October 1st, 2017 - Banned List Changes

[Payron]

Changes to the present banned list, effective 10/15/2017:

Banned:

Mystical Tutor

Unbanned:                                                    

Entomb
Imperial Seal


Current watchlists:

Ban watchlist:                                                    

Back to Basics  
Blood Moon  
Demonic Tutor
Dig Through Time
Entomb *New*
Grindstone *New*
Imperial Seal *New*
Mana Drain
Oath of Druids
Stoneforge Mystic
Tainted Pact
Tolarian Academy
Treasure Cruise
Yawgmoth's Will
                                             
Unban watchlist:                                                      

Birthing Pod
Mystical Tutor *New*


Single cards explanations:

Ban:

Mystical Tutor:
There were more reasons for banning of this card. Huge dominance of blue decks in the format - this is a growing topic that needed to be addressed and this might be the first step of it. With many calling for ban of more blue cards (Dig Through Time and Mana Drain being the other main calls), Mystical tutor makes most sense currently - with the unbanning of Entomb and Imperial Seal. While being less powerful in abstract than Demonic Tutor, the fact that it is blue, instant and appears in what is widely viewed as a current best deck (Izzet), makes it currently the right choice for ban. The usage as a "Miracle tutor" is just another point of this card why it got the vote.

Unban:

Imperial Seal:
This card has been on the banned list since 07/15/2006 partly for its price, but since there was lately another printing of it in the form of Judge rewards card, this reason lost its relevance a bit. On the other hand it's powerlevel is also something, that the council evaluated during its' unbanning - in other singleton formats, where this card is allowed, it doesn't show in big numbers. Mostly it appears in pure combo decks and even there, it is not stronger than tutors we already have in our format. The cost of 2 life might be pricey in our current meta with monoRed around, sorcery speed is also a downside to similar tutors like (Enlightened, Worldly and Mystical). Therefore we think it is the right time to try it and give it a chance.

Entomb:
As one of the strongest reanimator spells of all time (banned since 04/15/2010), this card for sure brings some questions to the format, that need to be answered. The most obvious one is - will it bring the Reanimator deck to tier1 level? Due to current blue decks dominancy as the usual predator to combo decks we think it will not happen, but we will closely monitor whether it doesn't harm the format too much and in case it does a banhammer might be used once again here.

Unban-Watchlist:

Grindstone
Since the unbannning of this card (04/15/2017), it is mostly invisible in our format and while we know it has some potential in a combo artifact deck, the deck didn't show up more neither changed the meta at all. For the first time since 2008 players had an option to play Painter's Servant combo again, but it looks like it is not a boogeyman anymore. Also, due to Stoneforge Mystic, artifact hate cards are now a bit more common in the format. So we are pretty confident that unbanning was correct and therefore we are removing it also from the watchlist.


Edit by pyyhttu Sun Oct  1 11:46:04 UTC 2017: Announcement was missing watchlistings of Entomb of Imperial seal. Added. Watchlist contained false entry, Fastbond. Removed. (It was already removed from watchlist on July 1st).