Sunday, January 21, 2018

Standard after bans

Ramunap Red and Energy decks dominated Standard format. Temur was considered as the best deck, while Ramunap Red as a second, so for a big tournament there was very little room for brewing. No diversity and Wizards took action. Banning two of the most important cards in the blue-green-based energy decks Rogue Refiner and Attune with Aether completely killed Temur and Sultai Energy. It led to ban of Ramunap Ruins and Rampaging Ferocidon. Otherwise, red deck would overwhelm the metagame. There were other cards that could have been banned, but Wizards choice is reasonable. Ramunap Ruins was a fuel to late games, while Rampaging Ferocidon was good card against Temur Energy deck. If Energy is gone, Rampaging Ferocidon is safe ban too. It doesn't hurt other decks much and it weakens old reck deck. Wizards may be also anticipating Rampaging Ferocidon being very powerful against decks that will emerge after the dust settles from the banning, such as tokens or vampire decks.

The question is what decks will be tier1 now. Standard is once again wide open, there is no clear answer. Well-known decks such as White-Blue Approach, and White-Blue Cycling can shine now. But, we need to wait for big tournament to see the true winners of latest bans. Will it be Mardu Vehicles, some kind of control, Black-Red with Chandra and Hazoret, Vampires? Who knows maybe Black-Green Constricor comeback?

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