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Modern Banlist Watch List: 2022 Edition

David Ernenwein — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 17:00:35 +0000

David's back with his annual Modern ban watch list. What was banned in 2021? The format now appears healthy, but what is on his radar for the future?

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All That Remains: An Unban Examination

David Ernenwein — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 17:00:34 +0000

Banning problem cards helps build healthy metagames. For this, Modern is no exception. Today David examines a different approach: unbanning.

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Testing Hypergenesis: Qualitative Data and Conclusion

David Ernenwein — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 17:00:24 +0000

And now, to wrap things up. I've talked about the setup and the hard data, but that doesn't tell the whole story. It's usually the intangible or at least unquantifiable observations that most inform decisions. I made a number of observations and ancillary impacts during my testing that changed how I see Hypergenesis. Today, I'll […]

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Friendly Fire: The New Banlist’s Splash Damage

Jordan Boisvert — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 17:00:13 +0000

The latest banlist announcement did a number on Modern's top decks, decimating the Uro piles which week and again would claim top of the heap as well as the new bullies on the block, cascade-powered decks abusing the latest Tibalt cards. In order to solve for these displays of power, though, Wizards took an unconventional […]

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Testing Hypergenesis: Experimental Setup

David Ernenwein — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 17:00:29 +0000

It's been quite a while, but your eyes do not deceive: this is another full banlist test series! It's been almost two years since I did one of these. Not for lack of trying, mind you, but there are only so many viable test subjects in the first place, and I've done a few already. […]

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Nuked From Orbit: The February ’21 Banning

David Ernenwein — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:00:36 +0000

Wow. There are bannings, and then there are bannings. This was definitely the latter. Wizards looked at non-Standard Constructed, saw that it was poor, and nuked it. All of it, Historic, Pioneer, Legacy, and most importantly, Modern. Vintage also saw an unbanning. Because somebody had to get thrown a bone. Monday morning, Wizards dropped the largest […]

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Modern Banlist Watchlist: 2021 Edition

David Ernenwein — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:00:38 +0000

Final article of the year! Good riddance, 2020. Hopefully, things start to turn around quickly and we can have the gathering part of Magic: The Gathering back again. But, this isn't about a virus or vaccine. Today, I have business that must be finished before 2021 begins. For the third year running, it's time to update my […]

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Underestimation Escalation: Umezawa’s Jitte

David Ernenwein — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 16:00:31 +0000

There are many old sayings about plans going awry. Even when it seems like everything lines up perfectly, there's always a chance for something to go wrong. Throw in a global health crisis, and everything goes out the window. The shutdown seemed like the perfect time to run another banlist test. It's been over a year […]

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Late Summer Thaw: Arcum’s Astrolabe Banned

David Ernenwein — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 16:00:53 +0000

But for copyright concerns, I would have led off this article with the lyrics to "Another One Bites the Dust." I hope perfectly reasonable intellectual property law is happy with itself. There's been another B&R Announcement. This time something actually is banned in Modern. So that's nice. Even if it does moot a number of […]

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A Banlist Visitation: Scraping the Barrel

Jordan Boisvert — Mon, 25 May 2020 16:00:06 +0000

Discussing the Modern banlist has always been a favorite pastime of the format's aficionados. In times like these (and I don't mean COVID-19, but that other c-word), player attention is turned towards what needs to be banned; pundits have suggested all the companions eat the bullet, or that Wizards implement sweeping errata. But personally, I've […]

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Bans, Pioneer, Arena, and the Death of Modern

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 17:00:57 +0000

Modern is at a crossroads right now. Between changes in banlist philosophy, the arrival and surging popularity of Pioneer, and the breakout success of Magic: Arena, doomsayers are out in force and quick to declare Modern passé. Today, we'll explore each of the supposed challenges Modern faces and measure its staying power. Sporadic Banlists Towards […]

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Modern Banlist Watchlist: 2020 Edition

David Ernenwein — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 17:00:11 +0000

The competitive year has come to a close for Modern, and now it's time to look ahead. This means it's time once more to informedly speculate on the future of Modern's banlist. It's been a wild year for the list, and while I always hope that the metagame can adapt to new decks, I don't […]

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Batt to the Bone: Five Guys and the New Modern

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 16:00:56 +0000

Hogaak and Looting are banned, and Stoneforge Mystic is free at last from the Modern banned list. What do these changes promise for our beloved format? And what does equipment searching have to do with fast food chains? Let's find out! Elephant in the Room Before even thinking about the void left by Hogaak, or […]

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Bridge Collapse: Banning Reaction

David Ernenwein — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 16:00:24 +0000

I had planned to spend today's article discussing Hogaakvine: what it does, how it does it, how to play against it, and how I'd build decks given Hogaak's rise. However, that article was mooted this morning by Wizards. Instead, let's examine what's happened and where it leaves Modern. Also, once again, nothing got unbanned. This […]

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Punishing Fire: Qualitative Results and Conclusion

David Ernenwein — Tue, 21 May 2019 16:00:01 +0000

Last week, I unveiled the first part of my Punishing Fire test. With the data compiled and revealed, it's time for the less-concrete part. The data is the data and speaks for itself. However, that's not the whole story. Magic isn't just a numbers game; there are a lot of intangibles. For instance, it's also supposed […]

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Testing Punishing Fire: Quantitative Data

David Ernenwein — Tue, 14 May 2019 16:00:01 +0000

And now it's time for everyone's favorite part of the banlist test: the experimental data. With 500 matches of Jund with and without Punishing Fire under my belt, I have developed a very strong opinion on unbanning the card. Today, I will reveal the hard numbers and their statistical significance. As always, these data are […]

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Testing Punishing Fire: Experimental Setup

David Ernenwein — Tue, 07 May 2019 16:00:51 +0000

The time has come to start rolling out the results of my latest foray into the Modern banlist. In the past, the return of this series was hailed with a public vote for which card I'd work on, followed by months of silence while I actually did the work. This time, extenuating circumstances dictated the […]

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Ashes to Ashes: Should Wizards Address Phoenix?

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:00:18 +0000

Each tournament, Izzet Phoenix's impressive, sustained numbers start to look less like an outlier and more like a pattern. Patterns like these have a history of being addressed by Wizards via the banlist. So how does Izzet Phoenix stack up against past offenders? Do the deck's decriers have a case for caging the bird? Let's […]

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What to Watch: 2019 Banlist Candidates

David Ernenwein — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 17:00:42 +0000

Every few weeks, speculation begins to rise about the next Banned and Restricted Announcement. Whenever something actually does happen, I frequently see laments over being blindsided and calls for Wizards to implement a banning watchlist. While an official list will never happen as it would unduly influence the secondary market, I do think it useful […]

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The Banlist in 2019: My Christmas Wishlist

Jordan Boisvert — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:00:55 +0000

When it comes to Modern, I'm always up for a surprise. I penned an article last week declaring the death of midrange as a Tier 1 strategy in an aggro-combo metagame. But it seems the meta has already corrected itself: last weekend's GP Portland Top 8 featured a finals between Grixis Death's Shadow and BG […]

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