Pretty sure we do mate – have you been hiding under a rock and/or a Wizards shill?

Why – they were best when Twin was in the format due to the great matchup they had – the idea that RUG delver is now somehow good is fanciful. Sure ppl will play the deck and may even have some success at IQ level but they cant compete in any decent event as they are too inconsistent (delver flipping, removal heavy decks shit in this deck )

Its an IQ with one of the best mtg players playing the deck – even mediocre
decks with good pilots can get there on occassion – highly unlikely to be repeated

Yeah… This. Player confidence in the format has taken a huge hit, one that would take a long time without arbitrary banning to be restored. Simply put, the deck that wins the most will be banned, and that means modern is effectively a rotating format.
Beyond that, one argument that I seldom see addressed is that the modern metagame is much worse without twin in it now. Look at that act classic top 8… 2 tempo decks, 1 midrange, 12 aggro decks. Barely any interaction. This is not what a healthy metagame looks like, and barring some incredible tech at the pro tour, that’s what we’re left with for at least three months, and likely an entire year with a completely linear metagame. Sounds fun.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/scg-modern-classic-atlanta#online

2 Temur Delver in the top 16? The tournament won by Temur Delver? Temur looks reaaall bad right now lol

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/scg-modern-classic-atlanta#online

That’s just it, though: as far as I can see, Grixis Control started life as a classic URx deck built around Snapcaster and playing primarily at instant speed, but with the increasing prevalence of Jace has evolved into something much more like Jund – a board control deck playing mostly at sorcery speed.

As for Splinter Twin suppressing diversity within URx strategies, unless some URx decks surfaces in the post-ban metagame, then Splinter Twin was if anything the reason that URx saw some amount of play. At which point the card wasn’t hindering in-colors diversity but actually what made it competitive.

The results of a deck getting top 8 vs top 16 are what? 1-2 wins or losses? What a crazy difference that is. Top 8’s alone are a terrible metric to base a banning off of.

Read Tom LaPille’s explanation’s on reddit or listen to the podcast he was on. Look for yourself on mtgtop8.com and look at the % of players playing each deck. Those numbers right there tell you twin isn’t oppressive. Jund and Junk decks have consistently held more meta % than any other deck.

Look at the stats for last years pro-tour fate reforged. PVR so kindly put those on one of his articles. Look at the “diversity” there and and in any of the previous sites I mention and tell me that diversity is an issue. It isn’t. Saying anything else is just a stubborn denial of the truth.

Point is, the pro-tour is killing modern as a fun format to play. It is and will continue to ruin the game for the casual players, the people who just want to play at their local game stores, fnm, and if everything aligns maybe a grand prix or some side events when they can attend.

I will continue to fight for the health of modern as I see it as nice format to play once one is done with standard, or needs a break of standard or whatever their reason is. If you are under the false assumption that banning cards every year from a top tier deck is good for format diversity, then you will be very dissapointed in the format in 4 years.

I think if those decks are putting up numbers that resemble those of cards that have already been banned, there’s no reason for us to be surprised at a banning, at the very least. Wizards thinks banning in this way increases format diversity, and so far, they’ve been correct.

Banning cards probably has something to do with the Pro Tour, but we don’t have any hard evidence that this ban was based mostly on the Pro Tour. In fact, we have evidence that this ban was based mostly on other factors.

Wizards constantly bans cards from Modern “in the interest of format diversity.” It’s plainly obvious to me that “format diversity” is not something that’s tremendously important to Wizards in Legacy, otherwise they would ban Brainstorm.

So why hasn’t wizards banned sensie’s top or counterbalance from miracles? Or in fact why hasn’t brainstorm been banned? Based on numbers and event wins and top 8’s that deck has been the most successful. Brainstorm makes its way into 70% minimum of all top 8 decks being a 4 of.

It hasn’t been banned because A. It doesn’t need to be and B. because legacy has no PRO-TOUR. If legacy had a pro-tour, do you think that brainstorm or miracles would be banned ?

So why hasn’t wizards banned sensie’s top or counterbalance from miracles? Or in fact why hasn’t brainstorm been banned? Based on numbers and event wins and top 8’s that deck has been the most successful. Brainstorm makes its way into 70% minimum of all top 8 decks being a 4 of.

It hasn’t been banned because A. It doesn’t need to be and B. BECAUSE LEGACY HAS NO PRO-TOUR. If legacy had a pro-tour, do you think that brainstorm or miracles would be banned ?

Thanks! Agree about the upset/subjective articles. If you have friends who are really upset about the Twin ban, show them this. I think it will do the community a lot of good if we can have a level-headed discussion about the implications of Modern bannings without letting emotions muddle our logic.

For one, people would definitely pack LESS Affinity hate if the deck took a banlist hit. That alone might keep it viable. But we won’t know until it happens!

We’ll see! If URx is as bad as you guys think, I’m sure Wizards will throw it a bone.

I’m also very excited for Delver decks in the coming metagame! Thanks for the kind words. I think it’s very important to consider the actual data for issues like these, or else people let their emotions get the best of them and say really embarrassing things.

Well, we don’t have hard proof that Twin was banned because of the Pro Tour. We do have an official explanation from Wizards that actually makes a lot of sense if you check out the numbers. I’ve laid them out above if you want to give them a look!

Wizards has said in the past, and on this banlist announcement, that they look to GP Top 8 slots as an indicator of format diversity. Whether you agree with them or not, that’s just what they do. It would be short-sighted of us not to consider, then, Twin’s GP Top 8 appearances this season – which are higher than any other deck’s. Posts like these make me wonder if people even read Wizards’ banlists announcements.