I am giving away a complete set of the Warhammer 40k Commander decks plus some surprise Collector Booster Boxes to lucky viewers during my next stream! Just tune in this Tuesday, December 12 at 10am PST at www.whatnot.com/invite/tolariancollege and also get a $15 credit just for signing up!

I remember when magic used to have negative power creep. Tgeyd print a card, it would be crazy, and the community would say "well, we will never have something else like that again" then if they printed something similar it would be more reasonably costed or a lower impact effect. Mayve it was crazy because it was a new card design and they didnt know exactly how to propetly balance its cost. Maybe it was fair at the time of printing but as more cards came out surrounding it, then it became too much. Either way the direction they are going now is unfortunate.

Just wanted to note, between 15:30 and 15:40 it seems like an old cut was left in the video, jumping from 'play desi--' to a retake of the same segment. That said, I appreciate the video! As a perennial jank-player I have very little to weigh in on with the state of bans, but the crafting of the meta definitely changes the shape of the game for those on the cutting edge, and it's nice to get insight into the structures surrounding it.

Prof, I love you and your videos. Whenever I'm going through intense stress or bouts of anxiety/depression, your videos provide a nice little getaway. Thank you for doing what you do.

When Prof was talking about cards that get unbanned but don't end up good enough, I couldn't help but stare at that print of Bitterblossom just over his shoulder...

Dang! Really good well made video!! Thanks for the info! As a player getting into more formats right now this is very helpful!

The bans in recent times were mostly warranted. It just shows the acceleration of power creep to sell more faster

It's almost like they're pushing so much product out the door that they don't have ample time to properly play test cards.

I wish we had a decent youtuber like you to cover pokemon

The pod vs twin video was my favourite too:) cedric and patrick are also very cool guys

I really only trust Gavin and the Pauper crew with their bans and testing, and I greatly appreciate the articles he writes letting us know their in-depth thoughts. All the other formats just seem like an unfunny trash fire.

My hope is that if this Standard and Pioneer transparency to bannings clause is successful, they'll implement a similar schedule to Modern with a particular focus to straight to Modern sets.

The biggest issue to me isn’t that cards get banned. It’s the increasing rate of bans needed. If the designers don’t start holding back, mtg is gonna have a yugioh issue where cards will need to be multiple times better than the year prior.

Good old jace the mind sculptor. 2011 wow. I am happy i can use him again. Also locus of creation love those cards. I think the only issue with bans is the most op cards get them. Its the only reason bans happen. Its frustrating that all the good cards get banned.

Yes, Copter is going into my aggro deck for SURE

I'm honestly really glad for the modern bans not hitting Grief. T1 Grief-Scam feels bad, yes, but hand attack is a necessary component to keep combo decks in check. Like land destruction, it absolutely has a place, esp in a meta that is so rampant w/ bad cards. It's also one of the remaining tools that Black has to stay competitive in the modern meta rn. Hand attack (& for that matter land attack) feel bad to play against, but they absolutely have their place in the rock-paper-scissors of a balanced mtg meta.

March to 1 million! 918K so far. Let's Go!!

I remember one time i was playing commander with my friend and i used my primeval titan to get out around twenty forests. After the game looked it up and saw that card is banned in commander. I agree wholeheartedly. Getting that much land out, outside of a game of mana drop felt dirty.

What cards are band in commander? It’s the only format I play I’m just curious I’m kinda new to magic c:

Unrelated but I would love to see a Pdh shuffle up and play. I think prof would win with iconoclast

It felt so weird for him to commend WOTC that he needed two takes! 😂😂😂

It would be nice if you showed the correct image for each card on the banned timeline. Especially curious but couldn't read the Type 2 bans and the art is wrong for Zuran Orb.

I am very interested how the unbanning of Smuggler Copter is going to turn out. It is not a one card wins every game. Its „just“ a very good card that gives nearly every deck its own engine to dick for cards. If it had a color in its identity then I dont think this card would be relevant in any ban discussions. Its basically the Fable that every other deck was missing.

I'm too "new" to really have a big opinion about the specific bans, but as a video gamer I'm well aware of balance patches which present themselves as BNR in MTG. Lots of times balance patches are needed to make a game more interesting so in theory I support making bans in MTG, but your arguments against them are very valid. The good thing about MTG in paper is that if you're not playing an official tournament you can just say "eff the banlist" and play what you want as long as everyone at your kitchen table agrees. Or you can even hold No Ban List events. So in theory I'm supportive of making bans, but I definitely agree that they should be surgical. Thanks for the video. As someone just getting back into MTG this was really educational about yet another layer of this amazing game!

I wish magic was as simple as picking up a random deck and playing

That sounds like Teferi's voice on the trailer.

I hate that I'm more excited for b&r announcements than new sets these days

In all honesty the B&R update should happen a few weeks after each Major event like a SCG Con or Magic Fest/ProTour

I know it's kind of a different conversation, but I still want Prophet of Kruphix back in commander. He's not so bad.

As an old player who’s favorite format was legacy, has WOTC basically given up on Legacy? I noticed there was no mention of it on the B/R topic at all

Jissy Prof bro, please take Rudi to Tolarian Academy, he needs some tutorage in this shrewd wisdom of yours 😅

I want my Jitte back in Modern...

I've never been in favor of bans. I look at those cards and situations as a challenge.

I miss storm deck I have a good memory with storm ability😔☕

I'm just sad that I built the mono green deck played it once with a friend then woke up to it being completely devalued and worthless 6 months later. I invested into pioneer thinking it would be my forever format and I wouldn't need to check in on it for years at a time. It's crazy how one card being banned can make the other 71 cards practically obsolete.

thanks

Power creep in R&D is a real thing

My banning bad beat story is buying into Twin as a broke college student and not getting to play it before it got banned 2wks later. Other than that specific experience, I've had a generally positive experience and perception of bans, especially in Modern.

I view bans as a bandaid solution, one that is 100% on the heads of WOTC. Needing to ban a card should be a mark of shame, and the fact so many are happening lately should be a concern in general. That said, I think bans shouldn't be perpetual and reevaluated frequently. I know it isnt WOTC, but how do people feel about Primeval Titan in commander? He is absolutely strong, but it's been over a decade since it was banned and I don't feel like a 6-drop that tutors for utility lands or strong ramp, neither of which are usually impactful until their next turn, is ban-worthy any more.

They know things and stuff we don't be on the look out for artifacts that say I win the game in the next few sets

As players of the format we should easily identify a problem card it's our info that world looks at sometimes I don't think any of them even play the game to be honest

I love bans. i would like them to happen far more often. They always hit cheeseball cards that are way overplayed and boring.

I think while cool all the the evoke elementals from MH2 should never have been printed…along w/the one ring and orcish bow masters but here we are

The best time to ban Karn, as well as ANY wishboard cards, is during set design.

Because eight fucking bears is too strong

Mind's Desire was banned when Scourge debuted....

Thanks professor for the update. I was around when channel was banned and mind twist and these were not crazy expensive cards but today having dockside or ragavan banned instantly sucked my pockets dry for sure. They should have to let consumers know their cards will be losing value because WOTC banning them. They know now they can create problematic cards, we all buy them and use them, they ban them, we sell them, they unban them then reprint them, then ban them. Why do they make MTG suck in so many ways. Just stop releasing so many sets and get a hold on the game again. Calm the eff down already, we are broke on yer bs.

Daily Check in for 1Mil #1

My issue with Magic since the realased of Eldrain IS the powercreep of cards. Before this set to win a game you has to play with strategie. My feeling now is that you Can just play the one Big card before your opponent and win.

There are a lot of cards more powerful than Up The Beanstock. Thank you for the video Professor.

I expected the splinter Twins unban tbh :/ well the card is now outdated but would still be fun to try New decks with it in modern format :(

I kinda think that cards should have a grace period before they get banned at least. Like 3-6 months at least.

Finally someone put it into words. I hate bans. It devalues the cards and your constantly having to check those lists.

Because people complains in Twitter, that's why

I am probably an outlier in the fact I am not so adamant against banning or shocked by them. They are a tool for the game. They shouldn't be too frequent or abused, but is not unreasonable to curate the health of the meta and of the game experience. It should not be such a taboo. And when the bans are too frequent the issue usually is not the bans, but some underlying issues that the bans are necessary to fix (like a design philosophy that seems not to have any regard for the effects on constructed formats, or to learn from past mistakes). I also sympathize with the financial blowback of having a prize rare you just bought banned, but I can't help think that the companion argument is that it means a significant portion of the playerbase must have been until then simply priced out from playing, and it seems to me a much bigger issue.

What was your opinion on the new trilogy of tennant episodes? I really didn't like the first one, and found the second one pretty dull aswell - The Giggle was fantastic though, absolutely love NPH, and his performance was fantastic.

Dockside Extortionist needs a ban in commander.

I'm extremely cynical and think coptor got unbanned because how in gods name would that be banned but orcish bowmasters AND the one ring isn't. Also it helps with the bowmaster.

Type 1: Banned because they warp the meta in an unhealthy way. Type 2: Someone in management thinks they can make people moral by banning cards.

I'm all for bans, it's stupid when there is only one deck dominating the format. It would be cool, though, to have a completey open format (casual) that there are competitions for.

The constantly shifting B&R announcement schedule has always confounded me. Seems easier to just say "quaterly on the 1st of the month".

*laughs in Yugioh periodical banlist change*

Still angry I can't play The Cheese Stands Alone 😓

Sheoldred

I'd imagine a minor contributing factor to more bans these days in Magic is also that there are simply more cards, and more formats for each of those cards to get a chance to be broken in. Something I see players misunderstand a lot is how card bans (and nerfs in digital CCGs) aren't solely about power level. They can also be about the overall effect on the meta, match-up polarisation, or unpopular or uninteractive play patterns. I'm mainly a Hearthstone player these days so that's where all my examples are from, but... The Caverns Below wasn't necessarily as broken as some other bans, but it still warped the meta to a ridiculous level because while it was easy to beat if you had the right deck, it meant you were exclusively playing either Caverns, the deck that beat Caverns, or the deck that beat the deck that beat Caverns. Wild Big Priest isn't a high tier deck, but it was recently nerfed because it's had basically the same play pattern for far too long and it's one most players HATE playing against, because it's uninteractive and has a highly polarised win/loss rate. Sometimes they're even pre-emptive because they discover in playtesting, too late to make changes, that a new card has a problematic interaction with an old one. That also doesn't just have to be due to power level; Dreadsteed was nerfed ahead of Defile's release in part because their interaction was something the game engine couldn't handle at the time.

This game starting to look more and more like yu gi oh.

Swiftspear [*]

*Cough* 2006-2016 inclusive is 11 years

I blame power creep.

Geological appraiser needed that ban. It gets to the point whenever I see the card in arena I just scoop. It's got way too much value by itself. Don't get me wrong, discover and cascade are good, fun mechanics, I just don't want to sit through an hour of someone exiling their deck to hand pick every card just to see it all come back ordered to how they please.

Love the content as always. Really wish you'd start doing more pauper videos.

So with that being said: Unban KCI? XD

Cards are designed to play with. But if they are badly designed or tested - they deserve a ban sometimes

Wait, WHEN DID WARHAMMER ENTER MTG?!

Yo

What I don't understand about how this new B+R system is going to work is when a card is needed to be banned but it's because of a new card that came out. For instance fury was a really good card in modern and got banned because up the beanstalk made it way more powerful in that build. Now under the guise of this new system, let's say we have a card that's not really played in modern but a new card from a new set comes out enabling the older unplayed card to be busted OP, but the new card is quite balanced, then the only way to fix it would be to enact the emergency ban on the new card and wait a year for them to consider unbanning it and banning the card that actually made it the problem?

I'm not too sure about Fury being chosen over Grief. Yes both creatures have their own merit. But Grief taking 2 cards from someone on turn 1, just grossly inhibits they're ability to play the game. Imagine having to mulligan down to 5 or choosing not to mulligan for fear of Grief x2?And if the goal is to, Play MTG? How can that be fun?

Lmao. At least wizards communicates its philosophy with the community. Konami bans Yugioh cards like The Purge/Hunger Games. It’s frequent. Random. Inevitable. And seems only to serve to push the sales of new product. They have no interest in printing fair and balanced cards. The new shit is always the best shit and it eventually gets banned. So crack those packs while you can still pay to win against those dirty poors! Then once $50-120 dollar staples finally receive reprints becoming accesible the casual community, They are banned immediately. (Ie. Baronne de Fleur)

Problem cards only get banned when wotc sells enough of the new powerful cards to make serious money

Stoneforge Mystic being unbanned is one of the main reasons I don't play modern anymore so I strongly disagree with that card being fun for players being unbanned is terrible.

When one card is banned, often, a full deck is banned cause now unplayable.

I started playing mtg around 2015 with shadows. Sorry guys, it’s my bad, all these bannings only started once I got here, I’ll see myself out.

i don’t care about pioneer or modern but legacy and vintage need unbannings

This is pauper erasure lol

well standards gonna be a shit storm of overpowered nonsensical b/s glad I never started. the ideal ban time line is once every 3 months Its a good length of time to see how cards adapt/change/warp the game but soon enough that it isn't a plague ruining peoples time, AND you'll see it coming, if we want something that's a reasonable amount of time. personally I'd like bans once a month but eh. a year is too long.

The end of magic as we know is coming. Hasbro is failing and they'll milk every mtg player for as much as they can before the game effectively dies. I think mtg can outlive wotc though

While much of this makes sense, some cards can't be "unbanned" by virtue of the card itself, not merely how it affects the game. Invoke Prejudice, as one example, simply can't return--courtesy of the KKK-style imagery on it. What needs to happen, if this is a decent card when considering only the card and not the artwork, is for that card to be returned under a different name and with different artwork. The problematic piece of cardboard would still remain unusable (and be of interest only to collectors), but what the card does could return to the toolbox of MTG weaponry.

its simple. you need to get new money into the game. otherwise this system collapses. bcs think of this way, you need stronger cards every edition, otherwise noone buys new cards. and if noone buys new cards, then the company doesnt earn money. but bcs the new cards are stronger, to be more interesting, the old ones decline in value. bcs they are bad compared to the new ones. but people dont like decline in value, so they stop buying at all. so they ban everything unbalanced and bring new unbalanced stuff, to let the grind continue. and people pay shit ton of money for a colourful piece of paper.

Heads up. There is a video editing mistake at 15:39.

Sounds like too many words to be worth 15 credit

Neech.

The best part about paper Magic is that your table can decide what cards are banned. Wizards can suck it.

The Shuffle Up and Play episode where you pitted different standard decks across the game against each othet was so neat. Fun to see the cards interacting as they did at the time, rather than in the modern mindset.

I do not like bans, especially in commander where it feels like they just don’t ever review taking cards off that list like sure some stuff are good like shaharazad but others really need a review, it’s been ten years let my guy rofellos out of jail already please

You need to mention how WOTC will NEVER ban a chase mythic while a product is still in it's main print run (see Oko, Meathook, One Ring....... and on and on....). So don't worry about buying a chase mythic in the first 6 months of a product MINIMUM!

14:37 This unfortunately doesn't work in practice. Not without an alternate to banning at least. If certain cards are not banned from a format, you paradoxically see *less* cards seeing play. Because when good enough cards warp formats around them, it suffocates out niche strategies and archetypes with bad matchups. Like you see it in this video. Rakdos Scam is 20% of the metagame. How many decks and archetypes are choked out from modern because that one deck exists. If you want a format to have everything be legal, the best solution I've come across is Canadian Highlander's points system. While definitely cumbersome and less simple, it gives players the entirity of magic to play with whatever cards you want (though having the same banned cards as Vintage like ante and conspiracy cards), just gives a limitation on how much of the most powerful cards you can play with to promote deck diversity and overall format health.

because they are badly designed as are most of the cards coming out today, because imo upping the power creep to the max is not a good card design

Banlists are a result of design failures. I certainly don't expect WotC to get it right every single time, but it really makes you wonder about their standards when you compare the 2006-2016 bans to the 2017-2023 bans. Are the products being rushed out the door without adequate testing? Can't say, I don't work there, but it damn well feels like it.

this is so weird to me lol. I come from Yugioh so i always want as many cards banned as possible, in order to improve play experience

If bannings are becoming more frequent, and power creep is looming, broken cards need more costs, errata’s and limits. For example, pantlaza can only discover once per turn