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Ban Treasure Cruise. Ban Cruise. Ban Cruise. That's all we hear anymore (and part of it from me).
The Top 8 of Grand Prix Omaha tells us a different story.
Or does it?
We saw just one copy of Blue-Red Delver make it into the Top 8 at Omaha, which features seven distinct archetypes including MERFOLK! But we also saw a ton of Chalice of the Void, which is important to note because it does show how warped the format has become around Cruising. Hell, some Top 32 decks were even playing maindeck Relic of Progenitus in an attempt to slow down the delving.
So, on the one hand, it seems the format can handle it. On the other, there's no denying it's a warped format. But I can almost accept that if we continue to see this much diversity and this many Merfolk. That said, Birthing Pod was the actual dominant archetype of the weekend, and the "ban Birthing Pod" jokes may not be all that funny anymore.
Was the Relic of Progenitus in Tron builds? Because Tron already main decked Relic. Or were there other builds also playing those main?
Don’t forget Relic also hurts Pod a bunch so it’s not just to battle Delve.
There was a Merfolk deck in Top 32 that maindecked 2 Relics.
Before the inclusion of Master of Waves and to a lesser extent, Master of the Pearl Trident, Relic was maindecked in Merfolk. Mostly due to the power of Jund. Sure, it is an inclusion, but it has existed because of different needs for graveyard strategies.
So the most important metric for these bans is often tournament attendance. Personally, GP Omaha, despite having a terrible day 2 myself, was the most fun or second most fun I’ve ever had playing Modern. For a GP in an uninviting state during a time when it’s colder than the majority of the country ever actually gets, it seems to me like 1,100+ people is a great turnout. Hard to say if more or fewer would show up if we ran it back with Treasure Cruise banned, though.
^ well said Ryan..I agree, modern is pretty wide open and fun now- inspire of the narrow conversations about ‘bans’….
Just curious, but if a Format is always under close scrutiny and possibly ‘ban’ of cards- does it increase interest and particaition or keep it away?