Wizards of the Coast and Magic R&D have embraced Modern as a much easier to support eternal format (due to the effect of the Official Reprint Policy).  The players are somewhat torn on the format itself however.  Here are some of my ideas to get the format going.




Idea #1 - Shuffle more cards on or off the Modern Banned List

Players don't like banned cards unless the card is too degenerative.  Problem here is Modern was announced with a banned list and few cards have come off that list at all.  Here is the current Modern Banned List:

• Ancestral Vision
• Ancient Den
• Bitterblossom
• Blazing Shoal
• Chrome Mox
• Cloudpost
• Dark Depths
• Dread Return
• Glimpse of Nature
• Golgari Grave-Troll
• Great Furnace
• Green Sun's Zenith
• Hypergenesis
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Mental Misstep
• Ponder
• Preordain
• Punishing Fire
• Rite of Flame
• Seat of the Synod
• Sensei's Divining Top
• Stoneforge Mystic
• Skullclamp
• Sword of the Meek
• Tree of Tales
• Umezawa's Jitte
• Vault of Whispers
• Wild Nacatl

Now on this list, what cards would Magic R&D be able to unban?

Ponder and Preordain were banned due to being very cheap and very good card draw spells that were used in both combo decks and control decks.  They may still be too powerful for the environment if both were unbanned but I think one or the other could be unbanned without too much of a problem.  Preordain is probably the safer of the two with Delver being around.

Glimpse of Nature and Green's Sun Zenith are cards that the legacy Elf combo decks run.  Now I don't think this deck is as degenerative in Modern as it is in Legacy due to the absence of a lot of cards (Priest of Titania, Gaea's Cradle, Wirewood Symbiote, Quirion Dryad, Birchlore Rangers).  Still the combo exists, so what would you do here?  Unbanning Glimpse of Nature and leaving Green's Sun Zenith would allow the deck to possible exist again without it moving into degenerative zone.

Ancestral Visions is a card that should be looked at to be unbanned.  Sure this card could be too risky to unban but I can say that you have to try and unban a few borderline cards and see what happens.  Control decks are currently decent in Modern (3rd most popular archetype played on Day 1 and Day 2 at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica) and this could help keep some of the combo decks in check.

Wild Nacatl can be an aggressive creature in Modern.  Is it too powerful for Modern?  I certainly don't think so.  You still have some powerful Combo and Control decks in Modern but there are no true aggro decks (Robots and Infect are almost Aggro Combo decks) that have performed well since he was banned.  In a world where creatures get better with every set, Wild Nacatl isn't broken and isn't ban worthy.

Mental Misstep is a card that Modern needs in the format rather than being banned.  This is going to be controversial with a lot of players but I think it is absolutely important to have a card like this in an eternal format.  Look at the banned list.  Most every card on the list costs 0 or 1 mana (19/29 or 65.5%).  Mental Misstep deals with 8 cards on this list (many of them combo cards or combo enablers). Look at the top decklists from the most recent Modern Pro Tour and Grand Prix.  Lots of cards that cost 1.  I think a card like Mental Misstep would reshape what Modern currently looks like.

Chrome Mox is not as degenerative as it looks.  It has been apart of Extended and even Legacy but it isn't banned in any other format currently and I don't think it should be.  Eternal formats should have the elements to be able to play combo, control, aggro, or aggro / control (midrange is a little harder in Eternal formats).  Chrome Mox has always been a card that increases the speed of your deck with the cost of a resource (exile a card from your hand) that you are unable to get back later.  Sure, there is a possibility for combo decks to use this card to speed up there decks but again some cards should be unbanned and let's see what the players do with them.

Idea #2 - Add Modern as an Official Friday Night Magic (FNM) sanctioned event

This hasn't happened yet and Modern is a format that is a little over a year old.  After the community cup last year, the changed Pro Tour Philly 2011 from Extended (a format that was having drastically low attendance) to Modern. Since then there have been 2 Pro Tour, 5 Grand Prix, and one PTQ season that have used the format (as well as the Magic World Cup) but beyond that there has been little support on the local level.  Until this is a option for available, it may remain difficult to increase interest.

Idea #3 - Magic R&D need to make more products related to the Modern format like Modern Masters to reduce the entry price of Modern

I love the idea of Modern Masters set as a possible way to get players into the Modern format.  I also realize that collectors are worried about losing value from there collections.  I am both a competitive player and a collector.  To those out there that are collectors, you are not going to like what I am about to say, so here is your warning...

*Enter Rant Phase*

A collector is like someone who plays the Stock Market.  They have to understand when to buy and when to sell to make a profit.  Magic cards are like Stocks, they fluctuate up and down depending on supply and demand as well as playability.  Cards printed from a set before 8th edition were part of the Official Reprint Policy and therefore aren't discusses as part of this 'reprint'.  Anything printed as of 8th Edition up, is fair game for reprint.  As a person who enjoys competing at Magic, I need cards to compete.  Therefore, I am in favor of Modern Masters and any other new products to help keep players playing the Modern format.  If you don't like this policy of Wizards of the Coast, then trade your cards that are Modern legal for Vintage / Legacy legal cards that are worth tons of money and quit complaining about losing on your investment.    I realize that Chronicles was a mistake as it flooded the market with too many cards too fast thus the Official Reprint Policy was put into place.  The Official Reprint Policy is unaffected by this set.  Deal with it.

*End Rant Phase*

Now that's out of the way, if this is what Magic R&D wants to do, then they should look into other Modern-only products for players who want to get into the format.  Products like Modern Event Decks would be ideal.  There are a few decks that don't include a ton of rares / mythic cards which are good for reprinting.  Here is one of them, UR Storm which has very few rares total in its 75


Mythic: 3 Past in Flames
Rares: 7 Saclands, 2 Shocklands, 4 Pyromancer Ascension, 3 Pyromancer's Swath (Total 16)

That's fairly cheap considering Modern's price tag.  I certainly feel like a combination of these 3 would do wonders to promote the Modern as Wizards of the Coast Eternal Format of choice.