Where Does Historic Go From Here?
After the recent Strixhaven championship many Historic players expected many bans to come to a format dominated by Jeskai Control and Izzet Phoenix. When Wizards announced the ban of Time Warp, one of the win-conditions of a version of the Jeskai Control deck, many were surprised that nothing else was put on the ban-list. Brainstorm, Faithless Looting, and Memory Lapse are all potentially just too powerful for the format, and any deck that can abuse them to their fullest potential will continue to stay at the top. This is evidenced by Jeskai Control (minus the Time Warp package) and Izzet Phoenix remaining at the top of the metagame despite being hit most recently by a ban. While it is entirely possible that Wizards wants to see if the meta will adjust with the tools it has readily available, and playing against any taking turns deck can be miserable online (hence only the one ban), many in the Historic community have been asking where the format goes from here since there is not much that can beat these top two decks.
Adding in More Powerful Cards
Adding in More Powerful Cards
Adding More Powerful Cards
One of the upsides of being an online only format is that the Historic Anthologies are added to the game every so often to address metagame concerns (such as including Virulent Plague while unbanning Field of the Dead). Theoretically, Wizards could keep some of the more powerful Strixhaven Mystical Archive cards in the format if they provide key answers to them in upcoming sets or Anthologies. Hullbreacher, Notion Thief, and Spirit of the Labyrinth have all been played in legacy decks to help against casting one too many cantrips. While having any of these creatures out against a cantrip such as Opt is not the end of the world for the one casting Opt, having them in play against Brainstorm or Faithless Looting can be back breaking. These cards in formats like Legacy (and sometimes Modern) are backed by powerful cards such as Aether Vial which does give them a power boost. Fortunately, with Collected Company in the format, making your opponent draw 1 and put 2 back (Brainstorm) or discard 2 (Faithless Looting) can prompt many concessions. While these cards are not the format all-stars like the spells they counter, adding them could begin to straighten out a format that has been warped around the recent Mystical Archives.
Surgical Extraction and Extripate would be very strong inclusions against Izzet Phoenix as both are incredibly mana and tempo efficient at removing all Phoenix's from the game. The only problem is that answers to Arclight Phoenix already exist, and Relic of Progenitus was just added into the format to help combat graveyard strategies already. Even before the addition of Relic of Progenitus, Leyline of the Void and Soul-Guide Lantern existed in the format and other strategies were still getting run over by Izzet Phoenix casting Sprite Dragon, Crackling Drake, and Stormwing Entity. As it is right now, Izzet Phoenix can just pump out too many threats too fast, all of them attacking from slightly different angles. I am hesitant to say that Historic does not have good enough removal with Fatal Push existing and killing everything but Stormwing Entity, however the deck may just be too good without supplemental cards like Path to Exile and Lightning Bolt do deal with the rest of the creatures.
Banning Brainstorm, Faithless Looting, Memory Lapse
As mentioned before, these decks just may be too good and the inclusion of other cards may just pile into other issues. For example, Lightning Bolt may be a great card against Izzet Phoenix, but is also a tool that will drastically speed up Izzet Phoenixs clock. Additionally, adding in Path to Exile may also be great against Izzet Phoenix, but is another card that will just strengthen Jeskai Control. While many answers are generally harmless to the format at large, such as Relic of Progenitus or Virulent Plague, answers to the extremely powerful Mystical Archive cards will only add to the overall power level of the format as it continues to warp around other powerful cards. There have been some calling for the total ban of all the Mystical Archive cards, and while I do think that cards like Ephemerate and Inquisition of Kozilek are high in terms of power, there has not been a deck that can abuse them the way that decks are currently abusing Brainstorm, Faithless Looting, and Memory Lapse.
Conclusion
If these cards do get banned, I would predict that we will see a rise in decks that have not been able to make much use of the Mystical Archive cards yet, such as Jund Sacrifice, GW Company, and 5-Color Niv Mizzet. However, with the new Dungeons and Dragons set coming around the corner, Wizards may be inclined to see if any new cards can stand up against the current format all-stars. Let me know down in the comments below if you would like to see Wizards address the problem by adding in more new cards, or if you think enough is enough and the cards should go on the ban-list!
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