​The Bans that Shook the US Regional Championship

On Monday (12-04-2023), Wizards of the Coast tackled bans that were telegraphed the week prior during their live stream. There were strong indications Pioneer and Modern would be impacted with a variety of bans. Unbans were hinted at as well.

Read the full breakdown here

Standard:

• No changes

Pioneer:

• Karn, the Great Creator is banned.
• Geological Appraiser is banned.
• Smuggler's Copter is unbanned.

Modern:

• Fury is banned.
• Up the Beanstalk is banned.

Legacy:

• No changes

Vintage:

• No changes

Explorer:

• Karn, the Great Creator is banned.
• Geological Appraiser is banned.

Pauper:

• Monastery Swiftspear is banned.

Standard, Legacy, & Vintage - No Changed

The lack of changes in Standard makes sense with the prior actions earlier this year. The format is a mix of decks and with the new cards added nothing has become an outlier. Aggro, Tempo, Midrange, and Control seem to exist with a variety of decks and flavors to choose from and any unbans would only revert the health they have created. With the upcoming RCQ season for Standard and a healthy format, leaving things alone was the best decision they could do. Legacy and Vintage are in a similar spot where cards are being watched as they are incorporated into decks, but nothing has created a cause for concern.

Modern - Banned Fury and Up the Beanstalk

I was honestly hoping for a few more cards to be hit as a turn 1 double Grief is still one of the worst feelings to me, but I will settle for Fury getting axed as this should weaken Rakdos Scam by a decent margin losing their primary quick clock and losing the ability to have a one sided wrath effect resulting in creatures based decks being held at bay. Up the Beanstalk has become the premier value deck working in conjunction with Fury and Solitude to generate an absurd amount of card draw. Negating the downside for the pitch effect at a minimum or generating value with multiples. I am happy to see both of these cards go as Modern has been a format I have not enjoyed playing for quite some time. My one bastion was being able to play Amulet Titan during these dark times. I am happy to be able to sleeve up the deck now without the dread of encountering the Rakdos Scam match.

Pauper - Banned Monastery Swiftspear

Gavin has a complete breakdown of the reasoning behind the singular ban linked here. I appreciate the Pauper Format Panel working diligently on the format and giving us such a great breakdown for the why. I am happy to see this go for the format.

Pioneer - Banned Geological Appraiser and Karn, the Great Creator.

Unbanned Smuggler’s Copter.

Similar to Modern, I was hoping for a bit more hit in this format. I was also hoping for Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Treasure Cruise to also go. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker being removed would allow for midrange decks to operate outside of playing red and Treasure Cruise going would temper down Izzet Phoenix. Smuggler’s Copter getting unbanned as this card was the card in the format at one point that was in pretty much every deck giving you a powerful early threat and filter through your deck with ease. I am always pretty excited to see unbans to see if they are able to come off the list.

The fear and why the US is shook is that this only gave us about a week to get new decks and prepare for the US Regional Championship in Atlanta. If you are attending, my current thoughts is that Rakdos Midrange along with Izzet Phoenix will be the two most represented decks at the event. Azorius Control has become the clear control deck pushing aside Lotus Control from the conversation. Lotus Field Combo is the best combo deck for those who enjoy presenting the problem for the opponent and Boros Convoke will be the aggro deck. Pioneer is a wide field though with easily another 10 decks people can pick from, and people will brew with Smuggler’s Copter into new and existing decks. I am quite excited for Atlanta as this feels similar to the pressure put on players for the Pro Tour with often a limited time frame to figure out what to play and how to configure their exact list.

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