On the first of September, the DCI announced that Rude Awakening and Upheaval were banned in Prismatic, Magic Online's answer to 5-Color, effective September 22nd. This action was preempted by a topic on the Wizards of the Coast message boards titled "Prismatic being destroyed," which stated that these changes would be coming in the near future.
After a number of pages, the general consensus seemed to be to wait and see what happened. Well, it's happened.
In my younger and more vulnerable years, I had, to put it lightly, a slight distaste for MODO. Frequent crashes, bloated card inflation, and a limited card pool did not seem like a good time to me. Every few months I'd receive an email linking me to the latest Magic survey, and I'd dutifully checked the "zero chance of buying digital product X in the next few months" box. But my opinion has gradually changed. Trailblazers such as blisterguy and Peter Jahn have done an excellent job of conveying the basics, while also being tremendously entertaining. A grievous lack of 5-Color players* and a generally stagnant playgroup further convinced me to give MODO another look.
My main endeavors on MODO have been drafting and casual Prismatic Constructed. The former has no further bearing on this article, but suffice to say that drafting is expensive, risky, and still a whole lot of fun. The latter's relevance is up to you to decide. "Casual" is a broad term. Strictly speaking, a casual game is one that doesn't affect your rating. While this should lead to an overall relaxation - no banned or restricted lists, no rules lawyering (rather difficult on MODO, anyway), no time constraints - for some bizarre reason, the opposite has occurred. A quick glance in the Casual Decks Room will reveal an environment rife with "no LD," "no counters," "no Jitte," and even "ext, no affinity, no 5-Color decks."
The fact that the term "casual" is even debatable is an indicator of the controversy that surrounds it. So here we have Prismatic, originally code-named "Casual Format #2." What could be more casual than big, five-color decks? Cardboard 5-Color was conceived as such by Kurt Hahn, and has since degenerated into Recouping Contract From Below. Or Time Spiraling with three Mana Flares. Or playing Armageddon no later than turn 5.
Because of Prismatic's shallow card pool, its plays are generally not as abusive as 5-Color's elbow drops. However, there are some features that appear in both formats, such as the lack of "niche redundancy" that Brian Epstein put forth. With the release of 9th Edition, you can now run Kird Ape in Prismatic, but Goblin Cohort and Frostling are still pinch-hitting for Jackal Pup and Mogg Fanatic. Because of this, there are an even greater percentage of people playing the same cards.
And yet an interesting polarization continues to occur between the haves and the have-nots: Invasion block goodies, chase rares, and Pain- and Fetchlands take the place of the Power Nine and Dual Lands. The irony is delicious when I'm digitally wrecked by Lightning Angel, Sword of Fire and Ice, or Anurid Brushhopper - none of which make the cut in my real life 5-Color deck. I'm reminded once again of an Epsteinian maxim: "Just because you're playing casual doesn't mean you have to play with bad cards."
Alas, while one may have options in real life, these possibilities are often skewered by the MODO environment. Yet scarcely a week after activating my account, I was playing Prismatic. All I can say is that sixty-four commons for a ticket is some good when you're just starting out.
I began somewhere in about mid-June of this year, so a drastic number of banned cards had already joined Battle of Wits. These changes occurred a year ago, and I give you Exhibit A:
Randy Buehler:
"We spent a lot of time talking about Prismatic and debating what we want it to be...In the end, we believe the whole point of Prismatic is that it's kind of random and fun. When you're playing with 250 cards, you should get a lot of different draws and lots of diversity of game-play. For this reason, you should expect us to be very aggressive in banning any card that lets you go get specific other cards. All so-called "tutors" got a lot of scrutiny and we'll be announcing quite a few bannings on September 1st, 2004. (Note the paper-based "5-color" format that Prismatic is based on also restricts just about every tutor that gets printed.)"
This identity crisis between the casual and competitive crowd is apparent in both Prismatic and its paper predecessor. I've found this quote appropriate in many instances, especially when significant changes were proposed in 5-Color (most involving Contract From Below). It certainly seems logical: if you want consistent, fast, streamlined decks, play a sixty-card format. However, while Buehler cites 5-Color setting a precedent when it comes to tutors, it is important to consider the real culprits: Time Walk and Contract From Below. These powerhouses (along with Balance, Ancestral Recall, and Mind Twist, among others) are all unavailable online, meaning your Diabolic Tutor effect is rather watered down.
Nonetheless, it is understandable why a slew of tutors have been banned. As Aaron Forsythe noted in a recent article, tutoring creates repetitive game play and resilient combo decks (the context of this point, Transmute, will be discussed later).
But wait! Resilient combo decks? If there is any defined Prismatic metagame, it is surely dominated by the general "Good Stuff" control deck, with perhaps a slight undercurrent of paupers (including yours truly) who try to turn little men sideways. A truly diverse environment should certainly incorporate at least a token presence of combo decks. Perhaps the general absence of combo is due to the overlapping of combo and control. Mana acceleration + disruption + large, difficult-to-deal-with threat is a pretty okay combo. There is also a lack of truly ridiculous engines. The common "combos" are pretty much an outgrowth of a control set up: Mirari's Wake and Decree of Justice, for example, is just another reiteration of the "accelerate into large threat" plan.
But fear not! Combo does - or at least did, exist - despite the banning of many tutors. There is a whole area of the 5-Color banned list that the Prismatic guys have completely neglected: Regrowth effects. All Suns' Dawn, Eternal Witness, Nostalgic Dreams, Holistic Wisdom, and Recoup - all restricted or banned on the 5-Color list - are untouched. Also, generally broken stuff, including Parallel Thoughts, Future Sight, and Panoptic Mirror, is still around.
A fellow who goes by the name Hajime Saitoh on MODO is Captain of the Casual Players Anonymous clan. Despite its moniker, the clan actually specializes in competitive Prismatic, and consistently has appearances in the Top 8 of weekly Prismatic events. He insists that there isn't anything that broken to Regrow, but Tendrils of Agony.dec suggests otherwise. The deck's engine is fueled by a Mana Flare effect, or possibly straight mana acceleration. Early Harvest (or, ironically, Rude Awakening without entwine), combined with Regrowth effects and card draw leads to a massive Mind's Desire and/or Tendrils of Agony. Shaver, of blisterguy's clan Cymbrogi fame, ran a different version of the deck, which had access to Dragonstorm for quadruple Kokusho fun. The results weren't pretty, and his deck can usually go off even a few turns earlier. (He conceded from that particular game because he didn't feel like resolving all those Tendrils.) Should something go awry, there's always a large Decree of Justice for backup - which, incidentally, held the red zone for him in that particular game.
And now, the deck is essentially dead, or at least severely crippled. The ruling council has, in its zeal to serve the people, basically taken away Early Harvests 5-8:
Aaron Forsythe:
"After we made the last batch of bannings in Prismatic, I was bombarded online about two cards - Rude Awakening and Upheaval. 'Why didn't we ban those?' players asked. So I did my own brand of 'research' and started playing the heck out of the format and talking to other players."
Let's break this down. Rude Awakening is a five-mana sorcery; eight with entwine. Upheaval is a six-mana sorcery, plus you need a couple more to break the symmetry. Golly, Sandra**, shouldn't this much mana Win The Game? I'd love to see Forsythe's "research" data. Is he playing aggro, control, and combo decks? How consistently was he able to draw Rude Awakening or Upheaval? What card did he use to break the symmetry of Upheaval? Inquiring minds want to know.
Forsythe continues:
"They were right. Those two cards were game-wreckers along the lines of Sundering Titan. You could do nothing but draw cards and fix your mana for the first few turns, and then - POW! - cast either of these spells for an almost guaranteed win. The cards were way more offensive than most of the stuff that is already banned, and if they were keeping people from playing the format, they certainly needed to go."
There's no shortage of game-wreckers, especially not expensive ones. Just in terms of win conditions, along with the omnipresent Wake + Decree route, we have the Myojin, Obliterate, Sway of the Stars and - a personal favorite and my MODO wallpaper - Desolation Angel. Admittedly, most of these are not quite as game-breaking, but there now exists the policy of banning anything "not fun."
But now there is one game-breaker that has risen above all others: Enduring Ideal. This is more than just a tutor; it's basically half a Tooth and Nail (which is also banned) every turn. Overgrown Estate stops aggro cold. Solitary Confinement stops everything cold. Pernicious Deed is pretty okay. Confiscate steals problematic permanents. Zur's Weirding is a strange but effective way to deny draws. Genju of the Realm becomes a hilariously effective win condition, along with a Honden or Form of the Dragon. Expect another banning and another rant from yours truly in the spring.
Obligatory chat log:
2:37 psyburat: i think
2:37 psyburat: they should have also banned decree of justice
2:37 psyburat: because it's in the same vein as those
2:38 UberDrive: and wake
2:38 UberDrive: and bringers
2:38 psyburat: yeah
2:38 UberDrive: and pernicious deed
2:38 psyburat: hell
2:38 UberDrive: and vindicate
2:38 UberDrive: and spiritmonger
2:38 UberDrive: and all of IPA
2:38 psyburat: ban the entire format
What really irks me is the final sentence of the statement. "If they were keeping people from playing the format, they certainly needed to go." Two cards were banned because of a possibility? I'd probably cite the unwieldy deck size and generally expensive quality cards as biggest deterrent of potential Prismatic players. Also, the sloooooow speed of play. If we're looking for more fun, can't they just ban Sensei's Divining Top and be done with it?
Admittedly, Prismatic is an inherently slow format. Despite playing almost as more creatures than lands, with a mana curve that stops at 4, I often find myself at the mercy of the shuffler. In a way, it is reminiscent of the early days: the first three or five or eight turns are generally uneventful. Lands are fetched, cards are drawn, and finally threats are played. At least, that's how it's supposed to be, usually in the ubiquitous control-vs.-control matchup. As a budget player, I'm much more inclined to play guys, smash face, and lose to Wrath (or Pyroclasm, for that matter). I've occasionally mised a second-turn Ninja of Deep Hours, who, if left unchecked, usually ends up winning the game. Even the more pedestrian second-turn bear, third-turn Mask of Memory can be lethal (Firebolt is some good, I hear).
Unfortunately, these are two of the few sources of card advantage in my deck, and I usually roll over if I haven't won by turn 6 or so. Aggro has, as I mentioned before, some presence in the hypothetical Prismatic metagame. There is the fickle, budget version that I have, and also the savage beats of "powered" aggro, which tends to focus on back-breaking equipment like Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice (a.k.a. Insult and Injury), and alternative damage sources (Mask of Intolerance, Psychogenic Probe, and Jinxed Choker).
Oh, and most importantly, it runs, like, good lands. In real life 5-Color, Dual lands basically determine the power of your deck. Sure, you need quality spells - but they're generally far easier to acquire than a highly expensive mana base, Power 9 excluded. In Prismatic, a mana base is similarly expensive, and will only continue to skyrocket with the advent of Ravnica's Dual Lands. Even with tons of pain- and fetchlands, most control decks run the usual mana accelerators and fixers. Even fully-loaded aggro decks lose games because of mana problems. Now that your digital Bloodstained Mire will soon be able to fetch a Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, or Sacred Foundry, these problems should be at an end. Aggro should be able to approach the blistering speed of its 5-Color counterpart.
Ravnica also introduces an absurd amount of tutors via the Transmute mechanic. They will probably be banned on principle. Somewhere between Ravnica and Guildpact, Mirage will appear, giving slow fetch lands (Bad River and its ilk) to slower decks, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Worldly Tutor, and possible combo pieces in Lion's Eye Diamond, Dark Ritual, and Cadaverous Bloom. Many, many bannings should occur, lest the environment devolve into Enduring Ideal vs. Aggro - as if it hasn't already.
It should be a very exciting time for Prismatic and MODO as a whole. If you haven't jumped on board the digital crack trolley, now is as good a time as any.
See you online,
Roland Li
UberDrive on MODO
* - Happily, I've finally gotten a couple people to give 5-Color a try. It's been tremendous fun.
** - If you caught that musical reference, you win as well. Let's just say it may or may not involve steel guitar. Or just Google the song title, duh.
|
