This is one of the lowest points in the history of the Modern format.

Modern was once Magic's golden child. It was the perfect intersection of casual and competitive, a format where you could brew, you could play one of many top decks, and your deck could sit in a box for a year and then be ready to go for the next event with a few small updates. Every Magic player was able to find a Modern deck that matched their personality and play style, with many different viable options.

Sure, there were some valid complaints from high level players that the format was a competitively volatile one because of the huge array of strategies coupled with interaction that was hard to line up, but frankly the upsides far outweighed the downsides and this is why it was Magic's most popular format.

Not anymore.

In a classic monkey's paw scenario, Wizards of the Coast has now printed four straight-to-Modern sets with an extremely high power level and lots of interaction. The results of this are twofold.

The first is simply that Modern Horizons cards are largely better than 98% of all the other cards in Modern, turning Modern essentially into a rotating format. Modern pre-Modern Horizons 3 bears little resemblance to Modern post-Modern Horizons 3, and these format-wide upheavals feel completely at odds with Modern's prior mission statement of being a format you could invest in a deck and feel good about that deck for years to come.

The second is that all this extremely powerful interaction (alongside about a dozen ridiculous power level outliers that are must-play cards) has decimated Modern as a brewer's format. The power level outliers are just so much better than everything else in the format you're handcuffing yourself if you aren't playing them, and the interaction is so good that it's hard to try and put something fun together because you just get picked apart.

Which brings us to where we are now; something must change.

Monday is the official Banned and Restricted announcement, and Blake from Wizards of the Coast has promised it's going to be a doozy.

Here's what I would like to see.

Ban - The One Ring

Wizards of the Coast has been dancing around this one for over a year, as obviously banning the marquee card from the biggest Universes Beyond release ever and one of the best selling sets of all time is a bad look, but do you know what else is a bad look?

The One Ring being played in almost 60% of all top placing Modern decks.

This number is almost unbelievable, but is what happens when you push the power level of a colorless card into the stratosphere. If your deck can make a reasonable amount of mana and likes to draw more cards, you need to decide why you aren't playing The One Ring rather than why you should be.

There's not much else to say here. If this was Teferi's Time Ring or something it would have already been banned, and I would be astounded if The One Ring wasn't banned this Monday.

The only caveat is that maybe they could consider restricting it, with flavor reasons being the selling point, but this would be unprecedented. It's a somewhat elegant solution, reducing the power level of the card significantly (as it is awful flavor for multiple copies to remove the burden of the ring), but carries some serious baggage.

Ban - At Least One If Not Two Energy Cards

Wizards of the Coast is officially batting .000 when it comes to energy as a mechanic.

The first time around in Kaladesh multiple energy cards needed to be banned in Standard, and with Modern Horizons 3 taking another swing and miss, energy is one more set from striking out.

Energy is just a bad mechanic.

It's parasitic, in that it doesn't really interact with much else in the entire game, and either you don't have enough good effects so it won't make a difference, or you've got enough pushed cards with energy written on them that when you put them all in a deck you're just playing way above rate.

Boros Energy and its variants are the clear tier zero strategy in Modern and this won't change until multiple cards are banned. Guide of Souls is the best threat and the completely ridiculous Galvanic Discharge is one of the best removal spells in the entire format, making them both easy targets.

Unban - Splinter Twin

Folks, it's not 2013.

Splinter Twin has long big one of the biggest boogeymen from Modern's history, a deck that was lethal in its ability to be both a combo and a control deck, as well as shift gears as needed. In the hands of good players, it felt like there wasn't really anything a well-prepared Splinter Twin player couldn't handle.

However, Splinter Twin has been gone for a long time, and in that time Modern has gained a windfall of excellent interactive options.

There are so many cheap, or even free, ways to interact with the Splinter Twin combo that the card would barely make a dent in the format.

Splinter Twin would be an exciting unban for players holding on to the past, but also not a threat to the format in any way beyond a tier two or worse deck. This is an easy unban.

Unban - Umezawa's Jitte

Hey grandpa look, it's another absolute relic!

Umezawa's Jitte still being on the Modern ban list is embarrassing. There was a time when the card was completely dominant. However, in that time the average creature was a 1/1 or 2/1 and there were only a handful of decent removal spells. Creatures and threats in general are massive these days, and removal is bountiful, cheap, and sometimes costs no mana. Spending four mana to equip an Umezawa's Jitte and attack is only going to get you blown out by Solitude or have your opponent chuckle when you add your two counters and they blow you out of the water the next turn with a Wrath of the Skies or combo kill.

Unbanning Umezawa's Jitte brings in a nice little nostalgia factor while also giving a slight bump to Stoneforge Mystic, a fun and classic card that could use the help.

Other Potential Unbans

There's an inherent risk to making too many changes at once, as if things go sideways it can be harder to diagnose and cure, but there are a few other cards that could potentially see unbans as well.

Faithless Looting was a former pillar of the format that died for many other card's sins. It's a synergy card that makes decks actually care about things. I've written more on the subject here.

A somewhat risky one, as Birthing Pod decks masquerade as fun creature toolbox decks but ultimately just devolve into one turn combo kills, but it is very likely that Birthing Pod would be a totally fair card in Modern in this day and age.

Blazing Shoal would be absolutely safe to unban, as there's no chance it could keep up with Modern's current interaction suites, but it's also a card that will never do anything "good" so it's understandable to keep it banned.

Finding the Middle Ground

Banning three cards and unbanning two to three cards would definitely be a "doozy" of an announcement, and frankly the format needs it. I was once an avid Modern player, but have been turned off more and more with each passing Modern Horizons set, to the point where I only play the format now if a Pro Tour or other big event demands it.

When longtime Modern content stalwarts like aspiringspike and Andrea Mengucci are shying away from the format, it is very clear that something is fundamentally wrong and needs to be fixed. Bans and unbans are a temporary solution, but I don't know if Modern as a format can sustain any more of these straight to Modern releases.