And that's a little bit of how I feel about the Modern format right now. There's a Theros Prerelease this weekend, and all we're thinking or talking about today is what cards were banned. Say what you will about bans, they're great for content creators.

It is Wednesday, my dudes, and of course this week we're talking about the Modern bans. Modern has long been known as one of my favorite formats - I used to have a popular weekly column called Modern Monday where I explored the most obscure decks in the format through videos, and my Pro Tour Top 8 was even in Modern. I loved it. Every week, I could find something new to play, often with completely unknown cards, and it would be great. The thing is, we wouldn't just play the decks, often we'd win with the decks! It was what truly gave me the impression that you could play anything in Modern and have a real shot at winning.

Fast forward to today, and I find that Modern is likely my least played format. Pioneer has been awesome, and I love getting games in with new and unique brews. I also find the need to play Standard regularly every couple months when a set is new. Drafting is likely my most-played format, because every game feels different and there's less "metagaming" involved, and this is doubly true when a Cube is available on Magic Online (like there is currently).

I'm not entirely sure what happened to my love for Modern, but I imagine it happened around the time of Modern Horizons. I've always felt like Modern Horizons had dumped an entire swath of cards into the format that all enhanced or created their own archetypes that were of an absurd power level; cards like Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Urza, Lord High Artificer, or Ice-Fang Coatl, to name a few. That being said, I think the bannings that took place this week are really going to do good things for the format, and I'm excited to find out if that's the case. But let's discuss the cards that took a hit.

Oko, Thief of Crowns

Okay, I'm seriously tired of talking about this stupid card. Enough is enough. Our fearless leader over at CoolStuff, Evan Erwin, Tweeted that Oko was legal in Standard for 45 days, Pioneer for 73 days, and in Modern for 101 days. He later mentioned that this meant Oko was banned exactly every 28 days, which is just insane. The card is a problem. Like, a bigger problem than Jace, the Mind Sculptor and on par with something like Skullclamp.

People were splashing Oko in basically any deck that could support it, and even sometimes in decks that couldn't. It was a ridiculous situation, and as Ian Duke mentioned in the Banned and Restricted Announcement, decks with Oko in them had comprised about 40% of the Modern field. If anyone thinks a single mythic planeswalker should be in 40% of a format's decks, then you might want to play a game other than Magic; maybe a game with less variety and customization, like Chess. In Chess you get to have a Queen 100% of the time, and I guarantee you, she's powerful as you can get.

When I posted about the bannings on my public Facebook page, a regular bemoaner of bannings posited that if a card being in 40% of a format's decks is too much, then how come cards like Brainstorm and Lightning Bolt are just fine. I don't really know how to even begin to answer that, as this seems like more of a thing you just kind of "know," rather than have an easy way to describe. But it comes down to this: Magic has cards that win, and cards that help you get to the cards that win. Oko is a card that falls into the former. "My opponent played an Oko on turn two/three, and I just couldn't deal with it, so I lost." Brainstorm and Lightning Bolt fall into the latter category: they help you find the cards that win, or they help you survive long enough to find the cards that win. Sure, Lightning Bolt can win you a game every so often, but it's never doing it on its own.

Oko can and is.

Mox Opal

Wow, am I surprised at how long this card was legal. In fact, I literally received the last two copies for my playset just this past Saturday. Awk...ward. Thankfully, CoolStuff has a Reprint and Ban Guarantee, so you never have to worry about something like that!

Mox Opal was one of the strongest mana producers in the format, and was found in at least one Tier 1 deck at any given time, and neither metalcraft nor being legendary could deter it. The fact is, people thought Mox Opal should have been banned a long time ago, and every time it wasn't, it was met with shock and awe from the general populace. I think the Urza decks finally pushed it over the edge. Turns out it's pretty easy to get metalcraft when Oko is churning out food tokens or when your first turn play is an Arcum's Astrolabe.

While this banning is going to hurt decks like Affinity, Urza, and Hardened Scales, what it's really going to do is make them a little more balanced, as each of those decks has been the king of the hill at one point or another, with Urza decks holding that title for quite some time now. I don't think anyone is surprised to see Mox Opal go; I would wager they're more surprised it finally went.

Mycosynth Lattice

Let's be honest: unless you were a Commander player, you probably never even heard of this card before Karn, the Great Creator was printed. Also, the card does nothing. It personifies the Null Rod flavor text. What does it do? Let's read it.

"All permanents are artifacts in addition to their other types."

Okay, cool. So if our decks have nothing that interacts with artifacts, this is irrelevant.

"All cards that aren't on the battlefield, spells, and permanents are colorless."

Okay, cool. So if our decks have nothing that interacts with colorless cards, this is irrelevant.

"Players may spend mana as though it were mana of any color."

This is, realistically, the only ability on the card that is remotely useful when you're not extensively building around it, but also, how hard is it to build mana bases in Modern to cast your spells? The world is your oyster when it comes to Modern mana bases. Heck, Niv-Mizzet Reborn is an archetype that shows up from time to time, and that thing takes all the colors!

No one cared about Mycosynth Lattice in Modern until it put on the mask- er, until it combo'd with Karn, the Great Creator. The other option was banning Karn, the Great Creator, and that just makes no sense. Sure, Karn is great against decks that rely on activating artifacts, but he's a four-mana planeswalker, and decks were dealing with Stony Silence long before Karn. Additionally, without the Lattice, Karn is just a versatile planeswalker that rewards ingenuity.

Will Karn still be as playable now that Lattice is gone? Probably not. Will he still be a useful tool for some decks? For sure!

Theros: Beyond Death Stream!

Bannings aside, this Wednesday (today!) I'll be playing in the Theros: Beyond Death Early Access Streamer event, so be sure to check out my Twitch page, give me a follow or a subscribe, and you'll know exactly when I'm live. I'd love to see you guys there, and I'll be trying out a few new decks that are sent to me with cards from the new set.

Speaking of Theros, the set actually looks far more interesting than the original, but I do still worry about graveyard shenanigans. There are two things in Magic that scare me: graveyard mechanics and free spells. Well, and Gut Shot. I'm looking forward to talking about some of the cards and decks we explore next week after I've gotten some experience in with them.

As for this week, I'm super curious to hear your thoughts on these Modern bans. Are there other cards that need the axe? Were these incorrect choices? Sound off below in the comments and be sure to use promo code FRANK5 to get 5% off your purchase! As always, thank you so much for reading, you guys are the best, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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