On June 1, 2008, the DCI announced the restriction of five cards in Vintage:
Flash,
Gush,
Merchant Scroll,
Brainstorm, and
Ponder. The motivation for restricting the first three of those cards was clear at the time to most Vintage players, although not all agreed that it was strictly necessary. Using
Flash to put a
Protean Hulk into play allowed players to immediately win the game if they had the right set of creatures in their library, and decks built to do just that could consistently win the game in the first two turns. Decks built around the
Fastbond-
Gush mana engine were also winning tournaments left and right.
Merchant Scroll was a key piece of the decks built around both
Flash and
Gush, and it was not a huge surprise when it eventually joined similar cards like
Mystical Tutor and
Demonic Tutor on the restricted list.
The restrictions of
Brainstorm and
Ponder, however, confused many players.
Brainstorm's restriction was understandable, although somewhat surprising. A player who casts
Brainstorm, puts two useless cards on top of his or her library, and then shuffles his or her library is effectively up three cards, and Vintage has no shortage of cards that let a player shuffle his or her library.
Ponder's restriction was more difficult to explain. Some blue Vintage decks were playing both
Brainstorm and
Ponder, but some only played
Brainstorm. It was also difficult to compare
Ponder in a satisfying way to other previously restricted cards. Because of this, many players were rightfully confused about the DCI's choice to restrict it.
I was not a Wizards employee when I read the announcement of that restriction, and it confused me just as much as it did other
Magic players. I have since learned the reasoning. I fully acknowledge that it looks strange on paper, but the
Magic developers had good reasons for their decision. I was pleasantly surprised to learn them.
Ever since
Future Sight was released, the most powerful Vintage decks have revolved around one or more of
Dark Ritual,
Force of Will,
Bazaar of Baghdad, and
Mishra's Workshop. These are some of the most powerful unrestricted cards in the format; in fact, some of them are more powerful than cards that are restricted! For example,
Dark Ritual is stronger than
Lotus Petal, and
Mishra's Workshop is stronger than
Grim Monolith.
We are happy despite that apparent inconsistency because each of the four cards I listed creates Vintage deck archetypes.
Dark Ritual fuels decks built around the Storm mechanic.
Force of Will decks usually build around other unrestricted blue cards;
Mana Drain currently fills that role, but
Gush,
Gifts Ungiven, and
Fact or Fiction all spent time in that slot before their restrictions.
Bazaar of Baghdad decks abuse Ravnica's dredge mechanic to win the game out of the graveyard in the first three turns.
Mishra's Workshop decks cast artifacts quickly to lock their opponents out of the game. We acknowledge that these cards are overpowered. However, we value the existence of different decks in a Constructed format, and each of those cards fuels an entire archetype.
In early 2008, members of
Magic R&D were not happy with the direction that tournament Vintage was going. There were two problems that needed to be solved. The first was that
Force of Will decks were much, much stronger than decks built around
Mishra's Workshop,
Bazaar of Baghdad, and
Dark Ritual. The second issue was that
Brainstorm and
Ponder had a homogenizing effect on Vintage blue decks. Once you put four
Force of Will, four
Brainstorm, four
Ponder, a bunch of restricted cards, and some mana sources in your deck, there simply isn't much room to put in anything else. This meant that the differences between different
Force of Will decks were usually very small, and that hurt the format's variety.
The developers believed that restricting
Flash,
Gush, and
Merchant Scroll would mitigate the first problem because they were the key pieces to the most powerful
Force of Will decks. They considered restricting only
Brainstorm to solve the second problem, but
Ponder was strong enough that many players who did not play
Ponder before would just replace their
Brainstorms with
Ponders and the situation would be similar. Therefore, they chose to restrict both cards instead despite how odd it felt to restrict a card as innocuous as
Ponder.
In the end, even though restricting
Brainstorm and
Ponder looked strange, it accomplished our goals for Vintage because it forced blue players to make meaningful decisions about what cards they would play with their
Force of Wills. Many players have chosen
Mana Drain and
Thirst for Knowledge. Others have experimented with
Intuition and
Accumulated Knowledge. Some players are willing to play four
Force of Wills with as few as seventeen blue cards in their deck and accept the inconsistency that this invites. Any of these decisions is meaningful, and the format is much more diverse even within the blue decks.