[Free Article] Chasing the Mind's Desire #1: Sept. 2011 B&R List Announcement

[DubDub]

The article I wrote regarding the upcoming B&R List announcement is up now on Eternal Central.  Check out Chasing the Mind's Desire #1 here.  Hopefully, if response is positive, this will be the first of a long series covering Eternal and Commander play.

One hiccup that made it through editing was the first paragraph addressing Burning Wish, which should read something like:

In June of this year, Stephen Menendian posted a thought provoking exercise about the (Most) Least (Un)restrictable card in Vintage.  In my estimation Burning Wish, Regrowth, and Demonic Consultation are the three least restrictable cards in the framework of Stephen’s question, and I commented, again in my estimation, “[They] would be played as a 4-of in some decks within a limited number of archetypes. [They] would generally promote format diversity by aiding underperforming archetypes without contributing to their dominance.”

Also, while I'm making this thread for posterity's (and publicity's) sake, it would likely be more constructive to continue discussion in the existing Vintage Issues thread here.

[honestabe]

I get the whole trying to "shake up" the format with the unrestriction of Mind's Desire, but they're a difference between shaking up and busting entirely.  Sure, you can Flusterstorm their Desire, but any decent player will just duress you first.  The format would degenerate into Storm and Workshops.  Fish, control, and even Dredge would likely be unplayable.

[DubDub]

I get the whole trying to "shake up" the format with the unrestriction of Mind's Desire, but they're a difference between shaking up and busting entirely.  Sure, you can Flusterstorm their Desire, but any decent player will just duress you first.  The format would degenerate into Storm and Workshops.  Fish, control, and even Dredge would likely be unplayable.

I don't disagree.  I was trying to make the point, once again, that Flusterstorm is an amazing card.  As I said, the game has changed, and the same counterspell you want against Tinker or Yawgmoth's Will is the one you want against Mind's Desire.  That has never been the case before.  The closest thing before has been a preemptive Duress, which suffers from so many issues.  I wasn't openly campaigning for Desire as I have been for Fact or Fiction, mostly because a) I wouldn't want to jeopardize the somewhat greater leniency the DCI has taken with experimental unrestrictions (umm... Gush and Frantic Search a year ago, working out pretty well in my opinion) by suggesting something so overwhelmingly likely to be too good, and b) it will never happen anyway.