Equipments and Lands - Explaining All Banned Cards in Modern [Part 3] 

Gotta love how the “nerfed” version of Skull Clamp can be “fixed” by restoring it to the original stats of +1/+1…

The funniest thing about Skull Clamp is that your "fixed version" was the way it was originally designed. The balance team thought giving +1/+1 was too strong and changed it last minute to weaken it without enough time to test it and find out how wrong they were.

Fun fact, Umezawas Jitte was in a starter deck. At one point the card was worth more than the original sales price of the deck

I remember when may playgroup started playing magic, specifically Commander, and I played skullclamp. I pointed out how this was a banned card in other formats, my friend couldn't understand why as the equipment didn't make my creatures much better. After drawing 8 cards in a single turn, he just stated to the group that that thing needed removal right now.

Artifact lands could be legendary to somewhat "fix" them

I love the video, but there is one really important miss on the jite segment. Arguably the most powerful thing about jite is that it doesn't need a creature to do most of what it does. It's removal and life gain effects are just statically on the artifact itself, as are the counters. So even if you do kill the creature that jite is buffing, it's only a partial solution to a much bigger problem, which is that they still have a charged jite and their next creature is going to be a real menace as a result

Dark dephts would probably be fine with an "when the last ice counter is removed, sacrifice it" errata. No more thespian, no more copy, and there are way more ways to stop a creature like hexdrinker mage, rather than a land drop.

Skullclamp's article by Aaron Forsythe is always a fun article to read and show people who just discovered the card.

16:46 There's a card called Marit Lage's Slumber. Which can make the same Marit Lage token, just a lot harder to cheat out.

For your next magic vid you should talk about how combos actually work in mtg an how they are different than yugioh combos and how they can be interacted with. Dark depths for example is actually not too hard to interact with. The big ol creature while indestructible is a token so any bounce spell completly removes it it dont have trample so it can be chump blocked and its targetable. Edict effects spells that make the opponent sac a dude get around indestuctible and they typically havent been good enough to see play cus most playable dudes have an etb trigger so you remove some stats but if guys like merrit lage are playable edicts become decent tech options. You also go down 2 lands to do the combo. Once you make the copy of dark depths you sac the og to legend rule and the copy sacs itself to make the token. The thing about depths is similar to jitte one of the best modern decks is primeval titan with amulet of vigor. Dark depths isnt better than what what they are already trying to do but it would just give a tier 1 deck even more resilance to the meta and give em another alt win con, while not really effecting the meta in other positive ways. Older formats have a bunch of cheaper mana cards that let you play multiple lands per turn and play em outta your gy so they abuse wasteland remove all your lands and eventually have to win somehow so a combo that doesnt use the stack is hard to interact with specially when all your lands keep gettin blown up. The mox was banned partly cus of prime time decks. While modern is a turn 4 format prime time even with all the bannings can still kill ya on turn 2 and its one of the most complicated combo decks its why once upon a time was banned. The deck plays bounce lands these cards that are unplayable in every other deck but become some of the most busted mana producing things in mtg with amulet of vigor and extra land drops. You can make so much mana very early like 10 plus mana with a nut draw and this deck really teaches ya the value of the stack in mtg and how "fast" combos go. Some combos involve infinite loops but you have to wait for a set of actions to resolve each loop giving opponents a time frame to disrupt the combo and some have a cost you pay so you restart the loop in response to a removal spell and basicly combo on top of interaction making them almost impossible to stop. And vice versa some combos require this big ol stack to resolve so your opponent can combo on top of yours. In magic combo decks are way more about timing than just having the right cards you gotta know when too combo off and when to wait for the perfect opportunity.

Actually, the only Artifact lands I'm worried about are Ancient Den and Seat of the Synod. And my way to fix them all would be to make them have: "Pay this mana only to cast artifact spells or activate abilities on artifacts you control." That way you can no longer cast nonartifact spells and pay for nonartifact abilities. This is more restricting that people might think because then you can no longer use them to cast example; *Urza, Lord High Artificer* , *Emry, Lurker of the Loch* , *Stoneforge Mystic* , *Puresteel Paladin* , *Teferi, Time reveler* , *Metallic Rebuke* and then a lot of the sideboard cards that those decks would have. Yeah, that might be the best restriction to untapped artifact lands can have that can tap for colors.

Quibbling point, but Modern Affinity doesn't play Arcbound Ravager or any of the modular guys anymore; it's become 8cast ft. Chalice of the Void.

A video on the Commander banlist would be great! People love the format and showing the difference between it and standard 20 life 60 card formats would be an interesting topic of discussion.

I love how you explain every single card, without having me to pause the video every 5 seconds to read what they do LOL

I'd love to see a video/series going over every standard banning in history and explaining them all

Jitte is particularly dirty in that it doesn’t give the abilities to the equipped creature but rather uses the equipped creature to charge itself up. So you get your board swept and you can still pick off your opponents creatures and grow your life total. You could fix it by adding a clause that the clamp needs to be equipped to use its abilities or by giving the abilities to the equipped creature. You could also have a clause that removes all charge counters on it when it becomes unequipped. Clamp could have text similar to Grafted Exoskeleton in reverse. If the equipped creature dies, sacrifice Clamp.

Clicked on video, immediate thought: "Hey I know that voice..." Welcome to MtG!

"Getting mana is important for literally every deck" Manaless Dredge has entered the chat

I loved this series! Got me following this channel and loved watching the other content you put out……. I would love to see a pauper banlist one though. I really enjoy the format so it would be interesting to see how the format evolved over time

Amazing,this serie is a bless,i really.hope to see more even for other format! Thank you!

stopped playing WoW but I still get to watch Hiru because I picked mtg up again :)

I originally thought that Jitte had to deal combat damage to a player, and only realized it after you made that change as a suggestion lol

I LOVE this series a lot :) thank you and keep them coming please when you can.

I guess dark depths could also be changed to a enchantment/artifact with 1 or 0 cost to open up some counterplay against it

Thank for providing an accurate analysis of Depths.

I have only one dream: to see Dark Depths out of the ban-list. Ok, it's a strong card, but it's not sooo strong and the token is vulnerable to exile. With all the hate we have in modern against lands, for my poor Tron, they can counter Dark Depths too.

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading! Personally, seeing things like this reminds me of how often questionable I find Wizard's decisions. Like, they're extremely scared of land destruction being good & love making things creature centric. I know they have reasons, but still.... They seem real stubborn about it.

I remember some control deck using Jitte without creature equiped, by using Mirrodin cards to put charge counter on it

I’d love to see some content about commander, wether that be about its banlist, play style, legends, differences in structure and staples, or just anything else about it.

I love this series. Thinking of doing other ban lists?

I got a few ideas, things for informing new players. ~Cards whose usefulness requires a strong grasp on the game to see (It's a complex effect, or it does something unconventional that can be exploited, etc.) ~Mechanics that usually aren't worth building around (like adding a lifegain spell with no other effects - you're likely better off replacing it) ~Mistakes new players make when building a deck (not following the rule of nine, poor balancing of mana costs, too many/few lands, etc.)

Been loving the series so far, same for the Yu-Gi-Oh one. Would absolutely adore seeing you talk about the Commander banlist in the future.

i think the artifact lands having the shock land effect would balance them pretty well, still slows the deck down by having them tapped or access to a stronger faster for the cost of 2 life would make slight spectrum swings for decision making and allow for them to have their power be more in check. was just my first thought

Dark Depths is OP level, but I think maybe Splinter Twin could have put up a good fight with the Pestering and countermagic. Affinity had some flying chump blockers, Pyro Ascension could OTK on turn 4, Infect might be able to get there on a good draw if there’s no disruption or blockers. Probably best they banned it, seems to have a good matchup VS everything, and access to some of the best discard/removal to protect and ensure the combo.

Everytime we get close to a world where we think dark depths is okay in modern it's important to remember that the most likely home for it in the format is an additional tool for Primevil Titan decks to find a super potent combo.

For cards like the artifact lands it would be really cool to see something limiting the amount you are allowed to play like adding «you may only play 2 copies of this card in your deck»

"Top 10 Un-cards that COULD be played in modern". You have a great grasp on meta and standard power level. I think it would be cool to get your opinion on this.

Can you PLEASE do the Legacy ban list? I think that would be awesome to see!

Going over why stuff is banned in Commander might be interesting! One other thing that's not technically a banlist but functions similarly though might be talking about a format called Canadian Highlander; basically you make a highlander deck (100 cards, all singletons except basic lands) but you have an allotment of points you can spend on various powerful cards that are banned in most formats, with different cards being worth different amounts of points. Might be fun to go over why some of the cards are on there, plus the format's just fun in concept, making you choose between multiple strong (but not totally broken) effects vs spending almost your entire allotment on Time Vault so you can pull off some infinite turns combo :P

For Dark Depths, maybe changing the last ability to be checked on end step (e.g. "At the beginning of your end step, if Dark Depths has no ice counters on it etc") would be a fix as it would slow it down a turn at least and make it vulnerable

Personally, I think Dark Depths is fine to unban in modern. In current day, we have so much optimized interaction that can deal with the combo. Boseiju, Path, Brazen Borrower, Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin, and so many others that I could list. Plus, the main ways that the combo gets really consistent in legacy aren’t modern legal, such as crop rotation. Even in legacy, DD decks aren’t really doing too hot and I think in modern current state that it doesn’t make too much of an impact, but introduces a new fun deck to occasionally gotcha some opponents with.

Skullclamp in a locust god commander deck is insane, turning every 1 mana you have into 2 cards in your hand and and 1 flying haste 1/1, which is kind of insane

Skullclamp could just be +1/+0 or even +0/+1 +1/+1 is still insanely good because you present a threat that replaces it all for 1 mana to cast and 1 mana to equip.

Field of ruin is so good because it forces a search, it’s not a may. Can’t wait for that Hogaak episode #BringBackTheGaak

What's the difference in power level with jitte in modern and jitte in legacy?? I see the card mostly being in the sb in modern because it is only good in certain match ups. The card just seems so slow to get going. Even merfolk can just bring in thieving skydiver and gain control of it.

A legacy banlist version of this would be super rad

Unbanning Jitte would be really stupid, because every single deck that plays a significant amount of creatures would start playing Jitte at least as a two of. It would just go into every deck that isn't a control or a combo deck. And it would be way too good. It also would be crazy good in Stoneforge Mystic decks. I could even imagine people going for double strike creatures to really abuse the Jitte. It also would make Burn really struggle, since so many decks would have lifegain in the mainboard.

Would love to see the Pauper ban list! There’s so much crazy stuff available there that it would be fun to see!

Another common way in legacy to interact with Marit Lage is Karakas.

Is it intentional that some lands are missing? Love this channel

I would love to see a commander ban list video.

Can you go over pioneer banlist next? I'm getting more and more bummed at lack of creature decks in modern.

I think it'd be really cool to do a list of best (or worst) lands that don't make mana

Whenever you talk about flying you never mention that they can also be blocked by creatures with reach. (Not that there are many good reach creatures though)

There's a card that totally stops Jitte in its tracks, and Infect too, for that matter. It's also harder to get rid of than Jitte. What is this card? Solemnity, a white enchantment for 2 and a white. How does it stop Jitte and Infect? It fills a role that, as far as I know, is unique to it: Dedicated Counter (i.e. +1/+1 counter) Hate. What does it do? While it's on the battlefield, it stops Players and permanents other than Planeswalkers from getting counters. This doesn't affect counters that apply to cards off of the battlefield, nor does it remove already present counters, but the sheer variety of counters makes the other cards with Counter Hate (not Dedicated Counter Hate, though) much easier to play. Being an enchantment makes it so that dedicated Enchantment hate is needed, though cards like Naturalize would work, too. Thing is, Green is actually getting some decent Enchantment hate aside from Naturalize, and has had it for a while now, and white has also seen its use. In my opinion, though, if Solemnity ever gets banned from Modern, it's for making cards with Cumulative Upkeep much too good, and that includes even Snowfall, as Solemnity would stop the Cumulative Upkeep cards from gaining age counters, meaning that the cost would stop growing until Solemnity leaves. And in the case of Snowfall, that means that the extra mana lets you cast more instants during your upkeep to pave the way for your white creatures. Combined with the fact that Blue plays more Antimagic than any other color, the deck would be way too good, possibly even for Modern.

Thespian's stage can become a copy of dark depths on turn 2. Just make sure you play sol ring on turn 1

Skullclamp also has synergy with Bitterblossom. Draw 2 cards each turn for 1 mana and 1 life.

marit lage still loses from the most common removal spell in the format (Prismatic ending), folds entirely to bounce effects and flicker, blood moon, alpine moon etc

Modern affinity doesn't use much affinity for artifacts cards anymore, does it? They still use modular and metalcraft more often nowadays right?

I would like to see artifact lands back. Maybe make them like the desert lands or spire of industry

Chrome and Mox Opal don't need to be fixed. They're already nerfed versions of Mox Diamond. Make more moxes with restrictions.

Damn, those actors are good if they can copy a sea monster with such accuracy.

I would fix the skullcap by adding "Attached creature doesn't die if it's toughness is 0"

The mox have been the bane of my existence in my commander pods. If they see constant play in commander pods, it's not surprising to see it on a modern banlist. I'm more surprised that they aren't banned in commander

I think all of the original artifact lands could be unbanned without any issue right now. Affinity right now, is competitive, but far from the best deck. Access to these lands might push it into a tier 1 deck, but they also come with some risks. Boseiju and a few other options are incredibly prevalent removal options that could hit non-indestructible artifact lands. This has largely pushed out the one legal, non-indestructible artifact land in modern, Treasure Vault in favor of just playing more basics to get some value when other artifacts get hit by Boseiju. It is worth noting that these would be much better than Treasure Vault, and the deck would likely cut some of the ETB tapped, indestructible artifact lands to make the deck a little faster and more consistent, but there's a cost to that. Though there's always the chance of unforeseen consequences. For example, Hammertime is a better deck than Affinity that also runs a few metalcraft effects, so it could possibly get a boost by adding some of these lands to the deck. Additionally, since Hammertime isn't going all in on the artifact land plan, it doesn't get hurt nearly as bad by cards like Boseiju that let you replace the land. The best case scenario I see for them getting unbanned is that Wizards decides to ban Urza's Saga for seeing play in nearly every deck, and then unbans these lands because Affinity is reliant on Saga to be somewhat competitive, while most other decks just put it in because its really powerful with a minimal cost to include.

I think most modern players think the artifact lands could be unbanned today and not do too much with chrome banned

A real OG affinity deck was grixis colors because of card draw with affinity in blue free sac outlets and damage (sharpnel blast) in red and things like irradiate and disciple of the vault in black

The way to fix Dark Depths for Modern is to simply combine the activated (pay 3 mana) and triggered ability (sac it, get a 20/20) as one block of text. As is, you get the 20/20 as soon as there are no counters, regardless of how they were removed. If the abilities was "(3): Remove an ice counter from Dark Depths, THEN if it has no counters, sacrifice it, create a 20/20" as one effect, you'd always be forced to pay 3 mana at least once to get the token. You could even go so far as to also moving "remove an ice counter" to the COST, meaning the current ways to cheat Dark Depths by removing the counters all at once are simply no longer viable.

after this series, can we get an explanation of the commander banlist?

How about like this Chrome mox- exile a random card from hand when cast Artifact land-no artifact type when play, gain the artifact type in the next upkeep Jitte- no more charge counter, directly choose 2 from the 3 effect when do combat damage, change +2/+2 to +1/+1 counter Dark Depths-give it Shroud

Do a list on Banner Commander/EDH cards

I have a card called Grip of Desolation (Devoid) (Instant) for 4 and 2 black I can exile target creature and target land. Dark Depths is taken care of.

The artifact lands could be fixed if they were legendary but it would be a weird subtype for a common land

Nettle cyst was never legal at the same time as colored artifact lands. Archbound ravager was strong enough by itself to make them ban-worthy.

Make the Artifact Lands limited. Wizards restricts things in vintage, they could try it in other formats.

I believe the reason Jitte is staying banned is really because of Stoneforge Mystic. The strength of Stoneforge decks is it’s ability to tutor up any equipment for the right matchup. Jitte covers a huge variety of strategies, some Stoneforge would struggle against otherwise.

Against many decks, Ghost Quarter is almost the exact same as Wasteland as there are plenty of decks who don't run any basic lands. I've seen players who legit play just a few basic lands in their decks just in case of Ghost Quarter/Field of Ruin, just so they'd have something to search. They don't need them, but it means they don't lose as much tempo as they otherwise would.

I think you could unban Tree of Tales (the green artifact land). Green is pretty much the worst possible color to run in affinity. Affinity right now WANTS to play the W/U artifact lands, but there's still a lot of good affinity cards in R and B as well. There's very little in green for affinity.

One way to nerf Marit Lage is to make a condition, where it has to gain counters instead of losing them

I'm not so sure about the Jitte. Taking turn 2 off to play an artifact that does nothing the turn it comes in, then using most of your turn 3 to target a creature with the Jitte (which can just be killed in response) is just too slow. I think the card could pretty safely be unbanned.

Fun fact that I probably should have posted in the first video: The whole "What could you change to unban this card" doesn't really apply to Magic. WotC only rarely makes "functional errata" where they change the rules in a way that changes how it functions in a deck. The big way this manifests is how rarely they re-keyword old cards. Lifelink, where you gain life equal to the damage the creature deals, is a concept that goes back to Magic's first set, *Arabian Nights*. However, because these older cards are effects rather than part of the damage step, they stack (so two Spirit Link cards each gove you life when the enchanted creature deals damage). However, lifelink doesn't, so if they errata'd them to give lifelink, it'd change how they work, which WotC rarely if ever does.

Jitte is even better in aggro decks. I think it'd have the opposite effect, it'd be a second wind for aggro decks that are already on the brink of death anyway. Control decks are already dominant in modern and combo decks couldn't really give less of a shit about what Jitte does for them.

The best way to fix dark depths is to reverse the effect. Pay 3 to add an ice counter, when you have 10 you sacc it for marit lage.

What about making the artifact lands legendary so you only run 5 copies instead of the 20?

The best way I could argue to make the artifact lands balanced is to make them legendary or implement a similar idea

About the Jite, what would you say if the counters went to the equipped creature instead of the artifact? This way, removing the creature would mean having to restart the combo.

Unban clamp!

Just make all of the artifact lands legendary. They are all based off of specific locations on Mirrodin so I don’t see why they weren’t made legendary in the first place.

🌀🙏💙

With all the available sac engines and sac costs built in to spells and permanents, this would still be too powerful. I say that the only way to fix it would be to reduce the card drawing to 1 card only.

How has he not mentioned the skullclamp combo with locust god yet?

You could nerf the artifact lands by saying they enter tapped unless you control a nonland artifact?

I feel like skullclamp's nerfed version would be way more interesting if it was equip 3 or 4 but kept the +1/-1

It’s funny, the artifact lands could be solved if wizards had different card limits in more formats like the limited/semi limit like in YGO.

I think starting artifact lands were played with cranial plating instead of nettlecyst would have been more accurate. But same concept pretty much

Just make artifact lands with the “power nine rule”. You can only run one of each in your deck.

Lol Marit lage kinda gets bodied by prismatic ending and leyline binding.

Commander Ban list.

What if the artifact lands had "metalcraft- ~ enters the battlefield tapped unless you control three or more artifacts"

i want my Jitte back.