Wizards of the Coast has revealed the August 10 MTG banlist update for Magic: The Gathering, and this one makes much-needed changes to multiple formats. For starters, that Fantasticar oversight which allowed players to dish out 16 damage on turn one has been cleaned up, with the card getting axed in Vintage and Legacy.
But perhaps more importantly, and for most fans far more relevantly: Badgermole Cub and Stormchaser’s Talent are both receiving bans in Standard.
Badgermole Cub is single-handedly responsible for green’s return to prominence. Its value was unrivaled, creating a body and a ridiculous amount of ramp for a mere two drop, and allowing green decks to reach their big stompy cards with frightening speed..
While I think more fans will be celebrating the little green burrower’s demise (the sadists!) Stormchaser’s Talent has been at least as big a problem. In fact, this ban is probably overdue by a year or more, as the Talent has helped blue-red decks be a completely dominant force for more than a year. Over the months, the meta shifted, but Izzet has always been at or near the top.
Wizards says it chose not to ban these cards because,”the gap between these two strategies and the rest of the format was discernable but not insurmountable, and many decks could find success each weekend”.
In essence, the two cards here suffered from a similar design problem. They are both very cheap cards that create multiple pieces of value, making it hard to efficiently answer them. At the same time they also have effects that threaten to snowball out of control and run away with the game.
Alongside this pair of ne’er-do-wells is a rather unexpected ban. Gran-Gran, another card from the Avatar: The Last Airbender set, is no more! This card was a key part of the Lessons deck’s engine, both adding cards to the graveyard and giving your spells a discount. Poor Gran-Gran. Look at her there waving us goodbye.
Apparently WotC took out both Stormchaser’s Talent and Gran-Gran to deprive Jeskai Lessons and Izzet Prowess of one card each, and hopefully stop blue-red from swarming the format now Badgermole Cub is gone. It’ll be interesting to see if that attempt was successful!
Source: Wargamer
