All cards ever banned in modern and why.
Modern forum
Posted on July 16, 2014, 7:52 p.m. by Theplusone
Just wondering what cards have ever been un-banned and how they got banned in the first place.
fluffybunnypants says... #3
Wild Nacatl was unbanned so that there would be another actual aggro deck in Modern that wasn't Affinity or Jund. It was initially banned because Counter Cat was a real thing and it was pretty dominant.
July 16, 2014 8:07 p.m.
Why didn't counter cat replace it with delver? Am I missing something?
July 16, 2014 8:27 p.m.
brokendwarf says... #5
From an article by Wizards about Skullclamp :
"Let's talk about Standard first. Skullclamp was banned in Standard, frankly, because it was everywhere. Every competitive deck either had four in the main deck, had four in the sideboard, or was built to try and defend against it. And there were a lot more successful decks in the first two categories than in the third. Such representation is completely unhealthy for the format. Your deck has to either have Skullclamps, or have Skullclamp in its crosshairsa definitive case of a card warping the metagame.
Look, for example, at the Top 8 decks from Ohio Valley Regionals. Or at those from the more recent German Nationals. Combined, those 16 decks contained 58 out of a possible 64 Skullclamps. Never in my memory have I ever seen a card show up in those numbers.
We did not ban Skullclamp to hurt Affinity decks, as some players believe. We weren't out to kill one specific deck (and if we were, we would have chosen a different card), but rather to salvage the entire format. Some decks are just naturally going to be better than others, and if Affinity is one of the better decks, we're ok with that. What we're not ok with is having one card be the focal point of every viable strategy."
I'm pretty sure it was never even legal in Modern.
July 16, 2014 8:29 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #6
@ ChiefBell Counter Cat was kind of a misnomer, it should just be called Bant Charm Zoo, which was a very real thing in Extended, the only real counters it ran were Bant Charm in the main and Flashfreeze in the side, it was really closer to 4 Color Zoo. I've tried Bant Delver in Modern, but the setup for the flip is a little awkward, but attacking with an Exalted Delver is kind of satisfying. It also worked really nicely against the prominence of Pyromancer Storm.
July 16, 2014 8:39 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #7
Ancestral Vision - Cascade shenanigans were rampant in Extended from my understanding, and drawing three on turns five and six in a control deck are really powerful. On the original banlist.
Ancient Den - One of the five colored artifact lands banned to make Affinity less powerful than it was in Standard, when several cards were banned.
Blazing Shoal - Sam Black got this banned by Top 8'ing Pro Tour Philly with Infect Combo, and subsequentlyl making the deck greatly rise in popularity.
Bloodbraid Elf - Banned to take Jund down a notch, as it was a super dominant deck in the format.
Chrome Mox - This is an incredibly powerful card for mana acceleration, and is very dangerous to have when it can make combo decks completely ridiculous.
Cloudpost - Banned because 12 post decks did very well at Pro Tour Philly, and this engine was deemed to powerful for the format as well.
Dark Depths - The combo was very dominant in Extended, and this was on the original banlist for Modern because it was very hard to interact with through discard spells.
Deathrite Shaman - Like Bloodbraid Elf , banned to drop Jund a notch as it had become oppressive.
Dread Return - Banned from the start in fear of Dredge being way too powerful.
Glimpse of Nature - Banned preemptively to stop Elves from being as dominant as they were in Extended.
Golgari Grave-Troll - Another Dredge preemptive ban, making the archetype possible with Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Thug but very hard.
Great Furnace - Another artifact land, banned to hinder Affinity.
Green Sun's Zenith - Banned after Pro Tour Philly for making aggro decks far too consistent to be safe. Also, this with Dryad Arbor made green decks a little too powerful.
Hypergenesis - The combo was very powerful in Extended, and preemptively banned in Modern.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Read the card.
Mental Misstep - This card warped Legacy way past unplayable, and was banned months after its printing in Modern to stop the same from happening.
Ponder - This cantrip was deemed too good for the format, making blue combo too consistent.Preordain - Same as Ponder .
Punishing Fire - This + Grove of the Burnwillows was too powerful for the Modern format, as it was very strong in Extended.
Rite of Flame - Storm needed to be taken down a notch post Pro Tour Philly.
Seat of the Synod - Artifact land.
Second Sunrise - Eggs won Pro Tour RTR, and this was banned to make matches more interactive and fun for both players.
Seething Song - Same deal with Rite of Flame .
Sensei's Divining Top - This card made matches take excruciatingly long to complete, and was banned to prevent that in tournament play.
Stoneforge Mystic - Caw-Blade was oppressive. This card is still very good in Legacy. Too good for Modern, especially with things like Cryptic Command .
Skullclamp - A big part of Affinity in Standard, and extremely oppressive.
Sword of the Meek - The combo with Thopter Foundry was deemed too strong, as it was difficult to beat a controlling Gifts Ungiven shell with these cards.
Tree of Tales - Artifact land.
Umezawa's Jitte - Read the card. It's played with Stoneforge Mystic in Legacy.
Vault of Whispers - Artifact land.
I hope this helped!
July 16, 2014 9:30 p.m.
Unless I'm mistaken Hypergenesis was briefly legal in Modern. Here's a link from MTGS: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/modern-archives/222002-modern-hypergenesis
July 16, 2014 10:15 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #9
Strange that if there was no pt's or gp's there would be no need for a banlist. Local meta's are too warped by netdeckers, no lists to copy&paste and suddenly local meta becomes stable whilst allowing every card
July 16, 2014 10:57 p.m.
Although most people would stop playing because there is no need to strive towards the goal of a PTQ, GP, or Pro Tour.
JWiley129 says... #2
Bitterblossom I believe was on the first banned list for Modern b/c WotC was afraid of the power of the faeries deck from that Standard/Extended environment. Then it got unbanned in time to make 0 splash at PT Born of the Gods.
July 16, 2014 7:56 p.m.