Eldrazi seems like it should be totally fine after the Eye ban, although not quite a Tier 0 monstrosity. We also might see Temples and Eldrazi as bullets in two-colored lists like D&T, Hatebears, Tron, Blue Moon, etc. It’s going to be an interesting next few months, and I too will be packing considerable artifact hate.

I genuinely believe they didn’t tie them to the Twin banning because they wanted to see how Modern shaped up. If anything, the marketing motive would have wanted them tied to the Twin ban to try and mitigate the fallout that happened. That said, it’s very possible that unbanning cards after Eldrazi Winter was done as a consolation to Modern players who were upset with the format. So it’s probably a mix of intentions.

I 100% agree that Wizards wanted to wait and see what post-Twin Modern looked like before launching any unbans. That said, I too am surprised Wizards was willing to unban cards with such minimal data. We only had 2-3 weeks of post-Twin, pre-Eldrazi Modern, and I definitely don’t think that’s enough time to see the metagame go one way or another. That said, whether Wizards made the unbans as a gamble to “apologize” for the Eldrazi Winter, or just wanted to push Modern a bit more towards interactivity (having seen what many of the non-Eldrazi decks at the PT looked like), I’m happy with the result. We’ll need to wait and see, but if your concern was linearity, you might be back in the Modern action well before 2017!

It’s very possible we see such cards return to the limelight, especially Redirect which has no life cost and can even protect against Become Immense, at least as long as there’s another creature on the board.

Added a few words to clear that up. Good catch!

Goblin Dark Dwellers will rise from the depths!

Very pumped to see these changes too. Modern needed some blue love after the Twin bans, and I’m excited to see Sword, Foundry, and Vision enable a host of new decks. Can’t wait to see the first post-unban events!

Hate when that happens. I always try to hold off on deck decisions until after bans/unbans are decided: I’ve been tabling my Belcher deck for a while because I was scared of a Guide ban, and now I’m bringing it back. I think you can do worse than Mardu in this metagame. You’re still getting maindecked Kolaghan’s to handle the combo, although you don’t get access to the same toys like those other decks do. Sadly, the switch from Mardu to Jeskai involves Snapcasters, so it’s not an easy one. Let us know how it turns out!

One thing I did back in 2012 was secure a playset of most of the banned cards, in the (sometimes unlikely) event any of them got unbanned. The prices are high on many of these cards, but it’s still not a bad idea if you ever have the change to spare. Vision, at least, is now free!

I’m also pumped about these cards, but am not remotely worried about their impact on BGx Midrange decks. It’s inevitable that powerful unbans will push down other decks, and players can’t have it both ways. Either powerful, top-tier decks stay at the top and we get no meaningful unbans, or we get cool unbans that shake things up. I’m all for the latter and think Modern could use it after years of extremely conservative unbans. Excited to see how all the Vision and control decks turn out!

I think it’s a marketing thing. These unbannings have been pretty much universally praised. If that had been tied to a Twin banning (which would be obviously controversial), there might be less excitement overall.

I’m aware, but depending on how far invested you may have become, there is always a chance for you to switch before investing further.

Turns two-four: establish control of board.

Turn five: AV comes off suspend; draw three cards; cast GDD, targeting AV; draw three more cards; profit.

That’s Jeskai. I was saying I had a W/B shell and had just decided on red instead of blue as my third color. :/

UWR with Ancestral Visions and Goblin Dark Dwellers seems really decent. Goblin DD is not as good as Shardless Agent or Bloodbraid but its the best we have right now. I don’t imagine that the five mana casting cost is too much for a control deck that likes to go long like UWR.