Comments on: Insider: A Stoneforge Mystic Unbanning? – Weighing the Evidence For and Against

By: Jason Schousboe

Jason Schousboe — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 10:26:08 +0000

Near the end of this article, I think you hit on the key to all this — a Standard reprint. This would explain everything odd about the situation.

1. Stoneforge is only as busted as its targets. Easy to balance in Standard.

2. Explains the promo.

3. The language about “the year of Stoneforge” would make sense in this context. Especially if WotC seeded Standard with a good (but not busted) equipment to make sure it saw play.

4. Zendikar is the original home of Stoneforge Mystic. As far as iconic reprint targets go, she’s at the top of the pack. Seems like a great inclusion for OGW to me.

By: Chaz V

Chaz V — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 02:33:21 +0000

This was one of the better articles I’ve read on the subject. I take your opinions highly into consideration when it comes to Modern especially the Banned list.

Well done Sheridan. I also am leaning to not being unbanned, but not saying they couldn’t. It just seems to me unbanning SFM essentially undermines Birthing Pod’s ban. I understand creatures are designed more frequently than Equipment, but the premise is the same.

By: David Schumann

David Schumann — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 13:11:39 +0000

In reply to Joel Mick. It's also important to keep in mind that the price of the GP Promo's would drop over time and if they hold off on the announcement until Shadows Over Innistrad then they could have some promo's already in the supply.

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 02:32:33 +0000

In reply to Joel Mick. That's an interesting take on the price situation. It's also possible that Wizards is going to print enough of these to satisfy demand all year, over-producing the stock to avoid running out of them as GP season progresses. Still something to think about (and maybe Wizards WANTS to do this, just to get the hype).

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 02:31:33 +0000

In reply to Anthony A. Perhaps, but it's also the first GP Promo announcement that has had any fanfare at all beyond just saying "this is the card". Also, Wizards has never called a whole year the "year of [Insert Promo Card Here]", which could suggest another level of relevance for this new printing. As I cautioned in the article, we could definitely be reading too much into this. But I think it's less likely than in other announcements: this one has more than a few datapoints in its favor.

By: Sheridan Lardner

Sheridan Lardner — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 02:29:55 +0000

In reply to David Schumann. Definitely possible, but I think such a shakeup unban would have to come before the Pro Tour. That would be a huge boost in format interest and Pro Tour views, not to mention satisfying pro desire for more options (particularly interactive options) in the format. Batterskull is definitely going to increase alongside the Mystic, and I think at least SoFI would be a big winner here (SoFF being better in a grindier, BGx dominant metagame).

By: Joel Mick

Joel Mick — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 17:17:26 +0000

Another argument against Stoneforge unbanning is that if the price of Stoneforge were to jump to $50-60 as suggested, players could essentially buy their 2016 GP entries and receive cards of equal or greater (in the case of limited format GPs) value. Wizards doesn’t want this to happen because it would increase false GP registrations (players entering GP only to drop after getting their cars and swag). GP organizers could combat this by raising the price of entering the GP, but Wizards wouldn’t want that to happen either because the higher price (even with higher value) could negatively impact participation.

This is obviously not conclusive, because Wizards has made decisions that were counter to its interests in the past due to error. But if you believe that Wizards will generally act in its own interest, this is another data point against an unbanning of Stoneforge,

By: Anthony A

Anthony A — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 16:23:45 +0000

Isn’t the second quote just about there being one more Premier event this year (World Cup) before ‘the year’ of giving SFM away as a promo?

-AA

By: David Schumann

David Schumann — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 14:47:44 +0000

This is definitely one of the more interesting turn of events that’s happened in modern recently. The other consideration is will WoTC hold off an unban until AFTER GP promos have hit the market (thus dropping the price and keeping the speculators in check). His allusion to “next spring” could imply that they don’t unban her in January with Oath, but instead wait until Shadows of Innistrad releases. The other thing to consider is with an unban of SFM, what other equipment would jump…Batterskull would increase some (but thanks to all those GP promos it’s price would be kept in check), I think the biggest winner would be Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Fire and Ice which would be incredible in modern (and thanks to Abrupt Decay could be kept in check).