Gifts restricted, Gush unrestricted

[Machinus]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dci/announce/dci20070601a

[diopter]

Holy fuck. 4x Gush...

As for Gifts, meh. Gifts was getting harder to use and with the rise of Ichorid it was getting more untenable to play. No loss.

Edit:

I can't wait to see the insane deck Smmenen builds.

[tehmajickguy]

Jesus christ, I didn't think they'd actually unrestrict gush.

[LotusHead]

Vintage
Vintage
Gifts Ungiven is restricted
Voltaic Key is unrestricted
Black Vise is unrestricted
Mind Twist is unrestricted
Gush is unrestricted



Wowza!

It kinda feels like we got traided 4 "unrestrictions" for 1 restriction.

The thing is, Gifts decks only need 1 Gifts in them. Weird.

EDIT: Aaron Forsythe's explanation is up!

Gifts Ungiven was, for a long time, used primarily in a deck based around it—"Gifts"—that would control the game long enough to tutor up a suite of win conditions that left the opponent no way out. Recently the card has been creeping into other decks, including Control Slaver and Gro-A-Tog, as its power is undeniable. It should still see play as a one-of.

This is Rick Shay's fault

[Illissius]

Oh my god. You have no idea how happy this makes me. Just the other day I was despondent that the most copies of Gush I can play in any format is one... so they go and unrestrict it for me. Thanks, Wizards! Needless to say, this increases my interest in Vintage roughly a hundredfold.

Restricting Gifts but not Flash, Bazaar, Grim, and/or Ritual does seem rather silly.

[zeus-online]

And just the day before the unrestriction i was trying to trade for tropical islands and fastbond....unsuccessfully *Sad panda*

/Zeus

[Eandori]

I don't think Gifts was powerful enough to warrent restriction.  It never hands down won the game after resolving, nor did it ever prevent the other player from playing his deck.  The format was never dominated by it and many decks ran 1-2 of them anyways.

I gotta call dibs on Gifts in Control Slaver though, I was arguing the power of that card (and crucible) in slaver for a long time.  My current Gifts Slaver build only used 2 gifts, 1 in the sideboard.  So it can easily survive with some minor changes.  In fact, I think the only deck this restriction limits is the straight up Gifts Ungiven builds.

For the other cards though... Dude...  Mind Twist is sick and wrong.  That card going off big in turn 1 is so damaging.  Having 4 copies in a deck gives you a GOOD chance to see that.  I remember for years having to deal with losing my starting hand to mind twist.  It makes the game no fun at all because you basically lose on turn 1.  I see no good reason to unrestrict Mind Twist.

Black vise used to be the cheapest damage spell/item in the whole game.  I would argue that Tendrils probably is now, but still Black Vise was also banned for a reason.  I know that I'm personally planning on breaking that card as fast as I can.