In December 1996 Wizards of the coast removed restricted cards from Type 2, banning a number of cards and removing Ice Age from the environment. These were the most broad reaching changes to the environment and basically changed every deck. Now we have a similar upheaval in the Type 2 environment. Almost over night 6 new cards were banned as part of a specific program to cripple combo decks and return the environment to how it should be. In an effort to slow the environment down they had Time Spiral, Recurring Nightmare, Lotus Petal, Earthcraft, Dreamhalls, Memory Jar, and Fluxuator join Tolarian Academy and Windfall on the list of bad cards. In one day Wizards admitted they do not test cards and know very little about R&D.
What does this mean to the Standard environment Well the DCI has finally admitted they are going to force Type 2 to remain a creature environment.
Combo decks will still exist but these have to be based upon more than 2 low casting cost cards. The clock is being rolled back to eliminate the speed combo kill which works like sligh but is far less vulnerable.
With this in mind what will be the strong decks. Well as always there will be red sligh, white weenie, and suicide black but these will be joined by other creature decks like a green deck and perhaps Merfolk sligh. There will also be a few combo creature decks like sneak attack, tradewind, living death, tinker, quicksilver amulet, and elfballs. Legacy also reintroduces prison with the ring of Gix, and slow motion to go with winter orb. Finally it is a return to solid decks which win through steady pressure and a touch of control.
