I wrote quite a bit about why SFM was bad in another post, check the archives about that.
SFM being banned caused a rather bizzare ruling that the event deck is legal if it is played unchanged. I don't know that there were any equipment in the event deck, that was in any competitive deck that didn't have Puresteel Paladin.
I mean, how would you like to play these in your standard deck:
1x Darksteel Axe
4x Flayer Husk
1x Skinwing
1x Sickleslicer (basically counts as an innate 2:1, because it is Flayer Husk 5 and 6 in one card!)
1x Bonehoard (seen in some now-dead Boros lists)
1x Sword of Vengance
The event deck also has 1x Puresteel Paladin so you can "go off" with your Flayer Husks.
Link to the full event deck. Begin your trembling now!
13 artifacts (+2 Dread Statuaries) would not quite be enough to turn metalcraft on in a 40 card deck, I wouldn't count on seeing metalcraft too often in this 60.
Clearly, Stoneforge Mystic was an enabler that was too powerful. Near uncounterable, enabling near uncounterable follow ups that did a pretty good job of crushing aggro decks. The recent success of some hyper-aggro strategies could only last until the next week, when simple swaps of sideboard or maindeck Day of Judgement, Gideon Jura, or other non-mirror cards made their way back into the Caw Blade decks.
I am somewhat surprised that JTMS was banned as well. You won't find me tearing up over it, because he invalidated most any creature with CMC >= 4, but so did the Titan cycle + Wurmcoil Engine.
Buy stock in your Obliterators now...
I'm somewhat surprised that something didn't happen to restrict Valakut. Valakut has a postive matchup against pretty much anything but Caw Blade, which meant it was unplayable in Standard. With Caw-Blade gone, and Jace decks suffering, who's going to make a dent in Valakut + 4x Pyroclasm + 4x Slagstorm...
Anyway, big shake-up to be sure, and being implimented in 1.5 weeks from now.
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