There was quite the shakeup with the Latest B&R announcement by WOTC.
Today I’m going to discuss the Pioneer, Legacy, and Modern bans as well as my Griefless Esper Goryo’s build in Modern.
Rakdos Vampires and Amalia have been terrorizing Pioneer leading to a ban of both of their namesake cards. These bans will shake up the format as it has been incredibly stagnant. Prior to the bans the only reason to play the format was the last RCQ season.
I appreciate the logic of banning Sorin over Vein Ripper as it constraints future development.
I thought just banning Sorin and Amalia was an unlikely outcome without also axing Treasure Cruise as Pioneer was a three deck format.
Time will tell if Izzet Phoenix will be too strong, but something tells me we will have a predictable issue at the upcoming Regional Championship. There are times to wait and see and this is not one of them.
A tweet from Sophie Miller sums it up well:
Get ready for Regional Championship: Scissors.
LEGACY
Grief has been the face of long awaited bans in Legacy so it’s natural to see it on the list. People just hate being Griefed. Dimir Rescaminator was a deck with a consistent and fair game plan that also had the ability to end the game with a reanimation sub-theme. The power versus consistency curve was broken so it received a heavy nerf.
Psychic Frog is the strongest fair card in Legacy so it will be interesting to see what it takes for WOTC to act. Dreadhorde Arcanist has been banned for far less egregious crimes. It’s overly represented in the blue decks and by letting it slide I would be surprised to see it banned in the December announcement. The only other thing stopping Frog from dominating the threat slot in blue decks is the printing of an even stronger creature.
There isn’t much new to be said about the Nadu ban.
It’s one of the most broken decks to see the light of day. We knew it was going to be banned since Pro Tour: Modern Horizons 3. WOTC would have done some serious brand damage by allowing its presence to continue.
Grief receiving a ban in Modern came out of left field. I thought this was unlikely given Esper Goryo’s tame win percentage, Living End’s fringe status, and Necrodominance not having much of a following. These three decks make up less than 10% of the metagame according to MTGGoldfish.
Grief’s crime in Modern was having bad vibes. This is a dangerous precedent for Modern since the vibes are off for the entire 8th Edition set.
The One Ring is supercharging Tron decks and even being adopted in Boros Energy; I viewed this as a more serious consideration for a ban. My ideal Modern ban is simply Nadu.
Boros Energy has an even better position post Nadu ban as Esper Goryo’s was a natural foil.
I believe Esper Goryo’s still has the ability to hang given its powerful and proactive game plan. It gets a bump in the short run as it’s viewed as a less powerful contender; this means fewer Surgical Extractions in sideboards. Here’s where I plan to start:
The loss of Grief will slow down Esper Goryo’s as we must reach for more reactive forms of interaction. Grief’s main draw was that it didn’t care about the opponent’s game plan; it just ripped their hand apart.
I plan to begin testing three Force of Negation in the maindeck as Boros Energy plays both Blood Moon and The One Ring. Storm is more appealing given the loss of turn three kills from Nadu. Goryo’s Vengeance is an instant so I can cast Force proactively on my opponent’s end step.
Psychic Frog occupied a Fallaji Archaeologist slot in the past because it’s a much stronger creature, but I want more targets for Ephemerate given the loss of Grief. The Archeologist hits are more likely as Grief is replaced with spell-based interaction.
The third Solitude was the weakest card in the stock build with Grief, but I now want more free interaction. This is also another hit for Ephemerate.
A fourth Thoughtseize actually increases the amount of discard outlets to reanimate a legend. I effectively cut four Grief for two Force of Negation, a Solitude, and a Thoughtseize making the deck still very low to the ground.
I prefer Griselbrand to Ulamog, the Defiler as it requires more work to get the annihilator online. Grief made the case for Griselbrand as it could be used to evoke while the colorless creature didn’t enable free spells. Now there are fewer evoke spells in the deck making it less likely to find a big mana value in exile.
The manabase was stable with Grief, but the double-black requirement is no longer as important. I moved away from the Polluted Delta/Marsh Flats emphasis to Polluted Delta/Flooded Strand to hard cast Force of Negation.
Hedge Maze takes the place of Underground Mortuary as it can be found with Flooded Strand over Marsh Flats.
Against Boros Energy make sure to prioritize Plains and other basics ahead of Blood Moon. Hedge Maze hard casts Atraxa, but also Prismatic Ending on The One Ring. Fallaji Archeologist can randomly mill critical lands so fetch proactively.
Wrath of the Skies is a less important sweeper as it was a silver bullet against Nadu. I prefer the mix consisting of Toxic Deluge and Supreme Verdict.
The One Ring is the most powerful standalone card and Tron is the best shell so I expect more big mana to be present. The lack of Grief means I want additional ways to interact and Consign to Memory is the cream of the crop.
Teferi, Time Raveler is still the best way to interact with opponents after sideboard. The lack of Grief means I want to make sure opposing interaction is shut off before going for a Goryo’s Vengeance.
Mystical Dispute and Psychic Frog help shore up the post board games that aren’t about going all in as quickly as possible.
The fourth Prismatic Ending and two Celestial Purge help against Boros Energy. Blood Moon is an issue for Esper Goryo’s but there are numerous other targets for these removal spells, too.
While I don’t agree with all of the changes from the recent B&R announcement it does create much needed shakeups to many competitive formats. I’m excited to get back into the Modern RCQ trenches in the post Nadu world.
