A whole lot of bitching aka my banlist predictions

Without a doubt, the number one problem with this format is heavy storm. Heavy storm takes slower metas and spoon feeds them meth until they are moving at a about 6000 mph. It is my personal opinion that mass backrow destruction is unhealthy for the game. Backrow are the most skill intensive part of the game, so why do we need cards that get rid of multiple backrow for no cost? On a fundamental level, the risk of getting hit for a +1 or +2 from heavy is what makes backrow this format so insignificant. There is only one true backrow deck in the meta, and that is rabbit, a deck that naturally generates cards to protect its backrow. This is not to say i would like to see rabbit in a format without heavy; the deck is just far too good. Rabbit is without a doubt the most adaptable deck in the current meta, for its ability to survive things that seemed to spell certain doom for it, first the loss of priority, and later the arrival of chaos dragons on the meta. The three most important things i feel should happen with the banlist should be 1) the banning of heavy storm. With 3 mst and other cards such as night shot, i feel we have adequate backrow removal without resorting to overpowered cards like this. 2) The limitation of rabbit. This is the one card without a doubt i know the format can do without. 1 card 2400 solemn judgment is just too good. 3) limitation of wind-up rat. FTK's are without a doubt the most unhealthy thing for the meta. Maybe with these hits, we'd see less need for triplicates of annoying little spellcaster fairy things..... So yeah, this is my 3 things i feel that must absolutely happen for the next format to be kinda-almost-barely-skillful. Apologies for the break, been out of town for 27 days. Coming back X3.- Tsgreen

Windups win NAWCQ, and the significance.

So, as most of you already know, tyler tabman piloted windup "stun" to a victory at the NAWCQ this weekend. I applaud him for his intelligent meta choice. Now, some of us have to think... what does this mean for our meta? Will the resurgence of windups lead to the return of maindecked maxx cs? If windups catch on, even temporarily, the meta may see another shift, much like the one witnessed with the rise of chaos dragons. Chaos dragons i feel are the deck most affected by this change. The return to windups would make mained maxx c's a necessity for this often slow starting deck. The return of windups would likely lead to the return of the rabbit dominated rock paper scissors meta of a few months back, as windups often have trouble dealing with first turn laggia or dolkka. Chaos dragons can overcome windups, although sometimes the loop can be costly. It seems that the main reason windups topped this event is due to unpreparedness among the players present. As for me personally, I feel that without this element of surprise, outside of the loop, windups really cannot control the meta. I don't know how many of the feature matches i saw had at least one game end in a first turn loop for the windup player. However, in games where the player had maxx c and drew it at the opportune time, the windup player still got wrecked just as hard as it hit them 2-3 months ago. Windups cannot adapt away their weakness to maxx c without giving up a large portion of their consistency. Adding cards such as dimensional fissure simply opens another element that can clog a windup players first turn hand. Another point this brings up is the resurgence in the value of maxx c perhaps. Will maxx c see a regain in value, even after its reprint? The scariest prospect this opens up is regarding the next banlist.... I can just imagine konami hitting windups and leaving rabbit and inzektors untouched, and saying "see, we fixed it!". I was already in support of a hit to the windup loop, but i dont want to see it at the cost of sacky decks like rabbit and inzektors going untouched. This is just my stumbling low quality post about this.
-Tsgreen