Wizards of the Coast recently announced the biannual update to the banned and restricted list for organized Magic: The Gathering play. While no changes were made to Standard, Legacy, or Extended, there was one big change each for Modern and Vintage: Second Sunrise got the banhammer in Modern, and Regrowth is now unrestricted in Vintage. Regrowth isn’t such a big deal, but Second Sunrise getting banned pretty much spells the end of Eggs decks.
A collective sigh of relief should be had by all at the removal of Second Sunrise from Modern. Wizards cited the excessive turn length Eggs players typically exhibited as the primary factor for removing Second Sunrise. Eggs’ rising dominance of the Modern meta was probably a contributing factor as well, but who knows. A deck that consists of no player interaction and incredibly long turns isn’t really something Wizards wants in the Modern meta. While it can be fun to play, if you like Solitaire, it sure isn’t fun to play against. The removal of Eggs will also probably increase the amount of time needed between rounds for bathroom breaks.
For a good explanation of what Eggs is, in case you’re not already aware, you can watch Stanislav Cifka break it down here.
Regrowth becoming unrestricted in Vintage came out of left field. There’s already a bunch of more powerful cards in the format — such as Snapcaster Mage and Yawgmoth’s Will — but Wizards is taking somewhat of a wait and see approach, saying they don’t know how it will effect the format but don’t think it’ll cause a problem.
Contrary to popular belief, the ban on Jace, The Mind Sculptor and everything else in the Modern list remains in place. As someone who owns a foil Jace, The Mind Sculptor, I’m sad to see no rise in my stock prices. On the other hand, as someone who dealt with Jace in Standard, I continue to not want to deal with him again in Modern. It’s unfortunate to not see Bitterblossom back. That would definitely shake things up in the current meta, and with Eggs out of the way, there is a hole to fill. Wild Nactal‘s ban is still excessive, yo.
As a reminder, all changes take effect May 3rd, 2013.
In other Magic news, the Dragon’s Maze pre-release event is this weekend! Tune in later this week for our full coverage.
(via Wizards of the Coast)
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