– By Scott Annable
As some of you may have heard, The 99+ Boss format is under new management, It is now managed by a five-person committee who unanimously decided what is best for this great format.
With the new direction we are wiping the slate clean, minimising the ban list and revitalising the format.
First off let’s take a look at the new ban list
As of today the following cards are banned in 99+Boss
Amulet of Quoz
Ancestral Recall
Balance
Biorhythm
Black Lotus
Bronze Tablet
Channel
Chaos Orb
Contract from Below
Darkpact
Demonic Attorney
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Falling Star
Gifts Ungiven
Hermit Druid
Jeweled Bird
Library of Alexandria
Mox emerald
Mox ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Protean Hulk
Rebirth
Recurring Nightmare
Shahrazad
Strip Mine
Tempest Efreet
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timmerian Fiends
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Yawgmoth’s Bargain
Grindstone
And the following Cards are Banned as Boss’
Braids, Cabal Minion
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Vendilion Clique
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
The cards that the committee have Unbanned are what’s really important so let’s take a look at those.
UNBANNED
Coalition Victory
Fastbond
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Karakas
Limited Resources
Metalworker
Necropotence
Painter’s Servant
Panoptic Mirror
Staff of Domination
Sundering Titan
Sway of the Stars
Upheaval
Let’s take a minute to go through the list card by card briefly explaining the reasoning behind its unbanning
Coalition Victory
is an 8 mana sorcery that requires you to have a five colour creature one of every basic land type usually provided by a prismatic omen to immediately win the game. This is the kind of combo win that we are fine with in the format. Frankly there are better combo wins and this doesn’t deserve to be banned.
Having this card legal may inspire some creative five-colour strategies.
Fastbond
One of the more controversial cards on this list, Fastbond allows some pretty insane plays but that’s what this format is about, Fastbond requires some deck building concessions i.e a lot of lands. We feel this card will inspire more decks then it will hurt. Strip mine is still banned and the more powerful combos require in excess of 3 cards.
Griselbrand
Only recently banned in commander for degeneracy. That format is nothing like 99+Boss. Griselbrand is one of the less powerful cards in this format. Only having 30 life stunts his card draw ability and the inherent nature of singleton keeps him at a safe level.
Karakas
when EDH was first imagined Karakas wasn’t on the ban list but instead generals had ‘protection from karakas’ In legacy karakas is a really useful tool in defeating problematic legends such as Iona or jin-gitaxes, this is the role we want it to play in Boss. Yes it will bounce a general but it’s not unanswerable, it only goes in white decks and some of the better generals have shroud. Karakas should help in our attempts to diversify the format.
Limited Resources
This card was banned in EDH/Commander because it is really unfunny in multiplayer. Boss is a 1v1 format and as such Limited Resources has no place on the Boss bannings.
Metalworker
Mishra’s workshop isn’t banned and metalworker is on the other side of the same token, as a singleton it is only a fragment as powerful as its four of buddies in vintage. The artifact deck in boss despite being powerful is still fair, legalising Metalworker gives them just another mana rock
Necropotence
This card carries a lot of infamy in the magic community. It is true that it dominated standard but nowadays its just not as good. Actually playing the card is frustrating and a little awkward, the singleton format makes this card a lot worse.
Painter’s Servant
The painter’s servant + grindstone combo is why this card is banned. We decided that this combo is too strong but painter’s servant is more interesting than grindstone. The servant is really strong with many other cards but none of his applications are at a power level we consider to high for the format or even close to his grindstone interaction.
Panoptic Mirror
Another fun card that can go infinite with a time warp ability, this sort of commitment to a combo is fine in Boss. Five mana artifact plus 5+ mana activation plus untapping with both is quite the hurdle to jump. A properly built deck should have very little issue stopping this combo thereby making this fine in Boss.
Staff of Domination
The sheer utility of the Staff is astounding, the reason it was banned is because it goes infinite with the likes of Rofellos or elvish arch druid in certain situations. Again this card requires a niche situation to be ‘broken’ thereby leaving it sitting a the perfect intended power level for Boss.
Sundering Titan
This card was banned in commander because it caused too many sad faces upon resolution. Boss is competitive and only 1v1. These considerations aren’t the first priority. Sundering Titan isn’t good enough to deserve the ban hammer.
Sway of the Stars
Another card banned in commander that never got unbanned. Sway the Stars is unfunny in 5 player commander because it essentially restarts the game. This effect is quite expensive and frankly not that powerful.
Upheaval
Like Sway the stars Upheaval was pre-banned with all the other un-fun multiplayer cards. The difference here is that upheaval is very playable. This card is very good and deserves to see play. As much as it’s a win condition it’s a great answer card to dominate decks.
In summary, Boss is not a ‘nanny’ format. If a card deserves banning it will be banned, but until a time when said card is proven to be ‘too good’ it will remain legal and people are encouraged to play the powerful cards. Boss is designed to be reflection of eternal formats with the juiciness of singleton. Over the weeks we will be publishing various articles about different strategies and individual cards in Boss because the online data about this format is virtually non-existent.
Hope to see you all at the next Boss tournament. Get Brewing!