I think people need to get over the stigma attached to Deathrite Shaman. Yes, it caused some serious problems in Modern many (what, 5?) years ago. It certainly needed to get banned or Jund's new amalgation (and BG Tec Edge) would continue to be too good. And yes, it got banned in Legacy, which is a format in which there are 5 cards in the graveyard minimum at the end of turn 1 for both players.Tzoulis wrote: ↑4 years ago"Dies to removal" is not in any way a reasonable counter argument to the viability of a creature. We've said multiple times that DRS is way more powerful than AA and is actually a color pie break, since it can slot in non-Green decks. Its nickname of "1 mana Planeswalker" is a testament to how absurdly powerful it is.
Astrolabe enables fair decks, by letting them answer a broader metagame spectrum. It also makes Blood Moon weaker. That's it. Astrolabe is almost 1 year old and the only non-fair decks that played it were Whirza, Breach and Paradoxical lists.
There's no reasonable comparison to be done between them, other than maybe popularity.
But guess what? Modern has gotten stronger. When someone actively considers a way to attack Arcum's Astrolabe, they can't. Attacking it is a losing proposition. Can you attack Deathrite Shaman? Yes, you can with removal, which has been much weaker in Modern ever since 2016. I personally don't see Deathrite Shaman doing anything more busted than Emry, Lurker of the Loch. I've done Engineered Explosives for 4 turns straight when my opponent didn't have ... removal. Deathrite Shaman is played in many decks. This is very true. It is a fair card. There is no strategy trying to win the game before turn 4 that would utilize Deathrite Shaman. That is the truth of the matter.
But I digress. I do not think that Deathrite Shaman is an acceptable unban right now. For someone to do turn 2 (first half of Uro) without losing a single resource is not something people want to see. Gilded Goose doing it at least requires the Goose to make another food later on to keep the Goose useful is a cost. There are many other weaker cards that could be unbanned, but mostly people don't care because they probably wouldn't do much or have stigmas attached to them.
*People see a card like this -
1. "Green Sun's Zenith is on the ban list. It is a busted card and leads to turns 2 to 3 wins. It is too consistent and would force most decks to play Green. It is on the same list as Oko, and therefore it also is broko"
2. "Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is NOT on the ban list. Therefore it is fine. It is legal, just like Tarmogoyf, T3feri, and even Unsummon."
I don't think that this ^ is an acceptable way to look at cards.