Treasure Cruise focus of Banned & Restricted Announcement
Tags: #Legacy, #Modern, #News, #Vintage
posted 2015-01-19 by Nick Miller
One of the most highly anticipated Banned & Restricted announcements in recent years was unveiled today, shaking up multiple formats from Modern to Vintage.
Wizards of the Coast announced that Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, and Birthing Pod were banned in Modern while Treasure Cruise got banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. Golgari Grave Troll was unbanned in Modern and Worldgorger Dragon will return to Legacy. Gifts Ungiven was unrestricted in Vintage.
U/R Delver has been the center of attention in Modern and Legacy, using Treasure Cruise to push its advantage over the top and suppress each format. According to the press release, “Decks playing the powerful card drawers have been winning a lot, and pushing a lot of other decks down in completive play.”
Birthing Pod got the axe because of its growing strength from new creatures entering the format, growing the gap between it and other creature decks. The deck’s success in Grand Prix also made it a big target. The announcement claimed, “The high percentage of the field playing Pod suppresses decks, especially other creature decks, that have an unfavorable matchup.”
In Vintage, U/R Delver was again the driving force behind Treasure Cruise getting restricted, with the deck being so successful it was “hurting the diversity of the format.”
The full Banned & Restricted announcement can be read here.