I haven’t played since the release of NPH (New Phyrexia… Niel Patrick Harris) besides casually but the announcement of the banning of these two cards did not come as a surprise to me neither should it be a surprise to anyone playing standard. Jace has been dominating since it was overpowardly printed and Stoneforge with the addition of equipment that came on to the field with a creature is kind of silly.

What DID shock me however was the exception that was made on Stoneforge Mystic. I’m sure as a retailer it would have been a total anger management issue to have brought in a ton of event decks containing Mystics and try to sell them when they are banned. However, to put an exception on a ban means a lot more work for judges and organizers.

Most of us are used to showing up to our local game store (LGS) cracking out our deck and playing in a weekly tournament.  There are the occasional rule calls a judge or tournament organizer have to deal with but it’s usually a casual, fun, but competitive atmosphere. NOW, the inclusion of deck lists is almost a must in tournaments containing 20 people or more. Judges will have to have the  decklist of the event deck on them. Not to mention that if you bought the event deck there is a good chance that you bought it just for the Mystics and would never play the deck the way it is packaged.

Personally, I think that the standard will be much better now that these two cards are gone. More decks will emerge and I dont think Valakut is really going to be as bad as people think, there are a lot of ways to deal with non-basic land in the format.

Looking forward to the decks that arise from the dust and ashes!

 

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