For a while, I’ve maintained that Deathrite Shaman should be banned. Last week during my mail article, I was asked directly about why I think the card should go. I’m going to use some space here to talk about the card’s power in general and both sides of the argument and hopefully sway some of you to my side.

The Card is Too Powerful

Going over its abilities is an insult, so instead I’m going to discuss why it’s so powerful here. Mana ramp is an often sought after ability for being able to jump ahead. In a format like Legacy where being able to jump ahead of the curve is extremely valuable, this is going to be fantastic. Being able to tap for any color can easily fix mana woesl; and, while eating a land out of a graveyard is a cost, it isn’t a large one. But being a mana dork isn’t really a reason for a card being too powerful. Moving ahead, Deathrite Shaman is also its own win condition. Being able to pressure the opponent from the get go without the combat step can put you far ahead. Most creatures mirror devolve into board states where the other is waiting for you to blink. Deathrite Shaman lets you pull far ahead there. Not only this, but Deathrite Shaman can gain life, changing race math completely and giving you a way to fight through graveyard strategies.

Wasteland used to be a card to punish decks that tried to be very greedy. Every once in awhile it could punish a player who kept a loose hand. Deathrite Shaman can completely nullify that without having the downside of playing a useless mana dork. Deathrite Shaman as a ½ means it can attack or block fairly effectively against some of the format. Meaning that it isn’t entirely useless.

The best turn one play is by far Deathrite Shaman. If I had an opening hand of Fetchland, Deathrite Shaman, Ace of Spades, Uno card, and some Unstable cards, I’d feel like I was making the best turn one play I could. Now it’s easy to think, “Well sure, that’s nice. But on turn one you could Dredge a lot of cards or Show and Tell in an Emrakul or Tendrils for 20!”, but all of those require the right combination of cards. While it’s certainly not impossible for this to happen, it feels like the least amount of investment for highest gains can start with a turn one Deathrite Shaman.

The tempo gained off Deathrite Shaman can be massive. Being able to Daze or Wasteland and not miss a beat pushes this card into easily one of the best cards to have in play at all times.

If Deathrite had only one of these abilities, I think it stands to reason that it would be closer to fair. But being able to pressure the opponent while giving you ways to ramp and interact push this way over the edge. Deathrite Shaman plays every role. Not only does it help you keep pace on the draw or push ahead on the play, it can be a win condition on its own or give you the breathing space needed and attack the graveyard all in one.

Just like I pointed out last week, Deathrite Shaman has been called a 1-mana Planeswalker, the card is extremely powerful.

Easy to Interact With

Deathrite Shaman has its downsides, of course. Essentially, every removal spell played in Legacy is great at killing Deathrite Shaman. While being a 1/2 has a lot of benefits against some of the format, it can look downright silly against a Tarmogoyf or a Thought-Knot Seer. Hard to kill your opponent when they are attacking for four into your 1/2. If the opponent has their own Deathrite Shaman or something similar (like Scavenging Ooze) it makes interacting a bit harder and leaves Deathrite kind of staring with unused mana. The downside to this is that sometimes what you need to kill Deathrite doesn’t line up well against other threats and using your removal in a poor sequence can lead to disastrous results. Similarly to how Fatal Push made Death's Shadow great in Modern, it has also found its way into Legacy as a great removal spell as well.

At lots of times, it can even be easy to ignore.

Can be Ignored

With a plethora of combo decks and Deathrite Shaman’s low converted mana cost it can either be ignored or shut out by Chalice of the Void. While Deathrite Shaman CAN line up well against Lands and 4-Color Loam it’s reasonable to just use Punishing Fire to eat away at Deathrite Shaman. With Grove in play you can force a Deathrite player to sit on it and a Black source to see if you’ll mess up. Savvy Punishing Fire players won't fall into these traps and most combo decks can power through it.

Combo decks in general can ignore it and the Reanimator decks have moved to being as fast as possible in order to get on the board before Deathrite gets online.

Ubiquitous/Preventing growth

Deathrite Shaman is everywhere. It’s warping the format and not in a healthy way. All the fair decks that are performing well are playing it and there’s really no reason not to. This is stifling growth from other potential decks and it’s making Legacy worse. Deathrite Shaman is one of the best plays you can do. It looks like most decks are either trying to ignore Deathrite completely or they are playing Deathrite. The highest win percentage in the fields always seems to be Deathrite decks and this is putting Legacy in a bad spot. Deathrite provides the tools to go long and close out games quickly and we’ve even seen it be used this way in decks like Elves. Utilizing one of the many methods to untap Deathrite Shaman in Elves, it’s easy to clean out an opponent in a few turns. Against fair decks, it felt like you would have to pack multiple ways to compete with a wide variety of threats. Now it feels like the most important sideboard cards are ones that deal with Deathrite. Even if an opponent is packing Rest in Peace, Deathrite Shaman does a fine job of just attacking for one. If the sideboard cards aren’t even making a major impact then it’s likely that Deathrite is just too good.

But what about the decks Deathrite is keeping in check?

The decks that players believe Deathrite is keeping in check are actually just making those decks unplayable. Banning Deathrite Shaman won't suddenly make Reanimator unbeatable or let Dredge walk all over the format, but it WILL allow those decks to be playable. Nimble Mongoose used to be one of the premier threats in the format and now the card is mostly unplayable. If Deathrite does get banned I think it only opens up the format more and I’d be more interested in playing it. If certain decks start picking back up it will be pretty easy to adjust sideboards as a way to counteract those decks that are doing well.

Maybe you disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts below on why you want Deathrite around!