arcana13 wrote:
I think its obvious why PS got banned when other cards with similar effects like Shifting Sky still allowed to be played. PS don't have any color restriction, meaning it can fit into any lock deck. Shifting Sky is blue (as many othet color alteration effects cards), so your general must have blue. PS effects the whole game - hands, library, graveyard, battlefield, thus allowing lots of spell and abilities that relies on color to be magnified ten, hundred, thousandfold. Getting locked by Iona or milled by Grindstone is not fun, but discarding everything to Crosis, doubling your Saprolings every turn with Rith, or taking damage from Darigaaz is painfully annoying.
I had PS in my
Rith deck when it was still legal. I took it out before it got banned. The thing is that half the time people won't allow you to attack with a 6/6 flying dragon anyway. It was always a 'win more'. I only kept it in that deck so long cause it seemed so cool to 60 tokens. However if your opponents can't handle 60 4/4 trampling saprolings, chances are they can't handle 15. So after one over the top win, I took it out for a
whispersilk cloakOut of those 3, only
Crosis seems remotely powerful. Keep in mind though that
Nicol Bolas does the same thing, only now you pay on the attack instead of the upkeep. Is this really a two card combo worth mentioning?
kaldare wrote:
-Iona: I'm guessing this is the primary problem people have with PS. Then again, I still hear complaints every single time it's cast, and it's ONLY purpose is locking people out of the game... Why wasn't THIS banned if something needed to be? It's entire purpose is unfun for most players.
Agreed. While I totally understand playing a mono colored deck makes you vulnerable vs dual or tri colored, waiting till you draw into an
All is Dust or
Oblivion Stone.
Heartless Hidetsugu has no problem losing to a
Story Circle, but not being able to play anthing at all makes a
Grand Arbiter seem fun to play.
kaldare wrote:
-Grindstone: So no one plays Ulamog or Kozilek anymore? Because it seems like a really bad idea to depend on this combo when it won't work on 75%+ of players. Maybe players in your area play less Eldrazi? Even if so, it's not hard to add one to any deck if some douche decides to start playing this combo. And before anyone mentions Leyline of the Void, that makes it a three card combo. There are several hundred of those in EDH that aren't ban worthy, and most of those kill ALL your opponents at once. Best case scenario, ONE player is eliminated, and the others have an entire turm cycle to kill either of the cards or their controller. Not that big of a deal.
One of my favorite cards of all time, however it has absolutely no place in a 100-card multiplayer format. It just sucks to much on it's own. I disagree with you on the eldrazi titan thing. This card should be banned in EDH rather than force you to commit one of your slots to an eldrazi titan just to make sure you don't die to it.
kaldare wrote:
-Teysa: This is only a concern because she can be a general. Even so, it's just a conditional plague wind that's vulnerable to any removal any player cares to throw at it. It doesn't win the game without another card, most of which are bad. As I've mentioned, three cards combos are fair anyway.
Teysa is probably the biggest winner from an unbanned PS. However Teysa still loses to strategies that are light creatures. Teysa can do silly things without PS, but PS does allow her to go infinite (think
Alter of Dementia for example)
kaldare wrote:
-Oona: Oh. X tokens for X mana. And the problem is?
X-1 tokens actually.
kaldare wrote:
-Paladins: Are you kidding? A two card combo to... vindicate one permanent a turn? That is the definition of fair.
The only card I've seen so far that could do weird things are
Hibernation and
Wash Out (two card combo for the banned
Upheaval). However I can't remember anyone complaining about these combo's in pre-Iona times.
Again leading me to the conclusion that PS got the same treatment as Rofellos first time around: banned for potential brokenness, not proved brokenness (this is of course since I presume Iona the problem in Iona-PS)
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Teneb, the Harvester
Heartless Hidetsugu
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Reaper King
Ruhan of the Fomori
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Roon of the Hidden Realm
Nekusar, the Mindrazer