Another survival post.

Is it safe yet? The only person still wishing happy new years is my boss, and I imagine he will follow his awful habit to continue to do so all the way through the end of March. It's 2011, and we got past the first of "one's days" that have excited many of today's binary aroused generation. I was wrong about survival, suffering zero loss as I only have one to my name, still groan as more articles have been written trying to innovate a format that is no more than a regurgitated carbon copy of post ban mystic tutor era. There are a plethora of topics to cover, and I loathe the clipping many torture the community with as their editors demand a criteria of minimum word count. I'm not entirely sure if it's grammatically correct to quote yourself in any fashion but I still find this to hold merit.

"The philosophy that banned sotf is one that can be used against any legacy card. Can't wait for dual lands to be banned."

I don't necessarily believe that come March everyone's underground seas are going to be worthless but lets look closer into this.

Strait from the mothership:
"In recent months, Survival of the Fittest decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.

Survival is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Survival of the Fittest on the battlefield, a drawn Qasali Pridemage can be replaced with any other creature in the deck for one mana."

This isn't that far fetched:
In recent years, Underground sea decks have been outperforming other decks in Legacy. This has caused the competitive format to become significantly less diverse. This has reached a point where the DCI concluded that it is appropriate to ban a card.

Underground Sea is a card that gives the decks a lot of resilience to potential answer cards. Some combination decks fail when they draw cards intended as answers to opponents' decks instead of cards that are part of their winning combination. However, with Underground Sea on the battlefield, a drawn fetchland can cost you the game vs stifle, and on the same note, lacking multiple hand fodder will put you in a poor position versus thoughtseize.

A few dozen legacy staples can fit this premise.

From mystical to now survival, the card I would next foresee to be targeted by the ever whining community would be enlighten tutor, assuming that countertop gains some head weigh in the coming months. Although twitter suggests a resurgence of reanimator, an underground sea deck...just saying.

And speaking of whining, which is the real basis behind this heavily customer dictated r&d, the kind of attention this had gained was but a mere fraction of what planeswalker control, Jund, or faeries had ever received. Standard is the format that new players are first introduced to before the pursue the eternal formats, and a majority of what the casual crowd supports due to their lack of spending, so going over legacy with a fine tooth comb trying to fine tune it and completely ignoring standard is...for lack of a better word...ass backwards.