I read this. The author concludes that this format of banning low mana value ramp did not work for him. Stating that it made playing an otherwise optimized deck feel like it was just wasting time.
Way to take a misleading comment out of context! The author only says that in reference to banning 1-mv ramp, because they contend that it doesn't meaningfully impact casual decks that much and so just feels like you're setting yourself back a small amount vs normal decks. In fact, a lot of the conclusions are given over to what it's like playing decks with this restriction vs decks without, with the author's greatest issue being getting people to
opt in. That's hardly relevant if we're talking about bans that would affect everyone equally.
I've definitely heard of other people trying this experiment and liking it. I'm sure some wouldn't. I'm gradually becoming more and more convinced that it
would make more sense from the point of view of game design, though, for all the reasons previously discussed.
Some of the stuff I've heard people at the LGS say they'd ban totally depends on where you like the power level of your deck IMO. The more optimized players groan when people mention banning fast mana and something like Dockside. The lower power players are all for banning damn near everything that gets played in optimized decks.
Eh, I think it depends. I tend to play relatively "optimised" decks; I don't fancy cEDH but I will put in the best cards for the specific job I want them to do and I run powerful staples and even fast mana a lot of the time. Yet, I wouldn't at all mind if they were banned. I think some of us in fact would prefer to optimise within tougher restrictions so that we can let loose a bit more without feeling they've gone too far.
While I can see and understand a ban on 2 mana stuff and below. The question would come up per the dockside extortionist I mean how far would it go? Do we also ban anything that creates treasures? What about all the cost reductions?
You'd go exactly as far as you felt necessary. I'm proposing that that line lies on the other side of 2-mv ramp but I very much doubt it would lie any further. If people didn't have 2-mana rocks I'm sure they would play 3-mana rocks but maybe not so many of them, and maybe some wouldn't bother at all (which is a good sign that you've hit the right
balance), I don't know. There are certainly plenty of decent 3-mana rocks nowadays that would likely be deemed good enough if the competition were worse (and Brawl for example sees quite a lot of 3-mana ramp).
It's not like it's a "slippery slope", though, you just pick a level and stick with it. Right now that level is left of
Sol Ring, though I think we would all be amazed if any more cards on a similar level to that were printed.
Dockside is a bit of a special case as it's uniquely overpowered. I think it's on a lot of people's "would ban" lists even if they've never thought about ramp, maybe even if they would still allow fast mana. The idea that you'd ban anything that creates treasures too is one heck of a false equivalence. If you think of Dockside as a ritual it's clearly miles ahead of stuff like
Desperate Ritual, and then it has a bunch of additional advantages too due to being a small creature and the fact that they're treasures not just raw mana.
By also doing this how much would it reflect on people playing big expensive splashy janky stuff? The avg mana cost for decks would drop down because people just won't play high costed mana cards.
Frankly I'm not sure it would move the dial on that much anyway. The average mana cost for decks nowadays is typically super low anyway; I've very few decks that have an average above 3. I don't think most people are ramping fast to play an 8-mana spell on turn 5, they're ramping to play a 3- or 4-mana spell on turn 1 or 2. If you want
big mana, you can still play big ramp spells (
Explosive Vegetation types) or mana doublers. That's not the same as
fast ramp which is about getting an early advantage that can carry you through the game.
This might even make big mana a bigger deal, but at least people would have some time to establish some board state or have some answers. Being ahead on mana isn't necessarily a problem, the real issue is someone going
Sol Ring -> mana rock turn 1 and then having 5 mana on turn 2 when everyone else has 2, that just makes for a hugely lopsided game (especially if they then wheel or cast a big draw spell).