Let's talk about the power level of Stoneforge Mystic

Hi Everyone!

I have seen a lot of debate over Stoneforge Mystic being too good for Modern. It's certainly powerful. It sees play in Legacy on a regular basis.

Is it too good for Modern? Maybe, but  I think probably not.

Let's look at what it does in best case scenario. Turn 2 it fetches a Batterskull and puts it into play (can't be countered) on turn 3.

So it's a Loxodon Smiter with lifelink that dies to virtually any removal on turn two. The batterskull can be discarded easily to discard spells before it can be put into play by the opponent.

Then once it's in play it dies to anything that kills black creatures, anything that "blinks" it, and anything that kills artifacts.

Yeah, lifelink on Smiter would make it very good, but not too good.

How does our turn 3 4/4 lifelink that dies to a lot of stuff compare to the format. I'm going to admit, it's good against creature decks. I think control decks would often have to 2 for 1 themselves to kill the token and have to deal with the artifact eventually and the token would be back in a couple turns. Most combo decks won't care about the Batterskull.

Is it really too good? It's better than what we have, but a lot of decks in Modern are more powerful than a turn 3 lifelink 4/4. How about Amulet Bloom, it kills on turn 3 some of the time and could do so through a batterskull.

I don't think it will be too good but it will be popular. Stoneforge will probably be seen as much online as Twin and Pod were seen when it was clearly the best decks.