Seriously, they banned Ponder and Preordain? (They also banned Cloudpost and Blazing Shoals, which do make some sense, as the win conditions they created were a bit ridiculous.) Well, I do understand these bannings somewhat. Yes, Wizards wants to slow down the combo deck (Splinter Twin, cough, cough). But the more obvious reason is this card:
Snapcaster Mage: The Best Card in Format?
Now THIS is a card that may actually be worth its current #30 price tag (foils are going for around $75). Snapcaster Mage obviously makes Ponder and Preordain ridiculous. There is a good draw card in Innistrad, though, Think Twice, which itself already has flashback, a wonderful reprint from Time Spiral.
So Snapcaster Mage makes it 1 less for it to flashback, but that’s all. Still, it’s just a simple can-trip. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more Gitaxian Probes, honestly.
These bannings of Ponder and Preordain honestly slow down the Modern Format so much. I don’t think they have banned enough yet for this format to be even reasonably competitive, in my opinion. It’s still ruled by Dragonstorm and Splinter Twin. So until they do some more banning, I want nothing of this format.
