affinity dead

sionnach

for those of you who didn't know:

March 2005 DCI Banned and Restricted List Announcement -- Magic: the Gathering

Standard

Arcbound Ravager is banned
Disciple of the Vault is banned
Artifact lands are banned (Ancient Den, Great Furnace, Seat of the Synod, Tree of Tales, Vault of Whispers, Darksteel Citadel)

Vintage

Trinisphere is restricted

this is going to have a huge impact on standard

Ivan

wow, thats an impressive move by Wizards. A lot of people arent going to like this.

sionnach

the vast majority love it though

Ivan

Really?
Wow, guess I'm out of touch with the magic community.
Why the lands though? Seems a bit overkill.
First time a land has been banned in Type 2, afaik, and now 5.

Lol, you'd think they'd learn their lesson about artifacts from Urza's block.
I havent actually played at all since just before Kamigawa came out. Might get back into things now that there is a bit of sanity in Magic. Mmm, a extended PTQ on in Carlow shortly, might look into it.

sionnach

yeah, before the bannings every standard deck had to be built with playing affinity in mind and have over half their sideboard dedicated to one matchup along with choices for maindeck cards being influenced by that matchup too.

With affinity gone players have much more freedom in deck construction not to mention slower decks are now more competitive as we don't need to worry about racing affinity anymore.

Ivan

Pfft, I enjoyed the speed. Brought back a sense of intense strategy, especially for mirrors. Knowning when to "go off" was crucial. Still, I look forward to the crazy new decks this opens the door for.

MatthewVII

Huzzah! the manditory 6-8 artifact removal cards can now be removed from my deck. Creativity is no longer stifled!