The Ban Hammers next victims
Standard forum
Posted on April 24, 2020, 1:55 a.m. by spacecoyote1313
Who faces a more likely ban Winota, Joiner of Forces, Gyruda, Doom of Depths, maybe several different companions?
Also will they even make moves to ban when everything is online. Does Arena provide enough data to justify bans or will we have to wait?
sergiodelrio says... #3
I have a feeling Lurrus of the Dream-Den might get the hammer in Modern tho. For low CMC decks like Burn and Death's Shadow the opportunity cost for adding one copy to the SB is minimal, while the upside is Yuuge
April 24, 2020 3:43 a.m.
Or in Vintage. Turn 1 Black Lotus is very good. Turn 1 Lotus -> Lurrus -> recast lotus and every turn as well. That is level of brokenness. Lutri, in a format like Vintage is incredibly good as well.
Standard is being menaced by Gyruda (have to build the deck around it, but resolving a gyruda is usually game-ending), Obosh (free in Rakdos sacrifice decks, the tier 1 deck prior to Ikoria), Keruga (free in Jeskai fires, the tier 1 deck prior to Ikoria). Yorion is also pretty good, since you have a lot of cards with the same effects - playing 60 or 80 cards can rarely matter.
Zirda has spawned several combo decks with it in Pioneer, Modern, Commander and Vintage/Legacy.
In modern, Lurrus is free in burn, death's shadow, heck even Devoted druid combo decks can play it with minimal concessions. Yorion has a very good chance of making it into modern.
I think the companion mechanic is worse in Commander, since 100 card singleton decks are much more restricted than 60 card decks where you can have 12-14 non-land cards, instead of 60 non-lands.
Overall, except for Jegantha, by far the worst companion, every other one is broken in some way, with Lurrus being the worst offender by far. The companion mechanic is a terrible one and it should be banned in all Constructed formats.
April 24, 2020 4:09 a.m.
sergiodelrio says... #5
LOL didn't even think about Vintage, that's bananas. Being a Johnny myself I got very excited about Lurrus, but finally concluded that this card is way too good and didn't preorder it because I'm quite confident of it being banned. Hope I'm not wrong, because if it's not, I'll end up paying like 60$+ for one
April 24, 2020 4:17 a.m.
My bets are the first bans will be Lurrus in modern and Gyruda in legacy, where it is an extremely fast t1 combo deck.
I think it will take a bit for any to be banned in Standard, unless they decide this mechanic was so warping they try to ban the whole thing or change the way Companion works (e.g. you have to discard a card from your opening hand, or can't have them in the mainboard). They are still allowing for a diverse (albeit entirely-companion) meta, and it took a while for energy cards (similarly warping) to get banned.
April 24, 2020 11:40 a.m. Edited.
TriusMalarky says... #7
Companion is format warping. It will affect deckbuilding for years to come, and eventually they will all be banned. Not immediately, of course, it will take years and even then they each have to have a fully broken deck to be considered bannable.
I think the main reason most of them get banned in the future is as a t1 deck debuff. Many tier decks can function without a Companion, but changing a few cards and adding a companion can really make a deck shine. So, in a year or two, they'll be the first thing banned out of any deck that's doing well, mostly because they can be used in so many decks and it's entirely possible that the companion is what's pushing a deck over the edge.
In Standard, I don't know. I mostly stopped playing the format and I'll never get back in. It's been a broken mess since Kaladesh at least, and it's only getting worse.
In other, less easily broken formats, I don't think there will be very many Ikoria bannings. None of the cards are all that great, and the ones that are just build entirely new strategies, which helps bring up diversity, at least for now. I can see every single companion, even including Jegantha, getting banned from Pioneer, most of them from Modern, and many of them from Legacy/vintage. Just wait a few years.
Boza says... #2
It has not been a week yet. Jeez, even Oko took longer to call for bans and it is certainly more messed up than some random cards.
No, at this point nothing is broken enough. Sam Black argued that Companion is worse for the game than phyrexian mana was, and I am thinking he was pretty close in this assessment. He also said that down the line, Ikoria will be remembered solely for the companions and I totally agree with him on that.
I think this is the worst mechanic WOTC have done in years and the single card mistakes like Oko, veil or once upon a time are nothing compared to the impact companion will have. The mechanic is bad for every format.
This mechanic is incredibly similar to the conspiracies in conspiracy - a card that starts outside your deck and cannot be interacted with, but provides you loads of aadvantage if you build the deck around it. All the conspiracies are banned in Constructed magic.
I think companion should suffer the same fate.
April 24, 2020 3:31 a.m.