May 1st, 2024 – Bans, Unbans, Trials and cards to watch

[Rigero]

May 1st, 2024 – Bans, Unbans, Trials and cards to watch

Dalibor has been a long-standing member of the council that participated in shaping the format as a council member and a player. Due to lackluster activity over a long period, the active council members have voted with 5 yes, 0 no and 2 abstain to part ways with Dailbor. We wish him all the best in the future. We are looking for a replacement from the Slovakian community. So, please, send us your application, in case you can see yourself working on and improving our format!

Changes to the present banned list, effective 15.05.2024:

Banned
-

Unbanned
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Balance

Unban Trial:
Over the past years, many cards got tried out an unbanned. The currently banned cards are the cream of the crop and their trials might have huge impact on the format. We want the dust to settle after the Uro and Balance unban. Also the printing of MH3 will heavily influence our format within a month. Therefore we will take a break from the trials for this trial period.


Single card explanation:


Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath (6 for unban, 0 for ban, 2 abstain)
Uro is a powerful threat in simic style midrange and control decks, that can mitigate a lot of the early pressure by aggressive decks. However, todays highlander has more tools available to handle the titan. Exile removal became more accessible and incidental graveyard hate can more easily be included. Graveyard synergies and ramp decks heavily profit from the titan, but there has not been concerning observations to us in the trial phase. Therefore, Uro will be unbanned.


Balance (4 for unban, 2 for ban, 2 abstain)
Balance is a cheap equalizer that can relief early pressure and reset a game. Overall, we do not consider this aspect of the card as problematic. The key to abuse Balance is to break parity. This is only possible in dedicated (synergy heavy) archetypes, which are not well represented right now. Even in those decks Balance needs to be set up and the game has to be stirred into a game state, that actually benefits its caster. We think that the card enables some interesting deck building choices and pros outweigh the cons. Having an interactive game piece, that benefits setup, a controlling approach to the format and punishes creature centric overaggression, is beneficial to our format and strengthens underrepresented archetypes. As such, Balance will be unbanned.

Cards to watch:

Currently we don't see major offenders in our format. Please, feel free to give us suggestions of cards we should specifically monitor, in case you think there is need for action.



Contact us:
Forum (http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php), Email (hlcouncil.eu@gmail.com)

Next scheduled Update: 1st August 2024 – Bans, Unbans, Trials and cards to watch