MTG unbans first Modern card in 4 years but Pioneer players want more Wizards of the Coast have released their latest MTG update and, while Modern and Legacy saw unbans, Pioneer still has to wrestle with its meta. Magic: The Gathering\u2019s Modern format is a wildly expensive, but incredibly interesting part of the game. The Modern format takes in nearly everything the game has done since Eighth Edition (June 2003) and lets players sift through the game\u2019s history for the best cards making for a superb and varied way to play. However, MTG\u2019s Modern format hasn\u2019t seen an unbanning of cards since 2019. While the unbanning of Preordain might seem inconsequential, to those deeply invested in the format, it\u2019s huge news. Why was Preordain banned in Modern? Preordain was banned in 2011 to curtail the rise in a particular deck. Also banned was Ponder, both of which let you draw cards for a single blue mana. This makes the games increasingly quick, as well as locking the opponent out from interacting in the game. Modern\u2019s biggest issue for years is that it was fast, with no wiggle room for mistakes or experimentation. The format doesn\u2019t \u2018rotate\u2019 out its cards, instead banning those that appear more frequently. Why did MTG unban Preordain? In an announcement blog, Wizards of the Coast explained why they were unbanning Preordain from the Modern format, attributing the decision largely to the changes to the game after Modern Horizons was introduced. Modern Horizons is Magic\u2019s straight-to-Modern set, with it skipping the usual inclusion in Standard. After Standard \u2018rotates\u2019 cards out, the sets then continue life in the wider game. Modern Horizons doesn\u2019t bother with this, instead injecting Modern with a new batch of reprints and cards. As Wizards said, \u201cIt was a goal of those releases to offer powerful options to stop your opponents\u2019 combos and play longer, more interactive games.\u201d Modern Horizons has changed the Modern format to the point that what was once considered a problem, no longer is. This is usually through new answers or a general creep in the overall power available. As a result, WotC said, \u201cWe believe that Preordain will do more to boost fairer blue decks rather than simply increase the consistency of combo strategies.\u201d The unbanning of Preordain means that WOTC is seriously considering the landscape of Modern for the first time in a few years. MTG addresses the unbanning and LotR cards Another part of the reason for unbanning is to \u201cgive something back to Blue-Red Murktide\u201d, a deck that has fallen out of favor with the community since the release of The Lord of the Rings. The crossover set brought a card, Orcish Bowmasters, which has dominated deck building since its launch. It was included four times in the winning deck of the MagicCon Barcelona tournament. Speaking of Lord of the Rings, Wizards said that they were concerned going into MagicCon that the meta will be dominated by The One Ring. Requiring no specific color to play, and only offering benefits to players, The One Ring is now going to be monitored for \u201cthe long-term\u201d as WOTC determines how fun it is: \u201cWe aren\u2019t taking action against any cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth today, we do want to be clear that these cards are on our radar.\u201d \u201cSimilarly, Orcish Bowmasters has done a substantial amount of work to suppress one-toughness creatures in the environment, to the point where Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer isn\u2019t seeing much play in the format outside of Rakdos Evoke.\u201d MTG Legacy unbans Mind\u2019s Desire However, the story of unbanning doesn\u2019t end there. Legacy, one of MTG\u2019s most expensive formats, sees more bans than most formats. However, along with the latest news Wizards revealed that, Mind\u2019s Desire, is now unbanned. This card was banned way back in 2003, and the unbanning of it is to fuel combo-loving players, who want something to either continue their string of moves or kick off an amazing turn. Magic\u2019s Pioneer fans are fed up with Karn Though, it\u2019s not all love for the ban announcements, as Pioneer players feel left out. Currently, Pioneer players are having to deal with Karn, the Great Creator. According to comments on the MTG subreddit, there\u2019s a split between players saying that it\u2019s fundamentally ruining the format. Others are saying those players just need to get better. Pioneer has seen no bans, and one player said that it felt as if it has been \u201cabandoned\u201d. Others concurred, saying that the presence of Karn has ruined any new strategies from forming. Karn currently resides in a mono-green devotion deck. Mono-green devotion is tearing up the meta The gist of the deck is to build up mana quickly, and then use Karn\u2019s ability to pluck artifact cards from \u201coutside the game\u201d to take out the other player. Karn also locks out artifacts from using their \u201cactivated abilities\u201d, leaving some decks without the means to properly work. Another user said \u201cThere\u2019s no way they tried to justify no changes in Pioneer by claiming it\u2019s a healthy format. \u201c[Mono-green] is a very dominant deck and a big part of why is this stupid card that lets it have answers to the entire meta while also being a combo enabler on its own.\u201d Another mentioned that the meta is now getting \u201cboring\u201d, as there\u2019s no mix-up in the matches played. Whether Wizards listen to those yearning for the fledgling Pioneer format to see changes is something we don\u2019t expect to happen for another month. However, bets on Orcish Bowmasters being canned are high on the list. 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MTG unbans first Modern card in 4 years but Pioneer players want more Wizards of the Coast have released their latest MTG update and, while Modern and Legacy saw unbans, Pioneer still has to wrestle with its meta. Magic: The Gathering\u2019s Modern format is a wildly expensive, but incredibly interesting part of the game. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}