There are a lot of legitimate uses for lava and flint/steel. Roasting live animals, lava knives in grinders, quickly clearing the area around a monster spawner with little risk to self, portals... I think I would likely stop using a server that banned such items, and wouldn't even start using one that banned water. That would just be crazy. I mine obsidian from lava lakes using water. It's almost perfectly safe if you're careful. Glad I found the Empire before any of those other servers or I'd likely either have stuck with Single Player or just burned out and quit playing, or worked a little more on my home server--which was the reason I bought my son a copy of MC in the first place. Now I almost never even start the home server since EMC is far superior.