That Old Chestnut (aka what the community wants banned!)

Ah, I love the smell of bannings in the morning!

Actually, recently it's been the internet warriors chumpioning their favourite target for "The Hammer" that's been smelling up our mornings because nothing got banned (or, more controversially, unbanned) during the last update. Sheldon's announcement (which you can read here in his aptly nammed column on SSG: "The Banned List") pretty much ammounted to a ringing of the evening bell and a hollered "MIDNIGHT AND All'S WELL!"


Of course, the majority of the faceless masses, who had been pushing for one unbanning in particular and individually hoping for a wide range of bannings, were unhappy with the RC maintaining the status quo and hopped right onto their righteous indignity to bemoan the presence or lack there-of of their pet/hate card in the format. [We're going to gloss over the whole "in your own playgroup do what you want" thing; hand holding has been set to 100 for the purposes of this post. Ed.]


One enterprising poster on MTGSalvation, Tantarus, decided to take the discussion to the next level by opening a new thread that welcomed players to "ban" up to 5 cards and, if they wanted to, "unban" one. The unbanning was by-and-large ignored but 9 pages in we have a list of the 344 submissions comprising 115 different cards, of which 14 were legendary and accounting for 29 votes. This 0.08% representation in the vote by your mosted hated generals suggests that it may not be the leaders of opposing armies that you hate but rather the armies they lead and the tools they ply to beat you. Let's have a closer look at the generals first and get them out of the way.

Iona & Erayo both got 5 votes followed by Kiki-Jiki on 3 and a group of five on 2 votes: Arcum, Azusa, Jhoira, Niv-Mizzet & Rofellos. The list is rounded out with a group of 6, each garnering a single vote each: Sisay, Gaddock, Hokori, Phelddagrif, Clique & Zur. Personally I'm surprised that Zur & Arcum didn't figure much higher on the list given the almost unilateral distain the community holds for those generals. Iona at 5 votes also suggests that, while she may not be the white general of choice, she's annoying enough in the remaining 99 to be the most hated non-general legend in the format.


In a study (and I use that term very losely here) with anywhere between 70 and 85 people where the opinions of the previous respondants are visible to subsequent posters, there was a certain amount of herd behaviour happening (This would explain "Island" in the top 20 and could also go some way to explain how "Forbid" somehow managed to garner 3 votes*). As a result we can look at certain cards garnering a lesser number of votes as pertinant and original opinion rather than one-offs and certain higher scorers as just those following the herd mentality. Those finishing near the top would probably end up near there anyway, especially when functional similiarities are taken into account. Let's look at the top 5 to see what's up there:

Sol Ring 24
Mana Crypt 22
Magister Sphinx 17
Sorin Markov 16
Sundering Titan 14

Ok, yeah, there's a message here somewhere, let's see if I can discern it.........

1.) Fast Mana = Bad
2.) Dropping someone to 10 life = Bad
3.) Destroying multiple lands repeatedly = Bad

Point 1.) is that old chestnut in EDH, fast mana. While a lot of players really enjoy it and get a kick out of it, others see it as the evil core of the format. Just for completeness Mana Vault (5), Grim Monolith (3), Cabal Coffers (2) Gaea's Cradle (2) Rofellos (2), Azusa (2) and Primeval Titan (10) are all in there making fast mana and it's associated enablers account for 20% of the vote. People just don't seem to like their opponents having a lot of mana, though, given the presence of a wide range of land destruction spells on the list as well, the don't seem to like having their lands blown up either (Point 3.)). Maybe what we're really seeing here are answers from players sitting on either side of the arguament: the Mana Players and the Mana Haters? [Don't be a hater. Ed.]

The other obvious aspect of the top 5 is your opponents ability at any time to drop you to 10 life and honoured member of the lowest hanging fruit club. I initially doubted that Sorin's "Mindslaver" ability was a relevant reason for his being voted so high until I looked lower in the top 10. Man, that guy is pretty hated coming and going! Players want to play, not be knocked out at the earliest opportunity. While there's no rule that says that everyone has to have been given a fair shot at winning before they are eliminated, using Magister Sphinx or Sorin offensively in the early game is just a really unwelcome strategy.

Moving on to spots 6-10 there some more of the same and a couple of new candidates:

Sensei's Divining Top 12
Mind over Matter 10
Mindslaver 10
Primeval Titan 10
Time Stretch 10
We've mentioned Primeval Titan briefly but there's another aspect to him that goes over and above mere "ramping" mana and it's that the format is chocked full of land based questions, utility and answers, not just another couple of basic land. Imagine quickly the mana ramp version playing a GBx deck: You have 4-6 lands in play when you hit the PTitan, you get an Urborg, ToY and Cabal Coffers (2). Without playing any other land the following turn you go from 6 mana to 11-13 just by untapping and every land you play now essentially gets you BX.

That's the Ramp, what about when you are under pressure? Maze of Ith (1) and Vesuva (copying the Maze) is going to keep two threats off your back for quite a while while you use your Titan to find more land or just be a blocker. Why not both actually? Attack with PT, resolve his ability and untap your own PT to stay back as a blocker. That works for me.

And if he get's killed as sometimes happens? Volrath's Stronghold. Protection against him getting stolen? High Market and it's ilk. Need regeneration? Yavimaya Hollow. And so on, and so on. There's litterally no other creature in the format with this much potential once it's in your deck. Opponents tired of crushing defeats masterminded by the slippery fish that PT can potentially become would naturally want him banned. Let's face it, if you build your land base properly, there's nothing he can't do. And he makes a mean expresso too.

The remaining cards between 6 and 10 are not surprises either. If you have sat across from 2 or 3 opponents constantly stacking their Tops, you know how annoying it can be. This one is purely a time and annoyance card and, while I disagree that a ban is needed, it's certain that people need to play their Tops quickly and efficiently or not at all.
Mind over Matter is a combo enabler, nothing else. What we're talking about here is a card that may have nice applications but in reality will be used to fuel a game-ender. The intent of the MoM player will often determine if you're going to have a fun game but I've yet to meet a player who put the card in a deck for the LOLs rather than to power out a stupid "I win!" moment. Time Stretch is the same. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if the person playing Time Stretch hasn't essentially won the game by the time they have finished their 2 extra turns, they are either toying with you (thus are annoying) or are deliberatly annoying (thus are idiots). Remember, no-one plays Time Stretch unless they can concieveably replay Time Stretch multiple times.
The last card in the top 10 is Mindslaver. I'm going to put this one down to intent and on a par with MoM and Time Stretch with a rider: Mindslaver can be a great one-shot effect. It's when players start to recur it repeatedly that it becomes an issue. As much as Time Stretch gives you, well, time to win the game and multiple Time Stretches actually win you the game, Mindslaver does the same if repeatedly recurred. MoM is never used for the fun, it's used to just finish playing the game alone and eventually declaring that you've won, much like 'Slaver and Time Stretch. None of these are any fun when played like this (or at all in the case of MoM and possibly Time Stretch) and, as the saying goes, if you wanted to play with yourself, you can do it in the privacy of your own bedroom. We don't need to see it.

Do these cards need to be banned? It depends. If you want the RC to make all your decisions for you, hold your hand and tuck you into bed at night, sure we can ban them. If not, you may have to exercise that most elusive of qualities: discretion.

There's a lot more on the list but they, generally, fall into catagories already mentioned: Ramp or cards that enable you to do something a lot earlier than you normally could (Bribery, T&N, Acquire); cards that stop other players playing their spells (Erayo, Iona, Winter Orb & Land destruction); combo cards (Power Artifact, Kiki, Arcum); and cards that allow a player to draw a large number of cards (Consecrated Sphinx, Necropotence)

It's also nice to see that players retain a sense of humour when replying to these threads as evidenced by the basic lands and that power-house Kithkin Healer (1). Geez, I hate that guy!

Here's the remainder of the list for completeness:
Power Artifact 9
Consecrated Sphinx 8
Bribery 5
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant 5
Infect 5
Iona, Shield of Emeria 5
Island 5
Mana Vault 5
Necropotence 5
Shahrazad 5
Armageddon/Ravages of War 4
Winter Orb 4
Blightsteel Colossus 3
Crucible of Worlds 3
Forbid 3
Forest 3
Grim Monolith 3
Hermit Druid 3
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 3
Mountain 3
Obliterate 3
Ruination 3
Serra Ascendant 3
Arcum Dagson 2
Azuza, lost but seeking 2
Blood Moon 2
Cabal coffers 2
Decree of Annihilation 2
Force of Will 2
Gaea's Cradle 2
Jhoira of the Ghitu 2
Knowledge Pool 2
Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind 2
Plains 2
Rings of Brighthearth 2
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary 2
Seedborn Muse 2
Skullclamp 2
Survival of the Fittest 2
Swamp 2
Tooth and Nail 2
Tunnel Vision 2
Warp World 2
Yawgmoth's Will 2
Acquire 1
Aether Vial 1
Apocalypse 1
Back to Basics 1
Boil 1
Capsize 1
Captain Sissay 1
Contamination 1
Curiosity/Ophidian Eye 1
Death cloud 1
Demonic Tutor 1
Duplicant 1
Extraplanar Lense 1
Felidar Sovereign 1
Flashfires 1
Font of Mythos 1
Gaddock Teeg 1
Gauntlet of Power 1
Genesis Wave 1
Giant Strength 1
Grip of Chaos 1
Hall of Gemstone 1
Heartbeat of Spring 1
Hive Mind 1
Hokori, Dust Drinker 1
Hornet Sting 1
Imperial Seal (Price cards) 1
Insurrection 1
Jokulhaups 1
Karma 1
Kithkin Healer 1
Leyline of the Void 1
Life from the Loam 1
Lightning Greaves 1
Magus of the Moon 1
Maze of Ith 1
Minions' Murmurs 1
Myojin of night's reach 1
Nihil Spellbomb 1
Oath of Druids 1
Palinchron 1
Phelddagrif 1
Phyrexian Battleflies 1
Relic of Progenitus 1
Rhystic Study 1
Sorrow's Path 1
Strip Mine 1
Strong tutors 1
Tangle Wire 1
Tempting Worm 1
Thawing Glaciers 1
Timesifter 1
Tormod's Crypt 1
Trinisphere 1
Tuck 1
Vendilion Clique 1
Voracious Cobra 1
Wasteland 1
Wild Nactl 1
Withered Wretch 1
Zur the enchanter 1

 
 
*I've been cataloguing the suggestions made on MTGCommander.net for bannings, those cards that someone makes a serious case for banning. The inclusion of "Forbid" on the MTGSalvation list reminded me of some of the wacky suggestions that the community has come up with.
http://mtgcommander.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=84654#p84654