Banned and Restricted update 1/4-2016

Note: Like the post about Homelands two years ago, this was an April Fools joke. We're not going to add errata to play Rukh Egg as (misprintedly) written in AN or unrestrict Power cards. Quite a lot of people was lead to believe this post though, so I add an extra disclaimer here just in case. And it has lead to some good discussions :) The real (potential) B&R update will come in late April to early May. /Mg

With n00bcon in the books, it's time for the yearly banned & restricted list update. This is an opportunity to stir up the meta, help support new decks, and keep the most oppressive strategies in check. Last year we unrestricted Mirror Universe and Power Artifact, a decision that created two new tier decks we've seen at the top tables at large tournaments. The year before that we unrestricted Mana Vault, opening the doors for decks like Atog, Monoblue Artifacts and Nether Void, each with at least one tournament win on its belt after the changes. In 2013, we restricted Mana Drain, which made decks other than the then highly oppressive The Deck able to win Shark-tournaments.

As the format has grown, more concerns have been voiced about the possible degeneracy of some decks and cards. A lot of people care about the state of the format, and even though many of them don't play 93/94 themselves I guess it would be rude not to take all of them seriously. So while a few of you might disagree with some of the B&R changes at first, I think that a majority will find the updates inspirational. This year we both have unrestrictions and restrictions, and even a small single-card errata. Here's a recap of the most interesting discussions from the last week:

Serendib Efreet

To quote one player, "Serendib Efreet is such a good creature that, would it be legal in Standard, it would be played in Standard." It is by far the most represented creature in winning decklists, forcing a whole slew of otherwise playable potential summons to the bench. Playset of Efreets in the winning deck from BSK? Check. Playset Efreets in the winning deck from Arvika? Check. Playset Efreets in the creature decks in the n00bcon top4? Check. Top top things off, it's not only the arguably best aggro creature, but in the arguably most oppressive color. Serendib Efreet was banned in Extended already in 1995 as it was deemed far too oppressive compared to the other options at the time. To increase diversity in the tempo decks, Serendib Efreet is restricted.

Fellwar Stone

This was first suggested by Shark-winner Brorsan and the Varberg crew, and initially sounded a little odd to me. But the more we talked about it, the more obvious the decision seemed. Fellwar Stone the only powerful mana rock that isn't restricted, and what's more, it's usually more of a Mox Diamond than anything else. Resolving Blood Moon against The Deck with Tax Edge usually wont win you the game, simply because the 4-off Fellwar Stones will tap for Disenchant mana. It makes the control decks so much stronger against land destruction, and give them a big hand in splashing cards like Regrowth or Red Elemental Blast. Turn one land, random mox, fellwar will turn on pretty much all the spells in the deck by turn two. A second turn Book, Moat or just a Mind Twist for three or four is far too easy to achieve with the Stone roaming the format. It has probably been long overdue. Fellwar Stone is restricted.

Rukh Egg

As we were trying to open up for more creature strategies, we looked back at the original B&R from 1994 for inspiration. Here, you have a bunch of fairly random creature supporting cards like Ali From Cairo and Orcish Oriflame being restricted, most of them due to their different rules or wordings at the time. One card in particular that catched our interest was Rukh Egg. Rukh Egg was restricted in 1994 due to it's interactions with discard effects like Bazaar of Baghdad and Jalum Tome. As written, the Egg will create a Rukh regardless of which zone it was in when it entered the graveyard; only in late 1994 the Egg received errata to trigger only from the battlefield. As written, the card is a great answer to the Mind Twists and Disrupting Scepters of the control decks. Possible discard penalties seemed like a decision tree that was sorely lacking in the format (we're operating a year or two before Guerrilla Tactics and Sand Golem), and it could help aggro decks even out the game against more dominant control strategies. In order to not accidentally break the format and create too big an impact on the meta, we though it good to keep Rukh Egg restricted with the new errata at least during the first year of legality. Rukh Egg is restricted and played as written.

Mox Emerald

One problem with cutting Fellwar Stone from the control and combo decks (it's also played as 4-off in Power Monolith and Mirror Ball) is the splash damage done to more "fair" decks like Atog, Martyrs and Artifact Aggro. The issue with the Stone is not that it ramps one mana, it's that it almost always taps for the mana needed to Disenchant or Counterspell something. We still want to give Atog something to eat and give the artifact decks ability to ramp, so when restricting this we felt that we needed to open something else to not completely nerf a few of the tier2 decks. The best way to go here clearly looked like Mox Emerald. In control decks, it can only be used to cast Regrowth (or possibly Sylvan Library), and will mostly act as a simple "Mox Crystal", or a much worse Sol Ring. The monogreen decks wont be broken by a few extra moxen either, as they already have abundant access to ramp in Elves, Birds, Gaea's Touch and the likes. The only potential issue with unrestricting Mox Emerald would be the monetary costs involved; many decks would like to play the full set, and it is after all a fairly expensive card. We don't really think that that should be the decisive argument though. This is already an expensive format and the cost of cards like Black Lotus doesn't discourage players to join the community. And after all, it is the least expensive Mox and one could probably get a playset unlimited ones for a single black bordered Underground Sea if so inclined. Mox Emerald is unrestricted.

So, there's some fairly high impact updates this year, but I guess that most of you who follow the format saw most of them coming. The new B&R list will come in effect May 1st. Next time we're gonna look at the first half of the n00bcon top8, some solid tech right there :)