B & R list announcement: 9/1/08

[Smmenen]

DCI Banned and Restricted List Announcement
September 1, 2008
9/1/08, Effective 9/20/08

Vintage:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Dark Ritual
Cabal Ritual
Grim Tutor
Mishra's Workshop

Bazaar of Baghdad

Bazaar of Baghdad has been carefully monitored by the DCI for many years now as it has been a source of concern among players, fueling combo decks as a recurring draw engine and combo outlet.  With the printing of Future Sight's Narcomoeba and Bridge From Below, the Vintage dredge deck has now become unacceptably fast and resilient, capable of winning consistently on turn two through most disruption.  Bazaar of Baghdad consequently joins the restricted list.  It will still see play as a singleton, but will no longer be a problem.

Dark Ritual

As a general matter, we have restricted hyper-efficient mana sources in Vintage because they promote unhealthy combination decks that overwhelm opponents before they have an opportunity to play spells.   Dark Ritual is stronger than a significant number of mana accelerants already on the restricted list and has been a critical mana engine for degenerate storm combination decks.   These decks are capable of winning on the first and second turn with alarming frequency.  With Dark Ritual restricted, these decks will still see play, but they will be less consistently able to overwhelm an opponent in the first two turns.   

Cabal Ritual

While veterans of the format may agree or disagree about Dark Ritual getting restricted, it probably comes as no surprise that it was at least considered.  Cabal Ritual, on the other hand, would naturally raise more eyebrows.  The reasoning behind this choice was the power of  Ritual based storm combo decks.   These decks, relying on a hefty portion of the restricted list, are able to win on turn one and turn two with an unhealthy degree of regularity, thanks to the fast mana acceleration provided by Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual.   This is unhealthy for the format.   Thanks to fetchlands, early discard and tutors, and draw7s, these decks have little trouble achieving threshold in the first few turns.  The restriction of Cabal Ritual should slow down these combination storm decks and ensure that the format slows to a manageable level.   

Grim Tutor

Several years ago, we restricted Burning Wish for its ability to find the most powerful spells in Vintage.   Grim Tutor is a similar problem.   Not only does Grim Tutor search up Vintage powerhouses like Yawgmoth's Will, it can search for any card in Magic, including Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, and Yawgmoth's Bargain.  In addition, unlike Burning WIsh, it can be replayed after Yawgmoth's Will to find Tendrils of Agony.   As a four-of, Grim Tutor has helped combination decks consistently assemble the Yawgmoth's Will and Tendrils of Agony engine with degenerate results.  As with Gifts Ungiven and Merchant Scroll, "Powerful spells that tutor for a single card are generally restricted in this format."  Therefore, Grim Tutor joins Merchant Scroll on the restricted list.

Mishra's Workshop

Several Years ago the DCI released Mishra's Workshop from the restricted list. As we announced at the time, the DCI knew this was something that would need to be watched carefully.Mishra's Workshop is an uncounterable, recurring Black Lotus for artifact spells.   Its tremendous and reusable mana fuels lock components and combo parts that prevent an opponent from ever being able to play a spell.  We have let Mishra's Workshop decks exist for a long time, and over that time period it has become clear that they are simply unacceptably fast and degenerate.  With the restrictions announced today and earlier this year, Mishra's Workshop could easily overpower the field.  Restricting Mishra's Workshop will hopefully bring greater balance and health to the Vintage format.

We look forward to seeing the changes we have announced today work their way through the Vintage format over the coming months and years.   

[Matridom]

it looks like they are trying to slow down vintage in general now. I can now see the slower contenders like Fish and Control now really rise to the top of the game.

I'm also interested to see how this round of restrictions will affect the price high value cards that got put on the list.

[Godder]

Is this genuine or your prediction for the next B&R list?

[Nefarias]

I'm guessing he's just trying to mirror the previous announcement, what with the "restriction" of Dark Ritual (Brainstorm) and it's innocuous little cousin Cabal Ritual (Ponder), as well as the "I used to be restricted but I'm still too good" pairing of Gush and Workshop. Bazaar also comes close to Flash, mentioning how two cards from Future Sight made it better and how it's a resilient fast combo. Grim Tutor mimics the final Merchant Scroll, for being good unrestricted tutors. You'll notice that a lot of the language is even the same.

Are you hoping they follow the Pat Chapin plan of restricting everything until Mana Drain is the best card in the format? I'm not really sure what your goal is here. Is it to instill a feeling that nothing is safe?

[ELD]

Hilarious.  No really though, restricting cards because they are good is like restricting the Aces out of a poker deck.  The real question is why do they restrict cards.  I feel that the DCI does not have a clear policy on which cards they consider restricting, or why they restrict them.  Hopefully they will be able to better address this issue in the future.

[LordHomerCat]

Nicely done Steve.  It's scary how the Lauer/Turian explanation can be applied to half the playable cards in the format with only some minor wording changes.

[Twaun007]

If Workshop gets restricted the DCI had better invest in a shit ton of riot control technology.

[zeus-online]

Wow almost got me there...hopefully that won't happen, ever.

/Zeus

[Nehptis]

On August 31st at around 5 of midnight I can see this happening:

1) Lauer/Turian open Steve's message in this thread.
2) CTRL-A
3) CTRL-C
4) CTRL-V

Then welcome to Vintage 4.0!  But, I hope not.

[Hellsing293]

The only difference is that the DCI specifically went out and gutted the super-effecient blue draw/search engine.  These restrictions would seem more sporadic and out-of-nowhere.  We all knew some of the cards that were going to be restricted because flash was using them to own everybody.  Unless some sort of black Bazaar/Workshop deck starts winning 75% of the time and utilizes most/all of said cards, then these restrictions would probably never happen (not to mention DCI wouldn't dare restrict cards like Workshop/Bazaar because of all of the collectors/players with 4ofs).

[Akuma]

I already hate what the June 1st announcement means for Vintage, and when I read WotC's explanation I thought the same thing Steve has posted here. Those explanations can just be copied and pasted to apply to any card that is powerful in Vintage.

We all knew some of the cards that were going to be restricted because flash was using them to own everybody.

Please check recent tournament results, this statement is false. If someone in your play group was owning YOU, then you can complain about that, but Flash was not owning anything...

[wraith985]

Are you hoping they follow the Pat Chapin plan of restricting everything until Mana Drain is the best card in the format? I'm not really sure what your goal is here. Is it to instill a feeling that nothing is safe?

"Although, they're doing exactly what Chris Pikula said they should do. Ban everything until Necro is good again...then ban Necro and you're done!"

One of many timeless classic quotes from the Davis/Maher PT: Chicago 1999 finals coverage