Second, we looked at the new card that broke Galvanic Relay's back here: Experimental Synthesizer. While it is an interesting discussion, a lot of people enjoy these cards for that "Legacy feel" Pauper often has and, as mentioned above, having access to less powerful storm decks we think can be fine for the metagame and attract players. You could argue that banning them and cutting off storm entirely is something that would save the format substantial grief over time. These kinds of cards are almost always up to no good. The first is the ritual package- Rite of Flame, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, and so on. While Galvanic Relay was the obvious card to ban, it's important to investigate all the options. We gave it a little time for the metagame to settle and see if people found a solution, but that doesn't seem to be the case at this point. That may not sound like much, but for context, dominant decks in Magic history often sit in the high 50% range somewhere-60% is quite high, and far above what both Affinity and Tron were last time. Looking at the data from Magic Online Leagues, it has the highest win rate in the format by a large margin, at a whopping 60%, ignoring mirror matches. This new Black-Red Storm deck is all of those and has been boasting a win rate accordingly. However, the problem comes when the deck is quick, powerful, and difficult to interact with. These are decks at a power level that is more reasonable and have additional avenues for interaction-for example, graveyard hate against Cyclingstorm. Decks like the Reaping the Graves-based Cyclingstorm, or the Weather the Storm combo decks with Marauding Blight-Priest, have seen success-Bryant Cook won a Magic Online Challenge just a few weeks ago with the former. Now, I want to say that we on the PFP don't believe storm existing in the format is inherently a bad thing. In short order, Black-Red Storm has climbed to the top of the format. However, the introduction of Experimental Synthesizer in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (especially when backed by Deadly Dispute) was the missing piece to reopen this can of worms. When Modern Horizons 2 hit, all eyes were on its new storm cards-and it didn't take long until Chatterstorm and Galvanic Relay were tearing up the format.Īfter the ban of Chatterstorm, Galvanic Relay was a powerhouse without a strong enough home. Storm cards have a long and storied history of getting the axe in Pauper. Today's banned list update reflects these decisions. However, with the release of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, there's a new deck to address, and we've had enough time to watch things develop to make some other changes. With Mono-Black Control, Mono-Green Stompy, and everything in between, it's been an exciting time to be a Pauper player. We've been monitoring the format every week and have been happy seeing increased player numbers and diversity in Magic Online Leagues, Challenges, and anecdotally, from the limited real-world play opportunities there are right now. We're there: we've seen both the impact of the bans and the large impact of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.įirst of all, I want to say that we on the Pauper Format Panel (PFP) are overall quite happy with the last round of changes. At the end, I said this: " If there are more changes to be made in the short term, you would most likely see them in March as we look at how the metagame after these bans has settled and whether Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty has impacted the format at all." However, if a single creature you control with lifelink deals combat damage to multiple creatures, players, and/or planeswalkers at the same time (perhaps because it has trample or was blocked by more than one creature), the ability will trigger only once.When we last spoke in January, I ran through not just our bans, but our rationale for them and thoughts on the health of the format. For example, if two creatures you control with lifelink deal combat damage at the same time, a “whenever you gain life” ability will trigger twice. : Each creature with lifelink dealing combat damage causes a separate life-gaining event. : An ability that triggers “whenever you gain life” triggers just once for each life-gaining event, no matter how much life you gain. : In a Two-Headed Giant game, Marauding Blight-Priest’s ability causes the opposing team to lose 2 life. : In a Two-Headed Giant game, life gained by your teammate won’t cause the ability to trigger, even though it caused your team’s life total to increase. : If you gain an amount of life “for each” of something, that life is gained as one event and the ability will trigger only once.
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