Subject: Welcome to High Tide! Date: Tue, 01 Dec 1998 18:38:21 -0500 From: Zvi Mowshowitz To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The new banned lists have been made official. For the most part, the 'Banned list found' notice on The Dojo was correct; In Type II, Academy and Windfall were banned. Both violate the spirit of Type II in addition to being overpowered. This should be a good solution to Type II. In Type I, at the other extreme, they restricted (not banned, as reported) Stroke of Genius, Windfall and Tolarian Academy. I feel that they should also have restricted Time Spiral, but overall it's not a bad solution. But on the other two lists, the DCI dropped the ball. In a HUGE way. In Type 1.5, they didn't change anything. That doesn't make any sense. Clearly, Time Spiral decks of some sort will dominate Type 1.5 the way they did Extended in Rome. In Extended, they banned Windfall and Tolarian Academy. That's the good news. The bad news is that they UNBANNED Braingeyser, giving everyone 8 Stroke of Genius if they want them. Federico Dato's Decklist from Rome: 4 Time spiral 4 stroke of Genius 4 Turnabout 4 High Tide 4 Impulse 4 Intution 4 Force of Will 4 Arcane Denial 3 Mind over Matter 2 Merchant Scroll 1 Rescind 22 Island SB: 3 Disrupt 3 Hydroblast 3 Counterspell 2 Mana web 2 Vision Charm 2 Rescind This was the most successful version of a deck that performed as well as the standard Academy deck in Rome, despite many players not knowing about Merchant Scroll. This was one of the prime examples Pro players were using to make the case that banning the Academy wouldn't be enough to fix the problem. So what do they do? They make the deck BETTER. Here, have Braingeyser! And stop worrying about other Academy versions. I would be amazed if the qualifiers for NY were not dominated by High Tide decks and anti-High Tide decks. Since they also didn't ban Recurring Nightmare or Survival of the Fittest, control decks are still dubious at best in Extended. How could they not have reached this conclusion? Maybe something's coming in Urza's Legacy. It better be. Zvi Mowshowitz