Flash - Ban or No Ban ?

Well....



GP Colombus is over.



I bought my sleeves =)


So the world has turned.



Should Flash be banned?

Many have clamoured for blood.




But i dunno.




The Flash deck that won, played against the possibly the WORST prepared deck. I.e. The dude was'nt prepared.

To the goblin player, Flash is just another combo. His own words.


So it was hardly a fair game.


But that is all water under the bridge.

Pre FS - will always find it difficult to combo quick and early.

So if one were to say, given the current decks should Flash be banned?


My answer would be no.


One deck or another will always be dominant. Format warping. Whatever.



But post FS. Where 0/1st turn kills are about 12% (Someone did the math).

That is a little disconcerting.



The problem with 0th turn kill is this. My only defense is FOW. Nothing else. And the Flash dude has pact.

And with FS the Flash deck can do this more consistently and that is really where the trouble begins.


Though one must ask if 12% is bad enough for a banning???



I do not know.



But lets keep things in perspective.

To attain 0th kill. One must play gemstone caverns, a card that is royally bad beyond the zeroth or first turn. Flash haters would be quick to point out that by then it DOES"NT matter. I would agree 12% of the time.

Thing is this. To get a kill, a flash player must play out about 5-6 cards. If you can disrupt, GG.


Of course only blue or black has this ability. Then again Leyline of the void is actually free. So long as you begin the game with it.

If the flash deck goes the slow route, then really there is nothing left to worry about.

Should flash be banned? I actually believe that Legacy will still be as healthy as ever. Just that mabbe the side board will be devoted to neutering Flash. Is that bad? Well not too long ago the sideboards were geared towards solidarity or goblins. So someone will always be hated against where the SB is concerned.


The main reason I can see for the banning of Flash, is actually the zeroth turn itself, that makes games a little dicey. Literally. If the void is out, then bye bye flash. If not, and if the flash can pull off 0th kill, then bye bye opponent. Not too much fun. The combo is amazing the first time =) but beyond that....

but all combo decks suffer from this problem =P


I think Legacy will survive. But much I think depends on what the majority of the players think. That and whether WOTC cares enough about the players in Legacy. (Of course my assumption here is based on what I have heard on the Net, and on the Net it is always the vocal ones that stand out - the trouble is the vocal ones may not be representitive.) - For example, I am not totally set on Flash getting banned, though I can live with it =P But I find it hard to say anything on the forum and really do not care to get into circular arguments, hence my silence on this issue on the forums.