It started out with the usual prediction and punditry. Twittergicians hemmed and hawed over whether their favorite cards (or least favorite) would survive the ban hammer. Self-fancied oracles attempted to Predict the changes to various formats. Hopeful speculators filled up their carts with Earthcrafts and Ancestral Visions and hovered their cursors over "Buy It Now" buttons across the Internet. You know, the usual. There are always rumors that crop up this time of year in Magic circles.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the banned and restricted announcement earlier this week…
Notable Magic personality and avid social media man Frank Lepore (@FrankLepore) and Pro Tour stalwart Gerard Fabiano (@Gfabs5) thought they had come upon the scoop of the year: the @wizards_magic banned and restricted announcement…several hours early. Frank, as one of the ambassadors of the game, was beset with a tough decision: to keep this precious information to himself (and perhaps use it for personal gain) or to share the information with the public at large. He chose the way of truth (as all comic book good guys should) andposted his B&R announcement on his personal Facebook page.
And that's when all hell broke loose on Twitter.
It was spectacular. Over the course of a few short hours, Magic players went through the five stages of grief twice—first in reaction to the Lepore report and then to the actual bannings. Oh, the actual list was really quite interesting too! Don't forget the reality of Modern and #MTGPauper getting major shake-ups, even if the prospect of Survival of the Fittest, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Balance getting a chance to Rise from the Grave in various formats was titillating.
Of course, now we know that the "leaked" list was bunkum, but at the time it was quite the scandal. What follows is a detailed hour-by-hour breakdown of the Magic community's reactions to rumor, then fact, then to the actuality of one of the most interesting ban announcements in recent years (the banning of Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song in Modern).
Or, as @lsv and friends came to call it, #Jundstice:
January 27, 2013, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
i swear @franklepore is the biggest troll ever, that ban/unbanning list is insane XD
— Kellen Huber (@cavemankellen) January 27, 2013
As a general rule if you cast Jace into a boardstate where you were ahead, you basically won. Brainstorm isn't legal for a reason guys.
— Nina Illingworth (@CardboardWitch) January 27, 2013
Oh @franklepore , I hope your banning rumors are true... Twitter will be so much fun if its all true!
— Omar H (@ITOmarHernandez) January 27, 2013
Unban-vision, BB, Glimpse, GSZ, Nacatl, Jitte. Not sure about Jitte, but it would open up the modern scene. #mtg #modern #magicthegathering
— Shong Lo (@bigifonlyone) January 27, 2013
January 27, 2013, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
B/R change prediction: Modern has no change, Legacy unban either Mind Twist or Windfall. Seems safe.
— Matt B (@astormbrewing) January 27, 2013
If you think unbanning JTMS will "fix" Jund in Modern, remember that BBE kept JTMS sane in Standard. Jace fixes nothing.#bannings
— James Clarke (@Fenaris) January 27, 2013
Where did this fake BR Announcement come from? It's basically gone viral in the past few hours. Tons of folks talking about it.
— Mark Sun (@AllSunsDawn) January 28, 2013
January 27, 2013, 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Are Magic players really this dumb?
— Jack G (@Spelljackg) January 28, 2013
Really hoping All Is Dust and Maze of Ith get unbanned in Standard tonight.
— The Booze Cube (@TheBoozeCube) January 28, 2013
Excited to see a B&R update, even if I don't think we'll be seeing any changes.
— Jason Clark (@RealEvilGenius) January 28, 2013
January 27, 2013, 10:00 pm – January 28, 2013, Midnight (Announcement Time)
So, I saw some rumors that Brainstorm is on tonight's B/R list update. I can't say I believe them. Ponder more likely to go first if either.
— Bill Boulden (@Spruke) January 28, 2013
Bloodbraid Elf is the hero Modern deserves, but not the hero it needs right now.
— Jon Johnson (@jjflipped) January 28, 2013
#MTGModern Banning thoughts: BBE will not be banned, Deathrite Shaman is more likely but won't be banned either. One card will be unbanned.
— Michael Hetrick (@theshipitholla) January 28, 2013
@xmimx @theshipitholla I would pay a large sum of money to be able to play with Sword of the Meek.
— Gerry Thompson (@G3RRYT) January 28, 2013
@haisoooodesu @theshipithollaI think it should be Deathrite, jund was fine before it; Accel, win con.
— RickySidher (@RickySidher1) January 28, 2013
I'd sooner face a thousand BBE cascades than spent another event fighting Jaces. #modern #banningseason
— Tyler Priemer (@tylerthefro) January 28, 2013
I can't believe they ruined my favorite format..... just practicing.
— Taylor(@GunnIn60Seconds) January 28, 2013
@lsv Wait are there announcements tonight?Please unban me!
— Pat Cox (@wildestnacatl) January 28, 2013
Changes to Modern: Unban EVERYTHING! Bwahaha! Not gonna happen, but would be hilarious.
— Stuart D (@Max_Fan) January 28, 2013
Waiting for all of my social media feeds to blow up with B&R reactions.
— Riki Hayashi (@mtgRikipedia) January 28, 2013
January 28, 2013, Midnight – 2:00 AM
You can read the official banned and restricted announcement by @eriklauer on @DailyMTG here.
See ya, Bloodbraid Elf!
— Anthony Avitollo (@Antknee42) January 28, 2013
BBE BANNED
— Quiet Speculation (@QuietSpec) January 28, 2013
Seething song and BBE are banned?!?!
— Brandon Large (@largebrandon) January 28, 2013
@helenebergeot Sometimes, all you need is a good friend to make things all right. #MTG #BloodBraidElf #StoneforgeMystic twitter.com/PolishTamales/…
— Polish Tamales (@PolishTamales) January 28, 2013
Looks like i got my pauper wish! Magic Online Pauper Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, and Invigorate are banned.
— Mike Grote (@MTGOFerret) January 28, 2013
@xmimx bye bye infect
— Ben Wienburg (@Bwienburg) January 28, 2013
Bannings! Modern: Bloodbraid Elf/Seething Song. Pauper: Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, Invigorate. Good move. #MTG #MTGModern
— MTG Color Pie (@mtgcolorpie) January 28, 2013
Bloodbraid and Seething Song bans are kind of interesting I guess, though not the direction I would have expected.
— Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) January 28, 2013
Guess I can close all these tabs with full carts now.
— Nick Becvar (@Becvar) January 28, 2013
Jund is still very viable w/o BBE. Not the best card, or second.
— Jacob Wilson (@JacobWilson95) January 28, 2013
BBE banned is cool. Seething Song too. As someone who plays a ton of Modern I think these choices are great.
— Marshall Sutcliffe (@Marshall_LR) January 28, 2013
Actual worst bannings in the history of bannings.
— Christian Calcano (@CCalcano) January 28, 2013
Modern Philosophy: Ban every card until Green creature is good. Ban Green creature. #toobigtofail
— Jacob Kory (@MTGKoby) January 28, 2013
Wow...to be fair BBE was kinda insane. Don't understand the seething song one too much since Storm wasn't even insane.
— Paul Cheon (@HAUMPH) January 28, 2013
The moral of the story: Wizards hates storm.
— Eric (@evilbeard) January 28, 2013
They banned two cards I didn't even think were that good in modern.Weird.I am truly shocked at the decision.
— Brian Braun-Duin (@BraunDuinIt) January 28, 2013
— Luis Scott-Vargas (@lsv) January 28, 2013
suprised that kiki, didn't also get banned with those bannings
— RickySidher (@RickySidher1) January 28, 2013
Ridiculous bannings to be honest. Think I'm sticking with Jund, BBE was like the 4th best card in the deck. Storm an issue? #weirdbannings
— Jan van der Vegt (@DasDzy) January 28, 2013
Good, now I won't have to see any more hideous white border 9th Seething Songs. #seriouslypeople
— James Vogel (@lowbeyonder) January 28, 2013
If you are going to go the ban more cards route, I think BBE and Song are honestly the two best cards to ban.
— Patrick Chapin (@thepchapin) January 28, 2013
@thepchapin @lsv History gives more props to people that end wars than to those that prevent them. We're attempting to prevent a war.
— Aaron Forsythe (@mtgaaron) January 28, 2013
Is Bloodbraid more bannable than Geist?
— eric froehlich (@efropoker) January 28, 2013
Just play the same deck with 4 Huntmasters.
— Owen Turtenwald (@OwenTweetenwald) January 28, 2013
Interesting Pauper bans. Interesting Modern bans. Maybe, just maybe, it's time to get back into constructed.
— Neale (@wrongwaygoback) January 28, 2013
@wizardsmtg announces new #Modern Policy #mtg #bannings will continue until morale improves twitter.com/GoingMadlem/st…
— Derek Madlem (@GoingMadlem) January 28, 2013
@graham_lrr I blame Yuuya.
— Simon Goertzen (@simongoertzen) January 28, 2013
Next Day Reactions
Who the hell told WOTC about my Bloodbraid into Seething Song into Empty the Warrens deck!?!
— Osyp Lebedowicz (@OsypL) January 28, 2013
I continue to prefer unbans to bans in terms of solving Modern's issues, but breaking up Jund vastly better than doing nothing. #SaveNacatl
— Zvi Mowshowitz (@TheZvi) January 28, 2013
Set my people free! #mtg @mtgaaron @maro254 @helenebergeot @lee_sharpe twitter.com/Revisedangel/s…
— Heather Dawn (@Revisedangel) January 28, 2013
Weak bannings, I think they will not really accomplishing much. More changes needed down this path.
— Kenny –berg (@ken_obe) January 28, 2013
Just saw the banned restricted list update. Jund players crying, Aggro players rejoicing, control players still wanting something more. #mtg
— Tom Davis (@wingmanmtg) January 28, 2013
@tommartell @lsv Correct. If you are going to go this route, we're looking at 10 more bans over time...
— Patrick Chapin (@thepchapin) January 28, 2013
So while we may be done with the Hurricane level of bluster, conjecture, and commentary for a few months, as Mr. Chapin (@thepchapin) pointed out, it never really ends…
To everything (Tweet, Tweet, Tweet), there is a reason (Tweet, Tweet, Tweet)…
Event Coverage Coordinator and Twitter Admiral for StarCityGames.com
Listen to the @InContention podcast! It's the official podcast of the StarCityGames.com Open Series with @kstube, @affinityforblue, and myself. Listen in at InContentionMagic.com. Our most recent episode, Can't Standard It, can be found here.
About Reuben Bresler
Reuben Bresler is a Coverage Coordinator for SCGLive who lives in Roanoke, VA. When he's not doing coverage, he works on various video projects for StarCityGames.com, like The Newsening.