With the announcement of the March 1st Banned and Restricted List we have one very important change upon us. For reference:
“Announcement Date: March 1, 2008
Magic Online Effective Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2008
(After the regularly scheduled Wednesday downtime)
DCI Floor Rule Change Announcement: Extended Rotation
The scheduled October 2008 rotation of the Extended format, as listed in the Magic Floor Rules, has changed. Following the release of the set codenamed "Rock", the following sets will be leaving the Extended format: Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse, Odyssey, Torment, Judgment, and Seventh Edition. The rotation previously listed in the floor rules also included Onslaught, Legions™, and Scourge. These three sets are now scheduled to leave Extended in 2009. One years' worth of blocks will leave Extended with every fall Magic release, syncing up Extended rotation with Standard rotation.
For more information about this change and the reasoning behind it, see Devin Low's Latest Developments article for Friday, March 7 on magicthegathering.com.
There are no changes to the Extended banned list.
Standard, Vintage, Legacy, Lorwyn Block Constructed, Two-Headed Giant Constructed
No changes”
Formats are healthy, but let’s look at what decks will die in October 2008 and what decks will continue to flourish as it were.
Dredge: loses Breakthrough, Careful Study, Ichorid, Cephalid Sage, Cabal Therapy, Tolarian Winds, Cephalid Coliseum...basically their whole deck. See you in Hell dredge!
Rock variants: loses Pernicious Deed (this is huge), Vindicate (same), Destructive Flow, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Spiritmonger, Living Wish, Collective Restraint…they lose a lot of key cards but they aren’t quite dead, especially Doran.
Goblins: loses Goblin Ringleader, Goblin matron, Cabal Therapy
Blue Control Decks: loses Counterspell (a big hit), Force Spike, Psychatog (Tarmogoyf killed him anyway)…not too much of a hit. I expect blue decks will still be fine post rotation.
Combo: loses Cabal Ritual, Solitary Confinement, Invasion Sac .lands, Draco, Erratic Explosion, Burning Wish, Fire/Ice, Vindicate, Pernicious Deed…It has been nice knowing you combo!
Red Decks/Domain Aggro: loses Grim Lavamancer, Vindicate, Barbarian Ring, Terminate, Gaea’s Might, Armadillo Cloak, Firebolt, Lava Dart…nothing devastating, at least not for RDW, Domain took the biggest hit
Tron: loses Moment’s Peace…laughable.
Storm combo and Ideal both took big hits, Dredge will stay in its grave, Goblins loses its tutors and draw enigine, Rock decks and Blue decks took a hit but we will have to see what the future brings us (we have 2 sets yet to replace that which was lost), Red Decks will continue to Win, but Domain is no more.
What we will see:
I expect Tooth and Nail to come back, Death Cloud will still be around and kickin’, Affinity loses absolutely nothing! Doran/Junk and “The Rock”, Blue has Rune Snag or Mana leak to replace Counterspell, U/G or U/W Tron will still see play.
I think Glittering Wish will replace Living Wish, Mortify and Putrefy will try to fill the void left by the loss of Pernicious Deed and Vindicate.
The question is whether or not we will see some new “fetchlands” perhaps some enemy fetches that require 2 life instead of 1 life.
Also Just a reminder, The ICBM Open #2 has be rescheduled to Tomorrow at 10 AM, same location. Still 20 Proxy, still 20 dollars, come on out a sling some vintage cards if you're free.
