Question on Dark Ritual

[TheCasualOblivion]

I don't pay a lot of attention to tournament formats. I'm curious about the answer to a few questions about the card:

1. In what formats is Dark Ritual currently either banned or restricted.
2. Dark Ritual was with the game for a while, what was the deck or decks that Dark Ritual ended up being banned/restricted because of.

 

[Mr_Pestilence]

DR was one the casualties of WotC cracking down on the speed of the game. Probably the final straw was Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Will, 2 cards which are restricted in Type I.

To be honest, I expect DR be restricted in Type I soon due to its ridiculous efficiency in "storm" decks like Tendrils of Agony and Brain Freeze, along with, of course, Yawgmoth's Will.

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

WotC cracking down on speed and then giving us Chrome Mox and Affinity in Mirrodin. Funny stuff.

The game was slower back in the days of overpowered, undercosted cards.

Still looking for specifics.

 

[Oversoul]

To be honest, I expect DR be restricted in Type I soon due to its ridiculous efficiency in "storm" decks like Tendrils of Agony and Brain Freeze, along with, of course, Yawgmoth's Will.

I certainly hope not. I do not know if Dark Ritual was ever restricted in the past. It isn't now.

The only format I know of it being banned in is Extended (where it is still banned). The deck in question is Necro-Donate. They decided to weaken the deck by getting rid of its acceleration (Dark Ritual and Mana Vault were both banned). All that did was slow the deck (and most other competitive archetypes) down without changing Necro-Donate's dominance very much. So then they banned Necropotence (along with Replenish and maybe some other stuff if I remember correctly).

 

[TheCasualOblivion]

and dark ritual is still banned then

 

[Ferret]

Well, as I stated in a recent article, Black used to be the absolute fastest colour in the game. If it just had your basic critters like Green, it wouldn't be a problem, but Black also uses discard cards, Drain Life (and their ilk), and small creatures that had annoying side effects. One or the other of those are fine on their own, but when you throw in the fast that you can get so much mana on turn one, it gets really troublesome...

-Ferret

"The fastest kill I ever had (turn 3) was helped by a Dark Ritual..."

 

[Gizmo]

Dark Ritual was banned specifically to stop Necro-Donate from being abusive, which it did. HOWEVER Dark Ritual had long been a problem card, because with it available to players WotC couldnt print good black spells at 4/5 cc because they would arrive in play two turns early and be broken.

Removing Dark Ritual from the environment allowed a whole slew of powerful black spells to be printed that had previously been sitting in a drawer at WotC HQ marked 'Broken by Ritual'.

 

[Spiderman]

You can always go to WOTC's Banned/Restricted Lists to keep up to date.

 

[Mikeymike]

Dark Ritual was banned specifically to stop Necro-Donate from being abusive, which it did. HOWEVER Dark Ritual had long been a problem card, because with it available to players WotC couldnt print good black spells at 4/5 cc because they would arrive in play two turns early and be broken.

Removing Dark Ritual from the environment allowed a whole slew of powerful black spells to be printed that had previously been sitting in a drawer at WotC HQ marked 'Broken by Ritual'.

Interesting, I never knew that. That would explain Torment.

 

[Ferret]

I wonder...since DR has been banned/not reprinted, could they reprint Juzam Djinn? That card was mostly dangerous because it could come out on turn two (turn one, if you have a Sol Ring and a DR). Since Black has been slowed down from its insanely fast days (see my article) Necro decks can actually be beaten without having to resort to using speedy red decks...

-Ferret

"...I won't use the 'S' word..."

 

[Oversoul]

I am pretty sure Juzam Djinn is on the reserved list. I would love to see it reprinted (I would like to see any good cards become more available, and of course WotC could make money off that, but it seems that it's not going to happen).

What do you mean about Necro decks though? As far as tournaments go, they don't even exist anymore. Necropotence is banned in Legacy, rotated out of Extended/Standard, and no one plays Ice Age block (as far as I know). The only format where Necropotence can be found is Vintage, where it is restricted, which doesn't make for viable Necro decks.

 

[Spiderman]

And I thought they printed a "Juzam-like" creature by now... lemme look it up...

Grinning Demon?
{2}{B}{B}
Creature -- Demon
6/6
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life.
Morph {2}{B}{B} (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for {3}. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

Yukora, the Prisoner seems to be a close runner up.

{2}{B}{B}
Legendary Creature -- Demon Spirit
5/5
When ~this~ leaves play, sacrifice all non-Ogre creatures you control.

 

[Oversoul]

Yukora is pretty nice (not as good as the ancient Djinn, but only black's finest creatures can match him for efficiency). The non-Ogre part seems entirely pointless though. It's one mana more expensive than Phyrexian Negator and doesn't trample, but its drawback only matters if you control other creatures and don't want to lose them (still not as good as the Negator, of course).

Grinning Demon is also pretty good. I hesitate to call it better than Juzam Djinn, but it's probably as good. It's not an exact reprint, clearly. Its upkeep is kind of severe, but it also has morph, which makes it slightly more versatile. But mainly it has an extra point of power (and toughness, not that it matters in this case) over Juzam Djinn, which seems like it should be enough to make up for the more dangerous upkeep.

If suicide decks were still popular (they don't seem to be considered viable anywhere these days) then Grinning Demon could be the heavy hitter in such a deck.

 

[Gizmo]

Juzam was powerful back then, and yes Dark Ritual was a lot of the card's appeal. There have been 3 or 4 'Juzam-likes' printed since Ritual left, and to my knowledge none of them have ever really made an impact.

Juzam is one of those old-school cards, like Serra and Ernie, that has been neutered through the years as power levels fluctuated. And also, like Hyppie, much of it's attraction came from Ritual and being un-terrorable.

 

[Oversoul]

Juzam was powerful back then, and yes Dark Ritual was a lot of the card's appeal. There have been 3 or 4 'Juzam-likes' printed since Ritual left, and to my knowledge none of them have ever really made an impact.

I think that the Dark Ritual aspect is quite important here. Things like Phyrexian Scuta, and even Grinning Demon, look like they could be just as good as Juzam Djinn, yet turn out not to see much use.

The best one case has been Phyrexian Negator (the only one of these cards that has made an impact, being an invaluable sideboard and sometimes maindeck card for many decks), which offers the same power for lower mana, despite a seemingly tremendous drawback...

 

[orgg]

They effectivly printed a 'better' Juzam in Apocalypse: Phrexian Scoota. A 3/3 for three and a black, with a payment of three life it gained two +1/+1 counters.

Thus, it was a more splashable Juzam that cost you one less life if it alone killed your opponent.

Ritual was fun, but it was bad for the game. Build a wall, get a grappling hook, and let us all ascend the wall, making sure to pause at the top before leaping to the other side.

 

[Istanbul]

Simply put, looking at the boons is a good exercise on seeing which aspects of the game are more easily breakable.

3 sudden damage for 1 mana - Curiously Strong!
3 sudden mana for 1 mana - Whoah! Slow down, Cap'n!
3 sudden cards for 1 mana - JESUS TIGHTROPE-WALKIN' CHRIST!
+3/+3 for 1 mana for one mana - Not bad.
3 life or 3 damage prevention for one mana - Yaaaawn.

 

[DÛke]

I have a feeling that in the future they might have a new 1 for 3 card for White.

Look at this:

Candle's Glow (1W)
Instant - Arcane
Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn. You gain 1 life for each 1 damage dealt this way.
Splice into Arcane: 1W.

Now this card is reasonably priced, especially given that it is Arcane, but more so because it has a Splice ability.

If you would take the Arcane out, and remove the Splice, you would have a good reason to lower the casting cost to a single W, giving you a card that is different than Healing Salve, but is essentially better. I think down the line they will print it without the Arcane/Splice and White will have a staple...

 

[orgg]

Actually, having spoken with an anoymous Wizards employee, Healing Salve has been on the chopping block for a while-- they just needed to put a chaff card into a set to replace it and not be obvious.

Beginners get confused at the "Modle" part of the spell-- the 'chose one-' is no longer conductive to teaching beginners the basics of damage prevention.

I expect to see Mending Hands in 9th edition, if only in the Core Game Set.

 

[Oversoul]

On Scuta, while I used it myself and liked it, the card had a distinct disadvantage compared to Juzam Djinn: the life-loss happened all at once. If you pay the kicker (which you almost always would) and the Scuta smashes your opponent's face in, that's good. It is effectively Juzam Djinn (or better). If you play the kicker, and you opponent kills the Scuta, you paid life for nothing. If you pay the kicker and your opponent bounces the Scuta, things can be even worse. For this reason, I would run Juzam Djinn over Scuta in most black decks that could use either. This is not to say that Scuta is terrible. In pretty much any deck where I would want to use Juzam but can't, Scuta is an apt substitute.