Why do some people feel it is the closest card to ban-worthy if not actually ban-worthy (besides its use in Lantern, which a lot of people despise)?
I've seen articles and comments where people think it's ready to go. It seems strong but the card doesn't seem OP to me.
Posted Feb 5, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC · locked
Mostly because people get caught up in generalizations like "fast mana is overpowered" rather than actually thinking critically about specific cards.
You have to realize that like 90% of articles written about the modern banlist are silly clickbait as well.
Opal is not causing any problems in the meta, and never has. It's not ban worthy.
Some people think they are super smart.
One could argue for any card to be banned but thankfully WotC has done a pretty good job concerning bans and ban requirements.
It's possible they may look at Mox Opal for a ban in the "interest of competitive diversity". However there isn't significant reason to believe meta is warped or adversely affected by this card.
It's shouldn't be banned for various reasons. It's legendary, it's narrow (only works with other artifacts) and is only used a few decks that, up to this point, have not held an above average success rate.
If Lantern and Affinity start dominating every big tournament, sure, WotC needs to look at a possible ban. We are no where near that point.
The card is kinda overpowered, but there are two properly competitive decks that use it (Lantern Control/Prison and Affinity) and neither of those decks is anywhere near needing a ban.
So, there's not really any reason to ban it.
I gotcha.
Many magic players believe that fast mana is inherently broken even if it has some of the strictest deckbuilding requirements in modern.
I think until some other resilient decks that can abuse cheap artifacts shows up it's not really going to get serious ban consideration. Right now we've got Lantern and Affinity. One is obnoxious, the other doesn't convert at a high rate right now.
It's legendary and requires a critical density of 0 and 1 cmc artifacts. Chrome Mox doesn't have those restrictions.
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It's been in a dominant deck since modern's inception. In general, free and fast mana enables broken things.
Wizards has set a precedent that fast mana without deck building restrictions is a no go with chrome mox.
Same idea with mox opal: fast mana is on a short watch list for the ban list if they ever get too out of control.
For me, I don't think it will get banned now, but it is a matter of time in my opinion. It fundamentally is overpowered in artifact decks considering that chrome mox is considered too powerful, and this a better chrome mox for artifact decks. It literally is an artifact land that you can play after already playing a land for the turn. Artifact lands and chrome mox are both banned, so there's no reason this should be legal by those standards. I don't think it will get banned now, but i think it's inevitable that it will down the road.
I can't attest to it being a better chrome mox, the key thing it being legendary. Sure, you could in theory play multiple in a turn to get tonnes of mana early on, but then you risk being in top deck mode, but for that to work it would end up with your hand being X Mox opals, a darksteel citadel and an ornithopter. At that point you'll have a lot less gas in your hand.
Affinity also isn't an oppressive deck mostly because nothing in Modern really is oppressive right now. Even then, it can always be a glass cannon since the game is not short on artifact hate. The meta keeps affinity in control the same way burn is kept in control.
I'm not saying that affinity or lantern are oppressive decks at the moment. I'm just talking purely from a standpoint on what qualifies something to be banned. If chrome mox and artifact lands are banned, and mox opal is basically a better chrome mox and functionally an artifact land, why is it not banned as well purely from the standard that Wizards has set for the banned list? It's like saying, this kind of fast mana is bad and unacceptable, but we are going to allow artifact builds to have a better chrome mox but only for them. Same thing with eldrazi temple. Why does one tribe get a sol land? If cloudpost is banned, why are tron lands still legal without any sufficient land disruption? I just am not fun of the hypocrisy on the banlist.
It's not really hypocrisy. Wizards has not said "we dont like any fast mana" that's a fallacy that people love to shove in the mouths of wotc. Further more, you can't compare card to card and ban using generalizations, or you get boring stale formats. That's like saying, ban a key card from any deck that CAN win before turn 4, that's no what their after, it's ban cards that make decks consistently win before turn 4. Like 80%+ consistant.
You can't compare chrome mox to opal, sure their both moxen. But. One us legendary and actually requires you to put fourth a little effort, the other has you exile a card from your hand.
I see. Looking at Chrome Mox and Artifact Lands, that makes sense to me. Thanks!
Cards that have strict deckbuilding requirements are not usually targets for bans.
Chrome Mox is accelerating you just by having it in your deck but if you want opal active on turn 1 you need 0 mana artifacts in your deck.
Ancient Stirrings is being compared to Ponder. Ancient Stirrings can only grab colorless cards, another huge deckbuilding requirement. Ponder goes in every blue deck and made them too consistent with no work.
Ensnaring Bridge is a symmetric effect, so it's innately fair. Lantern has constructed the deck around this, which makes it good. Smokestack and tangle wire are good comparisons.
In all seriousness, if you think lantern needs to be banned because it is unhealthy but urzalands are fine, you need help.
What if I want Opal, Bridge, Urza's Tower, Eldrazi Temple, Spirit Guide, and Grapeshot banned?
Nice flair
Last time I updated it was around the Probe ban. I've been on random Cryptic Command decks for a while now.
Twin being gone doesn't bother me. Being forced to interact at gunpoint and leave mana open or randomly lose was blah. The UR Cryptic shell has done other stuff since the ban.
I could see wizards saying that they don't want any fast mana in modern and then banning urzalands, ssg, and opal. It's not outrageous.
I don't think OP was saying lantern was OP or that Mox Opal was unfair.
You are correct. Everyone else is.