Should sword of the meek be unbanned
Modern forum
Posted on March 1, 2015, 12:07 p.m. by Deadpool213
What are the pros and cons
Uh, no. I'm 100% behind Wizards on banning that thing, and that's more than I can say for more than a few cards in the banlist.
March 1, 2015 12:12 p.m.
Well, it has a pretty cool combo with Thopter Foundry. Those two cards basically reads:
Pay 
: You gain 1 life and put a 1/1 blue Thopter with flying onto the battlefield.
Which is pretty damn good!
However, I don't think it is that metabreaking. It would be a good deck, but I think it would be possible to let it be unbanned.
March 1, 2015 12:13 p.m.
Well it can be exploited heavily with Thopter Foundry to produce a shit ton of 1/1s.
With Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas you have a very, very strong deck.
March 1, 2015 12:14 p.m.
However, it's really not THAT broken. I'd like to see it tested.
March 1, 2015 12:15 p.m.
Dalektable says... #9
Should it remained banned? Most likely. Would I like for it to be unbanned, at least for a time? Yes. I'd like to see what this theoretical deck could do, and i would play the hell out of it.
March 1, 2015 12:17 p.m.
Sure it's a strong combo but at that point youre on T3 and you havent ACTUALLY done anything.
March 1, 2015 12:17 p.m.
Jay, but that is a 3 card combo. Which is not something that is easily achievable....
March 1, 2015 12:17 p.m.
The main, 2 card combo is very strong though. Running 4x one drops that make it even stronger is a no brainer.
It's a legacy-playable combo. It would blow out modern.
March 1, 2015 12:20 p.m.
What's the sac 5 artifacts for an extra turn card called again? Name escapes me.
But yea that can net you infinite turns if you have 5 mana.
March 1, 2015 12:22 p.m.
Sorry but we know that removal in modern is about as good as legacy and we already have one artifact heavy deck that everyone sideboards against..... it wouldn't be difficult to stop at all.
No, a combo that only repeats a single time on T3 would not blow out modern. Even producing 4 tokens on T4 wouldn't blow out modern. There's already a deck that can do that and worse.
March 1, 2015 12:22 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #16
Thopter Foundry - Sword of the Meek is a finisher for a control deck, not something to be built around. You control the game, maybe using the Foundry to stay alive, but when your opponent can't do anything you land the combo and use an army of 1/1s to win the game. It was far too powerful in Extended, and it will be for Modern.
March 1, 2015 12:24 p.m.
GlistenerAgent - would a control want to devote 8 slots to a wincon, when they could devote 4 something like Keranos? Do you see what I mean? A 2 card finisher is inherently more risky than 1 indestructible / hexproof / etc.
March 1, 2015 12:27 p.m.
Aaand I'm too slow to reply again. Someone cast Messenger's Speed on me or something.
March 1, 2015 12:28 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #21
The Extended version would play five maximum of the two pieces. That said, the deck was around before Abrupt Decay.
Academy Ruins is real good, though.
March 1, 2015 12:37 p.m.
Yeh and like Creeping Corrosion and Drown in Sorrow and stuff. I mean, I do think there's ways to deal with it.
March 1, 2015 12:39 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #23
Yeah, but they keep making the guys. Drown in Sorrow does nothing.
March 1, 2015 12:42 p.m.
I don't get it. Why would you ever make a control deck, with a 2 card combo as a win con? I know Splinter Twin does that, but they can also do a turn 4 win. Something that the Sword/Thopter combo can't do.
March 1, 2015 12:58 p.m.
KillDatBUG says... #26
Sword of the Meek is a very, very safe card to unban, and it's for a couple of reasons:
The combo involves a lot of cards that don't do anything on their own- That's the main weakness of the Tezzeret artifact strategy, since there are plenty of times when you just draw a pile of random artifacts and you lose.
The combo is very easy to disrupt, since efficient answers like Abrupt Decay and Stony Silence were printed since it got banned.
There are many Modern decks that simply don't care about your combo that can't even get going until turn 4; the combo in itself is obviously good against a strategy that involves creatures, but there's a chance that it just loses to everything else.
These reasons can be applied to other cards like Bitterblossom and Golgari Grave-Troll that were recently unbanned; the metagame has evolved to the point where they're really not all that broken anymore.
March 1, 2015 1:05 p.m.
Deadpool213 says... #27
I feel like esper control would gain something out of it.
March 1, 2015 1:21 p.m.
slovakattack says... #28
This is a list that I whipped up off the top of my head regarding how I would build a theoretical Meek/Foundry Esper list:
March 1, 2015 2:03 p.m.
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #29
T3 equip
Dumb, not completely metabreaking, but a big advantage to infect.
March 1, 2015 2:26 p.m.
Infect would never run it. Too slow. Very little buff. The returning from the gy is what makes it strong.
March 1, 2015 2:30 p.m.
Bonesplitter would be 15x better and doesn't see play anyway.
March 1, 2015 2:34 p.m.
"Not completely metabreaking"? More like "not worth a damn". Something like that is a big waste of mana for infect, not a big advantage.
March 1, 2015 3:31 p.m.
jandrobard says... #34
It would be an interesting experiment. I think one of the pros is the meta shift would allow for safer sideboarding of artifact hate. (right now affinity is the only reason to run artifact hate, and it doesn't always show up)
March 1, 2015 4:03 p.m.
selesvyaloverer8 says... #35
Affinity always shows up. Every major event since ever has had affinity.
March 1, 2015 8:30 p.m.
jandrobard says... #36
@selesvyaloverer8 Not always at FNM. Sorry for lack of specification.
March 1, 2015 11:26 p.m.
JexInfinite says... #37
Instead of speculating, Wizards should just get the whole office to test modern with the Sword unbanned, and see how broken it is.
The combo used to work well against aggro, and still probably would, but Affinity is still a thing which kills incredibly quickly, and people are forced to sideboard against.
March 2, 2015 2:56 a.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #38
JexInfinite that would require Wizards to actually test for Modern. They couldn't be bothered to wait until sufficient data came in before banning Cruise and Dig, I can't imagine they have the capacity to actually test Sword of the Meek.
Yes, I am still slightly bitter, but only because I think Modern needs to start being tested if Wizards is going to continue promoting it and banning and/or unbanning cards.
March 2, 2015 9:14 a.m.
Fleetwood-Mat says... #39
Just throw in an Illness in the Ranks and that combo is worthless.
March 2, 2015 5:13 p.m.
jandrobard says... #40
@Fleetwood-Mat Good point. However the non control version probably runs Master of Etherium, which counteracts that.
March 2, 2015 5:26 p.m.
Just throw in Suture Priest/Torpor Orb/Leyline of Singularity/10 other things and twin is useless.
Oh wait, it's still tier 1.
slovakattack says... #2
Pros: One of my favorite archetypes, Tezzerator, is now a thing.
Cons: One of my favorite archetypes, Tezzerator, is now the ONLY thing.
March 1, 2015 12:11 p.m.