Dull isn't quite the right word; but I do get the message that the OP is attempting to get across; if we're all using the same pieces we may as well play chess.
In their attempt to design Mythic Rares that are "more necessary" for competitive play than previously advertised, WotC has created a redundant tournament environment that, while certainly not Urza's Saga or Affinity broken, can be extraordinarily frustrating to those who prefer a bit more variety in their game.
Agreed on the format being stale. In my opinion, it's been stale since the arrival of Lorwyn. It could be my imagination, but there has been a decided shift in cards since Lorwyn. Pre-Ravnica cards are way different than Post-Lorwyn. Gone are the days of useful 2 and 3 mana enchantments. Useful CA, especially non-blue, is at an all-time low (Stoneforge/Hawks are the exceptions).
Three more points I'd like to add:
1) Competitive decks nowadays have noticeably less "tricks" as opposed to older decks. About the most interesting at the moment is the Swords/Stoneforge synergy. Gone are the days of Ghost Dad, Heartbeat, Madness, et all. This lends to a more boring, "I swing with X, you remove X? I play Y and swing. You remove Y? I play Z and swing."
2) The power of answers seem to continually diminish with each successive set. Yes, creature removal is still rampant as always, but there is no removal that answers everything like Mortify, Deed, Putrefy, etc once did. Counterspells are super lackluster. Currently, a traditional draw-go control deck is subpar to a deck that just spits out threats, proactive cards like IoK, and races the opponent.
3) Planeswalkers, as currently implemented, often result in swingy, lopsided games. This is especially noticeable with Gideon, where dropping him on an empty board vs an Aggro/Midrange player is pure insanity.
This is pretty much why I play Legacy now. Legacy goblins is about 1000x more fun to play than T2 RDW. T2 RDW = I drop a creature. I swing. You kill it. I drop another. I swing. You kill it. Wow. Exciting.
Stoneforge Mystic is GILBIC.
Dude, Blightning sucks. It's just a slightly better Mind Rot!
Squadron Hawks? Maybe okay in Limited. They're just 1/1 fliers, after all.
Why pre-order 30 Primeval Titans off Ebay for 25$ each? Sun Titan is obviously the best.
i think you're right that Lorwyn block marked the beginning of a pretty long period of power creep.
Ravnica was renowned for the so called "tier 2 metagame", which just meant that most cards were close to each other in raw power level (efficiency and consistency) so many different decks could compete at a similar level. You didn't run into the "brought a knife to a gunfight" problem that is so typical in current standard. everybody just had knives of various shapes and sizes.
I think Zendikar block is a huge offender in power creep. Its more egregious than anything that came before it. This is a block where 1 drops that attack for 4 are considered the baseline. This is also the home of Jace, the Mindsculptor and Gideon Jura, both obscenely overpowered cards. Can't wait til it rotates.
Scars block seems much more in line with reasonable power levels. There's some good stuff but its not as off the wall as Zendikar.
Dull isn't quite the right word; but I do get the message that the OP is attempting to get across; if we're all using the same pieces we may as well play chess.
That seems to be the general theme here, if you would enjoy chess, you probably are not disturbed by this Caw-Blade trend as much as someone who prefers to have the upper hand on their opponent from the start rather than starting on even footing. There are merits to both attitudes towards the game.
I like chess.
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"The smallest seed of regret can bloom into redemption."
That seems to be the general theme here, if you would enjoy chess, you probably are not disturbed by this Caw-Blade trend as much as someone who prefers to have the upper hand on their opponent from the start rather than starting on even footing. There are merits to both attitudes towards the game.
I like chess.
I like chess, but if I wanted to play chess I would play chess not a 1 card metagame of Magic.
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That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating. Take it back!
I like chess, but if I wanted to play chess I would play chess not a 1 card metagame of Magic.
So you prefer a more Sun-Tzu approach to magic, cool. I prefer to test my playing skills versus someone else by using the best cards and card interactions possible. Just because my opponent is playing a similar or identical list doesn't make it boring. In fact, it makes it more interesting in my eyes, because outside of a little luck (and luck plays a very small factor with this deck compared to others.) the only thing that determines who wins is play skill and they are decks that require a great deal of skill to play effectively. It's so easy to punt a mirror match with this deck. It's definitely a hell of a lot more fun to play against than Jund or Valakut, no matter what you're playing with.
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"The smallest seed of regret can bloom into redemption."
Seems like people are arguing about 2 different metas here. Some are seeing the high level meta, others are talking about their local meta. I know that the LGS I go to is rather healthy. Top 8 at my LGS last night, using FNM as play testing for regionals today, was vamps,mass poly,rdw,ww quest,gw quest,2 caw balde,valakut. Now when regional results come out, I doubt the results are going to be anywhere as diverse as that but again, its 2 different metas.
I will echo the thinking that those complaining about this meta never played in jund, or fea, or affinity metas. This is magical christmas land compared to those metas.
Seems like people are arguing about 2 different metas here. Some are seeing the high level meta, others are talking about their local meta. I know that the LGS I go to is rather healthy. Top 8 at my LGS last night, using FNM as play testing for regionals today, was vamps,mass poly,rdw,ww quest,gw quest,2 caw balde,valakut. Now when regional results come out, I doubt the results are going to be anywhere as diverse as that but again, its 2 different metas.
I will echo the thinking that those complaining about this meta never played in jund, or fea, or affinity metas. This is magical christmas land compared to those metas.
Standard is healthy when people can't afford the $400 for Jace?
I wonder why it isn't healthy when they can and what can be done about it??!?
I guarantee you that if Jace was easily available that everyone who is defending him in this thread would be crying out for his banning.
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That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating. Take it back!
I remember last year. All the control players were complaining that blue wasn't good enough, and BBE was making midrange aggro too good. Funny how things work sometimes
Nah... it's too late for the meta to open back up. The synergy between Hawk/SFM and Jace is too good. Any cards that battle it would just be played in the deck to improve the mirror match.
standard atm is really entertaining me.
i do not like playing meta decks, so this is the moment of testing and creating to me.
i have tested more than 5 decks, twitching here and there and getting close to what i want.
It's dull if you are the type of guys who like playing winning decks.
If you the playtested twisted experiment decks looking for metabreaking decks, this is pure gold time.
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It's dull if you are the type of guys who like playing winning decks.
If you the playtested twisted experiment decks looking for metabreaking decks, this is pure gold time.
"Man, I hate winning, like EVER.. but I really enjoy making sick brews that don't break the meta. Playing in this format is so comfortable, I feel like my soul is wrapped in a deluxe snuggy."
what are you guys talking about, this is better than all Jund or all Faeries, this is a good standard, just not as good as it could be thanks to valakut....
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I usually assume that everyone is attempting to play winning decks, but if the meta is more exciting for you when losing, then more power to you.
To make a deck that wins other decks, i asume you have to lose to learn about your own deck, that is why playtesting exists, and its not exciting to lose, it is to learn about your deck and make it better, i dont play cawblade nor valakut, and still win a great % of my matches against meta decks.
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I actually enjoy the meta... Especially compared to others, affinity, faeries, jund, etc. This has different archtypes, I mean sure there is jace which is pretty much the problem, valakut to a lesser extent, but theres lots of decks that keep others in check. Want to beat valakut play caw-blade, wanna beat caw-blade, play RUG, wanna beat RUG? Play VALAKUT??? I mean sure thats only 3 decks but theres more... I really like this standard alot.
I don't play jaces, I have them, but choose to play decks that are fun to me, and I am doing more than fine at my local lgs's. This format this year compared to last year is not dull. Jund was the most boring deck to play against and I had a fair amount of success against it. Last year all I saw was jund, u/w and rdws and that was all until mythic conscription came around and a whole bunch of different decks prung up after that.
This year I see more different decks played then I ever saw last year. At my lgs on a given night you will see cawblade, valakut, rug, vamps, ww quest, goblins, kred, elves, u/b control, tezz decks, mono green infect, u/b infect, jumanji, allies. I would even say they're are more vamps and goblins being played then cawblade. That to me is anything but dull.
On the tournament scene you are going to see more of the same decks being played because people are generally going to play the decks that have a proven pedigree in tournaments and that is always going to be the case. So the question is going to have to be asked. What are we judging the format on big time tourneys or your local fnm scene.
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The meta is broken, as usual. Comparisons to Jund are less apt then comparisons to Faeries. In particular, its not that the deck archetypes are terrible abusive (which Caw Go is not). Its that Jace is far too good and restricts creativity because there is nothing better you can do with 4 mana in the format.
When Faeries came to fruition, tribal synergy rendered certain cards which by themselves would not be optimal into backbreakers (Peppersmoke, Vendilion Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, etc). The deck used Bitterblossom, a 2-drop enchantment as en engine which puts you on a clock and generates weenies. The problem started when Cryptic Command was introduced to the deck. The card's power level precluded running anything else in its spot and could only really be answered by running 4 of your own. Despite this, WOTC printed two cards in the following set which attacked the strengths of the deck from 2 directions: Great Sable Stag & Volcanic Fallout. Both of which were runnable in the next 'big deck' and both efficiently answered the more broken aspects of Faeries without being broken themselves. They also encouraged OTHER victory strategies other than 'make bitterblossom stick FTW, lulz'.
When you fast forward to Jund, I think the comparisons between it and CawGo fall apart. Bloodbraid Elf was the principle culprit in making Jund supremely degenerate. Yes, Blightning was a beating, Terminate & Bituminous Blast could answer anything in the format, and Putrid Leach/Sprouting Thrinax/Broodmate Dragon were absurdly efficient beaters. But in many ways if your deck was not running BBE you were playing to lose. Despite this, BBE does one thing; Play a free spell. Decks like Jund simply tried extra hard to get as much value from the variance of Cascade. BBE was not a lock-down, it did not answer a threat, nor did it hunt out a winning play. Its effectiveness was strictly governed by whatever card its Cascade trigger hit. Free spells are always trouble but, at the end of the day, if you wanted to attack Jund in the meta you had options that did not revolve around the same broken card you were fighting against. Moreover, the cards that hose Jund (outside of stag) could not be run IN Jund (control magic).
Thats difference between a deck that hinges on BBE/Blossom (or even Arcbound Ravager/Umezawa's Jitte/Sensei's Divining Top if we want to dig back to Mirrodin 1.0 or Kamigawa). The weapons in the arm's race against those engines largely can not be played in those decks! This can be juxtaposed with Skullclamp which was simply busted (with no equivocation).
The elements that make-up a meta are a grouping of decks which have relative strengths and weaknesses versus their competition. Even if one deck shows itself to be king, that in-and-of-itself does not 'ruin the metagame'. What ruins it is the scenario we see today in which ONE CARD shows itself to be so better than EVERY OTHER CARD that running a deck without it means you will lose to virtually any deck that does. On top of this, because playing requires a heavy commitment to one color it means that the builds not only don't vary all that much, they can't.
That means the format is stale, despite the fact that piloting CawGo (or control in general) takes a great deal of skill.
Jund ended Fae's dominance by offering a card at every slot (2cc, 3cc, 4cc, 5cc) that dealt with Fae's gameplan effectively and still fell down to control once Mana Leak reappeared.
On the subject of individual card/list comparisons, you have the secondary problem of the deck is also stifling players from finding much success playing with alternate lists. Remember when Alara rotated and the field was nothing but Valakut & UW? Even if your meta consists of 2 decks the fact that they play (more or less) opposing strategies means that players have options in how they attack the field. More tot he point; they can win in the manner that is most satisfying to them. When the only way to win is to buy a set of the most expensive cards in the format and play control your metagame is stale because there IS no metagame its just play a Jace control list or lose.
(in order to avoid derailing the discussion, I've placed the following piece in tags) About Relative Prices:
Jund's oppression is not comparable to CawGo in that;
A) It was matched by control (Mythic, Super Friends, etc).
B) Its principle engines were relatively inexpensive and readily available.
BBE differs from Jace in that it was both uncommon and anyone could pick up a playset for a pittance. In fact, you could construct a workable Jund shell for less than $40 (I know because I specced several out for friends jumping into magic for the first time). This is critical. New players can't play CawGo because it is simply outside any reasonable player's price range.
[As an aside; When Superfriends started showing up at PTQs people's eyes watered at the notion of a dominant archetype comprised of double-digit mythics. What a difference 12 months can make.]
Pricing by itself wouldn't matter IF there were other decks with even moderately similar power level. But there simply aren't (Valakut was close, no longer). Now, I completely agree that the secondary market has virtually nothing to do with whether a deck is 'killing' the format on power-level alone. What I'm driving at is that when you price people out of the game while at the same time narrowing all of the winning lines of play to sticking a single card that just happens to cost $100 a pop you quickly reach a tipping point where any sort of variety is driven out of the format. Its happened before, and it will happen again.
Yes, I am super bored with Standard, but I have my reasons.
1. Jace decks bore me because I don't play control (heck I barely play blue unless it backs up an aggro or combo deck I like).
2. I am an aggro/combo player at heart, neither of which are putting up results right now. This format is either: "Play Jace" or "Don't Bother Playing"
3. The decks I like to play (GW quest or aggro, Naya) that have SOME success in the format are stomped in my local meta by the diehards playing Valakut still.
Thus, no standard for me until at least NPH. I'm more looking forward to the Commander precons and next core set.
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Draft my cube!!
(450 unpowered, MMA-style archetypes in each color pair)
To make a deck that wins other decks, i asume you have to lose to learn about your own deck, that is why playtesting exists, and its not exciting to lose, it is to learn about your deck and make it better, i dont play cawblade nor valakut, and still win a great % of my matches against meta decks.
There are two levels to be considered when you're talking about the "meta".
1. The competitive level. The decks that have the most top showings will be the ones that statistically do the best, with the exception of people who play other decks that are meant to handle these top decks. Sure, Caw-Blade and RUG dominated a tournament recently, but just a few weeks ago there was another big tournament that had U/B and Valakut taking up half the top 8. People just play the decks that should be able to do better with because reason tells them it should do better than decks with less favorable matchups (the reason that control, such as U/W and U/B, are considered dead archetypes by many).
2. The local meta. My local FNM consists of ~50 people, and while there are more than enough of the "competitive" players to take all the top 8 slots and then some, they don't always get there. Two of my friends, playing Valakut and Boros, dropped out halfway through the swiss, while the top 8 consisted of RUG, U/W Caw-Blade, U/W Control, U/B Control, Esper Tezzeret, B/G Infect, Jund, and U/W Architect. The last four decks there contained no Jace. It's not that jank and tier 1.5/2 decks can't do well, they just need more luck/skill, and to not be forced to play against tier 1 decks all day.
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In their attempt to design Mythic Rares that are "more necessary" for competitive play than previously advertised, WotC has created a redundant tournament environment that, while certainly not Urza's Saga or Affinity broken, can be extraordinarily frustrating to those who prefer a bit more variety in their game.
Three more points I'd like to add:
1) Competitive decks nowadays have noticeably less "tricks" as opposed to older decks. About the most interesting at the moment is the Swords/Stoneforge synergy. Gone are the days of Ghost Dad, Heartbeat, Madness, et all. This lends to a more boring, "I swing with X, you remove X? I play Y and swing. You remove Y? I play Z and swing."
2) The power of answers seem to continually diminish with each successive set. Yes, creature removal is still rampant as always, but there is no removal that answers everything like Mortify, Deed, Putrefy, etc once did. Counterspells are super lackluster. Currently, a traditional draw-go control deck is subpar to a deck that just spits out threats, proactive cards like IoK, and races the opponent.
3) Planeswalkers, as currently implemented, often result in swingy, lopsided games. This is especially noticeable with Gideon, where dropping him on an empty board vs an Aggro/Midrange player is pure insanity.
This is pretty much why I play Legacy now. Legacy goblins is about 1000x more fun to play than T2 RDW. T2 RDW = I drop a creature. I swing. You kill it. I drop another. I swing. You kill it. Wow. Exciting.
Stoneforge Mystic is GILBIC.
Dude, Blightning sucks. It's just a slightly better Mind Rot!
Squadron Hawks? Maybe okay in Limited. They're just 1/1 fliers, after all.
Why pre-order 30 Primeval Titans off Ebay for 25$ each? Sun Titan is obviously the best.
Ravnica was renowned for the so called "tier 2 metagame", which just meant that most cards were close to each other in raw power level (efficiency and consistency) so many different decks could compete at a similar level. You didn't run into the "brought a knife to a gunfight" problem that is so typical in current standard. everybody just had knives of various shapes and sizes.
I think Zendikar block is a huge offender in power creep. Its more egregious than anything that came before it. This is a block where 1 drops that attack for 4 are considered the baseline. This is also the home of Jace, the Mindsculptor and Gideon Jura, both obscenely overpowered cards. Can't wait til it rotates.
Scars block seems much more in line with reasonable power levels. There's some good stuff but its not as off the wall as Zendikar.
That seems to be the general theme here, if you would enjoy chess, you probably are not disturbed by this Caw-Blade trend as much as someone who prefers to have the upper hand on their opponent from the start rather than starting on even footing. There are merits to both attitudes towards the game.
I like chess.
UBANTBU
UBRWDDFTWRBU
WUBRGT.E.S.GRBUW
I like chess, but if I wanted to play chess I would play chess not a 1 card metagame of Magic.
So you prefer a more Sun-Tzu approach to magic, cool. I prefer to test my playing skills versus someone else by using the best cards and card interactions possible. Just because my opponent is playing a similar or identical list doesn't make it boring. In fact, it makes it more interesting in my eyes, because outside of a little luck (and luck plays a very small factor with this deck compared to others.) the only thing that determines who wins is play skill and they are decks that require a great deal of skill to play effectively. It's so easy to punt a mirror match with this deck. It's definitely a hell of a lot more fun to play against than Jund or Valakut, no matter what you're playing with.
UBANTBU
UBRWDDFTWRBU
WUBRGT.E.S.GRBUW
I will echo the thinking that those complaining about this meta never played in jund, or fea, or affinity metas. This is magical christmas land compared to those metas.
Standard is healthy when people can't afford the $400 for Jace?
I wonder why it isn't healthy when they can and what can be done about it??!?
I guarantee you that if Jace was easily available that everyone who is defending him in this thread would be crying out for his banning.
We're stuck unless NPH dramatically changes things.
i do not like playing meta decks, so this is the moment of testing and creating to me.
i have tested more than 5 decks, twitching here and there and getting close to what i want.
It's dull if you are the type of guys who like playing winning decks.
If you the playtested twisted experiment decks looking for metabreaking decks, this is pure gold time.
:symw::symb:Steel Wb Weenie
I usually assume that everyone is attempting to play winning decks, but if the meta is more exciting for you when losing, then more power to you.
"Man, I hate winning, like EVER.. but I really enjoy making sick brews that don't break the meta. Playing in this format is so comfortable, I feel like my soul is wrapped in a deluxe snuggy."
BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]Slivers (Overlord as general)BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]
BMono Black (Xiahou Dun as general)B
Favorite cards = goblin welder, smokestack, chronatog, ,form of the dragon.
60% spike - 30% johny - 10% timmy
To make a deck that wins other decks, i asume you have to lose to learn about your own deck, that is why playtesting exists, and its not exciting to lose, it is to learn about your deck and make it better, i dont play cawblade nor valakut, and still win a great % of my matches against meta decks.
:symw::symb:Steel Wb Weenie
Hero of the Planes Studio.
Standard:
Caw-Blade - Record: 31-9-3 (Retired)
Jund - Record: 4-1-1
Legacy:
Combo Elves - Record: 5-5
Trade Thread
This year I see more different decks played then I ever saw last year. At my lgs on a given night you will see cawblade, valakut, rug, vamps, ww quest, goblins, kred, elves, u/b control, tezz decks, mono green infect, u/b infect, jumanji, allies. I would even say they're are more vamps and goblins being played then cawblade. That to me is anything but dull.
On the tournament scene you are going to see more of the same decks being played because people are generally going to play the decks that have a proven pedigree in tournaments and that is always going to be the case. So the question is going to have to be asked. What are we judging the format on big time tourneys or your local fnm scene.
Tried to pull away, but now I'm Back At it
Love is Emphatic, cards need to be played
Hailing from the BA, accumulating CA"
When Faeries came to fruition, tribal synergy rendered certain cards which by themselves would not be optimal into backbreakers (Peppersmoke, Vendilion Clique, Spellstutter Sprite, etc). The deck used Bitterblossom, a 2-drop enchantment as en engine which puts you on a clock and generates weenies. The problem started when Cryptic Command was introduced to the deck. The card's power level precluded running anything else in its spot and could only really be answered by running 4 of your own. Despite this, WOTC printed two cards in the following set which attacked the strengths of the deck from 2 directions: Great Sable Stag & Volcanic Fallout. Both of which were runnable in the next 'big deck' and both efficiently answered the more broken aspects of Faeries without being broken themselves. They also encouraged OTHER victory strategies other than 'make bitterblossom stick FTW, lulz'.
When you fast forward to Jund, I think the comparisons between it and CawGo fall apart. Bloodbraid Elf was the principle culprit in making Jund supremely degenerate. Yes, Blightning was a beating, Terminate & Bituminous Blast could answer anything in the format, and Putrid Leach/Sprouting Thrinax/Broodmate Dragon were absurdly efficient beaters. But in many ways if your deck was not running BBE you were playing to lose. Despite this, BBE does one thing; Play a free spell. Decks like Jund simply tried extra hard to get as much value from the variance of Cascade. BBE was not a lock-down, it did not answer a threat, nor did it hunt out a winning play. Its effectiveness was strictly governed by whatever card its Cascade trigger hit. Free spells are always trouble but, at the end of the day, if you wanted to attack Jund in the meta you had options that did not revolve around the same broken card you were fighting against. Moreover, the cards that hose Jund (outside of stag) could not be run IN Jund (control magic).
Thats difference between a deck that hinges on BBE/Blossom (or even Arcbound Ravager/Umezawa's Jitte/Sensei's Divining Top if we want to dig back to Mirrodin 1.0 or Kamigawa). The weapons in the arm's race against those engines largely can not be played in those decks! This can be juxtaposed with Skullclamp which was simply busted (with no equivocation).
The elements that make-up a meta are a grouping of decks which have relative strengths and weaknesses versus their competition. Even if one deck shows itself to be king, that in-and-of-itself does not 'ruin the metagame'. What ruins it is the scenario we see today in which ONE CARD shows itself to be so better than EVERY OTHER CARD that running a deck without it means you will lose to virtually any deck that does. On top of this, because playing requires a heavy commitment to one color it means that the builds not only don't vary all that much, they can't.
That means the format is stale, despite the fact that piloting CawGo (or control in general) takes a great deal of skill.
Jund ended Fae's dominance by offering a card at every slot (2cc, 3cc, 4cc, 5cc) that dealt with Fae's gameplan effectively and still fell down to control once Mana Leak reappeared.
On the subject of individual card/list comparisons, you have the secondary problem of the deck is also stifling players from finding much success playing with alternate lists. Remember when Alara rotated and the field was nothing but Valakut & UW? Even if your meta consists of 2 decks the fact that they play (more or less) opposing strategies means that players have options in how they attack the field. More tot he point; they can win in the manner that is most satisfying to them. When the only way to win is to buy a set of the most expensive cards in the format and play control your metagame is stale because there IS no metagame its just play a Jace control list or lose.
(in order to avoid derailing the discussion, I've placed the following piece in tags)
About Relative Prices:
Jund's oppression is not comparable to CawGo in that;
A) It was matched by control (Mythic, Super Friends, etc).
B) Its principle engines were relatively inexpensive and readily available.
BBE differs from Jace in that it was both uncommon and anyone could pick up a playset for a pittance. In fact, you could construct a workable Jund shell for less than $40 (I know because I specced several out for friends jumping into magic for the first time). This is critical. New players can't play CawGo because it is simply outside any reasonable player's price range.
CawGo = Jace + Gideon + Stoneforge + Swords = $480+
RUG = Jace + Lotus Cobra + Inferno Titan + Swords = $515+
[As an aside; When Superfriends started showing up at PTQs people's eyes watered at the notion of a dominant archetype comprised of double-digit mythics. What a difference 12 months can make.]
Pricing by itself wouldn't matter IF there were other decks with even moderately similar power level. But there simply aren't (Valakut was close, no longer). Now, I completely agree that the secondary market has virtually nothing to do with whether a deck is 'killing' the format on power-level alone. What I'm driving at is that when you price people out of the game while at the same time narrowing all of the winning lines of play to sticking a single card that just happens to cost $100 a pop you quickly reach a tipping point where any sort of variety is driven out of the format. Its happened before, and it will happen again.
:symrw::symrw: Titan Mimic (tec)
1. Jace decks bore me because I don't play control (heck I barely play blue unless it backs up an aggro or combo deck I like).
2. I am an aggro/combo player at heart, neither of which are putting up results right now. This format is either: "Play Jace" or "Don't Bother Playing"
3. The decks I like to play (GW quest or aggro, Naya) that have SOME success in the format are stomped in my local meta by the diehards playing Valakut still.
Thus, no standard for me until at least NPH. I'm more looking forward to the Commander precons and next core set.
(450 unpowered, MMA-style archetypes in each color pair)
Commander:
Far too many to count...
Magical Rainbow Pony Land.
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Spam infraction.
:symw::symb:Steel Wb Weenie
1. The competitive level. The decks that have the most top showings will be the ones that statistically do the best, with the exception of people who play other decks that are meant to handle these top decks. Sure, Caw-Blade and RUG dominated a tournament recently, but just a few weeks ago there was another big tournament that had U/B and Valakut taking up half the top 8. People just play the decks that should be able to do better with because reason tells them it should do better than decks with less favorable matchups (the reason that control, such as U/W and U/B, are considered dead archetypes by many).
2. The local meta. My local FNM consists of ~50 people, and while there are more than enough of the "competitive" players to take all the top 8 slots and then some, they don't always get there. Two of my friends, playing Valakut and Boros, dropped out halfway through the swiss, while the top 8 consisted of RUG, U/W Caw-Blade, U/W Control, U/B Control, Esper Tezzeret, B/G Infect, Jund, and U/W Architect. The last four decks there contained no Jace. It's not that jank and tier 1.5/2 decks can't do well, they just need more luck/skill, and to not be forced to play against tier 1 decks all day.