[Article] A Look At The Remaining Chaff On The Restricted Li

[Smmenen]

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8443

The DCI has done a great job of cleaning the detritus from the restricted list that had accumulated over the years. In the past two years, Berserk, Fork, Braingeyser, Hurkyl's Recall, and many other cards were unrestricted, reflecting the fact that they are no longer the power cards they were eight years before.

However, the Restricted List has taken years to accumulate and there is still stuff on the list that arguably shouldn't be. In this article, I'm going to look at the six most questionable cards on the list and examine the pros and cons of unrestriction.

[Komatteru]

We've argued over half this stuff to death in the full user community, so there's not much point to argue over it again.

However, I will point out one more thing for Time Spiral that I just thought of.  If you could Mind's Desire into a couple Time Spiral, it would absolutely outrageous.  This, of course, requires having multiple Time Spiral in the deck, but still...man, it scares me thinking about it.  You would have to do some work to make a deck that could abuse this (you can't just throw them into anything existing), but I definitely think it wouldn't be very hard.  I don't think you could lose if you Desired into 2 Spiral.  Being able to untap up to six lands alone for free after casting Desire is almost too good in itself.  I don't think it should come off.  The potential for abuse is just way too high.

As for resurrecting High Tide, I estimate it would be about as fast as TPS.  However, it would have even stronger control elements.  I see it as a moderately fast, extremely consistent combo deck that is very unlikely to fizzle out.  Whether or not that's something we should allow in the environment, I'm not sure.  I'd rather not chance it.

The side benefit of fiddling with the restricted list is that any mistake can be corrected 3 months later, if the DCI is quick to realize it (we'd let them know I'm sure).

[Rybo]

As far as the cards listed specifically in the article I dont see there being any drastic changes by making them unrestricted. None of them seem to do anything to enhance the powerful decktypes that exist already or would create new ones that would be vastly superior. Im sure there could be cases made for spiral, but I'm just not seeing it.

[Steggy]

However, I will point out one more thing for Time Spiral that I just thought of.  If you could Mind's Desire into a couple Time Spiral, it would absolutely outrageous.  This, of course, requires having multiple Time Spiral in the deck, but still...man, it scares me thinking about it.  You would have to do some work to make a deck that could abuse this (you can't just throw them into anything existing), but I definitely think it wouldn't be very hard.  I don't think you could lose if you Desired into 2 Spiral.  Being able to untap up to six lands alone for free after casting Desire is almost too good in itself.  I don't think it should come off.  The potential for abuse is just way too high.

After any fair-sized Mind's Desire you're the heavy favorite to win the game anyway; is the added danger of casting a few Time Spirals instead of Timetwister and Yawgmoth's Bargain that large of a difference?

Also, in order to get enough land into play to truly abuse Time Spiral's free mechanic, you would have to be several turns into the game or have Fastbond, which makes for a slower combo deck ala TPS...

Or am I simply missing something important here as to why this would be so abusable?

[Purple Hat]

If spiral gets unrestricted I'm totally playing high tide at something...not cus it'd be unbelievable or anything but just cus it'd be fun.

The only thing you listed that I don't want to see taken off the list is mind twist but you're almost certainly right about it being too slow.

Good Article.

hale

[serracollector]

If you honestly believe Tolarian Academy to not be as useful anymore, and MOM and Spiral, then why not unrestrict cards such as Frantic Search and Crop Rotation?  I beleive we should keep Academy restricted, but since it is no longer "needed" to combo off in most (if not all) current combo decks, then having 4 frantic search or 4 Crop Rotation isn't going to hurt anything.  I mean what other decks than Academy would use Rotation or Frantic?  Maybe a High Tide Variant, which would probably use Frantic over Time Spiral (assuming both were unrestricted), and honestly crop rotation might go into some kind of Crucible lock deck of sorts.  It might even be used in decks such as Cabal Assasin to grab bazzar (maybe, sicne they play the 4 gemstone/COB).  So, I guess really my question is, why were these to seemingly harmless commons, which were only restricted cause of Tolarian Academy, not on your list of cards to unrestrict?

[Necrologia]

Just because combo decks can kill without Academy doesn't mean combo wouldn't run more ways to find it. Even without Academy in play Frantic Search is still cheap card draw, along the same lines as brainstorm. TPS sometimes runs 1 copy, and with it unrestricted I wouldn't be surprised to see it run more. TPS is a good deck right now, I really don't think I'm confortable giving it very many new toys.

Maybe a High Tide Variant, which would probably use Frantic over Time Spiral (assuming both were unrestricted)

Or maybe it could run both?  

[PizzaMan]

More than a way to fetch Tolarian Academy, Crop Rotation x4 in a deck like TPS or MeanDeath could just cast it as a free spell for a huge Mind´s Desire or a letal Tendrils. I don´t see Crop Rotation out of that list at all...

All the "free spells" that untap mana can be extremely unfair in a deck like High Tide or MonoU Trix, but I don´t see much use in other combo decks.
Frantic Search for exemple. If you are comboing out in turn 2 with MeanDeath or TPS, you will have 1 ou 2 lands in the table, and Frantic will still cost 1 mana. And I dont see Carefull Study being played in neither decks.

The discution about Time Spiral is well done by Smmenem in his article.

When I sow the article, I thought that Entomb would be in the list. As I can´t imagine a degenerative reanimator deck (other than Dragon, but... is Dragon degenerative?), and BoB is unrestricted anyway...

Why to spend 2 turns, at least 2 non land cards (entomd and reanimate), need to have more dual lands (wasteland anyone?) and a far unconsistent control if you can just play Oath and do the same with 1 nonland card, a more basic mana base and all the MonoU advantage?

Btw, great article  

[VGB]

Excellent article Steve.

I agree with your proposals to unrestrict Voltaic Key, Mind Over Matter, and Stroke, but believe Time Spiral, Dream Halls, and Mind Twist should stay on.

Mind Twist is like Black Vise or Strip Mine - it's just a painful, annoying card that takes the fun out of the game.  I'll just leave it at that.

Dream Halls and Time Spiral together = Mind's Desire.  Separately they are weaker, but still quite potent.  I know you are frothing to slap together a deck that can potentially play 13 draw sevens (Wheel, Twister, Windfall, Tinker, Jar, Desire, 4 x Returns, 4 x Spiral), but it is simply degenerate to have access to a draw seven playset that potentially casts for free.  Dream Halls also breaks a fundamental stricture of the game, and also resides in the best color (pitches to FoW).  Just imagine if Recycle were a blue card.

Just a couple of other points about Voltaic Key and Stroke also, with which I harbor some slight reservations:

Voltaic Key potentially places card design restrictions on Wizards, which is the reason I believe it is on the list.  Spending 2 mana and a card to untap an artifact (although repeatably across turns) just isn't that cost effective in T1, but maybe there is something Wizards told the DCI that the Vintage community is not aware of, perhaps some sort of degenerate synergy that they found that remains widely undiscovered.  I don't see what that could possibly be, though, especially what with Voltaic Construct and Staff of Domination providing better utility for a negligible cost differential.

What a lot of people are neglecting about Stroke is that people easily make a case for Fact or Fiction's continued restriction, but for some reason Stroke, an X draw spell that cycles for FoF's cost isn't much to fuss about.  I think unrestricted Stroke is something to worry about, especially with the acceleration in this format.  I don't see Time Spiral and this card getting unrestricted at the same time, either.

As for Mind over Matter, this card remaining on the restricted list is patently ridiculous.

[MrZuccinniHead]

4x Crop Rotation would be strip mines 2-5.  Or wastelands 5-8.  I don't think unrestricting them would be a good move.  Also, frantic search is still a powerful card.  I could see it ressurecting archetypes like tog if it got unrestricted.

[majestyk1136]

Obviously MoM's time on the restricted list has come to an end.  Does anybody play this card???  I relegated it to the scrapheap long ago, along with its friends Stroke and Braingeyser.  

The advent of Storm made those two cards fairly trite anyways.  Stroke still has a home as a one of in my 5-color deck as a late-game bomb that I can tutor up to draw a thousand cards with when I have 3 Wakes in play... So that should tell you about how effecive that card is these days.  I even traded off my Geysers to noobs that worship at the altar of restrictedness.

Key would conceivably have the effect of making Gilded Lotus marginally better, but nobody's worried about that anyhow.  I'm probably the last person in the world playing Gilded in my 7-10 deck anyways and I don't thing I would even bother with the card.  Maybe it could make Titan play offense and defense, but this seems even worse than the gilded lotus plan.

Dream Halls would be the suck to have unrestricted in my opinion with any more draw7's.   Bargain begins to look tepid when compared to pitching a random blue card to draw7 and gain even a couple of mana.  It would also conceivably have the effect of making bad cards (temporal Cascade) marginally better as you could pay for the entwine after using the Dream Halls for its prohibitive mana cost...... never mind.  Nobody cares about this spell.  Its symmetrical nature would probably make it do nothing anyways, "I pitch Brainstorm to Mana Drain your expensive Draw7."  Seems poor.

Twist should stay where it is and never move.  The swingy nature of the card adds an element of randomness that is bad enough as it is.  Randomly getting wrecked by just one of these in 4cC is irritating enough, but the possibility of a deck designed to specifically abuse this card would likely have the effect of causing everybody to start playing more Misdirection, which is marginal anyhow.  Dilution of the existing metagame seems poor.

@ the issue of Crop Rotation and Frantic Search:
on initial inspection these seem like slam dunk "no's."  The problem is however that with the New legend rule (weakens academy) and the infiltration of the metagame with Wastelands I see Rotation as a support card rather than a combo enabler.  Having it as a "counterspell" for Wasteland in my 7-10 has performed quite well, and what I frequently find myself tutoring for is none other than... STRIP MINE.  This card is the one that people should be thinking of when they think about Rotation these days, as recurring it through Crucible is fatal to just about everything except for combo.  This would seem to be a decent argument on its own to keep it restricted however.  FS seems like it could be a cute idea, especially if you were to run it as a 4-of in some sort of madness build.  The question then becomes: is Bazaar better if you just play Riftstone portal?  Probably yes from an aggro stance, but it could lend credence to the idea of playing control madness over aggro madness again.

[Komatteru]

After any fair-sized Mind's Desire you're the heavy favorite to win the game anyway; is the added danger of casting a few Time Spirals instead of Timetwister and Yawgmoth's Bargain that large of a difference?

Also, in order to get enough land into play to truly abuse Time Spiral's free mechanic, you would have to be several turns into the game or have Fastbond, which makes for a slower combo deck ala TPS...

Or am I simply missing something important here as to why this would be so abusable?

You can still lose after a decent sized Mind's Desire, but it requires some misfortune.  If you don't flip enough business spells and your opponent happens to have 2 Force of Will and a Cunning Wish in hand to deal with the Duress and Bargain you flipped, you can still lose.  That happened to me.

The biggest thing about Time Spiral is that it gives you back resources (~3-6 mana depending on what turn it is).  Desire costs 6, so even if you flip up Bargain, to win that turn, you still need to have some resources available.  Plus Bargain won't always draw you 19 cards, nor will you need to draw that many.  If you can draw 7-10 off Bargain, that's about all you need usually.  Spiral gets you 7 cards and frees up mana so you can use those cards.

I'm not saying Spiral is the most broken card ever.  In fact, it's not that great.  But in multiples, it has shown itself to be too strong.  It should stay on that list.

[everythingitouchdies]

I'm not saying Spiral is the most broken card ever.  In fact, it's not that great.  But in multiples, it has shown itself to be too strong.  It should stay on that list.

The issue should more be the Desire into Desire issue. Obviously not quite as severe, but even casting spiral and then drawing another spiral where your focus is primarily casting rituals and playing 0 cost artifacts can provide for some broken plays.

The question at hand is, in general, is ramping up to cast Time Spiral multiple times (or play multiple time spirals off a Desire or any other broken way, like Dream Halls) really all that more powerful than animating a Dragon or firing off a Charbelcher on turn 1? If so, then is it equally as easy to disrupt as these things?

With a format focused on decks that put resources in the graveyard, are you going to want to give your opponent 7-14 cards in the yard? Is he going to weld in a platinum angel or cast necromancy in response to your draw 7? I do not think Time Spiral is by any means the most broken card on the list (Dream Halls) and I do not think it would be the end of the world to unrestrict it. It would create a few more combo decks, and maybe add a little consistency to or make more interesting ones that already exist.

EITD

[Mixing Mike]

I would think it's more of a question of how viable would a deck that runs 3-4 Spirials be?  Even combo can't be holding onto that many large CC spells for thw whole game.  Think about drawing an opening hand with 2 Spirials in it against Stax.  It's like you already mulled to 5, and you can still draw one in your next hand.  Combo as we know it right now is based on being able to play mutiple threats per turn, until one breaks through.  Once that happens then they're off to the races.  Draw7's are kinda poopy if you don't more or less win with the cards you get that turn, unless they have to pitch the 7 cards they drew with Jar.  I'm totally in favor of unrestricted Spirials, it even has bad synergy with Gemstone Mines.

[Royal Ass.]

You make good arguments on why these cards should be restricted in the context of the current East Coast metagame, and I agree with some of the more benign choices.  However, you fail to take into account future metagames and what decks might rise up to abuse the newly un-restricted cards, especialy the more powerful combo peices.  

Another thing to think about is how these cards would impact slower more scrubby non-proxied metas not on the East Coast.  Time Spiral might seems slow and crappy to you in a high powered proxy meta, but in a slower non-powered meta it could be a devistating card.  The Restriction List needs to incorporate all metagames, not just the one that you are playing in.  

I think these factors need to be taken into consideration when thinking about unrestriction.  Though I think the article was good and its a good discussion to have.

[majestyk1136]

You make good arguments on why these cards should be restricted in the context of the current East Coast metagame, and I agree with some of the more benign choices.  However, you fail to take into account future metagames and what decks might rise up to abuse the newly un-restricted cards, especialy the more powerful combo peices.  

Another thing to think about is how these cards would impact slower more scrubby non-proxied metas not on the East Coast.  Time Spiral might seems slow and crappy to you in a high powered proxy meta, but in a slower non-powered meta it could be a devistating card.  The Restriction List needs to incorporate all metagames, not just the one that you are playing in.  

I think these factors need to be taken into consideration when thinking about unrestriction.  Though I think the article was good and its a good discussion to have.

This is a flawed line of reasoning.  It's like saying that Skullclamp shouldn't have been banned in standard because some 8-year-olds might not have as much fun at FNM when they can no longer randomly draw 30 cards out of their wood elf/elvish pioneer deck.  If your metagame is that scrubby you're likely playing casual anyways and can institute house rules, so please don't whine that the people who are playing seriously are somehow ruining your fun.

[andrewpate]

One thing you have to take into account with Time Spiral is that even though it untaps lands, you have to generate 6 mana before you can actually cast it.  Think about Mind's Desire in the opening hand of a deck like MeanDeath.  Okay, so a lot of times you actually can hardcast it in the first couple of turns, maybe for 4 or 5 copies on turn 2.  A lot of times, you will flip up a Death Wish and a Dark Ritual (e.g.) and win right there.  

The problem is that to do this you are dealing with 2 lands, tops.  This means, barring Academy, that you will have 2 mana available after casting Time Spiral in the same situation (maybe 3, with one left floating after a Ritual or Lotus).  Unless that Spiral rips a pile of fast mana, you aren't going anywhere with it.  Even a "great" post-Draw7 hand with a couple of Moxes and an Ancestral in it would have a hard time bailing you out.  You would need to rip Lotus and Burning Wish both if you wanted to be really comfortable.

Look at it this way:  Desire and Sprial both give you access to a bunch of cards for 4UU.  Both increase your ability to use those cards.  Thus, it is easy to compare them.  But Spiral's untapping isn't good in modern combo like it was in the old days, where bloated Academies or triple-High Tided Islands were producing piles of mana off its untap effect.  It was broken when it made mana.  Now, it is just a situational Diminishing Returns (and on turn 1, it is worse).

One argument against its unrestriction so far unmentioned here would be Turboland.  A comboriffic Turboland deck could conceivably abuse Draw7s and Fastbond to play enough lands in the early turns to actually utilize Time Spiral.  I could see what would essentially be a land-heavy TPS with tons of Tutors to find Fastbond running 4 Time Spiral and laying its whole library face up on the table by turn 3.  The question is, would this be better than the Turboland decks we already have?  Would it be better than the Storm decks we already have?  I played quite a bit with Draw7 when it first came out, and its abuse of Fastbond with Draw7s was quite profound.  And yet it didn't run the one copy of Time Spiral it was allowed.  Untapping a bunch of lands after your Timetwister is cute, but I'd rather just pay U extra and remove 10 cards than pay double price and be cute.

My vote is strongly to unrestrict Time Spiral.

[The Hamburgler]

Take what he said out of a combo context. Imagine a Crucible of Worlds deck, even mono-green with 4 Crop Rotation. I don't even want to imagine Tolarian unrestricted, I can't believe I'm hearing speak of it. Am I the only one who remembers Saga? I thought it was a mediocre article, but my taste doesn't typically include articles complaing, indicating or attempting to voice an opinion about the restricted list, because at the end of the day, it's still little more than an opinion. Talk all you want, but unless you work for the DCI, I think it's little more than pointless prattle. I did thoroughly enjoy Doomsday, playing it and reading your report. Despite the fact that the list wasn't as optimized as it could have been, I understand it was rumored to be tossed together (the article) I have been playing it since. Sorry to get slightly off-topic, I do agree with most of your judgement, besides anything to even indicate an unrestriction of Academy or Rotation, unless Crucible of Worlds is extinct. From everywhere. Not one. Mind Twist is a terrible card, I wouldn't care if it got unrestricted..... OMFG Mon0 Blackz0rz will pWnZ0rG!!!one!!eleventy-nine!

Disagree with me? That's fine, this entire thread is opinionized and bias*.


*Steve's a combo nazi, therefore revealing why almost all of the cards listed, and examples given are relative to combo, so it wouldn't reveal a Crop Rotation+Strip combo or anything. Just my .02.
-The Hamburgler

[Komatteru]

One thing you have to take into account with Time Spiral is that even though it untaps lands, you have to generate 6 mana before you can actually cast it. Think about Mind's Desire in the opening hand of a deck like MeanDeath. Okay, so a lot of times you actually can hardcast it in the first couple of turns, maybe for 4 or 5 copies on turn 2. A lot of times, you will flip up a Death Wish and a Dark Ritual (e.g.) and win right there.

The problem is that to do this you are dealing with 2 lands, tops. This means, barring Academy, that you will have 2 mana available after casting Time Spiral in the same situation (maybe 3, with one left floating after a Ritual or Lotus). Unless that Spiral rips a pile of fast mana, you aren't going anywhere with it. Even a "great" post-Draw7 hand with a couple of Moxes and an Ancestral in it would have a hard time bailing you out. You would need to rip Lotus and Burning Wish both if you wanted to be really comfortable.

Look at it this way: Desire and Sprial both give you access to a bunch of cards for 4UU. Both increase your ability to use those cards. Thus, it is easy to compare them. But Spiral's untapping isn't good in modern combo like it was in the old days, where bloated Academies or triple-High Tided Islands were producing piles of mana off its untap effect. It was broken when it made mana. Now, it is just a situational Diminishing Returns (and on turn 1, it is worse).

Mind's Desire is fundamentally the wrong card to compare Time Spiral to.  They're not even close to being in the same power league.  This is like comparing Brainstorm and Ancestral Recall.  As good as Brainstorm is, it's no where near as powerful as Ancestral.  Not even close, despite generating similar effects. Your argument is like this: Desire is better than Spiral by a long shot, so playing 4 Time Spiral pales in comparison to being able to play 1 Desire.  This is like saying Lotus Petal should be unrestricted because Black Lotus is that much better.

Think of Time Spiral in this respect.  Assume that a deck that runs multiple Time Spiral would be similar in speed to TPS (it might even be TPS for that matter).  By this time, you expect to have 3 lands in play, and if you're lucky, one of them is Academy.  Therefore, Spiral is only costing you 3--the same as Timetwister.  I don't hear anyone saying that Timetwister should come off the list, unless someone wants to make that an issue as well?

[jpmeyer]

Dream Halls isn't a slow combo deck.  It's a fast Tog deck.

[andrewpate]

You think it would end up killing with Tog instead of Storm?  I would start testing with a heavily blue base with all the fast artifact mana and a bunch of Draw7s, plus 4xDream Halls, a copy of Mind's Desire and its broken friends, Hurkyl's Recall, and Tendrils.  Resolving Dream Halls with a Timetwister or Diminishing Returns in the grip is basically a Mind's Desire.

How would the Tog deck you have in mind work?  I guess you pitch a bunch of stuff to draw a bunch of cards, probably with Meditates and AKs and stuff?  You think this could kill faster than Hulk?  I would be interested in checking out a deck fragment if it's not too much trouble.

[The Hamburgler]

Dream Halls isn't a slow combo deck.  It's a fast Tog deck.

   Andrewpate: I think JP's meaning was metaphorical, as I can't render this notion sensible. He was comparing the speed of Dream Halls to the speed of modern day Tog, even if they are seperate decks.
- The Hamburgler

[Godder]

I think he more meant that he'd take a Tog deck and replace the Togs with 3 or 4 x Dream Halls and 2 x Tendrils. Obviously, some tinkering would be required to fit the extra cards in, but the Tog skeleton would remain. That way, the deck still plays normally, but it wins in one turn i.e. Dream Halls should win the turn it hits, rather than the current 'cast 'Tog, win next turn' plan.

[VGB]

I think he more meant that he'd take a Tog deck and replace the Togs with 3 or 4 x Dream Halls and 2 x Tendrils. Obviously, some tinkering would be required to fit the extra cards in, but the Tog skeleton would remain. That way, the deck still plays normally, but it wins in one turn i.e. Dream Halls should win the turn it hits, rather than the current 'cast 'Tog, win next turn' plan.

Well, as long as we are stomping around in way-off-topic land;

you can't play Dream Halls early and have it act as a Moat, either, so the analogy is imperfect.

Show and Tell + Dream Halls + Intuition + Replenish might be a fun deck, though.

[kronofear]

Let me say this on Dream Halls. I would LOVE it if it was unrestricted. It will never be.

Someone once compared it a bad dark ritual maker only good in one deck.  They were right if dark ritual can make 4 colorless and 2 black to play bargain.

Dream Halls + Bargain = Win. Draw cards with bargain to discard to play draw spells  to discard to play more draw to find Y. Will. then play your GY, by discarding cards in your hand to play your draw spells till you get a tendrils.

Yes it costs 5 mana. Steve says the fastest it comes out is 3rd turn. It can come out 1st turn with duress protection. granted it takes Swamp, ritual, black lotus sac for blue. but you still have 3 cards in hand. If Dream Halls was unrestricted  you would see this alot more with 4 rituals and 4 desires chances of getting that first turn are pretty good. Even if you do not get the black lotus likely you get a mox or 2 and it would come down turn 2.  Would this deck be any faster than the ones now? no, but with 4 Dream Halls you can bet it would be very consistant.

[Gandalf_The_White_1]

Dream Halls + Bargain = Win. .

Bargain=Win.

As for the article I don't think any of those cards belong on the list except timespiral for the reasons people have stated above.  As an unrestricted bomb in slower combo decks it would simply be too powerful IMO.

[jpmeyer]

I think he more meant that he'd take a Tog deck and replace the Togs with 3 or 4 x Dream Halls and 2 x Tendrils. Obviously, some tinkering would be required to fit the extra cards in, but the Tog skeleton would remain. That way, the deck still plays normally, but it wins in one turn i.e. Dream Halls should win the turn it hits, rather than the current 'cast 'Tog, win next turn' plan.

Well, as long as we are stomping around in way-off-topic land;

you can't play Dream Halls early and have it act as a Moat, either, so the analogy is imperfect.

Sure it is.  Play Moat=they can't attack any more.  Play Dream Halls=they can't attack any more  

[Godder]

I think he more meant that he'd take a Tog deck and replace the Togs with 3 or 4 x Dream Halls and 2 x Tendrils. Obviously, some tinkering would be required to fit the extra cards in, but the Tog skeleton would remain. That way, the deck still plays normally, but it wins in one turn i.e. Dream Halls should win the turn it hits, rather than the current 'cast 'Tog, win next turn' plan.

Well, as long as we are stomping around in way-off-topic land;

you can't play Dream Halls early and have it act as a Moat, either, so the analogy is imperfect.

Sure it is.  Play Moat=they can't attack any more.  Play Dream Halls=they can't attack any more  

What JP said . The best plan against Aggro is to win now, not sit around blocking...

I'd also like to defend this series of posts as being sufficiently on-topic (further debate as to that should be done by PM), as we're debating the merits of Dream Halls by giving an example of how it could be used. If a decktype seems degenerate, Dream Halls (or whichever card we're debating) should stay restricted; if not, then it shouldn't.

Unrestricting both Dream Halls and Time Spiral could be awfully interesting, however. Casting a free Draw 7 is fun enough, but getting 3 extras which actually create mana once Dream Halls is in play would be even more hilarious . Anyone care to try building that deck?

[andrewpate]

Of course Dream Halls and Time Spiral are powerful together.  You generate CA by casting a Draw7 and you generate absurd tempo by not only untapping lands but ripping a handful of pitchables to cast spells with using the Halls.  Unrestricted Sprial would definitely make the deck stronger on a scale of raw power in a vacuum.  The thing is, you are going to win the turn Dream Halls hits regardless.  If the two of these should both be unrestricted, their synergy is not going to change that.  The argument against Dream Halls is not what happens once it hits--nobody is denying the unfairness of that scenario.  The argument is the difficulty of getting it out in the first place.

[Covetous]

Key, Stroke and MOM are all crap.  They are cards that you can use in fun decks to be broken, but not in competitive type 1.  Key was good in extended Tinker with metalworker, but doesn't really do enough by itself to be useful in type 1.  Stroke is basically worse than pretty much every other card-drawing spell.  I mean, compare it to the following cards: thirst for knowledge, thoughtcast, opportunity (!!!), concentrate, deep analysis and inspiration (!!!).   Its only benefit is that it can draw you 17,000 cards if you have enough mana--but efficiency is generally better than the ability to use X.  The last time I saw anyone play MOM was in a Wizard deck.  With Tim.  And Archivist.  End of discussion.  

The other three cards are much more interesting.  It is true that they are not used all that frequently, or at all (Dream Halls), but they are still ridiculously broken.  The real question is this:  how broken is a card that MAY make you win but costs a raging shitload of mana?  I mean, how many spells see play that actually cost 5 or 6 mana but do not have a cheaper alternative CC (or some way to cheat the cost like oath or animate) and cannot be played with MWS?  If you can play a 6cc spell and it actually resolves, then I think you deserve a damn good chance to win!  If Diminishing Returns isn't restricted, then Time Spiral shouldn't be, either.  True, Spiral is way better when it resolves, but Returns costs two less, making it that much more playable.  The drawback of Returns is the 10 cards.  The drawback of spiral is the 6cc.  They are both fair drawbacks, and thus the cards are both balanced but strong.  If the one is unrestricted, then the other probably should be as well.  Dream Halls is really really sick, but the 5cc is prohibitive.  Plus, it doesn't do anything on its own.  If you built a deck around it, the deck wouldn't be any faster or better than any existing deck, so what would be the problem?  You wouldn't break open the format, at any rate.

Mind Twist, of course, is the most controversial card on Steve's list.  Duh.  It's so brutal when it hits that it simply shouldn't be unrestricted.  The two expensive blue bombs are at least sort of symmetrical, but Twist is not.  It may have fallen out of favor, but it's just so nasty that it probably should stay where it is.  When a single card generates a large CA swing by itself then it should probably be/stay restricted.  

Crop Rotation and Frantic Search are on the lower end of power for the Restricted list, but they have the potential to be very problematic.  4x Crop Rotation + Strip Mine + CoW isn't fair.  People whine about CoW with only 1 Strip Mine in a deck--what about 5, plus 4 wastelands?  I think that Storm, not Academy is the reason that FS is restricted.  If you unrestricted FS, the world would not end, but it would probably stir some stuff up.  It's one of the weaker cards on the list, to be sure, and I think it might be more deserving of having its previous status restored than Twist.

P.S.  Just because such-and-such is really good with Mind's Desire doesn't mean shit.  MD is restricted and costs 6.  I don't care if something is too good with MD unless you are talking about an additional MD (which is why the damned card is restricted in the first place).  It's like saying that Words of Worship/War/Whatever is too good with Yawgmoth's Bargain, so you should restrict WoW.