by increasing both the casting cost and the equip cost, let's say 2 for both, and drawing 1 card would be enough for me. (that means, keeping the +1/-1. I would also make it -1/-1 so that a "surviving" creature would be a worse blocker anyway.
The funniest thing about Skull Clamp is that your "fixed version" was the way it was originally designed. The balance team thought giving +1/+1 was too strong and changed it last minute to weaken it without enough time to test it and find out how wrong they were.
Its probably still too strong. Efficient sac outlets are not that hard to come by in modern. Instead of this card being used by basically every deck, youd give decks like Hammertime wayy too much gas.
@@joeldykman7591 I kinda agree, but not because of sac outlets. It basically just makes your creatures trade off unfavorably any time. You put this on your threat, and if they remove it you go up in cards. Once you get rid of the -1 toughness and Skullclamp isn't a sac outlet anymore, it wouldn't be played with sac outlets a lot either, it would likely be too clunky for those kinds of decks. However, any deck that wants to stick a threat and protect it, that's where Clamp would shine.
The original design also cost 3 to cast and 2 to equip, so it was much weaker. There was a conscious design late in development to buff equipment cards, but since the earlier versions of Skullclamp weren't strong enough to be relevant to constructed, it was barely playtested. They didn't realize how broken it was until they were testing for Kamigawa block standard.
I have sweet memories or me and my friends scouring all the places in our city that sold Magic products in search of more copies of that Rat starter deck.
I remember when may playgroup started playing magic, specifically Commander, and I played skullclamp. I pointed out how this was a banned card in other formats, my friend couldn't understand why as the equipment didn't make my creatures much better. After drawing 8 cards in a single turn, he just stated to the group that that thing needed removal right now.
Exact same situation here. It was late game and he was playing an artifact deck and way ahead on board, I played it and said it was banned in other formats: "why would that be banned?" "I pay one mana, I attach it to a saprolling, it dies and I draw two cards. I pay one mana I attach it to a saprolling, it dies and I draw two cards. I pay one mana, attach it to elves of deep shadow, it dies, triggers golgari germination to make a saprolling, and I draw two cards. I pay one mana, attach it to that saprolling. It dies, I draw two cards. Oh look, there's my Creeping Corrosion. Destroy all artifacts." One of my favorite things in magic is when people realize exactly how strong card advantage and the ability to dig for answers is.
I love the video, but there is one really important miss on the jite segment. Arguably the most powerful thing about jite is that it doesn't need a creature to do most of what it does. It's removal and life gain effects are just statically on the artifact itself, as are the counters. So even if you do kill the creature that jite is buffing, it's only a partial solution to a much bigger problem, which is that they still have a charged jite and their next creature is going to be a real menace as a result
Having an engine that makes 1/1 creatures (like Young Pyromancer, Adeline, Saheeli, Chatterfang) isn't that hard in modern, and both Jitte and Skullclamp are incredibly powerful effects if you can just afford to have the creatures they're attached to die.
Also issue with the Jitte: no mana cost to activate. Even when you had great counter play, the fact that they could remove 6 counters while completely tapped out - as opposed to spending one or two full turns to do so - is beyond stupid. Easy fix to balance the effect, in addition to 'this must be equipped to use any ability' would do it.
@@NotSoSerious69420 yes, but before you could make your entire land package artifact lands with spaces to spare. Having your entire land package legendary could easily manascrew you before you knew what was happening. You might need to make darksteel citadel legendary too for good measure though.
@@mrtalos I don’t think that what color mana the lands tap for matters nearly as much as them being artifacts. Affinity is a lot of colorless but with blue dominated for draw spells but is easily manageable no matter how many you have in your deck since you have good mana filtering capacity. I’d say unban them all except the blue one because turn 1 Emry is too strong for modern but everything else is completely fine. I don’t think you’d need darksteel to be legendary either since I’m honestly not even sure how much play it would see if the others were unbanned.
Considering each of the five monocolor artifact lands depicts a specific place on Mirrodin, that would be a very elegant and sensible errata. Wizards probably won't go for it, though. They don't like doing card errata unless they absolutely have to because of rules changes or wording mistakes. Besides, they're already printing more artifact lands like the Bridges and Treasure Vault, and those are proving to be competitive without breaking the format. Of course, this probably means Mox Opal is never coming off the banlist, but that's honestly for the best.
Dark dephts would probably be fine with an "when the last ice counter is removed, sacrifice it" errata. No more thespian, no more copy, and there are way more ways to stop a creature like hexdrinker mage, rather than a land drop.
A video on the Commander banlist would be great! People love the format and showing the difference between it and standard 20 life 60 card formats would be an interesting topic of discussion.
For your next magic vid you should talk about how combos actually work in mtg an how they are different than yugioh combos and how they can be interacted with. Dark depths for example is actually not too hard to interact with. The big ol creature while indestructible is a token so any bounce spell completly removes it it dont have trample so it can be chump blocked and its targetable. Edict effects spells that make the opponent sac a dude get around indestuctible and they typically havent been good enough to see play cus most playable dudes have an etb trigger so you remove some stats but if guys like merrit lage are playable edicts become decent tech options. You also go down 2 lands to do the combo. Once you make the copy of dark depths you sac the og to legend rule and the copy sacs itself to make the token. The thing about depths is similar to jitte one of the best modern decks is primeval titan with amulet of vigor. Dark depths isnt better than what what they are already trying to do but it would just give a tier 1 deck even more resilance to the meta and give em another alt win con, while not really effecting the meta in other positive ways. Older formats have a bunch of cheaper mana cards that let you play multiple lands per turn and play em outta your gy so they abuse wasteland remove all your lands and eventually have to win somehow so a combo that doesnt use the stack is hard to interact with specially when all your lands keep gettin blown up. The mox was banned partly cus of prime time decks. While modern is a turn 4 format prime time even with all the bannings can still kill ya on turn 2 and its one of the most complicated combo decks its why once upon a time was banned. The deck plays bounce lands these cards that are unplayable in every other deck but become some of the most busted mana producing things in mtg with amulet of vigor and extra land drops. You can make so much mana very early like 10 plus mana with a nut draw and this deck really teaches ya the value of the stack in mtg and how "fast" combos go. Some combos involve infinite loops but you have to wait for a set of actions to resolve each loop giving opponents a time frame to disrupt the combo and some have a cost you pay so you restart the loop in response to a removal spell and basicly combo on top of interaction making them almost impossible to stop. And vice versa some combos require this big ol stack to resolve so your opponent can combo on top of yours. In magic combo decks are way more about timing than just having the right cards you gotta know when too combo off and when to wait for the perfect opportunity.
I loved this series! Got me following this channel and loved watching the other content you put out……. I would love to see a pauper banlist one though. I really enjoy the format so it would be interesting to see how the format evolved over time
Actually, the only Artifact lands I'm worried about are Ancient Den and Seat of the Synod. And my way to fix them all would be to make them have: "Pay this mana only to cast artifact spells or activate abilities on artifacts you control." That way you can no longer cast nonartifact spells and pay for nonartifact abilities. This is more restricting that people might think because then you can no longer use them to cast example; *Urza, Lord High Artificer* , *Emry, Lurker of the Loch* , *Stoneforge Mystic* , *Puresteel Paladin* , *Teferi, Time reveler* , *Metallic Rebuke* and then a lot of the sideboard cards that those decks would have. Yeah, that might be the best restriction to untapped artifact lands can have that can tap for colors.
Jitte is particularly dirty in that it doesn’t give the abilities to the equipped creature but rather uses the equipped creature to charge itself up. So you get your board swept and you can still pick off your opponents creatures and grow your life total. You could fix it by adding a clause that the clamp needs to be equipped to use its abilities or by giving the abilities to the equipped creature. You could also have a clause that removes all charge counters on it when it becomes unequipped. Clamp could have text similar to Grafted Exoskeleton in reverse. If the equipped creature dies, sacrifice Clamp.
Going over why stuff is banned in Commander might be interesting! One other thing that's not technically a banlist but functions similarly though might be talking about a format called Canadian Highlander; basically you make a highlander deck (100 cards, all singletons except basic lands) but you have an allotment of points you can spend on various powerful cards that are banned in most formats, with different cards being worth different amounts of points. Might be fun to go over why some of the cards are on there, plus the format's just fun in concept, making you choose between multiple strong (but not totally broken) effects vs spending almost your entire allotment on Time Vault so you can pull off some infinite turns combo :P
I have only one dream: to see Dark Depths out of the ban-list. Ok, it's a strong card, but it's not sooo strong and the token is vulnerable to exile. With all the hate we have in modern against lands, for my poor Tron, they can counter Dark Depths too.
I feel like that would be a little weird since it's made not be wizards themselves, and most of this cards aren't there because they are strong but instead because they aren't fun to play against/waste time
@@slayer8699 the RC is basically controlled by wizards. Whatever they say they know they’re full of shit and wizards has influence on the format. Also they unbanned worldfire. The ban list makes no sense. If it was for power/fun they’d have banned Oracle forever ago.
I got a few ideas, things for informing new players. ~Cards whose usefulness requires a strong grasp on the game to see (It's a complex effect, or it does something unconventional that can be exploited, etc.) ~Mechanics that usually aren't worth building around (like adding a lifegain spell with no other effects - you're likely better off replacing it) ~Mistakes new players make when building a deck (not following the rule of nine, poor balancing of mana costs, too many/few lands, etc.)
For cards like the artifact lands it would be really cool to see something limiting the amount you are allowed to play like adding «you may only play 2 copies of this card in your deck»
"Top 10 Un-cards that COULD be played in modern". You have a great grasp on meta and standard power level. I think it would be cool to get your opinion on this.
Dark Depths is OP level, but I think maybe Splinter Twin could have put up a good fight with the Pestering and countermagic. Affinity had some flying chump blockers, Pyro Ascension could OTK on turn 4, Infect might be able to get there on a good draw if there’s no disruption or blockers. Probably best they banned it, seems to have a good matchup VS everything, and access to some of the best discard/removal to protect and ensure the combo.
Everytime we get close to a world where we think dark depths is okay in modern it's important to remember that the most likely home for it in the format is an additional tool for Primevil Titan decks to find a super potent combo.
i think the artifact lands having the shock land effect would balance them pretty well, still slows the deck down by having them tapped or access to a stronger faster for the cost of 2 life would make slight spectrum swings for decision making and allow for them to have their power be more in check. was just my first thought
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading! Personally, seeing things like this reminds me of how often questionable I find Wizard's decisions. Like, they're extremely scared of land destruction being good & love making things creature centric. I know they have reasons, but still.... They seem real stubborn about it.
The mox have been the bane of my existence in my commander pods. If they see constant play in commander pods, it's not surprising to see it on a modern banlist. I'm more surprised that they aren't banned in commander
Commander is a very high power format that players are allowed to voluntarily apply additional restrictions to in order to "power down" their friendly games. If you don't like playing at the power level where people run Mox's, if you take a step or two back from that people will not be
Skullclamp could just be +1/+0 or even +0/+1 +1/+1 is still insanely good because you present a threat that replaces it all for 1 mana to cast and 1 mana to equip.
Personally, I think Dark Depths is fine to unban in modern. In current day, we have so much optimized interaction that can deal with the combo. Boseiju, Path, Brazen Borrower, Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin, and so many others that I could list. Plus, the main ways that the combo gets really consistent in legacy aren’t modern legal, such as crop rotation. Even in legacy, DD decks aren’t really doing too hot and I think in modern current state that it doesn’t make too much of an impact, but introduces a new fun deck to occasionally gotcha some opponents with.
Skullclamp in a locust god commander deck is insane, turning every 1 mana you have into 2 cards in your hand and and 1 flying haste 1/1, which is kind of insane
In most token commander decks Skullclamp is insane. I have my Stoneforge mystic search it up sometimes it's that good. But then I'm running mono white and need the card draw.
Whenever you talk about flying you never mention that they can also be blocked by creatures with reach. (Not that there are many good reach creatures though)
I’d love to see some content about commander, wether that be about its banlist, play style, legends, differences in structure and staples, or just anything else about it.
For Dark Depths, maybe changing the last ability to be checked on end step (e.g. "At the beginning of your end step, if Dark Depths has no ice counters on it etc") would be a fix as it would slow it down a turn at least and make it vulnerable
Unbanning Jitte would be really stupid, because every single deck that plays a significant amount of creatures would start playing Jitte at least as a two of. It would just go into every deck that isn't a control or a combo deck. And it would be way too good. It also would be crazy good in Stoneforge Mystic decks. I could even imagine people going for double strike creatures to really abuse the Jitte. It also would make Burn really struggle, since so many decks would have lifegain in the mainboard.
What's the difference in power level with jitte in modern and jitte in legacy?? I see the card mostly being in the sb in modern because it is only good in certain match ups. The card just seems so slow to get going. Even merfolk can just bring in thieving skydiver and gain control of it.
Merfolk is a super fringe modern deck. It’s a card that is removal for nothing more than attacking. It’s cheap to cast and cheap to equip. It’s just too strong for modern. Legacy is a vastly more powerful format and sees play there so imagine it in modern.
There's a card that totally stops Jitte in its tracks, and Infect too, for that matter. It's also harder to get rid of than Jitte. What is this card? Solemnity, a white enchantment for 2 and a white. How does it stop Jitte and Infect? It fills a role that, as far as I know, is unique to it: Dedicated Counter (i.e. +1/+1 counter) Hate. What does it do? While it's on the battlefield, it stops Players and permanents other than Planeswalkers from getting counters. This doesn't affect counters that apply to cards off of the battlefield, nor does it remove already present counters, but the sheer variety of counters makes the other cards with Counter Hate (not Dedicated Counter Hate, though) much easier to play. Being an enchantment makes it so that dedicated Enchantment hate is needed, though cards like Naturalize would work, too. Thing is, Green is actually getting some decent Enchantment hate aside from Naturalize, and has had it for a while now, and white has also seen its use. In my opinion, though, if Solemnity ever gets banned from Modern, it's for making cards with Cumulative Upkeep much too good, and that includes even Snowfall, as Solemnity would stop the Cumulative Upkeep cards from gaining age counters, meaning that the cost would stop growing until Solemnity leaves. And in the case of Snowfall, that means that the extra mana lets you cast more instants during your upkeep to pave the way for your white creatures. Combined with the fact that Blue plays more Antimagic than any other color, the deck would be way too good, possibly even for Modern.
Basically, the deck concept is just the right power level for Legacy, and with Enchantment Tutoring, maybe even Vintage. I will have to acquire more copies of Solemnity and cards with Cumulative Upkeep for experimentation.
....On the other hand, Solemnity with Enchantment Tutoring would make it so decks with both it and Dark Depths would be powerful enough for Vintage, as all you need to get Marit Lage out Turn One is a Black Lotus (or enough Moxes, including at least one Pearl), using it to cast Solemnity, then using your land drop for the turn to do Dark Depths, which would enter without counters if I understand the rules right. Then all it takes is adding Haste, which is extremely easy to do in Vintage. ....Man, it's possible that Solemnity being used in such a way could get it banned from VINTAGE, or at least restricted. I'm guessing banned, because Black 1 Mana Tutoring and Mox Jet. Ironically, it's the presence of more powerful cards that get it banned from the most powerful format for being too strong, but without them, it's weak enough to be good enough for Legacy.
marit lage still loses from the most common removal spell in the format (Prismatic ending), folds entirely to bounce effects and flicker, blood moon, alpine moon etc
The way to fix Dark Depths for Modern is to simply combine the activated (pay 3 mana) and triggered ability (sac it, get a 20/20) as one block of text. As is, you get the 20/20 as soon as there are no counters, regardless of how they were removed. If the abilities was "(3): Remove an ice counter from Dark Depths, THEN if it has no counters, sacrifice it, create a 20/20" as one effect, you'd always be forced to pay 3 mana at least once to get the token. You could even go so far as to also moving "remove an ice counter" to the COST, meaning the current ways to cheat Dark Depths by removing the counters all at once are simply no longer viable.
That breakdown of the Jitte was really good but you waited as long as possible to mention why that trigger is so freaking busted. For YEARS it was always a given that a trigger like that only mattered when it hit a player, and Jitte doesn't care about that. It's the fact that it generates the counters whether you block or not that turns the game into a lose lose for the other player forever. So the choice of whether or not to block isn't a choice with meaning any more. You can equip the Jitte to a 1/1 and attack into a 3/3 and kill the 3/3 with the 2 counters generated by the 1/1, by giving that 3/3 with 1 damage on it -2/-2. AND YOU KEEP THE JITTE! EVERY. SINGLE. PLAYER. Lost their first game against a jitte because they had to read and re-read it after they realized that. It's probably the best example of what would otherwise be a completely reasonable card except for an omitted sentence fragment.
I swear, I read the card lots of times and never EVER noticed that it does not say "to a player". Now I understand a bit more why the card is so problematic.
A real OG affinity deck was grixis colors because of card draw with affinity in blue free sac outlets and damage (sharpnel blast) in red and things like irradiate and disciple of the vault in black
I think all of the original artifact lands could be unbanned without any issue right now. Affinity right now, is competitive, but far from the best deck. Access to these lands might push it into a tier 1 deck, but they also come with some risks. Boseiju and a few other options are incredibly prevalent removal options that could hit non-indestructible artifact lands. This has largely pushed out the one legal, non-indestructible artifact land in modern, Treasure Vault in favor of just playing more basics to get some value when other artifacts get hit by Boseiju. It is worth noting that these would be much better than Treasure Vault, and the deck would likely cut some of the ETB tapped, indestructible artifact lands to make the deck a little faster and more consistent, but there's a cost to that. Though there's always the chance of unforeseen consequences. For example, Hammertime is a better deck than Affinity that also runs a few metalcraft effects, so it could possibly get a boost by adding some of these lands to the deck. Additionally, since Hammertime isn't going all in on the artifact land plan, it doesn't get hurt nearly as bad by cards like Boseiju that let you replace the land. The best case scenario I see for them getting unbanned is that Wizards decides to ban Urza's Saga for seeing play in nearly every deck, and then unbans these lands because Affinity is reliant on Saga to be somewhat competitive, while most other decks just put it in because its really powerful with a minimal cost to include.
I believe the reason Jitte is staying banned is really because of Stoneforge Mystic. The strength of Stoneforge decks is it’s ability to tutor up any equipment for the right matchup. Jitte covers a huge variety of strategies, some Stoneforge would struggle against otherwise.
Jitte is just an exceptionally oppressive card to any deck that even partially relies on creatures. It’s not fun and not healthy to have in the format.
Make the Artifact Lands limited. Wizards restricts things in vintage, they could try it in other formats.
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Definitely would like a ban list on commander next. It'd be short and sweet and would probably do well. Heck even a history of commander banlist would be short
Just make all of the artifact lands legendary. They are all based off of specific locations on Mirrodin so I don’t see why they weren’t made legendary in the first place.
Well I mean, all non basic lands are based off specific places. Flavor can’t run the whole game. Also the problem with the artifact lands is that even at 1 of each they would all see play immediately and that’s the biggest problem because there are decks other than straight up affinity that wouldn’t mind them (hammer time) just for their added utility. They’re not inherently powerful they just add too much utility.
@@NotSoSerious69420 that’s not true though. There isn’t just one Luxury sweet in New Capenna or one of each guild gate in Ravnica. But each of the artifact lands do represent specific singular named locations in Mirrodin. There is only one seat of the Synod and its named Lumengrid. There is only one Tel-Jilad and Taj-Nar and Ish-Sah in the whole of Mirrodin. So it absolutely makes sense that they should be legendary lands.
Against many decks, Ghost Quarter is almost the exact same as Wasteland as there are plenty of decks who don't run any basic lands. I've seen players who legit play just a few basic lands in their decks just in case of Ghost Quarter/Field of Ruin, just so they'd have something to search. They don't need them, but it means they don't lose as much tempo as they otherwise would.
If you’re not running some basic lands you’re asking to just lose to blood moon or magus. Most high tier decks usually run atleast a couple basics since red prison is always a possibility.
I think you could unban Tree of Tales (the green artifact land). Green is pretty much the worst possible color to run in affinity. Affinity right now WANTS to play the W/U artifact lands, but there's still a lot of good affinity cards in R and B as well. There's very little in green for affinity.
I have a card called Grip of Desolation (Devoid) (Instant) for 4 and 2 black I can exile target creature and target land. Dark Depths is taken care of.
Dark Depths also won't be unbanned also because it doesn't get hit by inquisition of kozilek and thoughtseize, you didn't mention that but I think that's actually extremely significant as the bane of playing combo decks is hand disruption often.
How about like this Chrome mox- exile a random card from hand when cast Artifact land-no artifact type when play, gain the artifact type in the next upkeep Jitte- no more charge counter, directly choose 2 from the 3 effect when do combat damage, change +2/+2 to +1/+1 counter Dark Depths-give it Shroud
Chrome Mox would sometimes miss and exile a land or artifact and that would be terrible. I don't think we need a powerful card to have so much variance.
They would all see immediate play and would have some effect on the format. They aren’t entirely banned for power but more so what they enable and how much play they’d see.
Jitte is even better in aggro decks. I think it'd have the opposite effect, it'd be a second wind for aggro decks that are already on the brink of death anyway. Control decks are already dominant in modern and combo decks couldn't really give less of a shit about what Jitte does for them.
I'm not so sure about the Jitte. Taking turn 2 off to play an artifact that does nothing the turn it comes in, then using most of your turn 3 to target a creature with the Jitte (which can just be killed in response) is just too slow. I think the card could pretty safely be unbanned.
With all the available sac engines and sac costs built in to spells and permanents, this would still be too powerful. I say that the only way to fix it would be to reduce the card drawing to 1 card only.
It wouldn't necessarily work as a top 5/10 list, but as a historic video covering banned Type 2/Standard cards would be interesting. Either start with Type 2 and go through Urza's Saga Block banned cards -> Affinity/Cawblade banned cards -> Standard bans starting 2017 or just start at 2017 till now as this upcoming rotation will be the first time since 2017 that Standard has not had banned cards on it.
Nah. You couldn’t unban or limit them. They’re free includes in decks that care about them and have basically no draw backs. Even if all 5 were limited to 1 they’d all see play immediately. MTG tends to ban cards for reasons other than power level. Such as how easy they are to use, how much use they’d see, and what they enable even if they themselves do nothing.
![Rituals & Draw Power - Explaining All Banned Cards in Modern [Part 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y3UyTfp-EgQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Rituals & Draw Power - Explaining All Banned Cards in Modern [Part 4]](/img/tr.png)
![Explaining All Banned Cards in Modern [Part 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aw7yCWymBAo/mqdefault.jpg)
Gotta love how the “nerfed” version of Skull Clamp can be “fixed” by restoring it to the original stats of +1/+1…
That would make it less dumb, but drawing two cards off of each creature that dies would still be insane.
by increasing both the casting cost and the equip cost, let's say 2 for both, and drawing 1 card would be enough for me. (that means, keeping the +1/-1. I would also make it -1/-1 so that a "surviving" creature would be a worse blocker anyway.
Probably you'd need to go a step further: Same text, but give it a once-per-turn trigger instead of an uncapped one. Still great, but bearable.
@@zacharythorp6095 a once-per-turn cap on a draw-one effect? that would be too weak, up to useless
Would simply put it in an aristocrats deck, stats don't matter, just sac the equipt creature and reap the benefits.
The funniest thing about Skull Clamp is that your "fixed version" was the way it was originally designed.
The balance team thought giving +1/+1 was too strong and changed it last minute to weaken it without enough time to test it and find out how wrong they were.
Should’ve been -1/0
@@oinkytheink1228 Even +1/0 wuld be fine. Basically anything within reason that doesn't include the -1 to toughness would slow it down a lot
Its probably still too strong. Efficient sac outlets are not that hard to come by in modern. Instead of this card being used by basically every deck, youd give decks like Hammertime wayy too much gas.
@@joeldykman7591 I kinda agree, but not because of sac outlets.
It basically just makes your creatures trade off unfavorably any time. You put this on your threat, and if they remove it you go up in cards.
Once you get rid of the -1 toughness and Skullclamp isn't a sac outlet anymore, it wouldn't be played with sac outlets a lot either, it would likely be too clunky for those kinds of decks. However, any deck that wants to stick a threat and protect it, that's where Clamp would shine.
The original design also cost 3 to cast and 2 to equip, so it was much weaker. There was a conscious design late in development to buff equipment cards, but since the earlier versions of Skullclamp weren't strong enough to be relevant to constructed, it was barely playtested. They didn't realize how broken it was until they were testing for Kamigawa block standard.
Fun fact, Umezawas Jitte was in a starter deck. At one point the card was worth more than the original sales price of the deck
I have sweet memories or me and my friends scouring all the places in our city that sold Magic products in search of more copies of that Rat starter deck.
I remember when may playgroup started playing magic, specifically Commander, and I played skullclamp. I pointed out how this was a banned card in other formats, my friend couldn't understand why as the equipment didn't make my creatures much better.
After drawing 8 cards in a single turn, he just stated to the group that that thing needed removal right now.
Exact same situation here. It was late game and he was playing an artifact deck and way ahead on board, I played it and said it was banned in other formats:
"why would that be banned?" "I pay one mana, I attach it to a saprolling, it dies and I draw two cards. I pay one mana I attach it to a saprolling, it dies and I draw two cards. I pay one mana, attach it to elves of deep shadow, it dies, triggers golgari germination to make a saprolling, and I draw two cards. I pay one mana, attach it to that saprolling. It dies, I draw two cards. Oh look, there's my Creeping Corrosion. Destroy all artifacts."
One of my favorite things in magic is when people realize exactly how strong card advantage and the ability to dig for answers is.
I love the video, but there is one really important miss on the jite segment. Arguably the most powerful thing about jite is that it doesn't need a creature to do most of what it does. It's removal and life gain effects are just statically on the artifact itself, as are the counters. So even if you do kill the creature that jite is buffing, it's only a partial solution to a much bigger problem, which is that they still have a charged jite and their next creature is going to be a real menace as a result
Having an engine that makes 1/1 creatures (like Young Pyromancer, Adeline, Saheeli, Chatterfang) isn't that hard in modern, and both Jitte and Skullclamp are incredibly powerful effects if you can just afford to have the creatures they're attached to die.
@@ltjgambrose oh absolutely, my point was that he never mentioned that jite works just fine if you chump block and lose your creature
Also issue with the Jitte: no mana cost to activate. Even when you had great counter play, the fact that they could remove 6 counters while completely tapped out - as opposed to spending one or two full turns to do so - is beyond stupid. Easy fix to balance the effect, in addition to 'this must be equipped to use any ability' would do it.
Artifact lands could be legendary to somewhat "fix" them
Ooh I like this idea! Never heard it proposed before, could go a long way towards making them playable but not broken
They’d still be too strong. They’d just be auto includes in decks that care about them regardless and that was the biggest problem with them to start.
@@NotSoSerious69420 yes, but before you could make your entire land package artifact lands with spaces to spare. Having your entire land package legendary could easily manascrew you before you knew what was happening. You might need to make darksteel citadel legendary too for good measure though.
@@mrtalos I don’t think that what color mana the lands tap for matters nearly as much as them being artifacts. Affinity is a lot of colorless but with blue dominated for draw spells but is easily manageable no matter how many you have in your deck since you have good mana filtering capacity. I’d say unban them all except the blue one because turn 1 Emry is too strong for modern but everything else is completely fine. I don’t think you’d need darksteel to be legendary either since I’m honestly not even sure how much play it would see if the others were unbanned.
Considering each of the five monocolor artifact lands depicts a specific place on Mirrodin, that would be a very elegant and sensible errata.
Wizards probably won't go for it, though. They don't like doing card errata unless they absolutely have to because of rules changes or wording mistakes. Besides, they're already printing more artifact lands like the Bridges and Treasure Vault, and those are proving to be competitive without breaking the format. Of course, this probably means Mox Opal is never coming off the banlist, but that's honestly for the best.
Dark dephts would probably be fine with an "when the last ice counter is removed, sacrifice it" errata. No more thespian, no more copy, and there are way more ways to stop a creature like hexdrinker mage, rather than a land drop.
Skullclamp's article by Aaron Forsythe is always a fun article to read and show people who just discovered the card.
A video on the Commander banlist would be great! People love the format and showing the difference between it and standard 20 life 60 card formats would be an interesting topic of discussion.
That's a tough ask, because the commander banlist makes no damn sense
@@targetbuddy5 This is exactly why I don't think I'll be covering it
16:46 There's a card called Marit Lage's Slumber. Which can make the same Marit Lage token, just a lot harder to cheat out.
For your next magic vid you should talk about how combos actually work in mtg an how they are different than yugioh combos and how they can be interacted with.
Dark depths for example is actually not too hard to interact with. The big ol creature while indestructible is a token so any bounce spell completly removes it it dont have trample so it can be chump blocked and its targetable. Edict effects spells that make the opponent sac a dude get around indestuctible and they typically havent been good enough to see play cus most playable dudes have an etb trigger so you remove some stats but if guys like merrit lage are playable edicts become decent tech options. You also go down 2 lands to do the combo. Once you make the copy of dark depths you sac the og to legend rule and the copy sacs itself to make the token.
The thing about depths is similar to jitte one of the best modern decks is primeval titan with amulet of vigor. Dark depths isnt better than what what they are already trying to do but it would just give a tier 1 deck even more resilance to the meta and give em another alt win con, while not really effecting the meta in other positive ways.
Older formats have a bunch of cheaper mana cards that let you play multiple lands per turn and play em outta your gy so they abuse wasteland remove all your lands and eventually have to win somehow so a combo that doesnt use the stack is hard to interact with specially when all your lands keep gettin blown up.
The mox was banned partly cus of prime time decks. While modern is a turn 4 format prime time even with all the bannings can still kill ya on turn 2 and its one of the most complicated combo decks its why once upon a time was banned. The deck plays bounce lands these cards that are unplayable in every other deck but become some of the most busted mana producing things in mtg with amulet of vigor and extra land drops. You can make so much mana very early like 10 plus mana with a nut draw and this deck really teaches ya the value of the stack in mtg and how "fast" combos go.
Some combos involve infinite loops but you have to wait for a set of actions to resolve each loop giving opponents a time frame to disrupt the combo and some have a cost you pay so you restart the loop in response to a removal spell and basicly combo on top of interaction making them almost impossible to stop. And vice versa some combos require this big ol stack to resolve so your opponent can combo on top of yours. In magic combo decks are way more about timing than just having the right cards you gotta know when too combo off and when to wait for the perfect opportunity.
I'd love to see a video/series going over every standard banning in history and explaining them all
"Getting mana is important for literally every deck"
Manaless Dredge has entered the chat
I know he meant Modern decks, but he didn't specify it
Amazing,this serie is a bless,i really.hope to see more even for other format! Thank you!
I loved this series! Got me following this channel and loved watching the other content you put out……. I would love to see a pauper banlist one though. I really enjoy the format so it would be interesting to see how the format evolved over time
Quibbling point, but Modern Affinity doesn't play Arcbound Ravager or any of the modular guys anymore; it's become 8cast ft. Chalice of the Void.
Clicked on video, immediate thought: "Hey I know that voice..." Welcome to MtG!
I LOVE this series a lot :) thank you and keep them coming please when you can.
I love how you explain every single card, without having me to pause the video every 5 seconds to read what they do LOL
Actually, the only Artifact lands I'm worried about are Ancient Den and Seat of the Synod.
And my way to fix them all would be to make them have: "Pay this mana only to cast artifact spells or activate abilities on artifacts you control."
That way you can no longer cast nonartifact spells and pay for nonartifact abilities.
This is more restricting that people might think because then you can no longer use them to cast example; *Urza, Lord High Artificer* , *Emry, Lurker of the Loch* , *Stoneforge Mystic* , *Puresteel Paladin* , *Teferi, Time reveler* , *Metallic Rebuke* and then a lot of the sideboard cards that those decks would have.
Yeah, that might be the best restriction to untapped artifact lands can have that can tap for colors.
Jitte is particularly dirty in that it doesn’t give the abilities to the equipped creature but rather uses the equipped creature to charge itself up. So you get your board swept and you can still pick off your opponents creatures and grow your life total. You could fix it by adding a clause that the clamp needs to be equipped to use its abilities or by giving the abilities to the equipped creature. You could also have a clause that removes all charge counters on it when it becomes unequipped.
Clamp could have text similar to Grafted Exoskeleton in reverse. If the equipped creature dies, sacrifice Clamp.
Thank for providing an accurate analysis of Depths.
stopped playing WoW but I still get to watch Hiru because I picked mtg up again :)
I guess dark depths could also be changed to a enchantment/artifact with 1 or 0 cost to open up some counterplay against it
I originally thought that Jitte had to deal combat damage to a player, and only realized it after you made that change as a suggestion lol
Going over why stuff is banned in Commander might be interesting! One other thing that's not technically a banlist but functions similarly though might be talking about a format called Canadian Highlander; basically you make a highlander deck (100 cards, all singletons except basic lands) but you have an allotment of points you can spend on various powerful cards that are banned in most formats, with different cards being worth different amounts of points. Might be fun to go over why some of the cards are on there, plus the format's just fun in concept, making you choose between multiple strong (but not totally broken) effects vs spending almost your entire allotment on Time Vault so you can pull off some infinite turns combo :P
I have only one dream: to see Dark Depths out of the ban-list. Ok, it's a strong card, but it's not sooo strong and the token is vulnerable to exile. With all the hate we have in modern against lands, for my poor Tron, they can counter Dark Depths too.
I love this series. Thinking of doing other ban lists?
Been loving the series so far, same for the Yu-Gi-Oh one. Would absolutely adore seeing you talk about the Commander banlist in the future.
I feel like that would be a little weird since it's made not be wizards themselves, and most of this cards aren't there because they are strong but instead because they aren't fun to play against/waste time
@@slayer8699 the RC is basically controlled by wizards. Whatever they say they know they’re full of shit and wizards has influence on the format.
Also they unbanned worldfire. The ban list makes no sense. If it was for power/fun they’d have banned Oracle forever ago.
I got a few ideas, things for informing new players.
~Cards whose usefulness requires a strong grasp on the game to see (It's a complex effect, or it does something unconventional that can be exploited, etc.)
~Mechanics that usually aren't worth building around (like adding a lifegain spell with no other effects - you're likely better off replacing it)
~Mistakes new players make when building a deck (not following the rule of nine, poor balancing of mana costs, too many/few lands, etc.)
For cards like the artifact lands it would be really cool to see something limiting the amount you are allowed to play like adding «you may only play 2 copies of this card in your deck»
What is this, Yu-Gi-Oh???
"Top 10 Un-cards that COULD be played in modern". You have a great grasp on meta and standard power level. I think it would be cool to get your opinion on this.
Dark Depths is OP level, but I think maybe Splinter Twin could have put up a good fight with the Pestering and countermagic.
Affinity had some flying chump blockers, Pyro Ascension could OTK on turn 4, Infect might be able to get there on a good draw if there’s no disruption or blockers.
Probably best they banned it, seems to have a good matchup VS everything, and access to some of the best discard/removal to protect and ensure the combo.
Another common way in legacy to interact with Marit Lage is Karakas.
Everytime we get close to a world where we think dark depths is okay in modern it's important to remember that the most likely home for it in the format is an additional tool for Primevil Titan decks to find a super potent combo.
i think the artifact lands having the shock land effect would balance them pretty well, still slows the deck down by having them tapped or access to a stronger faster for the cost of 2 life would make slight spectrum swings for decision making and allow for them to have their power be more in check. was just my first thought
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading! Personally, seeing things like this reminds me of how often questionable I find Wizard's decisions. Like, they're extremely scared of land destruction being good & love making things creature centric. I know they have reasons, but still.... They seem real stubborn about it.
The mox have been the bane of my existence in my commander pods. If they see constant play in commander pods, it's not surprising to see it on a modern banlist. I'm more surprised that they aren't banned in commander
Notably chrome mox is a staple in legacy which is more directly comparable to commander than modern
Commander is a very high power format that players are allowed to voluntarily apply additional restrictions to in order to "power down" their friendly games. If you don't like playing at the power level where people run Mox's, if you take a step or two back from that people will not be
They... They are banned.
@@josephwodarczyk977 are they banned in commander? Genuinely don't know as I've no interest in playing the format
@@Drakshl yerp. Thought I was going crazy with you guys talking about them, but no, they're banned.
Skullclamp could just be +1/+0 or even +0/+1
+1/+1 is still insanely good because you present a threat that replaces it all for 1 mana to cast and 1 mana to equip.
Field of ruin is so good because it forces a search, it’s not a may.
Can’t wait for that Hogaak episode #BringBackTheGaak
Personally, I think Dark Depths is fine to unban in modern. In current day, we have so much optimized interaction that can deal with the combo. Boseiju, Path, Brazen Borrower, Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin, and so many others that I could list. Plus, the main ways that the combo gets really consistent in legacy aren’t modern legal, such as crop rotation. Even in legacy, DD decks aren’t really doing too hot and I think in modern current state that it doesn’t make too much of an impact, but introduces a new fun deck to occasionally gotcha some opponents with.
Can you go over pioneer banlist next? I'm getting more and more bummed at lack of creature decks in modern.
Modern is almost entirely a creature format. Sure there’s basically no only creature decks but creatures just aren’t as good as other spells.
Skullclamp in a locust god commander deck is insane, turning every 1 mana you have into 2 cards in your hand and and 1 flying haste 1/1, which is kind of insane
In most token commander decks Skullclamp is insane. I have my Stoneforge mystic search it up sometimes it's that good.
But then I'm running mono white and need the card draw.
Whenever you talk about flying you never mention that they can also be blocked by creatures with reach. (Not that there are many good reach creatures though)
Endurance wants to know your location
@@danilogison7359 lol I said not many not that they don't exist.
Questing Beast has it lmao, not that you’d remember since it’s infamous for having way too many effects
Elder gargaroth?
@@a_speeder1728 questing beast doesn't have it though, it has deathtouch,vigilance and haste, but no reach
Can you PLEASE do the Legacy ban list? I think that would be awesome to see!
I’d love to see some content about commander, wether that be about its banlist, play style, legends, differences in structure and staples, or just anything else about it.
The best way to fix dark depths is to reverse the effect. Pay 3 to add an ice counter, when you have 10 you sacc it for marit lage.
For Dark Depths, maybe changing the last ability to be checked on end step (e.g. "At the beginning of your end step, if Dark Depths has no ice counters on it etc") would be a fix as it would slow it down a turn at least and make it vulnerable
A legacy banlist version of this would be super rad
I remember some control deck using Jitte without creature equiped, by using Mirrodin cards to put charge counter on it
Unbanning Jitte would be really stupid, because every single deck that plays a significant amount of creatures would start playing Jitte at least as a two of. It would just go into every deck that isn't a control or a combo deck. And it would be way too good. It also would be crazy good in Stoneforge Mystic decks. I could even imagine people going for double strike creatures to really abuse the Jitte. It also would make Burn really struggle, since so many decks would have lifegain in the mainboard.
Damn, those actors are good if they can copy a sea monster with such accuracy.
Would love to see the Pauper ban list! There’s so much crazy stuff available there that it would be fun to see!
I would like to see artifact lands back. Maybe make them like the desert lands or spire of industry
Thespian's stage can become a copy of dark depths on turn 2. Just make sure you play sol ring on turn 1
I would fix the skullcap by adding "Attached creature doesn't die if it's toughness is 0"
Chrome and Mox Opal don't need to be fixed. They're already nerfed versions of Mox Diamond. Make more moxes with restrictions.
What's the difference in power level with jitte in modern and jitte in legacy?? I see the card mostly being in the sb in modern because it is only good in certain match ups. The card just seems so slow to get going. Even merfolk can just bring in thieving skydiver and gain control of it.
Merfolk is a super fringe modern deck. It’s a card that is removal for nothing more than attacking. It’s cheap to cast and cheap to equip. It’s just too strong for modern. Legacy is a vastly more powerful format and sees play there so imagine it in modern.
There's a card that totally stops Jitte in its tracks, and Infect too, for that matter. It's also harder to get rid of than Jitte.
What is this card?
Solemnity, a white enchantment for 2 and a white.
How does it stop Jitte and Infect?
It fills a role that, as far as I know, is unique to it: Dedicated Counter (i.e. +1/+1 counter) Hate.
What does it do?
While it's on the battlefield, it stops Players and permanents other than Planeswalkers from getting counters.
This doesn't affect counters that apply to cards off of the battlefield, nor does it remove already present counters, but the sheer variety of counters makes the other cards with Counter Hate (not Dedicated Counter Hate, though) much easier to play.
Being an enchantment makes it so that dedicated Enchantment hate is needed, though cards like Naturalize would work, too.
Thing is, Green is actually getting some decent Enchantment hate aside from Naturalize, and has had it for a while now, and white has also seen its use.
In my opinion, though, if Solemnity ever gets banned from Modern, it's for making cards with Cumulative Upkeep much too good, and that includes even Snowfall, as Solemnity would stop the Cumulative Upkeep cards from gaining age counters, meaning that the cost would stop growing until Solemnity leaves. And in the case of Snowfall, that means that the extra mana lets you cast more instants during your upkeep to pave the way for your white creatures.
Combined with the fact that Blue plays more Antimagic than any other color, the deck would be way too good, possibly even for Modern.
Basically, the deck concept is just the right power level for Legacy, and with Enchantment Tutoring, maybe even Vintage.
I will have to acquire more copies of Solemnity and cards with Cumulative Upkeep for experimentation.
....On the other hand, Solemnity with Enchantment Tutoring would make it so decks with both it and Dark Depths would be powerful enough for Vintage, as all you need to get Marit Lage out Turn One is a Black Lotus (or enough Moxes, including at least one Pearl), using it to cast Solemnity, then using your land drop for the turn to do Dark Depths, which would enter without counters if I understand the rules right. Then all it takes is adding Haste, which is extremely easy to do in Vintage.
....Man, it's possible that Solemnity being used in such a way could get it banned from VINTAGE, or at least restricted.
I'm guessing banned, because Black 1 Mana Tutoring and Mox Jet.
Ironically, it's the presence of more powerful cards that get it banned from the most powerful format for being too strong, but without them, it's weak enough to be good enough for Legacy.
A possible fix for Dark Depths without altering the card whatsoever: Restricting it instead.
I think it'd be really cool to do a list of best (or worst) lands that don't make mana
marit lage still loses from the most common removal spell in the format (Prismatic ending), folds entirely to bounce effects and flicker, blood moon, alpine moon etc
The way to fix Dark Depths for Modern is to simply combine the activated (pay 3 mana) and triggered ability (sac it, get a 20/20) as one block of text. As is, you get the 20/20 as soon as there are no counters, regardless of how they were removed. If the abilities was "(3): Remove an ice counter from Dark Depths, THEN if it has no counters, sacrifice it, create a 20/20" as one effect, you'd always be forced to pay 3 mana at least once to get the token. You could even go so far as to also moving "remove an ice counter" to the COST, meaning the current ways to cheat Dark Depths by removing the counters all at once are simply no longer viable.
Yes, that is what was mentioned in the video
I think most modern players think the artifact lands could be unbanned today and not do too much with chrome banned
Skullclamp also has synergy with Bitterblossom. Draw 2 cards each turn for 1 mana and 1 life.
That breakdown of the Jitte was really good but you waited as long as possible to mention why that trigger is so freaking busted.
For YEARS it was always a given that a trigger like that only mattered when it hit a player, and Jitte doesn't care about that. It's the fact that it generates the counters whether you block or not that turns the game into a lose lose for the other player forever. So the choice of whether or not to block isn't a choice with meaning any more.
You can equip the Jitte to a 1/1 and attack into a 3/3 and kill the 3/3 with the 2 counters generated by the 1/1, by giving that 3/3 with 1 damage on it -2/-2. AND YOU KEEP THE JITTE!
EVERY.
SINGLE.
PLAYER.
Lost their first game against a jitte because they had to read and re-read it after they realized that. It's probably the best example of what would otherwise be a completely reasonable card except for an omitted sentence fragment.
I swear, I read the card lots of times and never EVER noticed that it does not say "to a player".
Now I understand a bit more why the card is so problematic.
I would love to see a commander ban list video.
Modern affinity doesn't use much affinity for artifacts cards anymore, does it? They still use modular and metalcraft more often nowadays right?
Yeah, it's still called Affinity primary for tradition's sake rather than actually working around the affinity mechanic
A real OG affinity deck was grixis colors because of card draw with affinity in blue free sac outlets and damage (sharpnel blast) in red and things like irradiate and disciple of the vault in black
I think all of the original artifact lands could be unbanned without any issue right now. Affinity right now, is competitive, but far from the best deck. Access to these lands might push it into a tier 1 deck, but they also come with some risks. Boseiju and a few other options are incredibly prevalent removal options that could hit non-indestructible artifact lands. This has largely pushed out the one legal, non-indestructible artifact land in modern, Treasure Vault in favor of just playing more basics to get some value when other artifacts get hit by Boseiju. It is worth noting that these would be much better than Treasure Vault, and the deck would likely cut some of the ETB tapped, indestructible artifact lands to make the deck a little faster and more consistent, but there's a cost to that.
Though there's always the chance of unforeseen consequences. For example, Hammertime is a better deck than Affinity that also runs a few metalcraft effects, so it could possibly get a boost by adding some of these lands to the deck. Additionally, since Hammertime isn't going all in on the artifact land plan, it doesn't get hurt nearly as bad by cards like Boseiju that let you replace the land. The best case scenario I see for them getting unbanned is that Wizards decides to ban Urza's Saga for seeing play in nearly every deck, and then unbans these lands because Affinity is reliant on Saga to be somewhat competitive, while most other decks just put it in because its really powerful with a minimal cost to include.
The artifact lands could be fixed if they were legendary but it would be a weird subtype for a common land
I believe the reason Jitte is staying banned is really because of Stoneforge Mystic. The strength of Stoneforge decks is it’s ability to tutor up any equipment for the right matchup. Jitte covers a huge variety of strategies, some Stoneforge would struggle against otherwise.
No. Jitte is just that busted. I used to play deathblade in legacy, and Jitte is that powerful.
Jitte is just an exceptionally oppressive card to any deck that even partially relies on creatures. It’s not fun and not healthy to have in the format.
One way to nerf Marit Lage is to make a condition, where it has to gain counters instead of losing them
Nettle cyst was never legal at the same time as colored artifact lands. Archbound ravager was strong enough by itself to make them ban-worthy.
Make the Artifact Lands limited. Wizards restricts things in vintage, they could try it in other formats.
Definitely would like a ban list on commander next. It'd be short and sweet and would probably do well. Heck even a history of commander banlist would be short
Just make all of the artifact lands legendary. They are all based off of specific locations on Mirrodin so I don’t see why they weren’t made legendary in the first place.
Well I mean, all non basic lands are based off specific places. Flavor can’t run the whole game. Also the problem with the artifact lands is that even at 1 of each they would all see play immediately and that’s the biggest problem because there are decks other than straight up affinity that wouldn’t mind them (hammer time) just for their added utility. They’re not inherently powerful they just add too much utility.
@@NotSoSerious69420 that’s not true though. There isn’t just one Luxury sweet in New Capenna or one of each guild gate in Ravnica. But each of the artifact lands do represent specific singular named locations in Mirrodin. There is only one seat of the Synod and its named Lumengrid. There is only one Tel-Jilad and Taj-Nar and Ish-Sah in the whole of Mirrodin. So it absolutely makes sense that they should be legendary lands.
Against many decks, Ghost Quarter is almost the exact same as Wasteland as there are plenty of decks who don't run any basic lands. I've seen players who legit play just a few basic lands in their decks just in case of Ghost Quarter/Field of Ruin, just so they'd have something to search. They don't need them, but it means they don't lose as much tempo as they otherwise would.
If you’re not running some basic lands you’re asking to just lose to blood moon or magus. Most high tier decks usually run atleast a couple basics since red prison is always a possibility.
I think you could unban Tree of Tales (the green artifact land). Green is pretty much the worst possible color to run in affinity. Affinity right now WANTS to play the W/U artifact lands, but there's still a lot of good affinity cards in R and B as well. There's very little in green for affinity.
Hardened Scales?
@@williamdrum9899 Plays pretty close to zero affinity cards now and maybe still wouldn't even with Tree of Tales
Do a list on Banner Commander/EDH cards
Is it intentional that some lands are missing?
Love this channel
I have a card called Grip of Desolation (Devoid) (Instant) for 4 and 2 black I can exile target creature and target land. Dark Depths is taken care of.
Lol you can interact with dark depths on turn 6 after they have had out the token for several turns and hit you for like 60 dmg.
Way too slow bud
Dark Depths also won't be unbanned also because it doesn't get hit by inquisition of kozilek and thoughtseize, you didn't mention that but I think that's actually extremely significant as the bane of playing combo decks is hand disruption often.
How about like this
Chrome mox- exile a random card from hand when cast
Artifact land-no artifact type when play, gain the artifact type in the next upkeep
Jitte- no more charge counter, directly choose 2 from the 3 effect when do combat damage, change +2/+2 to +1/+1 counter
Dark Depths-give it Shroud
Chrome Mox would sometimes miss and exile a land or artifact and that would be terrible. I don't think we need a powerful card to have so much variance.
For the Jitte, the +2/+2 would basically never matter with your suggestion.
The best way I could argue to make the artifact lands balanced is to make them legendary or implement a similar idea
They would all see immediate play and would have some effect on the format. They aren’t entirely banned for power but more so what they enable and how much play they’d see.
Unban clamp!
I feel like skullclamp's nerfed version would be way more interesting if it was equip 3 or 4 but kept the +1/-1
also maybe giving the creature -1/-1 instead of +1/-1 for reduced versatility as well
Jitte is even better in aggro decks. I think it'd have the opposite effect, it'd be a second wind for aggro decks that are already on the brink of death anyway. Control decks are already dominant in modern and combo decks couldn't really give less of a shit about what Jitte does for them.
after this series, can we get an explanation of the commander banlist?
I'm not so sure about the Jitte. Taking turn 2 off to play an artifact that does nothing the turn it comes in, then using most of your turn 3 to target a creature with the Jitte (which can just be killed in response) is just too slow. I think the card could pretty safely be unbanned.
I think starting artifact lands were played with cranial plating instead of nettlecyst would have been more accurate. But same concept pretty much
With all the available sac engines and sac costs built in to spells and permanents, this would still be too powerful. I say that the only way to fix it would be to reduce the card drawing to 1 card only.
🌀🙏💙
It wouldn't necessarily work as a top 5/10 list, but as a historic video covering banned Type 2/Standard cards would be interesting. Either start with Type 2 and go through Urza's Saga Block banned cards -> Affinity/Cawblade banned cards -> Standard bans starting 2017 or just start at 2017 till now as this upcoming rotation will be the first time since 2017 that Standard has not had banned cards on it.
It’s funny, the artifact lands could be solved if wizards had different card limits in more formats like the limited/semi limit like in YGO.
Nah. You couldn’t unban or limit them. They’re free includes in decks that care about them and have basically no draw backs. Even if all 5 were limited to 1 they’d all see play immediately. MTG tends to ban cards for reasons other than power level. Such as how easy they are to use, how much use they’d see, and what they enable even if they themselves do nothing.
dark depths could absolutely be unbanned
Let me have land.dec in modern damn you Wizards
Lol Marit lage kinda gets bodied by prismatic ending and leyline binding.
i want my Jitte back.
How has he not mentioned the skullclamp combo with locust god yet?
Because it's not relevant to why it's banned in modern.
I think we need to nerf Skullclamp. Make it so it +1/-4 :) That way noone would want to equip it for sure :)
Commander Ban list.