We all knew this was coming, and now it is here.  Wizkids has announced its card rotation for 2020.  You can check out the original post from Wizkids here to get the complete list of cards being affected by this Rotation.  These changes do not take effect until May 1, 2020. What was really interesting with this announcement, was that we are seeing changes in not just Modern, but also with the Global Escalation lists.  Shriek: Sonic Beam has been (almost) immediately banned from Modern.  Beholder: Master Abberation and Ring of Magnetism: Action Attraction have found their way onto the Global Escalation Ban List.  These are all changes made to hopefully make positive changes to the Formats. Instead of looking forward to the upcoming new meta, we at Dice Masters North decided to take a look back at what we will miss and what we are happy to see gone with the 2020 Rotation.  Everyone has their own cards that they love and hate.  Read on for a double feature Top 5 list, where we look at the Top 5 cards that each of us will miss and the Top 5 cards that we can can hopefully never look at again.

Jourdo’s Top 5 Cards I Will Miss From Modern

This was actually really hard to narrow down just to 5 in all honesty.  On both sides of this list, there were many, many cards that could have been slotting in any of the slots.  For the cards that I will miss, I picked cards that I have a soft spot for.  They may have been cards that I used a lot, or cards that allowed for some interesting builds.  Either way, I hope to see newer versions of these at some point.

5.  Misdirection

This is such a good Basic Action Card.  The ability to sneak in your characters without having to actually Field it is incredible.  The level for level swapping, and the fact that it cannot be used against you, makes it a superior version of Polymorph in my books.  It ticks that “you need a 2-cost on your Team” box as well.  What more could you ask for? Oh yeah… you can also Prep a die from your bag when you roll the Burst faces.

4.  The Collector

Love him, or hate him, you cannot deny how this card changed the game.  The ability to bring in one of your dice temporarily was awesome.  What made it even better was that you could use his ability on your Opponent’s dice as well.  That instantly increased your card pool from 8 to 16. I have played this Card on many Teams, most of which centered around characters with great “When Fielded” abilities.  However, any time I had a chance to sneak in that surprise character I was happy to do so. This is one of the cards on this list though that I am ok NOT seeing again.  The ability was interesting and definitely made a splash in the competitive game.  However, I don’t think it is a healthy type of ability to be in the game full time.  Thanks for being there while you were Taneleer.  We’ll see you in Golden.

3.  Mimic

Mimic was for sure going to be on this list, but it was a question of which one.  The Super-Rare almost made the cut for his flexibility, but I much preferred his “weaker” brother. The core piece of Mimic Ramp, made this guy easily the best Ramp in the game at the time.  Be prepared for bag burn though if you do use him though.  You will be prepping THAT much. However, his other ability was what made him even better.  When he entered the Field, he copied the stats of a chosen character.  For some reason though, Wizkids decided that Mimic would get to KEEP these stats until he is refielded instead of just until End of Turn.  This turned your Ramp engine into a later big body when you needed to. Mimic easily shot his way up to one of the best cards in the game… ever.

2.  Doop

I love this squishy little green guy.  The moment I saw Slimer on the die it was love at first site.  His level 3 stats are awesome.  I drafted Doop as much as I could whenever we drafted XFC. As you know, in this game, stats are not everything.  Doop’s actual abilities are excellent as well.  Lights! Camera! Action! was probably my favorite of his versions, and was honestly just starting to enter into its own.  We finally got a Global that allowed you to KO characters on your Opponent’s turn (Nihiloor) that was looking to turn Doop into a serious control piece.  I’ll enjoy him while he is still around, but will miss some of the shenanigans that he provided.

1.  Wong

Since his release, Wong has easily been one of my favourite dice in the entire game.  Decent stats for a 2-cost?  Yup.  Decent ability that will help keep him alive?  Yup.  Fast is pretty good after all.  How about you make him work with Sidekick shenanigans?  Ok… why not?!?

I loved Wong when he was released, but once the Fish Slap was released to the world he shot up my list.  This is easily the number one card that I will miss going forward into Modern.  Maybe we will see a Wong 2.0???  Pretty please???

Jourdo’s Top 5 Cards That Can F**k Off From Modern

This list was actually much easier for me.  These are all cards that for whatever reason, made the game less fun for me.  May we never see this kind of garbage again.

5.  Yuan-Ti Pureblood

Pick a version of this card and I dislike it… well… the Uncommon is not that bad.  This version just saw way more play than I cared to see (both locally and online).  The 2-cost paired with other low cost options still made this version super annoying.  Lots of actions paired well with her.  Parasite paired well with her.  Unless you were specifically prepared to deal with her, she was a pain.  I know we are seeing her ability coming back with Obscure, and I accept that.  I just don’t want to see Yuan-Ti ever again.  

4.  Tabaxi Rogue

Again, a card I played around with for some time trying to turn drawing into a win condition.  Again, a card that lingered WAY longer than I would have liked.  That might be where my dislike of this card has come from.  I have seen it way too much.  The other part was when Spot was errata’ed to function differently, even though it was originally worded the same as Tabaxi.  It still bothers me that these two similar cards were made to function differently.  That is on me.

On the positive side though, the Global is still decent Ramp.  That I don’t really have a problem with.  

3.  Scarlet Witch

This was actually a little bit of a tough call.  There is nothing wrong with action hate… but Switch was just too good at her job.   She more or less took actions out of the game.

Again, I am ok with control… but not with this level of control.  I am not sure how I would have balanced out her ability with her cost.  Probably Rotation is still the best option for her.

Farewell Switch.

2.  Shriek

Worst card in the game is at the number 2 spot?  What?  Yeah… there is something I hate more than Shriek.

Again, I am fine with control pieces that blank your characters.  I didn’t mind Dwarf Wizard back in the day.  However, DWiz had a significant difference in that a character die had to be active in order for his ability to trigger.

Shriek was the lazy way to accomplish the same thing.  Field her, choose a CARD, and blank it.  Now you either had to bring your own version of Shriek to play the Shriek mini-game, or you needed to bring tech to specifically work against her.  That made the game unenjoyable for me and thank you to Wizkids for finally getting rid of her.

1.  Green Devil Mask

F**k this card.  I have no actual problem with the ability of this card to be honest. I have issue with how it was officially ruled… and how it was not officially ruled. It is easy enough to roll through your the Trap. That tended to be the strategy for most people when dealing with GDM.

Where my first issue came, was with the in set counter to Traps… Skeleton Key. This card SHOULD have been the answer to GDM, but it was officially ruled otherwise unfortunately. Where my second issue came with GDM was the lack of official ruling on how it actually interacted with the Used Pile. I won’t go into the rant here, as it is up to Wizkids to settle it.

Because of these issues, GDM became a horrible, horrible card to play against. I will be happy to never see such a card again. If we do… please rule on it earlier than later.

Read onto the next page to see what ccm0007 will (and will not) miss with the 2020 Rotation.