A Call to Ban Bloodbraid Elf

Let me start off by saying that I am well aware that these types of things usually don't work.

People were calling for the head of Bitterblossom on a silver platter a year ago to no avail.

However, after a lengthy discussion about the Jund deck on our podcast this week (PLUG) I feel that Bloodbraid Elf should be banned for a number of reasons:

1) Create a healthy metagame. Bitterblossom made Faeries a very powerful deck, but even still it only comprised about 20% of the metagame. That's one out of five decks, which I think is a better way to look at the problem. Jund is approximately 33% of the field, meaning one in three decks is Jund. (Let me say right now that I don't have the references to back these numbers up, I am simply going on the numbers that my podcast partner Joey Pasco was using in our latest episode. I know HE got them from an article, and after he reads this, if he would like to post a link in the comments you can check out the hard stats from there. Otherwise, just go with me.) More telling is the Top 16 at the most recent Star City Games 5K in LA, where Jund did not win, but was 9 out of the Top 16 finishers. Like user Mellowcow said in the comments to our latest podcast, when decks can consistently play maindeck color hosers like Flashfreeze, there is a seriously unhealthy and lopsided metagame.

Looking at deckcheck.net, the 10 most frequently occuring decks, followed by the number of decklists of each type:

1) Jund - 299
2) Vampires - 86
3) R/W Aggro - 79
4) Naya Aggro - 50
5) Mono Red Aggro - 45
6) Bant Aggro - 44
7) White Weenie - 34
8) Cruel Control - 32
9) U/W/x Control - 24
10) BGW Aggro - 23
(Actually pretty surprised to see Eldrazi Green at 11th with 20 decks!)

If this is a healthy metagame, than I am an idiot who shouldn't be allowed on the internet.

2) Keep casual players coming back to FNM. Many casual players come to FNM's with their own rogue decks, and enjoy playing against other such decks. While the expectation of a 100% rogue FNM is unreasonable, many players become discouraged when they play in an FNM with their own build of an archetype and do surprisingly well only to lose to Jund in the Top 8. Wizards has been going to great lengths to encourage new players to enter the game, and to promote their FNMs. When one in three decks at these events is the most powerful deck in the format, players can be turned off by the game and decide to not come back. Frankly, I personally have no problem with playing against Jund, rampant as it may be, but the FNM environment has become so competitive due to Jund's dominance that I have no interest in playing in these events until something can be done. FNM's are supposed to be fun events, but a stale format almost ensures a lack of fun.

3) Give the Jund deck a more exploitable weakness. Currently, Jund's only weakness is it's mana base. Jund requires all three colors of mana in it's shard to be fully functional, and many of it's lands come into play tapped. However, the deck is going to become one turn faster with the Amulet of Vigor recently spoiled, and even faster with Explore. Jund is not necessarily an aggro deck in the classic sense of the term, but is still a deck that relies on pumping out creatures at a faster clip than it's opponent and swinging in for the win. The problem with most aggro decks is that they run out of gas pretty quick. One board sweep can usually stall these decks enough for the opponent to battle back and win. This has always been the case for aggro decks, such that people who decide to play these types of decks are aware of the inherent risk in doing so. The problem with Jund is that, thanks to Bloodbraid Elf, the recovery from such "Wrath" effects is swift and devastating. Not only that, but the card provides Jund an opportunity to never run out of gas with enough of these in hand, an opportunity that other traditional aggro decks seldom have. This brings me into my next point:

4) Using Mike Flores' metric of mana efficiency, Bloodbraid Elf is severely overpowered. Mike Flores recently took part in a podcast over at top8magic called "Victory Bacon," wherein he described his "Grand Unified Theory" of Magic, in essence saying that the only metric that matters in Magic is spending the most mana in the most efficient way possible. While the theory is still a little raw and in need of testing to be validated, it is an earth-shattering theory nonetheless that will change the way you view deck construction and card choice. I highly recommend right-clicking that link, opening it in a new window, and listening to it immediately as you continue to read this blog entry. With that said, we can use this metric to surmise just how overpowered Bloodbraid Elf is. The benchmark for a 3/1 Haste creature is Spark Elemental at R, and it dies at the end of turn. Bloodbraid Elf is a 3/2 Haste that doesn't die at end of turn, so it is obviously valued higher than R. Looking at Gatherer for other creatures that are powered at 3/2 with Haste or another similarly powerful ability, we find several cards. Akuta, Born of Ash is a 3/2 with haste that costs 2BB, is legendary, and can be returned to play by sacrificing a swamp. Harvest Wurm costs 1G, no haste, and you must return a basic land from your graveyard to your hand or it dies, which is great card advantage, but makes the card difficult to cast. Keldon Champion is a 3/2 Haste for 2RR that deals 3 damage to target player when it enters the battlefield. Very similar to a Bloodbraid flipping over a Lightning Bolt, one of it's less mana efficient, although similarly devastating, cascades. However, even the Champion has an Echo cost of 2RR. Kitchen Finks. Now we're talking. Kitchen Finks is another overpowered card for it's mana cost, and one that comes close to matching the power of the Elf. However, due to the cascade ability of the Elf, it is unfair to value the Elf alone at 1G/W G/W since it is the Elf's cascade that makes it as powerful as it is. Ranger of Eos and Scythe Tiger are 2 creatures in the current Standard environment that share the 3/2 p/t of the Elf. Scythe Tiger requires you to sacrifice a land. The Ranger might be having a similar article written about it in the coming months (although not by me) with the introduction of a 13/13 creature for B in Worldwake. For now, however, the Ranger is a powerful, yet fair, card whose entire effect can be countered with a simple Essence Scatter. Vulshok Berzerker is a telling card. A 3/2 Haste for 3R, that Wizards felt was costed fair enough to print. However, we are looking for tournament viable mana costs here. For comparison's sake, then, let's cost the Elf alone at RG.

Now that we have the Elf valued at RG, let's look at the things that Bloodbraid Elf can cascade into: Blightning, Borderland Ranger, Maelstrom Pulse, Lightning Bolt, Terminate, Sprouting Thrinax, Putrid Leech. Every single one of these cards strengthens the board position of the Jund player. Only 3 of these seven cards cost less than 2 CMC, and the Bolt is a highly mana efficient Incinerate and therefore must be valued at 1R. So, at worse, the Elf is breaking even. At best, the Elf hits a Blightning or a Sprouting Thrinax. Both of these cards should at least be valued at 4 CMC. So the card is 6 mana worth of value for 4 CMC quite often, with a variety of devastating effects that cripple it's opponent.

Maybe some of that mana metric stuff is over some of your heads, but the simple fact is that until something is done to stop the rise of Jund our game will begin to lose discouraged players and the growth of our game that Wizards has made it's top priority will cease. Let me make this clear: the Jund deck will not die. While my language suggests that by banning Bloodbraid Elf the Jund deck will go away, I know that to not be the case. However, Bloodbraid Elf is the one card that takes this deck over the top and prevents other strategies from being viable. However, removing this key element will bring the deck back to parity with other decks, and maybe even cause some Jund players to consider other strategies.

Petition: I am starting a petition to ban Bloodbraid Elf. I don't typically think online petitions are an effective tool for change, but we as Magic players are in a unique position. Thanks to sites like Twitter, the powers that be at Wizards are only a Tweet away. With enough support, and enough retweets, I truely believe that we can create change and hold Wizards accountable for creating a balanced metagame where the cards in the format do not all point toward one singular viable strategy, and where multiple decks can flourish.

Sign the petition HERE.

Thanks as always for reading,
Bigheadjoe

P.S. If you think that I missed any points in this entry, please let me know in the comments section and I will do my best to address them. I know I'm gonna get some heat for this (by about 33% of you) but I'm ready for it.