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(4 replies, posted in Announcements)

sebi wrote:

Aetherworks Marvel is as of now marked as banned in standard decks.

Notwithstanding their recent announcement of a play test group to avoid such errors in the future, it is still incredible that WoC could let this sort of ban become necessary again.
Of course, it's no trivial matter to design 1000 new Standard cards for the game every year, but that is the task they set themselves, and they're not new to it - they've been doing it for a whole generation now!
The concern is - or should be, that the recent bannings of Emrakul, the Promised End, Smuggler's Copter, Felidar Guardian, and now Aetherworks Marvel should not have been unusual or unexpected problems.
Marvel allows you to search for and cast a card at zero mana cost, which is always going to be fantastic situation, regardless of how you have to play around to manage the activation cost (in this case Energy).
The Copy Cat infinite combo with Felidar Guardian and Saheeli Rai was was foreseeable by any solid club-level player. It was clear that Smuggler's Copter was an absolute bomb to everyone who had the good forune to open it in their Sealed pool at pre-release. And to have to ban Emrakul, as the signature card of an entire block, adds up to only one thing: that Wizards' R&D group have been asleep at the wheel since the blocks of the last six months were first on the drawing board,  which means soundly snoozing for the two years it takes to bring the cards to market. We can only hope this new group they've appointed can sort things out; and fast.