In every format new or old, I always turn to the same hero and ask the exact same question: should we kill this guy?

Omens of the Third Age is on the horizon, so is the long awaited community vote to decide which heroes should get the boot for the next season of Silver Age. While Chane is currently off limits and set to return in the coming weeks, and the format is seemingly “healthy and wide” at a surface level, I think this is the perfect opportunity to target a hero that always seems to slip through harsh discourse where other problematic heroes never get the same grace…like an oiled up rodent that gets into the house, thrown out eventually, and then finds his way BACK INTO THE HOUSE! I, for one, will be using my vote selfishly and I’m taking it personally. He’s the wicked witch of Rathe, the terror of Volcor, that sickening(derogatory) Wizard, Kano.

For those of you still undecided on who to cast your vote for, look no further than here to find out why the Pro Tour winning, Calling Winning, and 3 TIME!!!!! Showdown winning (Barely April, by the way) hero needs to GO ASAP!

Kano is a straight-up problem in Silver Age and, somehow, people keep turning a blind eye. From three turn killings on your own turn with ease, to play patterns that are so egregiously strong–even after having five key cards on the ban list specifically for him, and the inability for most decks to keep up or even come close to stopping this monster from rom slaughtering them into the depths of Mount Volcor, enough is enough. 

Criminal History of Kano, Dracai of Aether

If you somehow don't know about the trauma this hero has caused the player base in the last six years, then you're one of the luckiest people alive. Going to attack for lethal just to finish off the Kano just to hear them go "In response, Aether Wildfire for 6 (yes, they had the f%$@&ing Kindle), Aether Flare for 9, Blazing Aether for 30," is one of the most traumatic things I've ever dealt with playing this game. He may not be as disgusting in SAGE as he was in Classic Constructed, but he is definitely still a menace to be dealt with. 

Kano has had some amazing accomplishments in Classic Constructed, with multiple Nationals wins and a Calling win! His biggest breakout was in 2022 at Pro Tour New Jersey when Alexander Vore and Sasha Markovic both took the first iteration of Combo Kano to the top 8 of that event!

In SAGE he's had a phenomenal breakout with one of the biggest accomplishments being back-to-back Showdown and Calling wins in the hands of Jacob Clements! PS, he also won the Showdown with Ryan Brown the same day Jacob was hoisting his Calling trophy.

No matter the format, the game plan is the same: if they're not One-turn-killing you from full life, they try to slowly trade damage and chip you down to a range where they can burst you out on your turn. In the case of SAGE this is at half of your life or a bit less more often than not. I am flat out sick of it and you should be too!

Unstoppable Burst Damage

While other wizards like Iyslander chip you down over a period of time throughout the game, my main issue with the demon spawn of Volcor is his problematic ability to kill you at such a high life total on your own turn. It was such a drag in the Blitz format, it's even draggier (derogatory) now. Other Wizard heroes at least let you think you might have the slimmest amount of autonomy and free will, with the chance to fight back against them, and if they maneuver well then you may still die to a well-timed spell from them. Kano, on the other hand, does not care one bit about you, your life total, how well you’ve been playing the game, or even if you’re coming in with – DOESN'T MATTER. ACTIVATE KANO. ACTIVATE CRUCIBLE. EMERITUS SCOLDING FOR 7! – Where were we? Oh yeah, a dominated Boulder Drop for 19 pumped by two Edge of Their Seats, will he take some damage? Doesn’t matter. You died before I even got to finish describing the scenario to you.

In another hypothetical, you lived past turn two, his turn? He’ll throw a spell or two at you, oh you don’t want to die? You better be sure to use that oh-so-precious Arcane Barrier to stop some of it! Then you’re going into your turn with a less than stellar hand and even less cards than you thought you would. You try to swing your Miller’s Grindstone for 4 – "IN RESPONSE!!!" – GET OUT OF HERE I AM TRYING TO HYPOTHESIZE!!! What a vibe killer that Kano guy is, right? Now then, you’re at 10 life and he’s just activated his hero power not once but twice to flip over two spells that total up to how much life you have…and that’s game baby! Repeat, repeat, maybe add an Energy Potion, might as well go outside of the convention hall and see the world because, honey, we damn sure aren't playing the game anymore. It's been 5 minutes, the round timer still has 30 minutes left to go, and you get to go have lunch! Maybe you could even go and watch the busker you saw on the way to the convention center.

Now, I can concede a bit here and say that there are some ways to play around this like having an Arcane Polarity or an Oasis Respite in arsenal … but I won’t; in fact, I’ll actually make the argument worse. The chance of drawing one of these cards on turn zero is slim to none, okay maybe turn one…nope! Oh look it’s turn two and… you weren’t able to find one yet? Congratulations! You don’t get to do anything but watch all of your hard work… okay your light work… go to waste!

Banned Cards, Too Many or Not Enough? Maybe Killing Kano Helps Everyone's Card Pool?

Kano’s card pool and play patterns were so broken that LSS had to ban not one, but five key cards from his arsenal. Each one of these are powerful in their own right, but when in the hands of the Red Demon Wizard, a bit too powerful. If Kano were to be benched for Omens season I could possibly see a few (not Aether Flare) of these cards come back into rotation to supplement other Wizard heroes, ESPECIALLY BLAZE, and see just how creative people can get with deckbuilding when Kano isn't the default BWIF (BEST WIZARD IN FORMAT).

Aether Flare is too much value in a format of commons and rares, point blank. I hope that card rots in the ban list until the end of time itself.

While Aether Spindle lets Kano see more cards than the average hero–allowing him to sculpt what he’s going to draw or not–if we let Kano go like he's Old Weller, the hot new ABG (Aether Babygirl) on the block (Blaze, Firemind) could have the piece that glues her entire kit together and makes her a fun new force to be reckoned with!

You don’t even have to get me started on the THREE equipment that are banned because of how crazy they are in Kano. Oh you want to get me started on it? Okay then!

Old Knocker may not be one of the worst offenders in Kano since he still has Spellfire Cloak, but Old Knocker did allow Kano to extend a little farther into your turn to try and make you play one more card from your hand before he burns you to ashes. The ability to block with this card, and THEN use it to gain a resource before it goes to the graveyard is just too powerful, in Kano or in the entire format. A lot of you might say to yourselves “yeah but Old Knocker was just too powerful everywhere,” and I agree with you. The ability to block 1, and then have the extra resource to cast something like Scalding Rain is just so much more than any other hero was doing.

Ragamuffin’s Hat is just too juiced for this hero and it thankfully never saw the light of day with this hero in the format, but what if we weren’t deprived of this beautiful card? Think of all the fun and cool interactions other heroes could have for a season if there wasn’t this thorn in all of our sides. Lots of heroes, like Florian, might have a shot of doing some fun filtering with this card, or he may even be able to save a powerful Runechant generator with it!

Lastly, we have Waning Moon. This card is almost certainly not on the ban list because of Kano alone, but Iyslander as well. They are both offenders in this case, but Kano’s Fire Lord Ozai-lookin’-ass is the one on trial here. Let’s look back to the scenario described in our first section where Kano activated his hero power twice and hit two Emeritus Scoldings. If his hand was 4 blue cards, he would use two of them for the hero power activations, and then the other two blue cards would be used to play the Emeritus Scoldings. What’s this though? We would still have 2 resources left over? One of those would surely be used for Crucible of Aetherweave to push 1 more damage, but if he had Waning Moon then he could use both of them and push 3 more damage! That could be upwards of 15 UNSTOPPABLE damage if you didn’t have any cards to pitch to your precious Nullrune armor! No wonder this card is banned and we can only be thankful that we don’t have to deal with this.

Kano may have a lot of cards banned, but it’s still not enough! With Omens being a three hero set and one of the heroes being a Wizard, it’s more than certain that Kano will get another new shiny toy to play with, and he will become even more dominant than ever. Cindering Foresight is already doing enough damage to my mental health as it is.

If, somehow, you aren't convinced to vote out Kano himself, then we need to see more Kano card bans! Have you guys read Snapback? That card can be played as an instant from hand or from arsenal. This is starting to get out of hand like how are we going to kill this guy?

The Pitch Problem

Not every hero is designed equally. Some heroes, like Dromai, thrive on playing as few blues as possible and focus on playing strong cards like Azvolai and Kyloria. Others are forced to pump their deck with blues and hold as many cards in hand as possible to send 5-6 cost attacks like my absolute GOAT, Bravo, Flattering Showman. No matter what hero you like, there’s always a giant fiery elephant in the deckbuilding room that stunts a lot of new deck innovation. It's a tired mini math game of making sure you have the resources to throw a valuable enough attack, while still having enough resources–or any resources at all for that matter–to deal with Kano’s enormous spells. 

Firstly, there are aggro decks that want to go lean on resources and high on powerful and aggressive 0 cost cards. Briar, Dromai, and Fai are just a few to name here, and they all have a common issue: they don’t block well when they’re forced to. When a Guardian sends a Chokeslam, they can at least throw their hand at it. While inefficient, they can still do something to stay alive. Against the Wicked Wizard of Volcor, their cards have even less value; blocking for just 1 damage each if they’re a red pitch. These decks are the ones that thrive the most with Arcane Polarity though, so as we've covered before there is some counter-play, but not much!

Resource intensive heroes like Oldhim or Dorinthea may have a bit of a better time versus Kano than our friends on the other side of this dichotomy, but they still will struggle to do what they want to do. These heroes are forced to take weaker lines, play less cards, and leave damage on the table just to make the Kano player block out and pass to play an Energy Potion. Otherwise the Kano player will just get a smirk on their face and send 7-8 arcane damage at them when they decide to finally swing that beautiful Thunder Quake.

We can always hope to have cards like Oasis Respite waiting in the wings of our arsenal for us… until we don't and we've died on turn two AGAIN. We still have to find those cards and hope we get to use them before it’s too late, but we still need to make sure we have the resources to play it, IF we even find it. Getting blasted for half of our life on turn two doesn’t often give us the room to dig through our deck and find the tech cards we need for matchups like this, and even if we do, we still need to be able to play them.

Thankfully, we still have some things in the format keeping the Wizard in Waverly Place (God that one was bad but it was right there I had to.)…A few decks, like Ira, get to play in an efficient way where they can pressure Kano while still holding back the ability to block his damage, or keep pressing onwards and attacking him where it hurts the most. But not everyone wants to be pigeon-holed into playing Ira, some of us want to have fun playing Victor Goldmane with our really cool Clash cards like Test of Strength! 

Proof?

You want proof of all of this madness? My thousand worded crash out and witty punch lines WEREN’T ENOUGH FOR YOU?! Remember earlier how we just talked about this deck WINNING PRO TOUR YOKOHAMA and THREE ENTIRE SHOWDOWNS? Let's look at the lists that were used to win both the PT and the Showdown in Yokohama this last weekend.

If you look closely, they're only a single card different from one another and that difference is very minor, where one card attacks for 1 more damage, and the other heals for 1 when it is played. Between both players, this deck went 17 wins and 2 losses over the weekend. Now, we have to give the players credit; they are amazing at Flesh and Blood. However, with no major changes between the lists, it is pretty clear that the best Kano deck is set in stone and that it is way too powerful! Now imagine how much scarier it will get with Omens coming out! Reminder, THERE'S ANOTHER WIZARD ON THE HORIZON WITH MORE WIZARD CARDS AND KANO IS A WIZARD! COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

My Last Ditch Effort

If, after reading all of this, you're still not convinced to vote Kano out of the format, let me plead with you on behalf of the upcoming SAGE preconstructed decks. We are getting a nice new beautiful SAGE precon from LSS for Blaze, Firemind! I want to play with Blaze and have a ton of fun with her, but by virtue of Kano’s smug and stupid existence, I fear that some cards will stay banned that don't need to be unless he's gone. I JUST WANT TO AETHER SPINDLE FOR 5 AND GET 5 COUNTERS ON BLAZE IS THAT SO BAD???

What I want may be a bit self interested, but come on did you try Blaze out in Blitz? I sure did and I have been YEARNING for it ever since Blitz was pushed by the wayside for SAGE… So I plead with you… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BAN KANO I AM TIRED OF HIM AND HIS REIGN OF TERROR! He feels like an EX boyfriend who keeps leaving his stupid hoodie in your house so he has an excuse to talk to you for six years. Think about it, why does the hoodie keep ending up back in the house? Because wee keep LETTING HIM BACK IN! Divas, this is a toxic cycle, we gotta kill him.. 

Some of you may think I'm just doing this for the bit, or that I don't actually like playing Blaze, but I HAVE COSPLAYED HER! HAVE YOU DONE THAT?? I ASSUME NOT! 

Conclusion

Is there some balance to the SAGE format with Kano’s presence? …Debatable, but this is my article and my word is the rule of law here so I say no and you can’t argue with me. Is this fun for anyone to play against and have to suffer through? Absolutely not–unless you're a sadistic Kano player. But those people had their vote set already for KAYO because they didn’t explore the format deep enough like you and I have over the last couple months and they're tired of people confusing their hero with some one-armed Brute. Ask anyone who played back before Monarch when Flesh and Blood was doing online Skirmishes and they’ll say that Kano terrorized the world. He might’ve had Blazing Aether in that format, and it was obviously too strong. Now, in SAGE he may not have that, but at the end of the day, no matter which format you face Kano in, you still just get obliterated by spells when you are least expecting it.

If you’ve made it this far and if I did my job right, then I would like to think that you’re on the same page as I am. We’re all pretty much in agreement that when a hero wins too much that it is time to go. In Classic Constructed this happens via the Living Legend system, and we as a community let Kano sour his career by sticking around far too long. We don’t have to do that with Silver Age. We wield the power of DEMOCRACY. Kano’s been winning plenty and he’s in his prime. Let the man take a break on a high note for a bit so that he can come back after Omens and we can enjoy him again in a fresh light.

But what do I know? I'm not a competitive Pro Tour player. I'm just a simple cosplayer who wants to have some fun and whimsy when I play the game!

I was just informed by Bryce Platz that I have to stop writing now because I'm only allowed to write about one hero here? I had another three page essay made up to slander Oldhim and all of the 4-block cards… Oh well I guess that's for the next community vote! Thanks for your time reading and SCREW KANO!

Carolina Alvarado

Editor's Note:

Howdy readers! Bryce Platz here with a quick update. It's been a bit since Carolina and I finished the incredibly fun process of editing this piece, but she thought it best if I were to mention that Kano's rap sheet has gotten even longer. He just won the Showdown event at World Tour: Rotterdam. WAKE UP, PEOPLE! Vote angry and vote smart at the same time: kill Kano. Cheers!