Balance

Sorcery

Each player chooses a number of lands they control equal to the number of lands controlled by the player who controls the fewest, then sacrifices the rest. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.

Legality

Format	Legality
Archenemy	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

legendofa on Commander bracket recommendation

4 months ago

Femme_Fatale I don't know if this would be part of the May bracket update, but Cataclysm and Balance* effects don't seem to be captured in the "choose some, sac the rest" section, along with Razia's Purification. Pox might also have a slightly different syntax. This deck is getting a Bracket 3 recommendation, with "You have no mass land denial cards".

*Balance itself is banned, but Balancing Act and Magus of the Balance are still options.

legendofa on MASSIVE EDH RC ban list …

11 months ago

I know I said I would step out of this conversation, but the discussion continues and I have questions.

Mortlocke I think we're going to fundamentally disagree on this, but why is

"My fear is if they get a little too ban happy and they target other staples and high priced collectible cards. What if they start thinking "I don't like how easy it is for players to get mana" and they ban I don't know...Fetchlands or ABUR Dual Lands, or fast mana like Mox Diamond."

a fair statement, but sergiodelrio's comment isn't? At a certain point, as long as cEDH exists, there will be certain players--not many, but they're out there--who do treat deck building as an optimization spreadsheet. If they choose one card over another, it's because they think that card will be more effective or know how to use it better, not because they like it more. Any personalization comes from choosing between two equivalents. Anecdotally, I've known people who do this. It's extreme, but it's real.

If I may analyze your comment that I quoted, I said earlier that the RC, for whatever power they should have or do have, seem to be pretty lenient and hand-off overall with bans. These are the first bans in three years, while most other major formats (Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Pauper, Brawl, Historic) have received multiple bans or preemptive bans in that time. Even Vintage got itself a couple of restrictions. And the three fast-mana bans have been under the microscope for a long time. I agree that it's a bad look that they were allowed to stay for so long, then banned without warning, but their existence has never been a foregone conclusion. So I don't see this representing a cascade of high-profile mana rock bans at all. I'd honestly be surprised if we see any more action from the RC for another few years unless something completely broken shows up. It's true that the chance for more deep-cut bans is non-zero, but I think it's low enough that it's not worth worrying about.

Also, it kind of is conspiratorial to say that

"[T]his ban was not done for "The health of the format" or to "Prioritize creativity" or whatever nonsense the RC said in their official announcement. The whole point of this is to ensure the sale of the next high-powered hyper-pushed cards that will probably be released in the next (i'm going to guess here) 12 months."

Obviously, if a super-pushed card that would improve almost every possible EDH deck like Jeweled Lotus or Mana Crypt comes out in the next couple years, then that would support your position. But Mana Crypt is a relic of the early overpowered days, almost on par with the original Moxen, and Jeweled Lotus was an experiment that arguably was allowed to continue for too long. What would you expect this new hyper-powered hotness to do? It's got be colorless, and if it's a mana rock, it needs to be nearly or more efficient as Sol Ring. Do you expect this card to be printed in the near-but-vague future?

RiotRunner789 This is much more of a criticism of that guy than anyone else, but that wasn't much of a Rule 0 talk. This should be an actual discussion between players, not just "Yeah, I guess it's average." Average for what? How fast does it reliably hit a win con? Are there instant-speed win cons, or infinite combos? How much interaction does it have? Is preemptive conceding fair play? Is everyone okay with Prison/Stax, or do we just want to chuck huge creatures at each other tonight? This is especially true for players who are new to a group.

The ban list exists so people who never say down together have a baseline of what to expect. The RC freely allows an established group to make its own ban list and rules.

greyninja Who would arbitrate and define the levels of competitiveness? If my deck is complete jank but has a single Balance or something I want to use, which category would that fall into?

I ask these out of respect and trying to understand people's position, not any sort of malice. I try to be as honest and transparent as possible online to counteract the general negativity, just so everyone can feel free not to assume the worst about me, at least.

Looking around online, this is hugely divisive. For the people who care about this, it really does seem evenly split between "This will save the format!" and "This will destroy the format!" So the only consensus is that things are gonna change. I'm bringing this up because echo chambers are already starting on both sides, and I want to step above my authority and remind people that it's been 24 hours, it's too early to draw sweeping long-term conclusions, and not everyone agrees on what will happen next.

jethstriker on Has WotC Been Doing a …

1 year ago

I think some players are misled by the belief that the only true form of card advantage are by direct card drawing. Cards like Wrath of God, Balance, Armageddon, and Land Tax can create card advantage if rightfully used or abused. And they all exist almost right from the beginning of the game. You just have to widen your perspective that card advantage comes in different forms, not just card drawing.

SufferFromEDHD on Numot: Leave. Everything. Destroyed.

1 year ago

I really tried to build this without creatures but Lavinia "can't" was designed with this strategy in mind. I feel the same about Balance but it has been banned since day 1. The creature version seems worth it. Time will tell.

DeinoStinkus on How is Camaraderie a Bend?

3 years ago

I do think Commander sets will and should have a larger number of breaks.

Same with the Horizons sets, honestly, but most of Horizons is more about pushing old abilities in new ways or adding incredibly powerful new cards to the format. This lends itself well to color pie bends, but if Horizons sets started coming out more often I would not want a higher proportion of color pie bends in them. Honestly, I prefer cards like Mystic Redaction in Modern Horizons sets over cards like Deepwood Denizen.

It has to be said however that the Horizons sets have fewer color pie breaks because it caters to a format built more strictly on the color pie. If we had a Vintage Horizons, it would have more color pie breaks because that's what Vintage has, similar to how Commander sets print reverse-Balance-like card advantage in white and enchantment removal in black (I personally dislike the latter, but I believe there does need to be a tertiary color for enchantment removal and black is the least bad choice). Modern doesn't have that precedent to live up to, so its special sets also don't print a large number of those cards.

KibaAlpha on What ONE card would you …

3 years ago

Balance I'm okay drawing hate in my playgroup devastating greens land ramp, blues card draw and all the elves and tokens.

TotesMcGoats on Wizzardrix (Kwain, Itinerant Meddler)

3 years ago

philesposito007 Oath of Lieges is best when it comes down early to accelerate the whole game faster. There's almost always going to be at least 1 green player whos casting some kind of land ramp spell early on, so once one player gets ahead and gets an extra land, then hits their land drop, now they're ahead of the NEXT person and so on. I like it because it helps balance the game without being... yknow Balance. Its not always going to do anything, but when everyone's drawing so many cards from you, people should be hitting land drops and if anyone pulls ahead, everyone else gets to take advantage from it. I also try to run as many basics as possible since we're only a 2 color deck anyway, duals just aren't very necessary and utility lands are way more important.

Jace's Archivist is a card that in my experience rarely survives a turn around the table, so I've stop playing it. Thassa's Oracle I'm still considering because I'm not sure if I want to make the deck geared more toward being fun and casual or toward actually winning.

wereotter on Mono White Ramp/Draw

4 years ago

I think white doesn't need to find a way to copy every other color with more ramp and draw. Colors need to be able to balance each other out, and rather than allow white to do the same thing, I think white should stick to its flavor of being the color that forces people to play "fair" magic.

To that end, I think Balance should be unbanned and we need more cards like it. Force that green-white deck that's been drawing its whole deck and putting down 4 lands per turn to be back on the same page as everyone else. I also think they need to expand this. Maybe a white enchantment that says something like "If a land would enter the battlefield, and it wasn't the first land that player played from their hand this turn, exile it instead" and one that say "Players can't draw more than one card per turn" Make these effects universal so decks containing white can't abuse cards like Collective Voyage or wheel effects.