Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song banned in Modern

So, Wizards shoots one of the best anti-combo decks and one of the many combo decks out there.

Am I alone in feeling this will just make the format even worse?

...so, Splinter Twin is even better now.

Well damn.

On the plus side, BBE being banned gives control some room. But control has to be able to play perfectly, and with no Force of Will, Counterspell (or f***, even Daze) it just can't easily deal with all the fair decks (not that there's many left) and still handle the unfair decks since it needs counters at exact moments.

Because of this I've been working on a U/W Sun Titan list, but it's damn near impossible to prep a deck for both Splinter Twin and Tron without relying on rather specific draws and playing flawlessly. As much as I'm relatively used to that, it's just dumb when the variety of combo is so high and the variety of... anything fair is non-existent.

I can see Delver becoming a better contender now that BBE is gone.
Even with Seething Song gone, I am sure that Storm will adapt, it just makes the deck less consistent. They will find something, but it won't be as good as it was before.

Eeeh. I don't know. Splinter Twin scares me, but it does make UW Control fairly better in the format. They can also run Blind Obedience well, considering the two combo decks (Splinter Twin + Eggs) both need big tappy combos.

I'm gonna test out Summoning Trap. Seems well-placed in the format.

Seems like a fine Ban list to me.

If this keeps up, Wizards will shoot down all decks out there.

Sure that Jund needed a nerf, but I still don't know why they're so afraid of pushing some Control into Modern's meta.

And obviously they would not ban Tarmogoyf of Dark Confidant, because those are huge money cards and it'd make people hate Wizards even more.

Was kinda obvious they won't ban Goyf with it being the front card for Modern Masters.

Not to mention Goyf's just a big thing, it's practically a Vanilla, and Bob comes with natural downside and given the power level of modern is a relatively fair card.

BBE is the card (along with Deathrite Shaman) that's pushed Jund into being the strongest deck in the format, and is what gives it the edge over every other fair deck. BBE is the card that forces control out of the format, almost entirely by itself.

Honestly, after thinking it over a bit, I'm happy BBE's gone. It means I can play certain decks without them being instantly inferior to Jund (like Grixis and U/B) and control becomes a seriously valid archetype since it beats all the combo decks that Jund did beforehand while keeping control out of the running. And control has so many viable options now; Gifts, Teachings, U/W Sun Titan. U/W Sun Titan has such a good matchup against so many decks too, especially after sideboarding where I feel its only weak matchup was Jund and Delver.

Only issue I have now is that Delver becomes a real, real deck and Delver naturally gets the jump on control and could even become the best deck in the format. (Seriously, WotC, just ban Geist of Saint Traft and give me Ponder or Jace and I'll be happy.)

Just going to go ahead and say that I totally called BBE's ban. <3

Not unbanning Mind Sculptor is a bit sketchy imho based on that same "Modern needs more control" analysis, on top of the fact that people arguing about it being a "money card" is ridiculous due to most other cards in Modern. Hierarch, Goyf and the land searchers want a word.

It's not like you'd be running a playset anyway.

With BBE gone, we can easily assume Jace is never getting unbanned.

Shame, I would've liked there to be a Jace vs BBE aspect to modern, but in the mean time control gets inherently better anyway. It has the permission for combo and no longer has the ubiquitous 2-for-1 from BBE that always took them out of the game. Tempo gets better in the process since it tends to have a strong control matchup, but I for one won't complain if it leads to a Geist of Saint Traft ban. I do wish WotC would be less banhappy and actually test the waters; Stoneforge, Jace, Bitterblossom and Ancestral could all be fine cards if they just tried them out with the banlist. They should be more experimental, imo, the playerbase would likely be more thankful, as it is now banning a card because it's in the best deck seems like it'll just send players away.

Luxanna Crownguard wrote:If this keeps up, Wizards will shoot down all decks out there.

But Jund and Storm aren't gone, they were just slowed down. Storm could with on turn 3 and Jund needed the shooting to allow for more decks to have the spotlight for once.

Storm wasn't topping, but the Seething Song was understandable (but unexpected). Jund, though, was still a generally fair deck. Not massively overpowered, just very efficient.

I expect Jund to still play in lesser numbers, replacing BBE with Finks or Huntmaster. Huntmaster is probably the closest thing to BBE at the moment: instant value in a body.

.Rai wrote:Storm wasn't topping, but the Seething Song was understandable (but unexpected). Jund, though, was still a generally fair deck. Not massively overpowered, just very efficient.

I expect Jund to still play in lesser numbers, replacing BBE with Finks or Huntmaster. Huntmaster is probably the closest thing to BBE at the moment: instant value in a body.

Jund has kind of been the deck-to-turn-to when Twin/Pod haven't been working out as well. BBE's ban was incoming because of the insane viability it gave the deck.

Huntmaster'll be a semi-okay replacement, but it's hard when you don't have the leap into Goyf or something stupid with everyone's favorite cascader gone. I'm hoping this'll give some other things more attention.

Conley Wood's article on the banlist has a good point given ( http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/breaking-through-out-with-the-old/ ).

Basically, the modern rock deck we currently know as Jund will likely just split into different decks. Obvious ones being replacing BBE with Huntmaster, Olivia or Thrun, and then other options being changing to Junk or some other colour combination. Of course, G/B still does the heart of The Rock the most effectively, it'll just vary on the third colour. Doran and Elspeth are great reasons to go white. Huntmaster, Terminate and Lightning Bolt are great reasons to stay Red. Creeping Tar Pit, Mana Leak, Snapcaster Mage and Jace Beleren are pretty good reasons off the top of my head to go Blue. The deck could just go G/B and cast Geralf's Messenger and Kitchen Finks with ease.