Affinity can play Disciple of the Vault, sacrifice everything to Arcbound Ravager, and Shrapnel Blast you to death by turn 4. The three “best decks” in Standard pre-banning-Ravager Affinity, Goblins, and Elf and Nail-can all do ridiculous things early in the game without Skullclamp. What we're not ok with is having one card be the focal point of every viable strategy. Some decks are just naturally going to be better than others, and if Affinity is one of the better decks, we're ok with that. We weren't out to kill one specific deck (and if we were, we would have chosen a different card), but rather to salvage the entire format. We did not ban Skullclamp to “hurt Affinity decks,” as some players believe. Never in my memory have I ever seen a card show up in those numbers. Combined, those 16 decks contained 58 out of a possible 64 Skullclamps. Or at those from the more recent German Nationals. Look, for example, at the Top 8 decks from Ohio Valley Regionals. Your deck has to either have Skullclamps, or have Skullclamp in its crosshairs-a definitive case of a card “warping the metagame.” Such representation is completely unhealthy for the format. And there were a lot more successful decks in the first two categories than in the third. Every competitive deck either had four in the main deck, had four in the sideboard, or was built to try and defend against it. Skullclamp was banned in Standard, frankly, because it was everywhere. Skullclamp will remain legal in the other online formats, including Extended, Tribal Wars, Prismatic, Singleton, and Open. Skullclamp will be banned in the Standard and Mirrodin Block Constructed formats on Magic Online on June 20, even though Fifth Dawn will not yet be legal for constructed play there.

Skullclamp will be legal for the entirety of those events. Nationals and other multi-day National Championships that end on June 20 (Argentina, Brazil, Finland, and Iceland)-will not be affected by the ban. Skullclamp will remain legal in other formats, including Extended, Type 1, Type 1.5, and all limited formats using Mirrodin Block cards.Įvents that begin on or before June 19, 2004- including U.S. Skullclamp becomes illegal on the same day that the Fifth Dawn set becomes legal in those formats. What this means is that you may no longer use that card in decks for events of those two formats. On June 1st, the DCI issued an announcement that the Darksteel card Skullclamp is banned in the Standard and Mirrodin Block Constructed formats effective June 20, 2004. But first, the what and why… Skullclamp is Banned I wrote that sentence during the final weeks of Fifth Dawn development, and thus began R&D's awakening to what we had done. from the “Nuts and Bolts” Fifth Dawn theme deck write-up “Bonesplitter is always great, but the surprise gem of the deck is Skullclamp - one of the first cards you should search for.”

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