Parallax Tide Banned: What It Means for Premodern

Last Sunday, a backbreaking news shook the Premodern community: they banned Parallax Tide! 

It’s been a while since Land Tax became the last addition to the format's banlist in July 2023. However, ever since I joined Premodern, the blue control decks with Parallax Tide seemed like the best thing to do.

My deck of choice was Replenish. I had an amazing win rate with it, finishing 3rd at Italian Nationals in 2024 and 1st in 2025!

This deck was fantastic, crushing the fair and aggro decks, and only really behind vs Mono Red Sligh and Mono Blue Stasis. I was also really happy to play against the two most played decks in the format: Mono Blue Dreadnought and Goblins.

Was the Parallax Tide ban correct?

Yes, I think it is. The banlist article by Martin Berlin explains the topic perfectly and shows in detail the reason why this ban was needed. The next question could be whether something else was in need to be banned as well?

If the answer is yes, the first cards that would come to mind would be Phyrexian Dreadnought, Fireblast, and Armageddon - to nerf the power level of the top decks of the format down a bit. Although I think it’s not necessary, I can see Dreadnought losing a strong B plan and becoming a lot easier to attack, and the Midrange decks can rise to beat on Mono Red Sligh to balance the metagame.

I think it’s a good choice to ban Parallax Tide and see what is going to happen. I’m certainly sad to see my deck lose a very important piece of the combo, but I can understand that the card was extremely strong for the format.

Toxic Gameplay

Another reason to ban cards is that the gameplay isn’t healthy, as it’s not fun to be on the receiving end of certain combos. However, I think this can’t apply to Premodern, since this format has so many cards that involve toxic gameplay, such as Armageddon, Oath of Druids, Stasis. I don’t think Parallax Tide was less fun than those, just stronger.

Overall I’m a big believer that competitive formats should only care about win-rates when it comes to the banlist and not go into the merit of what’s fun and what’s not, since fun is subjective.

Is Replenish still playable post Parallax Tide ban?

I believe the answer is yes. Parallax Tide was amazing at making sure the opponent could never recover post-Replenish, exiling all their creatures and their lands, turning Replenish into a one-card combo. Now you’re still able to create a powerful combo turn, exiling your opponent’s creatures with the Opalescence + Parallax Wave combo, but your opponent will be able to untap and take their turn to try to have a comeback.

You’ll still be able to play around Wrath of God or Tranquility by exiling your Enchantments under Parallax Wave, or, if you have two Opalescence, they won’t be able to Disenchant them. But it will definitely be possible to lose post-Replenish to Burn spells or some other unfair ways.

A card that would be able to lock the game after casting Replenish is Decree of Silence, which you can discard freely thanks to Attunement or Frantic Search and bring back with Replenish, denying your opponent answers to your Opalencence board state. Although I believe this card to be too bad to draw outside of your combo kill, and I’m a big fan of hardcasting my combo, rather than simply relying on Replenish to get the job done.

This is where I’m headed to as UW Replenish post-ban.

What about other decks?

Mono Blue Dreadnought can still have a way to disrupt the opponent's manabase thanks to Armageddon, splashing White also for Meddling Mage and Swords to Plowshares.

Adding a color to your deck in a format with shaky manabases like Premodern isn’t great, but Azorious has the fortune of having a Fetchland in Flooded Strand and a filter land in Skycloud Expanse, so your mana sources should be alright to splash.

UW Landstill will work just as fine without Parallax Tide; one could argue that this control deck is actually benefiting from the ban, as it was pretty oppressive against it.

You’ll just play normal control tools such as Counterspell and Wrath of God, with card advantage such as Fact or Fiction and Standstill, and win conditions like Mishra’s Factory and Decree of Justice.

The deck won’t be top meta, since you’re still a reactive control deck in an unfair format, but it will certainly still be around and doesn’t die with this ban.

Blue decks will survive and keep on thriving despite this hard-hitting ban. The format will open up a bit with Midrange decks being now able to deploy their lands and cast their higher-end spells.

It will remain to be seen if the format needs additional ban to keep its balance, but I think it will be good for now.