Judge's Den: Scry Rule Update

Lots of players at Wizardden.com have been asking if the new mulligan/scry rule is in effect. The short answer is no. Your next question is when then, right? Officially all I can say now is not yet. With all my official statements out of the way, I'll share my thoughts on the whole situation.

Wizards always implements major rule changes with the release of a new set. While it appears they have not yet decided for sure, Wizards of the Coast is looking closely at the public reaction from the Pro Tour test run in Vancouver. It would appear so far that the public is liking it. I fully believe with the release of Battle for Zendikar we will be seeing an official announcement that this mulligan rule is here to stay. This has been in the works for some time now, R&D wanted to reduce the number of games that end just because some one mulliganed and this has been the best solution yet.

We did a test run here at Wizardden.com's Thursday night standard a few weeks before the Pro Tour. Despite plenty of early opposition the players seem to have come around on the rule locally and all over the internet. The strongest opposition I have seen has come from the Legacy players. They are worried about the already powerful combo decks and Delver decks gaining too much from being able to trade a card in their hand for a free scry. While these arguments do have merit, the potential advantage will rarely be better than another card in your hand when playing such a powerhouse format. It seems to me though as Modern grows Wizards is caring less and less about Legacy and Vintage and with that player's opinions on those formats. I would say it is very safe to bet we will be scrying a fair amount this fall. Thank you as always for reading this week's Judge's Den.