How High is the Classic Bar? - by Dangerlinto

In the wake of rhe June 1, 2008 B&R announcements that Wizards made for the Vintage format – notably that Flash, Merchant Scroll, Ponder and especially Brainstorm were restricted and Gush re-restricted, it made me think long and hard about exactly how powerful the online eternal format – Classic – should be. Although I’ve probably written it a thousand times on message boards and in articles, Classic is not Vintage and Classic is not Legacy. It’s also, in it’s current incarnation, never going to be either of those two formats exactly, so it stands to reason that the cards that appear on the restricted list for Classic may not mirror in any way those cards that exist on the corresponding list for Vintage, or the Banned list for Legacy.

But what cards should be there?

No, I’m not going to start telling you that Classic needed a round of restrictions on June 1st. I will, as I’m want to do from time to time, delve into the future of Classic and the cards that we know are going to be appearing in the format, even if it’s several years from now. I will not bother to look at those cards which are not known to be slated for release in Master’s Editions or Promos or other way that we might get those goodies, since that would entail a much longer, more complex and ultimately fruitless article where the conclusions were based on dozens of ifs. I may make references to such cards as an “if” for another card, such as (and I’m foreshadowing here) “If Mishra’s Workshop is released, Trinisphere will get restricted”.

I’ve always felt the mandate of the DCI was to control the power level and “degeneracy” of the format from rising beyond a certain control-point for the format. For example, in Vintage, you can do some really crazy things with Kobolds and Skullclamps, but since it’s not really crazier than a variety of other things you can do in that format, Vintage remains the only place where you can play a cardboard Skullclamp. I've found in discussing it with people that their notions of what Classic’s control point ought to be varies widely, but the only evidence we have so far to make assumptions of where it will all end up is Classic’s current restriction list – which is just Flash and Vampiric Tutor. Hence, I’m pretty sure that we can draw a ceiling at least pre-restriction flash as a power-level that’s unacceptable in Classic, and very likely will remain so.

Mind’s Desire, Burning Wish and Entomb

Vintage? No. Legacy? No. Classic? Yes?

The first cards I’d like to talk about are a threesome of power that, in fact, we already have online. I want to talk about these three in particular because they are the only cards that appear on both the Vintage and Legacy list, but that remain unscathed online. One has to wonder – why is it that Wish, Desire and Entomb are too strong for either paper format but somehow not so online? To understand it, one must first accept this fact – Classic is neither Vintage nor Legacy. If you don’t accept that, read no further – you won’t get anything out of the rest of this article. However, these three cards very quickly illustrate the point – there are cards available to the paper formats that make the B&R of them a necessity. First of all, Desire is simply too powerful in a format that drops free cards like nobody’s business, and draws them just as fast. Generally we are talking about the moxen and Lotus here – free mana acceleration and storm count make Mind’s Desire simply stupid – and chaining a Desire into another is over the top and far too easy to achieve. In Legacy, the card remains banned, possibly in favour of keeping Lotus Petal as a 4x and allowing the mirage tutors. I’ve never been 100% convinced that Desire would be terrible for the Legacy scene but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. And once you consider that, you know exactly why Wish was taken away from Vintage – it’s acts as copies of every degenerate sorcery ever conceived, including Desire itself. In Legacy, again, Wish’s power is obviously very good, but since it can’t act as copies of degenerate cards (which are presumably already banned) it’s power isn’t all that over the top. Presumbably, it’s about as good as Demonic Tutor that can only get a sorcery – which is still pretty dammed good mind you and definitely ban worthy. Lastly, Entomb in any format is essentially a 1 mana instant tutor with a weak drawback (it’s in your graveyard instead of your hand) which can easily be overcome by any number of cards/decks.

I’m pretty sure it’s a safe bet that, someday (perhaps soon), these cards are going to see a restriction. Regardless of the eventual final power level of Classic, there doesn’t seem to be any chance that these cards wouldn’t eventually become part of a deck that’s too powerful for the format.

Skullclamp
Here is a card that begs to be restricted every time I see it do it’s thing. In a long game or an aggro race, having an active Skullclamp is very, very often the deciding factor. However, since it’s possible to NOT have a long game that’s not an aggro race, Clamp remains untouched. If MED bring us the power of the best pre-mirage non-P9 cards (Workshop, Drain, etc) I I see this card staying unrestricted. If not, it’s banning in every format other than Vintage (the one where you can pile up enormous amounts of resources without Skullclamp anyway) leads me to believe that 4x Skullclamp will be a thing of the past – something will break it.

Trinisphere
This is probably the easiest one of the bunch. With Workshop, the card is crazy – end of story. It will be restricted. If we don’t get Workshop, it’s REALLY hard to break this card and I can’t see why 4x of it would be a terrible thing.

Gifts Ungiven and Fact or Fiction
Two interesting cards. One is a tutor which, in a format of restrictions, is a no-no. But the real problem with Gifts is that you often use it to get two really degenerate cards and a Recoup. And usually, those cards are Will, Tinker or Black Lotus. We may never get Lotus, and if the crazy mana acceleration (or Mana Drain) train never comes rolling down the MED track, Gifts isn’t a card that is nearly as easy to abuse as it is in Vintage. Fact, of course, is generally a problem when you use all that mana acceleration to play fact to chain into another Fact, gaining huge amounts of card advantage which can get you more mana to do really dumb things. The verdict here is this. Gifts will eventually see restriction no matter what. Fact is much more dependant on how much artifact acceleration we get.

Brainstorm, Ponder and Merchant Scroll.
I could probably write another whole article on the recent restriction of these cards in Vintage, but instead I'll just sum up. Brainstorm NEEDS to stay for a long while, Ponder won’t be restricted and Merchant Scroll is a good bet for restriction, though it’s possible if almost nothing blue comes from MED that it won’t. Right now it gets Flash and Gifts and Fact (and Force of Will). None of those are a problem at the moment, so Merchant Scroll seems safe for now, while still being a good card.

Mystical and Enlightened Tutor.
These cards will get restricted. Maybe not right away, but there isn’t any possibility that the restricted list won’t get bigger over time, and you can’t just have copies 2-5 of the most powerful instants, sorceries and enchantments sitting at the top of your deck at the end of turn for one mana.

Lion’s Eye Diamond, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal (Tempest), and Mox Diamond (Stronghold)

How much acceleration is too much?

This is an interesting one, because Lion’s Eye Diamond is a great combo enabler, but lacks real virtue anywhere else. Legacy allows 4x of each of these, but almost no other useful artifact acceleration. So it seems obvious to me. If MED brings us Sol Ring or any of it’s cohorts, I think you’ll see these four restricted. There is a limit on how much artifact acceleration you can allow. Without that though, I see all of these as a 4x staple for the format in several combo decks and other various decks.

Earthcraft (Tempest)
Unrestricted. They will give Earthcraft time to play. It’s not restricted in Vintage and that is a place where you actually want to tap a creature to untap a land, because your land choices are Academy, Bazaar, Workshop, Library, etc…

Dream Halls (Stronghold)
I’m going to break from the mold here. I don’t see them restricting Dream Halls right out of the box. Why? Because I think Wizards will want to give some time to those cards from the Classic sets that have never been available some time to play if they aren't absolute drop-dead-restrict-me-now cards. And when Wizards gives Dream Halls a chance to play, they’ll probably find out that while Dream Halls is a nuts card when you can get it out, it’s terribly hard to actually get it out and then have time to break it’s symmetry. It possible that Dream Halls online release could be the straw the broke the camel’s back with respect to it finally being unrestricted in Vintage.

Hermit Druid (Stronghold)
I don’t see Hermit Druid as a card that ultimately will see a restriction. Yes, it can dump your whole library into your graveyard and do stupid things, but then, there are so many dumb things you can do with your graveyard right now (and for less mana), Hermit Druid isn’t really that much to get worried about - until we get Yawgmoth's Will. At which point the two of them together for 5 mana say "Draw your library".

Oath of Druids (Exodus)

Powerful, yet creature based. This is the bar.

I practically wrote this article to get to Oath of Druids. You see, Oath of Druids represents a shining beacon of all that Wizards wants in a powerful format. You know, one that actually requires you to attack with creatures. Nevermind that Oath of Druids is probably the most efficient way to cheat a fatty into play – at least it involves you playing and attacking with creatures in your deck. Followers of Vintage will know that you can go through ROUNDS of play in a tournament without seeing a creature swing depending on the meta. Oath has been deemed too powerful for Legacy but not so much in Vintage by virtue of not being restricted, and since Wizards has said that, ultimately, the power level of the format will fall somewhere between the two paper formats, I humbly suggest that Oath of Druids is the bar by which all other decks will be measured. In other words, if you want to know if the deck is too powerful for Classic, you can simply ask: “How much more powerful is it than an Oath deck?” If the answer is “significantly”, it’s a good bet for additions to the restricted list. If the answer if “only a tiny bit”, or “under certain meta conditions” or “not at all”, then probably that deck is a safe bet to stay.

Memory Jar, Tinker, Tolarian Academy, Windfall, Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Yawgmoth’s Will (Urza’s block)
Restricted. All of them. Right out of the box. Man, Urza’s was bah-roken. There is no chance you’ll ever be able to play with more than one of these.

Frantic Search, Time Sprial (Urza’s block)
I think they will give these two cards time to play. Or at least they should. Frantic Search seems like an obvious restriction, but since it’s actually card disadvantage (though often in untaps a degenerate land)... well, I just have the feeling the untap-lands-free-mechanic will see a little bit of time before they shut these two cards down to 1x. I'm really stretching with Frantic Search though. It definitely wouldn't surpise me to see Franctic Search in the above group of auto-restricts.

Metalworker (Urza’s Block)

Think that's crazy? It's not quite crazy enough.

If I wrote this article mainly to spout how I think Oath of Druids should be a high water mark for the format, as a secondary point, I think Metalworker is also a perfect example of how much degeneracy you can allow. Because Vintage allows 4 Workshops and 4 Metalworkers and still no one plays it. This depsite in an artifact deck it essentially says “tap to add like 10 mana to your mana pool”. That’s crazy, and yet, it’s still nothing that classic shouldn’t be able to handle (by the time of it’s release). Metalworker is a great card to test someone’s placement in the eternal hierarchy when they are looking to start it up. If they think just by looking at it that it’s crazy it’s even allowed in Vintage, Vintage is definitely not for them. I think the same will be possible with Classic when it’s released. If they are outright dismissing Metalworker, Classic probably isn’t for them.

Gush (Masques Block)
There is no way this won’t be restricted when it won’t comes out now. They tried unrestricting in Vintage and Gush-powered blue decks were rampant- and winning. As a result, they reresticted it, and I can’t see them even giving it time to play in Classic, even if it’s just for optics. Gush is probably stuck on every eternal list for all time now, including when it's released in Classic.

SPECIAL APPEARANCE
Mana Crypt
Now that Mana Crypt has been spoiled for MED2 (just as I was getting ready to post this article), I feel pretty confidant that it will be restricted right about the same time you’ll be able to buy packs of MED2 at the online store. Free permanent mana acceleration is simply long gone from this game, and what were the designers thinking, right? Well that’s why we play Classic. Go Broken! Actually the release of Mana Crypt brings me right back to my point about Lotus Petal. I just can’t see 4 Petal, 4 Diamond and 1 Crypt. One of the other playsets is going to have to take a hit there, maybe both. And if MED has any more of this type of acceleration, you can kiss #2, 3, & 4 goodbye for practically all the mana acceleration, including anything with the word Mox in it.