Unban candidate

The October 17 banlist announcement brought no changes to Modern format. However, Wizards dropped some juicy announcement. 

In the course of discussing options for this announcement, we did discuss unbanning in Modern. However, given the current healthy state of the format and the upcoming Modern Pro Tour, we plan to wait for the results of Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan to evaluate any potential changes for the format. We anticipate making an announcement in February after the results from that tournament come in.

So, if I have to name a one card, which is a safe unban it will be Stoneforge Mystic. Let's find out why. First of all, we need to understand why this card have never been legal in Modern. I firmly believe that Stoneforge being banned had a lot to do with the fact that it was banned in Standard two months prior to the announcement of Modern format. It allows you to cheat out Batterskull on turn three. Raw power. But, is there anything to be afraid of? Is it so broken that it will shake the format up?

In fact, equipments in general see very little play in Modern right now (except from Cranial Plating). They are too slow for Modern format. But, which decks could benefit from Stoneforge? For sure, W/X controls, Abzan and Hatebears. However, Stoneforge is easier to kill now than ever thanks to lately printed Fatal Push, Collective Brutality, and of course Kolaghan’s Command. Commonly played is also Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. Each deck has an answer to kill this Squire with upside. As long as, Jitte and Skullclamp remains banned Stoneforge is a safe unban.

We will see in February.

New MTG logo

Since 1993, Magic the Gathering has had almost the same logo. There were some updates, but they were slight. However, this time changes are noticeable. The new logo is a fraternal twin of the Magic: The Gathering Arena logo. But see how it compares to the previous logos. Pay attention only to text Magic the Gathering, not picture as a whole.

March 2018 -

2015-2018

 1999-2015

 1993-1999

Rules changes

- Cards will be checking in what state they are coming on the battlefield, while old rules ignored cards played before. Example: Blood Moon and Shocklands (Sacred Ground). It will always come as untapped Mountain. In the past you could take a 2 dmg hit to have tapped Mountain in play.

- Now, if a spell or ability you play gives an opponent a choice, you must get confirmation from them that they aren’t doing the optional thing. Example: Path of Exile.

- The build times in sealed deck events on the launch weekend of a set (including GPs) have been extended by fifteen minutes.

- You are obliged to place creatures above lands in all feature matches during GP.

- Cards with no borders, for instance Unstable basic lands, are legal in tournaments.

MTG Arena: some news

There was a Q&A on Twitch regarding MTG Arena last week. You may watch the Twitch video here. Here are some highlights:

• MTG Arena will not allow trading. The game will be a collectible card game, not a trading game. 
• MTG Arena will be totally free to play, buy you can pay to accelerate some unlocks.
• MTG Arena enables you to draft the latest set and play the Standard format. Developers haven't decided yet what happens with cards when a set rotates out of Standard. 
• MTG Arena will not feature multiplayer, only player vs player.
• Animations cannot be turned off. However the developer stressed that they will not let the animations interfere with game play much. 

We may deduce, that Standard format players will move from MtGO to Arena. MtGO will be kept alive just for older constructed formats. But, in my opinion Standard is just for the start, the rest will come along gradually.