August 2019 Ban & Restricted Announcement- Standard, Modern, Vintage

[WWolfe]

Announcement Date: August 26, 2019

Standard:
* Rampaging Ferocidon is unbanned.

Modern:
* Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis banned.
* Faithless Looting is banned.
* Stoneforge Mystic is unbanned.

Vintage:
* Karn, the Great Creator is restricted.
* Mystic Forge is restricted.
* Mental Misstep is restricted.
* Golgari Grave-Troll is restricted.
* Fastbond is unrestricted.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/august-26-2019-banned-and-restricted-announcement-2019-08-26

[Soren841]

Vintage dredge 😭😭😭

[Red_Wyrm]

What did faithless looting and Hogaak do?

[Soren841]

Scroll through r/ModernMagic for 5 minutes. WotC caves very easily to pressure from the Modern community. Ironically that's why the format is totally fucked up, because nobody has a clue on how to balance the format.

[Xaarvaxus]

What did faithless looting and Hogaak do?

Apparently Hogaak decks had gotten to the point where they could get him out on turn 2 just shy of 60% of the time which was leading to a lot of unfair games.  Faithless Looting had a lot to do with enabling that [with Stitcher's Supplier being fairly guiltly as well] and I've seen people calling for Looting to be banned for at least a year now.  Guess I'm not going to be doing much with that Hollow One deck I was working on getting the cards for.

[HowlingLotus]

Not a big Modern fan (aka I don't play it), but been following it lately simply due to the Hogaak saga. The Looting ban looks like it will affect other decks too, like Phoenix, but does Tron ever see nerfs? I know full well the hate for the deck, but it seems like Wizards is too scared to touch it? What happens if it's all the top finishes at next event?

[Soren841]

If it's all the top finishes it's literally because Wizards just killed Red in modern.

[HowlingLotus]

It would be cool to see some out of nowhere deck with the meta mix up, but modern seems like a pretty locked in format.

I do see some people talking about Dredge wanting to creep in to fill the void now, but could just be a bluff to ensure people keep slots main deck/sideboard for graveyard hate (possible rogue deck sneaks in without graveyard stuff).

[ORCH1D]

Hogaak has been dominating modern for a while now. It's gotten so prominent in the meta game that people have been maindecking 4 leyline of the void, which is very not good for the format. If you've seen any modern events recently, you know this ban is fully justified.

Faithless Looting is a bit more debatable, however. Before Hogaak came along the format was still largely ruled by graveyard decks. Phoenix was top dog but dredge wasn't far behind. It wasn't as crazy as maindeck leyline, but strong graveyard hate was necessary to avoid getting stomped. I think the main reason Hogaak was so strong was because Faithless Looting already sets up graveyard strategies so well in modern, and keeping  Faithless Looting just limits the design space of future cards so I do think this was worth the ban.

In terms of the meta game moving forward, I think tron could be strong, but I think the lack of graveyard decks could open up sideboard slots for decks to deal with it, so I doubt it'll be too dominant. Urza thopter sword seems like it'll be given a chance to shine in a Hogaak-less meta, and humans is always good. Storm could also benefit from Phoenix losing Faithless Looting.

And no, this did not kill red in modern. Burn is always good.

[Soren841]

Because burn plays Blood Moon

[ORCH1D]

If you're playing blood moon in modern burn, you are doing something wrong. Burn doesn't play enough lands for a 3 mana spell, and especially not for one that does no damage. Mardu Pyromancer does, and Mono-Red Prison does, but Burn does not.

[Soren841]

That was sarcasm.

[Judaspriester]

stoneforge unbanned.. 

unless we'll see a reprint, my dreams of getting hands on one are over. I would like to have it for some commander decks, but 40€+.. nope.

The Hogaak ban was more then necessary from what I've got.

[ORCH1D]

Sorry, it's hard to get tone over the Internet