MTG goes through stages of banning and unbanning cards to refresh the health of the chosen format. You often see bans occur if the power of a card becomes too much, or there aren’t enough tools to deal with it.
Over the years, we see this with Modern with Stoneforge Mystic
Stoneforge MysticWhen this creature enters, you may search your library for an Equipment card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
{1}{W}, {T}: You may put an Equipment card from your hand onto the battlefield., Bloodbraid Elf
Bloodbraid ElfHaste (This creature can attack and {T} as soon as it comes under your control.)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.), and Jace, the Mindsculptor
Jace, the Mindsculptor+2: Look at the top card of target player's library. You may put that card on the bottom of that player's library.
0: Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
−1: Return target creature to its owner's hand.
−12: Exile all cards from target player's library, then that player shuffles their hand into their library. coming back into the format with great effect. Sometimes Modern can become stale and uninteresting, and Wizards of the Coast likes to use the opportunity to unban cards to add spark to the format once again.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a card come off the Modern ban list, so let’s speculate on what could come off the ban list.
What About Splinter Twin?
Back in 2016, Wizards of the Coast banned Splinter Twin citing poor color balance reasons and the card taking too much share in the metagame. Wizards of the Coast care a lot about diversity, especially in a format as broad as Modern, so banning it after Pro Tour Fate Reforge seemed a reasonable step to take.
What made Splinter Twin so powerful was it’s combination alongside Deceiver Exarch. With these two cards, you can make as many copies of Deceiver Exarch as you like to finish off the opponent. As a shell, you would also run powerful spells such as Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage
Snapcaster MageFlash
When this creature enters, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) to help you control what your opponents do. Typically, it was an Izzet Control shell which used the Splinter Twin combo to finish off a game.
However, that was five years ago now and there are more answers to deal with these troublesome cards. You have access to Solitude, Force of Vigor
Force of VigorIf it's not your turn, you may exile a green card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Destroy up to two target artifacts and/or enchantments., and not to mention free countermagic such as Force of Negation
Force of NegationIf it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. to prevent the combo. In the past, Wizards of the Coast haven’t been afraid to unban cards to see how they fare in a format. We have seen this in the past with Golgari Grave-Troll
Golgari Grave-TrollThis creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature card in your graveyard.
{1}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: Regenerate this creature.
Dredge 6 (If you would draw a card, you may mill six cards instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.), and maybe we could see similar treatment with Splinter Twin. Mostly because Wizards of the Coast are not completely sure how they will work in practice, and sometimes collecting that data is helpful to make decisions down the line.
Read More: How To Build Modern Neoform Affinity on a Budget
A Case to Keep Splinter Twin Banned
On the other hand, having the tools available could make the mirror a rather miserable experience. Shoving cards from Modern Horizons 2 for example may be too much. If Splinter Twin became legal, it would surely include cards such as Veil of Summer
Veil of SummerDraw a card if an opponent has cast a blue or black spell this turn. Spells you control can't be countered this turn. You and permanents you control gain hexproof from blue and from black until end of turn. (You and they can't be the targets of blue or black spells or abilities your opponents control.) and Imperial Recruiter. Which, could be too powerful for Modern to keep in check, but players are eager to play with previously busted cards once again. Going further, you could see the strategy include White for cards such as Teferi, Time Raveler that could make for a miserable experience in Modern.
Where do you stand on this? Will Splinter Twin re-enter Modern in the future? Let us know either on Twitter or on Facebook!
Read More: Ten Most Expensive MTG Cards in Modern
