Mtg Modern - Ban List

Was banning Attune with Aether in standard a good idea?

This is a very subjective question. There’s no real right or wrong answer to it. Personally, I enjoy playing oppressive decks, but don’t like them being all over my LGS, so I welcome bans that make decks like that weaker. Attune With Aether was the premier one-drop for the energy decks and was almost the whole reason to even play green aside from Rogue Refiner. Now we can get more interesting color combinations that are still energy. Energy as an archetype didn’t get hosed, but the obviously best color combination for energy was, and that is what I welcome.In a similar vein, I love playing aggro decks, since they offer a different style of play than control. I didn’t love Ramunap Red. That card being printed basically turned Red Aggro into something unstoppable unless you had lifegain, which is what Rampaging Ferocodon was put in the deck to counter. It had every answer and you had to play those cards if your aggro deck wanted a chance to even compete. With those gone, people are now more open to exploring Red Aggro with more all in cards and more creative ways to win in the late game, and are even exploring other colored aggro. I saw someone playing Black Aggro at my LGS on Saturday and that was really fun to watch against Abzan Tokens.All this to say, as much as I loved energy, I think all the bans made, not just Attune With Aether, were a good idea. The whole concept and reasoning behind banning cards is to open deck building ideas so that there isn’t ever really a “best deck” in standard ever again.

Can older Magic the Gathering cards be used in modern games, or do they violate certain rules?

That depends on which format you’re playing.Magic’s most popular format is Standard. If you’re planning to attend a Standard tournament, all of your cards must have had a printing in the last two years. If you’re playing Modern, then the cards must have been printed in a normal set since the new card frame was created, around 8th Edition/Mirrodin (2003). For Legacy and Vintage, there is no restriction on cards based on age. If you’re playing in a Limited event, then you can’t use your own cards anyway.If you’re just playing casual, non-tournament Magic, then age shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but you should probably check with your friends anyways.(I’m assuming that by “modern games”, you meant “games played in modern times”, not “games in the Modern format”.)

Was banning Rampaging Ferocidon in standard a good idea?

I think the banning was very interesting choice, and overall a good one.Thanks to the endless amounts of data that can be gathered online, Wizards has a lot of information to chew through when making banning decisions, and I think they are still seriously weighing the repercussions of banning things. So they are starting to look at the data a little more carefully, and they have a Play Design team that is much better equipped to understand the subtleties of metagmaes etc.Temur clearly was too powerful, but except for the match-up against Temur, the Red deck had an insanely good winning record against everything. So they first asked “with Temur lower in the metagame, will decks be able to target the mono-red match up?”In the banning decision, WotC mentions that the usual ways of combating an aggro deck like Mono-Red is with sideboard lifegain cards, as well as tokens/chump-blocking. Rampaging Ferocidon single-handedly stops both attempts at counterplay.If they had not banned it, I feel like in a few weeks everyone would be complaining about how OP mono-Red is, and they would be back to the chopping block again.

What cards would you ban or un ban in the Magic: The Gathering Modern format to achieve more balanced game play?

Modern seems to be pretty balanced at the moment (end of 2015). Modern events and metagame @ mtgtop8.com shows a lot of different decks placing well in the last two months, and nothing really seems to be dominating the field. There seems to be enough hate available against each archetype, so once something starts dominating, the sideboarding metagame can shift to punish the trend.If they really wanted to un-ban something, my #1 pick would probably be Ancestral Vision. Current Modern should survive it, control decks are under-represented anyway.The Amulet Titan decks can be pretty powerful but they are so hard to play well that they are not really a danger to the format. Still, I can see a future in which Amulet of Vigor becomes banned at some point, especially if more people learn to pilot these decks.But, honestly, I would rather see the Lantern Control deck banned because playing against it is no fun at all :)Update (early 2016): ...aaand the new bans are in. Amulet Titan deck was indeed banned, albeit by banning Summer Bloom. Close enough to my guess? Probably. Also, it's bye-bye Splinter Twin. I really didn't expect that one.

What are some infinite mana combos with newer cards in MTG?

Well…Firstly let’s define “Newer Cards” here.If we’re talking Between Ixalan and Ravnica Alliegance (at time of post), I don’t think there is any at all.But if you wanna go back to say… Modern legal sets…Visier Of Remedies combo is basically the key hallmark variant.In Commander, you’re playing Singleton with a LEGACY (with a modified ban list) ban list.Things like…Gilded Lotus + Isochron Septer with a Dramatic Reversal is infinite mana and infinite storm triggers. Swap dramatic reversal for a Ritual that makes 3 or more mana and a Paradox Engine for the same effect.Next time specify your question, please?