From The Vault: Exiled: Why They Were Exiled

The following post is from the author of M:TG Color Pie at http://mtgcolorpie.wordpress.com/. His blog mainly focuses on the flavour of Magic. He wrote this post on From The Vault: Exiled. Enjoy!

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From the Vault: Exiled goes on sale this Friday and if you haven't pre-ordered your copy, wow, I'm sorry. These things will go like hotcakes: tournament worthy foils, some that haven't been printed in foils before, sought after EDH staples. But, this being a tournament blog, I've decided to give you all a history lesson in tournaments: why were these cards banned/restricted?

For some of you complaining why this set didn't have Sol Ring or Mana Drain or the like, calm down. Wizards is also giving us a history lesson; theses are cards that were too good to see multiple copies in a deck. So while you may be mad at Kird Ape being in here, there's a reason.

Name: Balance
Banned/Restricted format: Banned - Legacy & EDH/Restricted - Vintage
Why: Let's see, a Mind Twist, Armageddon, and a Wrath of God for 1W. Gee, how could that go wrong. Like all reset cards, Balance is too good when it becomes abused for a one-sided effect. Good against weenie decks, good against mana ramp decks and good against control decks. So having all that on one card at that price, is unthinkable these days. Imagine playing it in a deck with four-of's? Sick, right?

Name: Berserk
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Vintage (Unrestricted in 2003)
Why: 1. Wizards hates doubling (except MaRo). 2. This was way more powerful when creatures overran the tables. Vintage has shifted to more of the spells/combo control metagame over the past 10+ years and so to give creature heavy decks a chance, this was unrestricted. No one's called for it's restriction again.

Name: Channel 
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy/Restricted - Vintage
Why: Yes, another Green spell. Part of the "first" combo Channel/Fireball, it was actually the first engine that changed one resource to another (life for mana). And because the mana is colorless AND you can pay it any time during the turn, you can do some crazy stuff for it. Right now it's in my Verdeloth the Ancient EDH deck. Really, really good.

Name: Gifts Ungiven
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - EDH/Restricted - Vintage
Why: In a format where some of the most powerful cards are restricted, it was only a matter of time before this one went the same way. "Hey, I'm going to go get 4 cards and oh, I've got a Yawgmoth's Will in my hand? Oh darn, I missed that." It's even banned in EDH. It's better than Intuition and Fact or Fiction in Vintage, the two cards that inspired this.

Name: Goblin Lackey
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Before the printing of Onslaught, the "best" goblins were Goblin Marshal, Goblin Welder, Mogg Fanatic, and Squee. After Onslaught: Goblin Goon, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Sharpshooter, Goblin Warchief, and Siege-Gang Commander. Notice the better Goblins because players sure did. First turn Lacky. Second turn swing, put Siege-Gang onto the battlefield, cast Warchief. Third turn cast Piledriver, swing with all. That's alot of damage. It's a very powerful 1/1 threat.

Name: Kird Ape
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Extended (Unbanned in September 2005 with printing in 9th)
Why: Because a 2/3 for R is too powerful. Seriously, that's why Kird Ape was banned when Extended first started (I know because I read it in my InQuest magazine). Besides my first take with it (I thought it was +1/+2 for each forest in play), it was still a good card. Again, this is a time when more people were playing creatures than spells so anything this powerful on the first turn had to be ban-worthy. Of course, times have now changed, everyone can get a laugh that a "vanilla" creature can get banned. Right Tarmogoyf?

Name: Lotus Petal
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Since I'm a design guy, let's just go to the mouth of the designer of this card, MaRo? "This card shows how crazy Black Lotus is. During Tempest design, I thought it would be flavorful to make new “fixed” Black Lotus. Since I liked the idea of a 0 cost artifact, I lowered the number of mana it produced. The development team even questioned if it was too weak. In the end though we felt like the card might find some use in a very niche deck. I guess the niche decks were degenerate decks." Tolarian Academy says thanks (with some help from Hurkyl's Recall and the storm mechanic).

Name: Mystical Tutor
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: Like all good one mana tutors, it's too powerful in multiples (Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Merchant Scroll). Considering it gets the best cards in Vintage (Ancestral Recall, Yawgmoth's Will, Mana Drain), it's no surprise that this would get restricted when the metagame flipped to a more spell based environment. The "drawback" of putting on top of your library is not one at all; if you play it at the end of your opponent's turn you can draw it and not allow it to get stripped with a Duress/Thoughtsieze/Mind Twist.

Name: Necropotence
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy/Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: The card that started all of those breakfast cereal names. It's a real good card advantage draw engine. Back in the day (Ice Age) people would draw alot of cards, then Drain Life their opponent's life and do it all over again. In Extended it was also matched with an Ice Age card (Illusions of Grandeur) and MaRo favorite, Donate. Paying 1 life for a card is too good, as Yawgmoth's Bargain proves.

Name: Sensei's Divining Top
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Extended
Why: Sure, it's a card that takes some time to play through, which is totally something worth considering. But I believe that it's a combination of two cards that got this banned. First: Counterbalance, a house in Legacy. Second: the upcoming printing of Tezzert. Yes, this card was banned last year right before Shards came out. I guess being able to fetch this card and create a soft lock was way too good for Extended, and they're right.

[Not to mention even non-Counterbalance decks played it, and it slowed down the games so much that they went to time really often. -Salivanth]

Name: Serendib Efreet
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Again, another creature that was so powerful when Extended first started out as a format it was banned outright. Even by today's standards it would be a powerful card (as evidence by it almost being Timeshifted [Here's the link for you to use - http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af139]) but powerful to be banned? At that time, there wasn't alot of cards that would see play to get rid of it (Swords to Plowshares and maybe Fireblast). Since then, there have been plenty of removal where it can safely see play in Eternal formats.

Name: Skullclamp
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Mirrodin Block, Extended, Legacy/Previously Banned - Standard
Why: The best example of why to ban a card in a format, Every deck had it, or was built to beat it. When introducing a new card type, it's best to push it a little bit to see how far it goes. But it wasn't even supposed to have the +1/-1 attached to it (It was originally to be +1/+2 but pushed it to make it better [Link -http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af17] (By the way, read the last paragraph. It's the last line that's the most chilling)). This card is degenerate, which is why more artifacts are banned/restricted because they can go in any deck.

Name: Strip Mine
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: Because even it's younger brother who can only hit non-basics is pretty powerful (Wasteland, for those who didn't know). Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam make this abusable and the fact that this land kill can't be countered (non-Stifle) is bad idea jeans (Look, if I could link to a non-Hulu site for this sketch, I would. If you can see Hulu, look it up). Land destruction does make things less fun to play (can you can't play anything) and this card is a great example why. Though I'm sure if this was in Standard right now, 5 color control wouldn't be as powerful.

Name: Tinker
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy & EDH/Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Great idea gang: Let's make a card that allows you to put an artifact into play (It wasn't battlefield back then) without making you pay for it. We'll even allow you to search your deck for said artifact when you don't have it in your hand. Draw back: all you have to do is sacrifice an artifact. It's like you're tearing apart one artifact for another. Let's print it! Besides what a bad idea that is, the other reason it got banned in Extended was not the Bosh/Isochron Scepter brokenness, it was right before Darksteel came out. You know, like Darksteel Colossus (Oath of Druids was banned at the same time as well [Link -http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/rb100], I wonder why).

Name: Trinisphere
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: As was Strip Mine an unfun card to not allow spells being played, this is a little different. Yes, it shuts down cheap combo decks but in Vintage with Mirshra's Workshop it can take a player out of a game. By playing a few Moxes, Workshop and this in the first turn before your opponent has even played anything holding a hand full of Moxes and a Lotus, you've won the game. It was too disruptive to even consider not restricting it down the road.

That's a look at the cards in the From the Vault: Exiled list. While I felt they picked cards that showcased some of their mistakes, there could've have been some more interesting choices in terms of "promo awesome to have in foil" cards (Tolarian Academy, Memory Jar, etc...). Maybe they're saving those for From the Vault: Exiled 2: Exiled Harder.