Get Ready for Stoneforge Mystic
This week, Ian Duke announced many, many changes to the Banned & Restricted lists. Three tournament-competitive formats all had their B&R lists changed simultaneously:
Standard:
- Rampaging Ferocidon: unbanned
Modern:
- Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis: banned
- Faithless Looting: banned
- Stoneforge Mystic: unbanned
Vintage:
- Karn, the Great Creator: restricted.
- Mystic Forge: restricted.
- Mental Misstep: restricted
- Golgari Grave-Troll: restricted
- Fastbond: unrestricted.
Rampaging Ferocidon is back in Standard!
The second-best red 3/3 for three may be the first un-ban in Standard history!
If you don’t remember it, the Ixalan dinosaur had an extraordinarily short initial career in Standard; was banned; and now has only a few weeks to play before rotation. We speculate there are two reasons for this:
- It’s a great foil to Field of the Dead strategies. This card really punishes decks that want to put a lot of creatures in play [at the same time], and can exploit a lead you’ve already got. And of course…
- “This is a silly, silly card to be banned.” -Patrick
To the surprise of no one, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and Faithless Looting got banned
Hogaak’s performance in Modern since its [very recent] printing in Modern Horizons has been spectacular. In three Grand Prix events in August, Hogaak…
- Dominated! Hogaak took 5/8 of the Top 8, with the win
- Regressed to “only” 3/8 of the Top 8, with “only” second place as its top performance
- Once again owned 5/8 of the Top 8 with the second place mage from the last Grand Prix jumping to first.
Wow!
This creature (and sidekick Faithless Looting) both more than deserved their forcible ejections from Modern. This card was not only a four-of alongside Hogaak basically everywhere Hogaak performed, it was a four-of in Dredge, Izzet Phoenix, and even some Mono-Red Aggro decks!
Patrick’s hot take? Dredge will remain Tier One.
The “good” news? Hogaak will live on in Legacy.
Speaking of which…
Congratulations to Noah Pardes for winning the #MTGVegas Legacy MCQ with Bomberman!
Photo: @HNG_AgentAO
Top 8 decklists in thread pic.twitter.com/hLps7U2yXw— ChannelFireball (@ChannelFireball) August 25, 2019
Stoneforge Mystic is poised to be the Next Big Thing in Modern
Michael and Patrick speculate wildly about what will happen given the premiere of one of Legacy’s proudest two-drops in Modern…
- Will we see the emergence of a Modern Caw-Blade? Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are like peanut butter and chocolate
- How about a “Tom Martell”-style U/W? More controlling with Lingering Souls?
- Can Stoneforge Mystic take the Goblin Engineer role next to Urza, Lord High Artificer? A Sword of the Meek is still a Sword!
- Which Sword should Stoneforge Mystic find? Patrick makes the case for Sword of Feast and Famine… Alongside Tasigur, the Golden Fang (Esper)
- How about Manriki-Gusari? Talk about a way to win the mirror!
Vintage and More!
What are you waiting for? Give “Get Ready for Stoneforge Mystic” a listen now!
