Finally, the veil has been lifted and we get to see the new Modern format.

In what was probably one of the most highly anticipated and desired Banned & Restricted List announcements, WotC chose to bring down the hammer on Eye of Ugin, as well as open up some new possibilities by releasing both Ancestral Vision and Sword of the Meek back into the wild. There were hints, tips, and rumors leading up to the announcement that both of the new additions may be set free, so really, no one should have been caught completely off guard.

Or course, with such news comes the inevitable cries from the unhappy or disappointed about how WotC messed up. About how Jace, the Mind Sculptor should have been set free, like they've never heard of the Legacy format. Or how Eldrazi Temple or Eldrazi Mimic were the real issues and those should have gone either in addition to, or instead of, the Eye. And let's not even get started with how Sword of the Meek will ruin aggro strategies and make them all null and void.

I can't claim to like and support everything that WotC does, or even purport to have any "inside" information as to their decision making process. But after looking at things, and thinking about it some more, even though I may be apprehensive about Ancestral Vision, I'm not sure any of these changes will be bad or horrible for the format. Let's take a look.

One common complaint, and the reason so many were in favor of Eldrazi Temple and Mimic hitting the showers, was that to ban Eye would "cripple" Tron strategies and decks. For reference, here are a couple Tron lists that have done well:

Ali's deck is the traditional R/G Tron list that most of us are at least somewhat familiar with. It runs a relatively low twenty lands, with, of course, twelve of them being the Tron. This deck relies on inexpensive search and card drawing to put the pieces of Tron together to start playing spells that would otherwise be cost prohibitive. Also, it utilizes the Eye as a tutor effect to grab one of the handful or large creatures available to bring the game to a swift end once the critical mass of mana creation is hit. If this is the deck you want to run, then you may have some issues. Without being able to directly ignore the chaff in the late game and go directly to big creatures to bash, this type of Tron deck really loses something.

Fortunately, that's not the only option:

This was the deck that Cedric Phillips played in Detroit, as both a powerful Eldrazi strategy and a Tron plan. With the exception of Eye, this deck stays intact. I'm not going to say the Eye isn't important, but this deck is still viable and capable of some pretty powerful things. The increased land count, coupled with the increased threat count, albeit at the cost of the many Planeswalkers, does mean that the loss of the tutor ability doesn't hit this deck anywhere near as hard as Ali's. And while the cost reduction aspect being lost is a hindrance, you still have Tron around to ease the pain and still get ahead in available mana. Plus, if you really want your eight Sol-lands, you can always drop in four Vesuva in place of Eye. I tend to think, though, that that may not be necessary, and there are probably better options for those four slots. It may not be unreasonable to consider Sanctum of Ugin, which triggers off a larger Endless One or your Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to tutor up a colorless guy, or even Shrine of the Forsaken Gods as an additional mana bump as you develop the board. While I'm not saying either of these is as powerful as the card they are replacing, they are additional options for Tron decks built along these lines.

Overall, I do kinda like the choice to take Eye out of the format. The Eldrazi decks will still stay playable, and honestly are probably still near the top in playability, but they do get significantly powered down in their ability to drop numerous threats a turn and thus, this gives other decks an opening. As I mentioned earlier, and as many people are aware of, there was a bit more to this announcement than just the powering down of Eldrazi.

With the unleashing of Sword of the Meek, coupled with the obvious (and previously paired with) Thopter Foundry, my timeline has been filled with either squeals of excitement to have the combo available for the first time in Modern or shrieks of calamity as fears that it will destroy all aggro play in the format. Even our esteemed editor appears stricken with fear over the possible loss of aggro in the format:

I, of course, disagree with this assessment (I was the lone "angry face" response to Josh's status). Now, full disclosure: Back in the day when this combo was cruising through the old Extended format, I happened to miss the PTQ season, and never played against it. I never played the deck itself back in the day, either. So, when Josh and I chatted on Facebook about the unbanning of Sword, I did ask him how it was so oppressive, as I just didn't see it. Josh was kind enough to explain to be how things went during those Extended seasons.

I'm not saying that this deck won't be a thing. I'm sure someone will come up with something that takes an event by storm and people will be out in force saying, "I told you so!!" But, I spent hours on Monday after the announcement was published watching various streamers playing "New Modern" and trying to break the deck and/or format with this simple two-card combo. Caleb Durward was even kind enough to post the deck I was watching him play test with on his stream out to Twitter (as well as several other decks, if you want to give his Twitter a look):

Know what I saw? Even taking into account that this deck, and all the others I watched, were not well tuned, I saw decks than can/could be good, but nothing that was broken. Also, keep in mind, we have had a lot of cards that have been printed since this combo was in its "unstoppable" state six years ago, not to mention that the combo's frequent paring with Dark Depths and Vampire Hexmage in the old Thopter Depths deck is not a thing in Modern. Still have the fear? Well, let me take just a few moments to touch on a handful of cards in each color, some old and some new, that interfere with this combo to help alleviate your fears. Please take note that these are not exhaustive, nor are some of them even the best possible answers. These are just quick and dirty options that I'm tossing out as a starting point. Feel free to check the remaining 10K plus cards in the format for cards I didn't mention.

For White, we obviously have the two big hoser enchantments that see play in sideboards everywhere. What's not to like about probably two of the best hate cards printed in recent memory. Both of these harken back to the days of Chill, Choke, Deathgrip, and Gloom....back when hate cards were hate cards. In the interest of the game, it makes sense that these types of cards have been narrowed in scope, frequency, and effect. Additionally, Suppression Field is another catch all taxing card that can really slow down decks that rely on activated abilities. This is far from an exhaustive list, as there are still cards like artifact destruction, and Ghostly Prison abilities aplenty.

Blue has some very interesting options available. Between the mass bounce of Cyclonic Rift and Hurkyl's Recall, both of which really hit the Thopter deck hard, and the Split Second Trickbind, the color is far from devoid of answers to the problem. It's not unreasonable to assume, though, that you may be all in on the combo yourself if you are shuffling up the Islands anyway, which can make the first two cards mentioned very powerful mirror breakers.

Black is known for graveyard manipulation, and making creatures smaller, both temporarily and permanently. As such, Black also gives us some pretty strong enchantments to battle with. When paired with hand disruption to make sure the coast is clear to play your four-drop, and the ability to play huge monsters, this color is also able to have game against the Thopter deck. Also, don't forget about cards like Tainted Remedy and similar effects that render the entire combo almost unplayable.

We kind of get a mixed bag of options with Red. I really like Pyrohemia as a way to clear the tokens away, but that doesn't stop the life gain, which is a bane to fire mages everywhere. There are ways to combat that, with cards like Manabarbs offsetting the life gain, or even multiple enchantments, like the shown Leyline of Punishment, that have a similar ability in preventing life gain or damage prevention at all. It is unfortunate that most of the X-Spells either hit one, or a number of, creatures, or hit non-flying monsters, rendering them inconsequential against fliers. Anger of the Gods and Slagstorm are both useful one shot effects, but when the token making process can simply be continuously repeated, they are only truly helpful when you want to alpha strike unimpeded against a tapped out opponent.

My beloved Green has a plethora of options, but I chose my three favorites here. Again, we see the Split Second mechanic shine, allowing Krosan Grip to blow up the Thopter Foundry without responses. The reusability of Silklash Spider to keep the skies clear offers a nice, instant speed, Hurricane-esque ability, although it does nothing to prevent the life gain, which could quickly get out of hand. Scavenging Ooze is a staple of every format it is legal in, and there is a reason for that. It is a very powerful "bear" creature with literally no real downside, that simply eats the Sword to stop the loop. Green has numerous ways to destroy artifacts, and enough resilient creatures of ample size to attempt to race the life-gaining aspect of the combo.

Artifacts are nice in that they can simply be shoved into virtually any deck with little to no negative impact. I have always been a huge fan of Damping Matrix and frequently played it in Modern even prior to this. I see no reason to stop now. Torpor Orb is a card that had seen an uptick in play as an answer to both the Eldrazi triggered abilities, and as an answer to decks like Kiki-Chord and Melira Combo. It also helps prevent the trigger of the returning sword here. Pithing Needle naming the Thopter Foundry is, as the kids say, strong. While these three were the first ones I immediately thought of, they are far from the only useful artifacts.

Keep in mind that none of this includes gold cards that are also in the mix, like Fracturing Gust, Abrupt Decay, or even Novablast Wurm. Alright...maybe not the Wurm...perhaps I was spreading the love a little too far. But I think everyone reading this gets the message.

For the next section, let's join our good friends, Mr. Peabody and his pet boy, Sherman, and jump into their wayback machine...

...all the way back to the year 2008. What is it that we see? Why, nothing more than, you know, U/B Faeries running roughshod over the Magical landscape:

Well, would you look at this....with the unbanning of Ancestral Vision, we can all go back to playing like it's 2008 again. Seems fun right?

This is probably not a good idea, but I can see where randomly tossing something like this together can get there at an FNM. In all honestly, I am a bit apprehensive about Ancestral Vision coming back. In a format where Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time were deemed as too powerful, I'm not sure, even with a four-turn delay, that a free "Draw Three" is healthy or good to have around. It seems a little insane. To be fair, there has not been a really good control deck for a little while (and believe me when I say I'm good with that), and it's possible that this is the effect that is needed. Or, you know, maybe it will just turn into all Delver Tempo foolishness, and I'll have a reason to whine like the Blue mages and Matt Bellasai.

Overall, I do feel that the format will be fine. Eldrazi has been slowed, but it will absolutely continue to be a player in the format as we move forward. I think the unbanning of both cards can both prove to be interesting, and I am cautiously optimistic that "Draw Three For Free" won't completely hose what should/could/would be an awesome Modern format.

For me, I'm looking forward to the post-rotation Standard, and for prepping for the pending Modern Open in Indianapolis in May, and the Modern GP in the same location in August. Four months...two major Modern events. It's going to be awesome. Until next week, keep brewing, and enjoy the exploration.

Peace,

Carl Wilt