So, my RC just posted on facebook a picture of Imperial Seal promo foil. Seems they gave one for each regional coordinator participating in RC conference. Though these are not likely to be included in exemplar mailings, the long awaited promo foil is a real thing now.
The card has been always banned in our format partially for power reasons but mostly for its scarcity. If the supply increases significantly, there is no reason to keep it banned for that reason only. Power level of the card is on par with Mystical, and whether Mystical is too powerful or good/bad for the format is still up to debate.
Thoughts?
So, she was told it will be in the next exemplar mailings, which means several hundreds of them will come to circulation by the end of next February.
At the background of the power-level of current tutor-spells, the present meta and the fact Imperial Seal will be a Judge Promo I'm for rediscussing this card.
I will vote for adding it on unban watch-list next time.
With drawback + lifeloss it is definitely worse than Demonic Tutor or even Mystical Tutor imo. Its shortness and corresponding price tag was always a controversial argument for its ban. The danger of T1 Tutor in T2 powerhouse like Oath of Druids already exists. In current meta RDW, Izzet, Bant, 4c Blood, UW, Scapeshift and Jeskai seems for me the T1 decks and most of them wouldn't even ponder to add/splash Imperial Seal.
Quote from: GerryWith drawback + lifeloss it is definitely worse than Demonic Tutor or even Mystical Tutor imo. Its shortness and corresponding price tag was always a controversial argument for its ban. The danger of T1 Tutor in T2 powerhouse like Oath of Druids already exists. In current meta RDW, Izzet, Bant, 4c Blood, UW, Scapeshift and Jeskai seems for me the T1 decks and most of them wouldn't even ponder to add/splash Imperial Seal.
I agree with everything you said. Let's take this card into discussions next time we review the watchlist.
Update: They are being mailed at this exemplar wave which means they will reach hundreds of judges in just couple of weeks. Many of them will have several copies.
I rather wanna have Demonic and Mystical Tutor being banned then have a bew powerful Tutor in the Meta. This Card would be an auto include in every combo deck, that tries to avoid interaction. I also think Scapeshift wanna have this Tutor.
Just because a card is going to be widely available doesn't mean it can possibly be unbanned. This card is obviously busted in combodecks and having fast access to the tutor'd card a la Gush, cantrips, Bazaar and the likes will give decks like Oath, Cephalid Breakfast, Reanimator, Scapeshift, High Tide and so on powerful plays and adds more redundancy to these combo decks. And well, the more consistent combodecks are, the more unfun the format is going to be.
Even controldecks will profit from Imperial Seal. At the moment there are still cards out there that just no-brain a certain matchup: Controlmirrors revolve around True-Name Nemesis most of the time, Moons/Ruination/B2B win against most multicolored decks, I don't think it's a good idea to give decks even better capability to tutor up such a card, jam it and then sit back and relax. Mind that Imperial Seal is very mana-efficient and plays quite smoothly with Snapcaster Mage for instance, and with Imperial Seal and Mystical Tutor in the format, I think Miracle-spells can also be relatively unfair (mostly thinking of Bonfire and Entreat).
Besides the power level of the card. Does a judge promo realy influence the marketprice?
I think adding 'Imperial Seal' to the watchlist is a good idea at the moment. In my opinion there are much more controverse cards in the format now, so why don't investigate the possibility of an unban.
@ Payron just look at the Price of other Judge Promos like 'Ravages of War' or 'Imperial Recruiter' at least you can play the Promo which is mostly cheaper than the original card.
This card will not be in the Top 3 of tutors if unbanned. The fastest combo deck might not have a faster goldfish than RDW. Not much more to say here.