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This past weekend was Mythic Championship V, and I imagine everyone was somewhat glued to their seats. It wasn't because we had a brand new Standard format to show off, although that is always exciting. It wasn't because the event was showcasing some of the best and brightest in the game, although that's always a treat. No, it was mostly because everyone wanted to see whether Field of the Dead - a card and a deck that represented an insane 43% of the, uh, "field" - was going to dominate the event as efficiently as it had dominated the metagame. And with an accelerated Banned and Restricted Announcement coming the following Monday, October 21st, everyone was eager to see what the news could hold.
Well, Monday has come and gone, and much to no one's surprise, Field of the Dead was banned in Standard, which is interesting for a few reasons, which I'd like to go over today.
Field of the Dead only managed to secure four copies in Top 8, while there were 16 copies of Oko, Thief of Crowns and 20 copies of Hydroid Krasis.
I definitely agree that Field of the Dead needed to go, especially without any truly efficient answers for the card in Standard. We no longer have things like Blood Sun or Field of Ruin, and while something like Assassin's Trophy can take out a single Field of the Dead, they can easily search out more copies (something you can't do with an Assassin's Trophy), and if they have a second copy in play, they actually get a 2/2 from your Trophy. It's just a miserable card all around in current Standard.
What oppressive cards will fill the void with Field of the Dead gone?
If you were to ask me which of these cards should be banned, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Neither would Wizards, I'd imagine. I can totally understand not wanting to ban the flagship mythic from a brand new set, especially when the card was pushing $40 pre-announcement. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned with Oko warping the entire format around him, the same way Field of the Dead did; another black hole card, if you will. And just like Field of the Dead, Oko has a huge support system of cards to back it up, enough so that four copies of the Simic Food deck made it into the Top 8.
How many cards can we ban before something in design changes?
Caw-Blade in the Top 8. The Top 8 also contained 32 copies of Preordain and 32 copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, along with 16 copies of Stoneforge Mystic. It was pretty crazy. But needless to say, both Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were banned from Standard after that event. That was eight years ago.
Then there were six stable years until Emrakul, the Promised End; Smuggler's Copter; and Reflector Mage were all banned in January of 2017.
Then Felidar Guardian was banned in April of 2017.
Then Aetherworks Marvel was banned in June of 2017.
Then Attune with Aether, Rogue Refiner, Ramunap Ruins, and Rampaging Ferocidon were banned in January of 2018.
Then Nexus of Fate was banned in Best-of-One on Magic Arena in February of 2019.
Then here we are, with Field of the Dead being banned in October of 2019.
If you recall, the Play Design team was formed in 2017 as a way to stop things like Felidar Guardian / Saheeli Rai from happening in the future. While I don't know exactly how many sets were already completed when they were formed, it's safe to say at least some of these issues fall on them. And all of that isn't to say I think they're doing their job poorly, but more that Magic is a really hard game to play, let alone create, with thousands of moving pieces to consider at any given time. I'm honestly not sure what to do with this data or what my thesis here is, but it's interesting information and I'm kind of surprised by it. When your flagship format has more regular bans than a format like Modern - which has only had six cards banned since 2017, along with three cards unbanned - I think it might be time to assess the power level you're designing new cards at.
I remember when Throne of Eldraine was being spoiled and everyone was talking about how the set seemed like it had a lower power level than previous sets, and I wasn't sure what to make of this. This wasn't the impression I was getting, but I also hadn't invested a tremendous amount of analysis into the set yet. So I told people even if the power level was lower, it would be fine to balance out the format when the previous sets were extremely powerful (I'm looking at you, War of the Spark). But have you seen Questing Beast? Have you seen Oko, Thief of Crowns? Once Upon a Time? Wicked Wolf? Embercleave? These cards are all incredibly powerful, with some of them being format defining as we mentioned earlier.
And Oh Yeah, Pioneer!
This format looks sweet. I can't wait to start designing and seeing decks for it! I'd love to know your thoughts on it though, and we'll definitely dive deeper into it in the future.
As usual, please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Was banning Field of the Dead the correct call? Should they have banned Oko too? Should they have banned something else? Let me know what you think, and use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off! Thanks so much for reading, I love you guys, and I'll catch you next week!
Frank Lepore
