Bloodbraid Elf

Blue's Competitive Low

Blue was terrible in Shards of Alara standard. Bloodbraid Elf and Jund were both tier 1 and blue had no counterplay. Aaron Forscythe wrote an article telling people that blue was going to come back soon. Not too long after that we went into Zendikar block, with one of the best Planeswalkers of all time...

FYI

Blood Bloodbraid Elf Blue Elf Jund Jund (B/R/G) Planeswalkers Shards of Alara Standard Three Color Zendikar

Alara Design Insights

So last year for this day you informed me of the council of Marks designing Esper. What else can you tell me about Alara for birthday trivia this year? I wanna know everything there is to know. About the set, block, shards, or individual cards like Bloodbraid Elf. Anything at all. Thanks for everything you do.

Each shard had a design team of three people. I believe I was the only one on three shard design teams. I ran Esper and served on Bant and Naya. Interestingly, the one mechanic I designed in the set was Unearth for Grixis. Happy Birthday!

Bant Bant (W/U/G) Birthday Blood Bloodbraid Elf Elf Esper Esper (W/U/B) Grixis Grixis (U/B/R) Mechanics Naya Naya (R/G/W) Three Color Unearth

Unban Impact on Diversity

I knew that unbanning Bloodbraid Elf and Jace, the Mind Sculptor wouldn't hurt Modern diversity; I however did not expect it to seemingly increase diversity as much as it has. Tell everyone they made a great decision with the choice!

Will do!

Blood Bloodbraid Elf Elf Format Legality Format Legality Jace, the Mind Sculptor Modern

Bloodbraid Elf Rarity

Hypothetical: Say Bloodbraid Elf was still legal in Modern, and it was slated to print in Modern Masters. Would the rarity have changed, based off the knowledge that you guys had of the power level of the card? Or would it have stayed uncommon?

Rarity is based on a whole number of factors. The latest issue that has made R&D rethink rarity is trying to make limited formats more compelling and part of doing that has been moving some more powerful spells in limited up in rarity. As for Bloodbraid Elf, odds are he’d stay uncommon but it’s possible he’d go to rare.

Blood Bloodbraid Elf Card Printing Elf Format Legality Limited Modern Modern Masters Power Level Rares Rarity Spells Uncommons

Fetchlands vs Bloodbraid Elf

I know this is the behest of the R&D, but I consider that Jund could have been neutered more effectively - without removing a perfectly good GR enabler in Bloodbraid Elf - by banning all fetchlands. I feel that they are one of the steepest barriers of entry to the format, and that they warp the deckbuilding process. I feel Modern would be healthier altogether without them.

I have to disagree. Banning fetchlands would have a far bigger impact and would neuter a lot more decks than banning Bloodbraid Elf.

Bannings Blood Bloodbraid Elf Elf Format Legality Game Design Jund Jund (B/R/G) Modern

Modern Banning Philosophy

I know banning's not in your jurisdiction, but... the modern playerbase as whole feels that Development is going about balancing the format the wrong way. Nobody wants to play an eternal format where you're not allowed to play the powerful, iconic cards - such as Bloodbraid Elf, that was in no way broken. The format would've been better served by unbanning cards necessary to other archetypes, like mental misstep or ancestral vision.

The people who make the banning decisions do not make this decision casually or without a great deal of thought. Banning a card is the last thing we want to do. We want people to be able to play with their cards, but even worse is an environment which is unfun and players don’t want to play.

Ancestral Vision Bannings Blood Bloodbraid Elf Elf Eternal Format Legality Format Legality Mental Misstep Modern

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