Comments on: Why is Mental Misstep Banned in Modern?

By: mrme

mrme — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 19:39:38 +0000

I’m ok with it being banned, as long as you ban the Myr endless combos as well. Which has not happened. O would rather see 4 of these per deck than half the modern decks being endless myr combos

By: Tragic

Tragic — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 06:10:43 +0000

If Mental Misstep is banned, then why isn’t a card like Thoughtseize? Card type difference aside, they both basically do the same thing, except Thoughtseize is more powerful, and can be played before your opponent has the mana to counteract it. In fact, if it weren’t for cards like TS, MM would never have been so widely used. Think about it, TS is a card that removes any strategy, often before you have a land on the field. MM would be only one of a few cards in all of Magic that can protect from a basically turn 0 TS blue needs that protection, since it is a color based around combos.
And I’m not defending MM because I play blue and want an advantage. I most often play black, and rarely use counterspells in my blue strategies. My only complaint is that if you’re going to ban something, be consistent throughout the format(s) and do the same to other cards that deserve it.

By: Chris Stripling

Chris Stripling — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 19:58:11 +0000

I’ve played this game the end of The Dark, so I’ve seen many changes. I understand Wizards of the Coast’s desire to change the game up to keep things fresh and to promote new deck designs. This said, I wonder why WotC doesn’t change the banned lists annually. Each year, all the banned cards (except for the ante cards in Type 1)come off the list and a new banned list of completely new cards is posted. I think the formats are getting a bit stale and need a good shake up.

By: Joaquin

Joaquin — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:59:55 +0000

There aren’t that many 1 drops that are crucial for decks, only delver comes to my mind, and the deck isn’t tier 1 anymore. That said i think it will be heavily played by blue decks, to counter bolts, path to exiles and discard effects, but it shouldn’t see that much play in non-blue decks, there aren’t that many 1 mana spells that can hurt an aggro deck (including misstep itself). The format lacks powerful cards that would give control decks a chance and maybe misstep is that card. I believe the main reason it’s banned is not for how it can affect the metagame now, but because of how it would affect 1 mana spells that have yet to be printed.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 02:29:50 +0000

I have played this game for many years, since it started and I have always been against banning cards. That said I believe that misstep only remains banned in modern because it offers answers top top tier cards like Thoughtseize. It should be given its chance to play.

By: Hello!

Hello! — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 18:54:46 +0000

In reply to Douglas Linn. I've heard your points about bolt in the past and at first disagreed but I seem to be coming around to the idea that bolt might be wrong for the format. What I don't understand is how bolt can be so prevalent as a spashable efficient removal but misstep eats a ban before we get any testing of the card. Its things like that, how the format is handled that can be so annoying.

By: Douglas Linn

Douglas Linn — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 14:45:06 +0000

In reply to Hello!. So I've been talking about this on the Modern Enthusiast podcast. And Bolt is pretty distorting to Modern and card choices. It's something strange when combo decks like Twin and Storm are still running four Bolts.

By: Hello!

Hello! — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 04:23:49 +0000

In reply to theuseless. Shouldn't lightning bolt be banned then?

By: theuseless

theuseless — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 21:47:22 +0000

It would violate one of the golden rules of banning a card. If a card shows up too frequently in the top 8 of high rel tournaments, it will be banned. Mental Misstep would be a four of in any and all decks.

By: CorwinB

CorwinB — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 00:05:41 +0000

When Mental Misstep was banned in Legacy and banned when Modern was defined, Snapcaster Mage didn’t even exist… Now that’s a scary thought.

By: Hello!

Hello! — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:56:08 +0000

Id rather give mental misstep a shot and get some real data than speculation about how good or bad it would be for the format from fnm all stars.

By: lovesEggs

lovesEggs — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 02:33:41 +0000

Mental Misstep is incredibly unfun. If you play any one drops, you’re kind of obligated to playing 4, and then many games with player’s on a functional mulligan to 5 or 6 with multiple missteps played on turn 1.

As for real data, according to MTG Goldfish, 18/50 of the most played spells in the format are 1 drops. Doesn’t sound very narrow to me.

By: QBChaz

QBChaz — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 14:35:23 +0000

Misstep’s main offence is that the best card to counteract Misstep is your own Misstep. This leads to terrible sequences of plays.

Me: Delver (or whatever)
Opponent: Misstep your Delver
Me: Misstep your Misstep
Opponent: No, Misstep your Misstep

Et cetera. If I’m holding a Misstep and so are you there will always be a point where these cards trade. No one has any cards left in hand and we go through 4 turns of draw-go. Sounds like Vintage to me. I love Vintage but I do not want to see Modern become like it.

By: ExpletiveDelete

ExpletiveDelete — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:41:54 +0000

I think that second to last paragraph completely invalidates your entire article. It was a compelling argument until you concluded with “Yeah, but I’m probably wrong.”