Banned and Restricted List - January 19th 2015

Other than full spoilers my favorite time(s) of year are when Wizards updates the banned and restricted list (I guess I should get our more...).

The announcement:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/banned-and-restricted-announcement-2015-01-19

The full B/R list:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/gameinfo/gameplay/formats/bannedrestricted

Aside - Wizard's website has actually gotten less navigable...what on earth are they doing over there? I sometimes feel that outside of R&D nobody has any idea what they are doing...

Modern:

Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and Birthing Pod are banned.
Golgari Grave-Troll is no longer banned.

I think all of the banning's are good and will make the format more "diverse" which seems to be Wizards plan.

Golgari Grave-Troll is unlikely to do anything but having the option there is nice as well as perhaps fueling some delve shenanigans?

Oh yeah and this should spice up modern for the pro-tour coming up. My money would be on Splinter Twin being back to one of the top decks (especially if Patrick Dickman is present).

Legacy:

Treasure Cruise is banned.
Worldgorger Dragon is no longer banned.

Well I have to say both of these were quite surprising to me...I thought they would let us keep on cruising for a little while longer even if Treasure Cruise ended up being banned in the end.

The Worldgorger unbanning is a pretty interesting one. I don't think many people were expecting it and there was a huge rush to buy up all the ~$1 Worldgorger's after the announcement.

Vintage:

Treasure Cruise is restricted.
Gifts Ungiven is no longer restricted.

The treasure cruise ban in vintage is less surprising to me that the legacy ban. Vintage is already flooded with so many good cards that having more excellent card draw spells is very dangerous.

Gifts Ungiven being unbanned is an interesting one since it opens up the old Gifts ungiven recoup decks of old as well as whatever else has been reprinted that is good.

Next B&R Announcement: March 23, 2015

:)
Cheers,
Simon