New B&R List

[Zherbus]

Discuss.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/announce/dci20050301a

Trinisphere is Restricted and we get some tutors from Portal.

[Hi-Val]

Dude, spoiler warning PLEASE.

[Cross]

I couldnt post it fast enough.

why trini? doesnt even seem like it effects the format as much as it did at first. obv cron just won with it, but it seriously wasnt dominating.

edit: and wow we have tutors now.

[That0neguy]

How did you find out so early i was refreshing the page 3 mins before and it seems you still got it before me.

Im glad to see the sphere gone.  Its not dominating its the pure fact that it is unfun to play against just like black vice.

Plus I love combo.  Now I get to devot my SB almost entire to control even though it pretty much already is.

Sucks about the nuking of standard I think they could have left the artifact lands with ravager and disiple gone and not killing KCI in the proccess.

[Royal Ass.]

I am satisfied.  Even if people say that this wasnt distorting or putting up the numbers to warrent restriction, trinisphere was just a dumb card.  but thats my opinion and apparently the dci agrees.

I wonder if the diversity of the top 8 at at the most recient star city tourney affected this list.  If the tourny were to have been held after i wonder if more cards would have been restricted.

[Smmenen]

Personal Tutor and Imperial Seal are restricted as of Oct. 1st

I would like to say that as far as policy goes - this demonstrates that they are willing to make changes on the basis of interaction - not dominance or distortion.  

Time will tell if this was a mistake.

[yespuhyren]

Wow, i can't believe trinisphere got the axe.  Workshop decks have been doing well, but so have control slaver and TPS.  I personally believe that combo will be running rampant because of this.

[Aeneas]

Oh joy of joys.  No more discussing B/R changes for a few months.  Sooper.

Oh yeah, the restriction of Trinisphere could lead to a fresh wave of innovation.  That might undo a good deal of the general uninterest of late.

[Lunar]

Well, I was hoping it was not going to happen, I felt the vintage metagame was looking really good at the moment, and I think scg5 showed that.

Well I guess I will see what happens this weekend at eudemonia p9.

[Royal Ass.]

Has anyone checked out the price of imperial seal?  Add one more Hundred Dollar card to the type one restricted list!

[Matt]

Wow, I can't believe how hard they hit affinity.

[banks]

god i hate this why can't they just leave us alone when we had a great vibe going this makes me so mad i will just quit magic .... stupid drug like game  

[bedafile]

Woot! Long live combo! And guess what SCG jacked up the price on the Imperial Seal in my cart while I was checking out to $90. It's still there if anyone wants it.

I found a mint Japanese one on Cardhaus.com for $60.

[Moxlotus]

Wow.

Despite the lack of tournament dominance, the DCI has restricted 3sphere just as the meta has adjusted to it.  3sphere isn't that good when its not followed by a Crucilock-which is what decks have prepared for by actually playing basic lands (OMFG-BASIC LANDS!).  By preventing Crucilock, 3sphere isn't that good.  The past few tournaments I have noticed this.  I have also learned that perhaps an infinite amount of bitching can get a card restricted, even as the meta adapts to it and as it fails to put up dominant numbers.  Cron's deck with only 3 Trinispheres shows that 3sphere isn't the god damned nuts that it used to be because people build around it.

Trinisphere is what gave aggro a chance versus combo.  Without it aggro is now dead.  MWS has lost infinite stock as a powerful card and it will become a Dark Rit vs. Mana Drain format.

Before anyone says anything about "sphere or resistance is good"-they are wrong.  Sphere of Resistance is ABSOLUTE SHIT compared to 3sphere against storm combo decks.  Combo can now spend its 3 bounce spells main plus whatever was in the board towards winning the control matchup.  I feel a wave of combo coming over and the restriction of Dark Ritual in 3 months.

Time to go build Deathlong...

[That0neguy]

I knew i should have bought that seal for 15$ on EBAY a couple months ago.

I just saw the portal anouncment wow combo got a huge boost right now 2 more tutors and the biggest threat to it gone.  Im guessing death wish or some new combo engines getting the axe next time either that or combo will be overly hyped and nothing will happen at all.

EDIT: Also Aggro control will probably come out to like fish because of the lack of it being chocked off by 3sphere/workshop aggro.  Also Pyrostatic pilar can hit fast and with deathlong it is extremly hard to win through when backed up by like 5 dmg you will start to combo off with around 4-5 life after tutoring/playing moxen or or playing a deathwish which easilly puts you in aggros range to burn you out.

Also see above about what it seems most people don't like about trinisphere it makes the game unfun and if people aren't having fun why play.  You could take this around to say that combo will just take its place but there are still some solid answers to combo out there to slow it down enough.

[yespuhyren]

i just found a NM english seal on findmagiccards for 50 US so i picked it up.  there is a poor one for 49, and some mint at 80ish

EDIT :I just checked back, the poor condition is gone.  I also bought out a store of 10 personal tutors at 1 each.

Just to keep a running timer

Before B&R list posted

seal = 40-50 US
after posting to about 12:30 - about 90 US
after 12:30 - about 125 US.  

SCG is out of stock at 125, i left at 115 in SP condition

[ElyasMachera]

I can't help but feel like these were the two things not to do to the format.  3Sphere wasn't dominant, just annoying and there are more then enough tutors in the card pool.  

The format was balanced with room for innovation as show by starcity.  
Oh well, glad I picked up those foil 3Spheres this month.....

[Wolven]

Guys, I just wanted to add that since the portal sets arn't becomming legal until October, and also given the rarity of Portal 3K, it could be possible that wizards might consider a moderate print run of P3K. The set was, to the best of my knowledge, never intended for the NA/Euro market, so maybe if we get lucky they will try to fix the amount of product avaible to the public.

Given that, I'll wait until I try to get Vamp Tutor #2.

[bedafile]

That's ok I'm sure most of these websites will cancel our orders since they can't find the card or whatever reason they'll give to jack it up to $200.

Weren't Zodiac Dragons worth about $200 before the oracle update?

[Komatteru]

I fear that a very delicate balance has been upset.

Trinisphere is no doubt a distorting card that is uninteractive, brutal, and pretty random.  It sucks to be on the other end of a 3Sphere and be forced to locate basic land.  However, I was willing to make that sacrifice to preserve the balance of the format.  I fear that this is going to make more of a mess of things than it's going to help.

[yespuhyren]

All i know is, if the store doesn't send me my seal i will be quite angry    I DID send my 51.50 by paypal already.

[pox_reborn]

This is also a ray of hope for some aggro-control decks as well. While some of prison's locks are bad, trisphere was one of the cards it hated seeing the most. While a rise in combo is expected, aggro-control has a possibility too in high control metas.

[TeamPleasantDeck]

Personal Tutor and Imperial Seal are restricted as of Oct. 1st

I would like to say that as far as policy goes - this demonstrates that they are willing to make changes on the basis of interaction - not dominance or distortion.  

Time will tell if this was a mistake.

obviously that's not true, or they'd have restricted ritual.  I'm sure they know there are decks with 60% turn 1 win percentage. that's not interaction either

[yespuhyren]

They better know, because I have a bad feeling a lot of us will be need our vaseline, because combo, in my opinion, will now undoubtedly RAPE THE HELL out of workshop decks.  Although they have sphere of resistance, I don't think its enough.

Only time will tell though, as hopefully some new archetype comes out that influences the metagame to de-strenghten combo and make it more fun for everyone.  God knows i HATE playing my trinispheres, but against combo i don't have much of a choice.

[Sagath]

In my opinion this was absolutly NOT the way to change vintage. I see further Bannings/Restrictions in 3 months. /vote me up one for mistake. In all honesty, maybe only 10-15% of the Vintage players were calling for 3spheres head, and those were probably the combo players.

Long Live Combo Summer! :shock:

Woah...Flashback to urza's era.  

[h9565]

i just found a NM english seal on findmagiccards for 50 US so i picked it up.  there is a poor one for 49, and some mint at 80ish

EDIT :I just checked back, the poor condition is gone.  I also bought out a store of 10 personal tutors at 1 each.

I think I bought the same card from the same store...  They only claim to have one in stock...

[Smmenen]

Personal Tutor and Imperial Seal are restricted as of Oct. 1st

I would like to say that as far as policy goes - this demonstrates that they are willing to make changes on the basis of interaction - not dominance or distortion.  

Time will tell if this was a mistake.

obviously that's not true, or they'd have restricted ritual.  I'm sure they know there are decks with 60% turn 1 win percentage. that's not interaction either

Actually, it is true - let's see what Forsythe says Friday.

[hiryu]

Whoa, Grim Tutor is not restricted?  MeanDeath must be a lot better, now you only lose 3 life to get what you want right away...

[Dr. Sylvan]

Wow, I can't believe how hard they hit affinity.

Choosy moms choose the BANHAMMAR.

Yeah, I was impressed, too. They decided that nuking from orbit really was a good idea, I guess. There goes that low ban-level for post-Urza Standard history.

Also, dandan's sprogs must have successfully expanded his letter-writing campaign on behalf of Portal!

[Necrologia]

I was expecting them to unban portal cards a few months ago, so I picked some Imperial Seals. Seems like it was a good idea, I can't believe they're going for as much as they are.

Combo was definately strengthed by this announcment, but I hardly think it'll become dominant. Slaver has a solid matchup against combo, and that deck eeked by without a scratch. It's not like combo even gains that much from the tutors, Spoils of the Vault is probably on par with Imperial Seal, and even that hardly sees play.

Workshop decks will also still be viable. Just look at Kevin Cron's deck from Syracuse. It's clear that there's more than enough room for tweaks, most notably maindeck STPs and only 3 Trinispheres main. The deck is still perfectly fine, and in fact, may end up more consistent as a 2nd/late game Sphere of Resistence is much better than a 3Sphere at the same time.