably), you're golden. This cards looks great at first glance but as pushed as the mana cost is for this effect, its still slightly to high for standard. Practically, it doesn't do what you really want it to, and that's untap your lands  and the reason for that is obvious, it would be way to easy to abuse and make infinite mana. I can see this finding a home in modern and probably in a really fun deck, so keep an eye on this one.


Planar Bridge



I think its fairly obvious as to where Planar Bridge's play-ability lies. This is a great commander card; It's colourless, allowing access to all decks and it has such a splashy effect, being able to cherry pick from your array of one of permanents, at instant speed no less and put straight into play is just bonkers. If you have the time and the mana, and in commander you do, Planar Bridge will do great things for you. I'm sure this wont see play even at the prerelease, as Planar Bridge is a purely casual, fun, awesome card.

...and finally, an old favorite.

Ornithopter



I love Ornithopter. A free flying, artifact creature is always fine by me, especially when playing Affinity or Tempered Steel. Ornithopter isn't anything special, but its service to Magic since Revised edition is being acknowledged here with beautiful art and presented in a lovely frame.

The rest of the Inventions are a range of powerful and interesting artifacts stretching all the way back to Alpha; Black Vise and Meekstone. The eagle eyed of you will also notice that a lot of them are straight out of Mirrodin block. It makes sense as that was the last artifact centered block and there were so many incredible atifacts to choose from. An Invention version of a card like Arcbound Ravager or Chalice of the Void are going to be very highly sought after, so congratulations if you open one in a booster as you have just made £100.

Just to make sure people know; if you open one of these in your sealed pool at the prerelease, you can play it in your sealed deck. Imagine having a Sword of War and Peace or Body and Mind to smash your opponents face with, or Vedalken Shackles to steal there bomb creature to use against them. As I said earlier, the Inventions are worth a lot of money,  so if you are going to play with them make sure they are in sleeve. 

I hope everyone has fun discovering the Inventions when cracking some packs, but remember to keep checking back for more news and updates.