Or maybe Commander 2013. Or perhaps Commander of Ravnica. Or even Supreme Majestic Awesome From the Vault: 1-dollar bin Turbocharged Commander. I dunno, I'm not big on the marketing stuff. The point is, it should've been promoted as a dedicated mostly to EDH set because that's what it is. And I wish wizards had the stones to do so, because it looks like they're trying to peddle it as usual so they wouldn't annoy the tournament goers, but really, how can you not annoy them when the majority of rares & mythics in the set (which we've already seen - 11/15 mythics and over a half of the rares) was clearly made for strictly casual play?
Now, this is the point where mtgs polite gentlemen squad (there's an awful lot of them here, honestly) starts flaming me to the fiery death, so let me prove my point. Whole set looks to be built around two bad principles: every deck has access to bajillion mana and overextension is excellent. The finest example here is extort mechanic - as if in competitive play you can afford to make all of your spells cost 1 more (at the very least) while playing another underpowered card to do so. Now in commander with all its ramp, especially in multiplayer where it'll drain 2/3/4... The very wording here shows the targeted auditory. Also, take a look at Obzedat - why aren't they worded the same way as extort? Because r&d thought that they would be overpowered as a commander (etb + 1 blink would be pretty much on the Kokusho, the Evening Star scale), they've balanced the card for it, they were taking that format into consideration while designing the card.
Aurelia & Zegana were also made with commander in minds. Now, I don't say they're bad cards (if a card is good in EDH it doesn't mean it's bad in tournament play), but they're extremely narrow - they require you to play significant number of other creatures while using 6 mana spells and only ramp does that. They are naya-ramp and UGR-ramp plants (UGB or UGW, maybe- it's nigh impossible to play ramp without removal so pure UG is hardly an option) and only in casual formats they will see broader play.
Lazav is even more of a casual fodder - in t2 majority of creatures cost 4 or less mana so it will be a hassle to make him into something that his cmc doesn't already buy (he's more of a sideboard against reanimator & controllish decks, he's narrow). Now, in casual, where with some mill (which is also horrible in constructed on a periodic basis unless it's an instant win combo) he can become an unremovable monstrosity against pretty much every deck...
New Borborygmos I don't even discuss - all is apparent from his CMC.
But we weren't finished with abilties. Batallion and Evolve coerce you into overextending. Grossly. They require you to play 3+ creatures to get their effects and that makes opponent's mass removal extremely efficient. Well, batallion is a bit better because you can qualify for it with 1/1 tokens (you must, rather) and it's easy & cheap to spawn them atm, but for evolve you really need to play card after card. I'm talking about dedicated deck here - little evolve element here or there can be viable on its own as they have printed two strong cards with that mechanic (experiment one & shambleshark), however, dedicated deck will struggle anywhere but in casual. And evolve is also better in singleton because drawing multiple of the same evolvers sucks - for example, a starting hand with 3x Flinthoof Boar is decent, a starting hand with 3x Shambleshark is awful.
Bloodrush is also hardly competitive in its nature - pump spells get played as often as auras do. Potential 2 for 1 trades really, really hurt. Only when they're extremely efficient & undercosted, maybe then, but it rarely happens. Even if it will, it can be easily solved in current meta - blue decks will just start running Snapcaster Mage+Unsummon duo. Not as good as the previous one, yeah, but still more than enough to punish you for running pseudo-pump spells.
Cipher looked competitive by nature, but all of the rares with it were made in the "win moar" style, more predisposed to the casual play. There still remains a chance for one or two cheap gems (even hands of binding may prove to be good with invisible stalker), but it could've been better, that's for sure.
There are also tons of mostly commander stuff in this set. Primordial cycle? Obvious plant. X2 cycle - well, RG and RW will see competitive play, but it's as with Zegana & Aurelia. They're much more awesome in the 10+ mana format than in the 6 mana one. Chaff like Angelic Skirmisher, Foundry Champion or Deathpact Angel? You know where they belong. High Priest of Penance is a fancypants version of a 1/1 deathtouch for 2 mana in competitive decks, he's really created for the buildaround pipe-dreams like Eland Umbra+Pestilence or whatever. Templating on Consuming Aberration? Signal the Clans? Illusionist's Bracers? Timmy's wet dream Giant Adephage (why isn't he an ant, btw? He would've been a G.I. Ant - that's way cooler than being some beetle thingie) Removal magnet Crypt Ghast for the casual mono-black crowd (why couldn't they've made that an enchantment? why, wizards, why? enchantment is a valid card type, dammit!). General overabundance of cmc 6-7 cards? One of the walkers being totally about creatures while another one being practically a creature?
Honestly, I'm not trying to say that the whole set sucks, that the mechanics are incapable of producing good cards (even "bands with other homarid" is awesome when you put it on 4/4 for 2 mana, for example) and so on. It's just that this whole set is purposely created for the commander crowd and constructed cards are the side dish, it can't be the other way. A historical event, really, showing the great shift in Magic's general direction.
And I'm not even against it, really. While I find casual games boring, to each his own, I guess. What irks me here, however, is that they should've done this thing in any other set - Gatecrash is a horrible place to introduce this schtick. Why? Because of their own "choose your guild" promotion. So the guilds in RtR get lots of love in both tournament and casual realms while guilds in Gatecrash get one-sided treatment. Now that's annoying.
Battalion is bad due to over extending? Well thankfully we'll have Boris charm and frontline medic. Two cards incredibly main deckable and in The colors of battalion. Just because they considered more then constructed doesn't mean it was entirely dedicated to EDH, limited is seeing a lot of love and there are already cards spoiled that will for sure see impact on at least standard. ie skullcrack
Remember Deathrite Shaman? That card was spoiled on the final days of spoiler season, and is proving to be one of the top cards of the set. How can you already be so judgemental when this set's Deathrite Shaman is probably yet to pop up.
Perhaps, but RTR also had definite winners spoiled early on. I do certainly look forward to any potential hidden gems.
Why do you put so much effort into typing up this tunnel vision of yours with over 150 more cards to spoil. Whats the ****ing point?
I'm inclined to agree, to you and partially the OP, however I'm not quick to judge this set already.
I remember when Ghor-Clan Rampager was revealed and one user said the game was being design by "uber-spikes" in R&D. As a Spike player myself, I can't see how that is possible. Judging from what I've seen so far it seems like Gatecrash is designed by a bunch of players who like big costly stuff and think Doom blade is overpowered because it can kill their big stompy stomp creature.
And I'm not even against it, really. While I find casual games boring, to each his own, I guess. What irks me here, however, is that they should've done this thing in any other set - Gatecrash is a horrible place to introduce this schtick. Why? Because of their own "choose your guild" promotion. So the guilds in RtR get lots of love in both tournament and casual realms while guilds in Gatecrash get one-sided treatment. Now that's annoying.
I honestly can't see how Orzhov or Simic are worse than Rakdos or Izzet. It's not like there are that many guild-centric decks being played in Standard, anyways: if anything, it's just decks featuring this and that golden cards, like Sphinx's Revelation.
And I also can't see anything wrong with them designing sets with popular formats in mind. Legendary creatures are good in a format built around legendary creatures? Who would've thought.
Itsar, your posts are some of the ones I actually love reading on this forum, but please, don't rush with conclusions.
You can't evaluate an entire set based on only 90 out of 249 spoiled cards. Though most of the cards do not feel like they have a definite place in standard it's not the only format people like playing. Personally, I love Commander/EDH and wholeheartedly support Boros goods being made for my EDH deck. Heck I may even switch to Aurelia as my general now since she's so good!
Also standard metagame evolves weekly so you can't set in stone the value of the card until the meta pans out. Remember all the hype being Lotleth Troll? That card didn't dominate the format as much as people anticipated.
A secret to how spot commander cards, shh don't tell anyone. If a card says "each opponent" it's probably made specifically for commander.
Other than that you are mistaking casual, wacky Johny and just simply bad cards for commander cards.
Remember R&D has a strict quota on each category of cards. We will receive exactly the same amount of constructed playables we receive each set. Sure, some of them maybe bad in our current meta (case in point Falkenrath aristocrat and thundermaw hellkite in delver meta), but the amount will still be there.
tl;dr waaah, waaah, you didn't get everything you wanted out of ninety cards. Sorry they're not functionally reprinting Ancestral Recall.
We have just this week broken the "one third of the set revealed" benchmark of public knowledge. Would you care to tell me what information you have that tells you that, even if you do not like the set to this point, that the remaining 159 cards are all going to suck or be primarily bulk rares with a blatant Commander theme? And for that matter, how many sets do you regularly use a third of for your Standard build(s), especially when there's a small expansion, three large sets, and a core set besides in Standard at the time?
No, I'm not actually sure of the statistics, but you get what I'm getting at. You've put an awful lot of effort into an argument with no legs to stand on.
TMDR. I feel like standard has been crazy since lor/sha and alara- and after them we had the titans, and now thragtusk/resto. I have no problem with the power level of standard going down a bit, by pushing other formats. There are other cool cards out there, but will never see play, that deserve to. Growing up, magic for me was casual. Once i learned type II, i was pumped! But oh....people did-and still do- two things. They played control or just turned creatures sideways. BORING!
I have a reputation at my fnm as "the queen of the johnnies", and as a rogue deck player. I love it, i embrace it. I built a pretty competitive deck with essence of the wild for instance. Wild Defiance is my pet project and my fav right now in standard. I for one would welcome a more diverse standard, and this set looks like it is heading there. Good job Magic!
A secret to how spot commander cards, shh don't tell anyone. If a card says "each opponent" it's probably made specifically for commander.
Other than that you are mistaking casual, wacky Johny and just simply bad cards for commander cards.
It's not like Commander is the only multiplayer format, though. Or like Commander can only be played with 3+ players.
Haven't seen a good 2HG game lately that wasn't at a prerelease. I'd like to see more 2HG, frankly. It was a lot of fun playing it in DOTP12, but I'd love to do it more in real life.
Or Emperor.
I think the most strangely fun game I've ever played was a three-way Emperor match.
I'll never make a "complaint" thread...look how much hate the poor OP has received. This borders on online bullying. I read what he said more as a revelation than a complaint. I just feel like we should all tone it down a notch here ok?
As has been stated, the whole set isn't revealed yet. I agree that there will be, and there have been some great constructed stuff showing up. Boros Charm, Frontline Medic, Skull Crack, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and Obzedat are some fine examples. With that said, I can see where OP is coming from.
There is a clear and concise catering to Casual lately. I enjoy this, because I have fallen away from the tournament scene. The most popular Casual format is Commander. Because of this, it is easy to point out cards that are obviously more-or-less Commander cards. The cycle that says "all opponents", huge splashy creatures and spells, and interesting, yet not spiky, legends are all very Commandery. The gap between casual cards and tournament cards is becoming more evident. Compare this to a block like Urza's, where it seemed like every card was good somewhere and somehow. Back then, there was a big blur of goodness. Limited, Standard, Legacy, Casual; it was all the same monster. That might seem great in theory, but it causes its own problems. Only within the last few years has Magic really crystallized how it constructs a set. Time Spiral and the Lorwyn MegaBlock weren't to long ago, and even those had their problems.
Don't get me wrong. When I see cards like Foundry Champion, I grit my teeth a bit, but I understand why they exist. When I looked at the new Gideon, I almost threw a fit...but my 16 year old brother-in-law freaking loves it. Lets all be happy that MtG can cater to such a large a varied audience.
Actually, I agree with most of the OP's thoughts on this and don't understand all of the bashing. Sure, we have only 90 cards, but the guild abilities will not be changing nor will the guild leaders. Unless I see a pile of efficient creatures/tricks printed in the next 150 then this set will definitely stand as the 'mulitplayer' set. And I do see the large differences between this and RTR, where RTR has very little impact on multiplayer.
What? I don't Know what brand of paint you're huffing, but Deathpact Angel is terrible in EDH. One could actually argue that she's worse in EDH than in standard.
Actually the OP did mention Obzedat in the second paragraph. Aside from Obzedat, most of the guildleaders seem to scream "play me in EDH."
The guild leaders in RtR were like that, too, though. In fact, most legendary creatures are bad in standard.
And it should be noted that the OP's mention of the Obzedat basically translated to: "I know that Obzedat is bad in EDH, and was probably worded specifically to avoid any risk of it being overpowered in EDH, but I'm still going count it as pandering to the EDH crowd anyway, because I don't want to interrupt this wall-to-wall whining with a little positive thinking."
I'll never make a "complaint" thread...look how much hate the poor OP has received. This borders on online bullying. I read what he said more as a revelation than a complaint. I just feel like we should all tone it down a notch here ok?
As has been stated, the whole set isn't revealed yet. I agree that there will be, and there have been some great constructed stuff showing up. Boros Charm, Frontline Medic, Skull Crack, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and Obzedat are some fine examples. With that said, I can see where OP is coming from.
There is a clear and concise catering to Casual lately. I enjoy this, because I have fallen away from the tournament scene. The most popular Casual format is Commander. Because of this, it is easy to point out cards that are obviously more-or-less Commander cards. The cycle that says "all opponents", huge splashy creatures and spells, and interesting, yet not spiky, legends are all very Commandery. The gap between casual cards and tournament cards is becoming more evident. Compare this to a block like Urza's, where it seemed like every card was good somewhere and somehow. Back then, there was a big blur of goodness. Limited, Standard, Legacy, Casual; it was all the same monster. That might seem great in theory, but it causes its own problems. Only within the last few years has Magic really crystallized how it constructs a set. Time Spiral and the Lorwyn MegaBlock weren't to long ago, and even those had their problems.
Don't get me wrong. When I see cards like Foundry Champion, I grit my teeth a bit, but I understand why they exist. When I looked at the new Gideon, I almost threw a fit...but my 16 year old brother-in-law freaking loves it. Lets all be happy that MtG can cater to such a large a varied audience.
Urza's was a spectacular failure on WotC when it comes to taking care of it's customers; comparing anything to Urza's block makes no sense because it was an awful time for magic outside of casual.
Sets are becoming more and more geared towards Commander, but they're not taking away from Standard. They just try to take the unplayable Standard rares and make them playable in Commander.
As for the OP's worry about how the new mechanics lead to overextension, he's not wrong. In a dedicated evolve deck of a typical RW deck relying on battalion, the deck will lose to a sweeper. But the fact is that if you take almost any mechanic printed in the past 3 years and just try to force a deck around it, it likely won't work. Most mechanics have about two playable cards, and the rest is for Limited or casual decks.
I don't see any difference in the playability of the cards and mechanics in this set for Constructed and Limited than there appears to be for other recent sets. For a while now, most mechanics haven't been very good outside of Limited.
As for how good the Mythics are, I see 5 that will probably see some play in Standard Constructed. Others that might make a splash in Modern.
Not going to bash; everyone should be able to state their opinion without being attacked. However, I disagree with the OP on practically every point. The set seems fine and completely in line with the changes that have been occurring in Magic recently.
I definitely do wish that set mechanics were more designed with constructed playability in mind, but that's not a new problem with Gatecrash. Metalcraft was mostly garbage. Morbid was mostly garbage. Detain was mostly garbage. These are all mechanics with Limited in mind. Basically all mechanics are also too narrow. Why was Unleash always just a single +1/+1 counter? Why wasn't there such a thing as Unleash 2 or 3? Why weren't there drawbacks other than not being able to block? Why weren't there any buffs for not Unleashing the creature instead of just adding a drawback? These are the sorts of questions I ask with almost every mechanic that comes out in Magic today, and Gatecrash certainly seems to continue the trend (Gruul just has a narrow, watered down version of Channel), but it's nothing particular to this set.
In short, Magic is still a decent game, the designers aren't completely ignoring Constructed with this set, and, at worst, they are just continuing a trend they started years ago.
Thanks dude, the heat has been taken off of me, lol. 'Tis the season for panties to get into a twist. Good luck battling off the vultures... they wait until you're near death to pluck out your eyes.
Yes, I play it a lot actually, once a week in a group paper setting and many times a week on MTGO in both commander and 2HG. I should expand on my statement though:
RTR impact:
5 guild leaders - Aside from Isperia and Trostani these do see a lot of play
Scavenge: I never see this anywhere in multiplayer, and very rarely in standard duels
Detain: I never see this anywhere in multiplayer, and very rarely in standard duels.
Populate: I never see this anywhere
Unleash: Obviously not a multiplayer ability and therefore should not be seen.
Overload: The only guild ability I see a lot, with lots of mizzium mortars and cyclonic rifts seeing play. Aside from these 2 rares, not much else though.
Other notable RTR multiplayer cards:
Angel of serenity
Sphinx's revelation
Supreme verdict
Some of the charms
OP, calm down. you are one of many on these forums who are suffering from a condition known as spike syndrome. symptoms consists of complaining about every card that isn't format defining and blaming the apparent lack of new thragtusks (which is funny since the set isn't even half spoiled) on commander, which you see as inferior, another unfortunate symptom of spike syndrome.
i hate to be the bearer of bad news, and i've mentioned it in another joke thread like this one. believe it or not, magic can be played in non tournament settings! the majority of the player base doesnt play competitive mtg, so please gtfo if you are going to stay in your spike bubble and refuse to acknowledge different points of view from people who are playing the same game you are but for different reasons.
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Now, this is the point where mtgs polite gentlemen squad (there's an awful lot of them here, honestly) starts flaming me to the fiery death, so let me prove my point. Whole set looks to be built around two bad principles: every deck has access to bajillion mana and overextension is excellent. The finest example here is extort mechanic - as if in competitive play you can afford to make all of your spells cost 1 more (at the very least) while playing another underpowered card to do so. Now in commander with all its ramp, especially in multiplayer where it'll drain 2/3/4... The very wording here shows the targeted auditory. Also, take a look at Obzedat - why aren't they worded the same way as extort? Because r&d thought that they would be overpowered as a commander (etb + 1 blink would be pretty much on the Kokusho, the Evening Star scale), they've balanced the card for it, they were taking that format into consideration while designing the card.
Aurelia & Zegana were also made with commander in minds. Now, I don't say they're bad cards (if a card is good in EDH it doesn't mean it's bad in tournament play), but they're extremely narrow - they require you to play significant number of other creatures while using 6 mana spells and only ramp does that. They are naya-ramp and UGR-ramp plants (UGB or UGW, maybe- it's nigh impossible to play ramp without removal so pure UG is hardly an option) and only in casual formats they will see broader play.
Lazav is even more of a casual fodder - in t2 majority of creatures cost 4 or less mana so it will be a hassle to make him into something that his cmc doesn't already buy (he's more of a sideboard against reanimator & controllish decks, he's narrow). Now, in casual, where with some mill (which is also horrible in constructed on a periodic basis unless it's an instant win combo) he can become an unremovable monstrosity against pretty much every deck...
New Borborygmos I don't even discuss - all is apparent from his CMC.
But we weren't finished with abilties. Batallion and Evolve coerce you into overextending. Grossly. They require you to play 3+ creatures to get their effects and that makes opponent's mass removal extremely efficient. Well, batallion is a bit better because you can qualify for it with 1/1 tokens (you must, rather) and it's easy & cheap to spawn them atm, but for evolve you really need to play card after card. I'm talking about dedicated deck here - little evolve element here or there can be viable on its own as they have printed two strong cards with that mechanic (experiment one & shambleshark), however, dedicated deck will struggle anywhere but in casual. And evolve is also better in singleton because drawing multiple of the same evolvers sucks - for example, a starting hand with 3x Flinthoof Boar is decent, a starting hand with 3x Shambleshark is awful.
Bloodrush is also hardly competitive in its nature - pump spells get played as often as auras do. Potential 2 for 1 trades really, really hurt. Only when they're extremely efficient & undercosted, maybe then, but it rarely happens. Even if it will, it can be easily solved in current meta - blue decks will just start running Snapcaster Mage+Unsummon duo. Not as good as the previous one, yeah, but still more than enough to punish you for running pseudo-pump spells.
Cipher looked competitive by nature, but all of the rares with it were made in the "win moar" style, more predisposed to the casual play. There still remains a chance for one or two cheap gems (even hands of binding may prove to be good with invisible stalker), but it could've been better, that's for sure.
There are also tons of mostly commander stuff in this set. Primordial cycle? Obvious plant. X2 cycle - well, RG and RW will see competitive play, but it's as with Zegana & Aurelia. They're much more awesome in the 10+ mana format than in the 6 mana one. Chaff like Angelic Skirmisher, Foundry Champion or Deathpact Angel? You know where they belong. High Priest of Penance is a fancypants version of a 1/1 deathtouch for 2 mana in competitive decks, he's really created for the buildaround pipe-dreams like Eland Umbra+Pestilence or whatever. Templating on Consuming Aberration? Signal the Clans? Illusionist's Bracers? Timmy's wet dream Giant Adephage (why isn't he an ant, btw? He would've been a G.I. Ant - that's way cooler than being some beetle thingie) Removal magnet Crypt Ghast for the casual mono-black crowd (why couldn't they've made that an enchantment? why, wizards, why? enchantment is a valid card type, dammit!). General overabundance of cmc 6-7 cards? One of the walkers being totally about creatures while another one being practically a creature?
Honestly, I'm not trying to say that the whole set sucks, that the mechanics are incapable of producing good cards (even "bands with other homarid" is awesome when you put it on 4/4 for 2 mana, for example) and so on. It's just that this whole set is purposely created for the commander crowd and constructed cards are the side dish, it can't be the other way. A historical event, really, showing the great shift in Magic's general direction.
And I'm not even against it, really. While I find casual games boring, to each his own, I guess. What irks me here, however, is that they should've done this thing in any other set - Gatecrash is a horrible place to introduce this schtick. Why? Because of their own "choose your guild" promotion. So the guilds in RtR get lots of love in both tournament and casual realms while guilds in Gatecrash get one-sided treatment. Now that's annoying.
For someone who considers him/herself a spike, you are pretty darn bad at evaluating the powerlevel of cards.
Up till now I have seen more constructed worthy cards (including eternal formats), then commander constructed ones.
Give irony and sarcasm, when ignorance and stupidity is found.
The whip is kept for special occasions
Actually the OP did mention Obzedat in the second paragraph. Aside from Obzedat, most of the guildleaders seem to scream "play me in EDH."
Perhaps, but RTR also had definite winners spoiled early on. I do certainly look forward to any potential hidden gems.
I'm inclined to agree, to you and partially the OP, however I'm not quick to judge this set already.
I remember when Ghor-Clan Rampager was revealed and one user said the game was being design by "uber-spikes" in R&D. As a Spike player myself, I can't see how that is possible. Judging from what I've seen so far it seems like Gatecrash is designed by a bunch of players who like big costly stuff and think Doom blade is overpowered because it can kill their big stompy stomp creature.
Meh, just my 0.2 cents.
Edit: Haha, that made my morning.
I'm so sorry you've been spoiled by swagtusk.
I honestly can't see how Orzhov or Simic are worse than Rakdos or Izzet. It's not like there are that many guild-centric decks being played in Standard, anyways: if anything, it's just decks featuring this and that golden cards, like Sphinx's Revelation.
And I also can't see anything wrong with them designing sets with popular formats in mind. Legendary creatures are good in a format built around legendary creatures? Who would've thought.
Itsar, your posts are some of the ones I actually love reading on this forum, but please, don't rush with conclusions.
Also standard metagame evolves weekly so you can't set in stone the value of the card until the meta pans out. Remember all the hype being Lotleth Troll? That card didn't dominate the format as much as people anticipated.
Other than that you are mistaking casual, wacky Johny and just simply bad cards for commander cards.
Remember R&D has a strict quota on each category of cards. We will receive exactly the same amount of constructed playables we receive each set. Sure, some of them maybe bad in our current meta (case in point Falkenrath aristocrat and thundermaw hellkite in delver meta), but the amount will still be there.
Stupid thread is stupid.
We have just this week broken the "one third of the set revealed" benchmark of public knowledge. Would you care to tell me what information you have that tells you that, even if you do not like the set to this point, that the remaining 159 cards are all going to suck or be primarily bulk rares with a blatant Commander theme? And for that matter, how many sets do you regularly use a third of for your Standard build(s), especially when there's a small expansion, three large sets, and a core set besides in Standard at the time?
No, I'm not actually sure of the statistics, but you get what I'm getting at. You've put an awful lot of effort into an argument with no legs to stand on.
Glorious. Can I sig this?
I have a reputation at my fnm as "the queen of the johnnies", and as a rogue deck player. I love it, i embrace it. I built a pretty competitive deck with essence of the wild for instance. Wild Defiance is my pet project and my fav right now in standard. I for one would welcome a more diverse standard, and this set looks like it is heading there. Good job Magic!
It's not like Commander is the only multiplayer format, though. Or like Commander can only be played with 3+ players.
Which brings up a good point - the shocks will see play, so therefore your argument is incorrect.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
Haven't seen a good 2HG game lately that wasn't at a prerelease. I'd like to see more 2HG, frankly. It was a lot of fun playing it in DOTP12, but I'd love to do it more in real life.
Or Emperor.
I think the most strangely fun game I've ever played was a three-way Emperor match.
As has been stated, the whole set isn't revealed yet. I agree that there will be, and there have been some great constructed stuff showing up. Boros Charm, Frontline Medic, Skull Crack, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and Obzedat are some fine examples. With that said, I can see where OP is coming from.
There is a clear and concise catering to Casual lately. I enjoy this, because I have fallen away from the tournament scene. The most popular Casual format is Commander. Because of this, it is easy to point out cards that are obviously more-or-less Commander cards. The cycle that says "all opponents", huge splashy creatures and spells, and interesting, yet not spiky, legends are all very Commandery. The gap between casual cards and tournament cards is becoming more evident. Compare this to a block like Urza's, where it seemed like every card was good somewhere and somehow. Back then, there was a big blur of goodness. Limited, Standard, Legacy, Casual; it was all the same monster. That might seem great in theory, but it causes its own problems. Only within the last few years has Magic really crystallized how it constructs a set. Time Spiral and the Lorwyn MegaBlock weren't to long ago, and even those had their problems.
Don't get me wrong. When I see cards like Foundry Champion, I grit my teeth a bit, but I understand why they exist. When I looked at the new Gideon, I almost threw a fit...but my 16 year old brother-in-law freaking loves it. Lets all be happy that MtG can cater to such a large a varied audience.
PucaTrade Invite. Sign up and enjoy the first 500 points ($5) free!
What? I don't Know what brand of paint you're huffing, but Deathpact Angel is terrible in EDH. One could actually argue that she's worse in EDH than in standard.
The guild leaders in RtR were like that, too, though. In fact, most legendary creatures are bad in standard.
And it should be noted that the OP's mention of the Obzedat basically translated to: "I know that Obzedat is bad in EDH, and was probably worded specifically to avoid any risk of it being overpowered in EDH, but I'm still going count it as pandering to the EDH crowd anyway, because I don't want to interrupt this wall-to-wall whining with a little positive thinking."
You don't play much casual multiplayer, do ya?
Urza's was a spectacular failure on WotC when it comes to taking care of it's customers; comparing anything to Urza's block makes no sense because it was an awful time for magic outside of casual.
As for the OP's worry about how the new mechanics lead to overextension, he's not wrong. In a dedicated evolve deck of a typical RW deck relying on battalion, the deck will lose to a sweeper. But the fact is that if you take almost any mechanic printed in the past 3 years and just try to force a deck around it, it likely won't work. Most mechanics have about two playable cards, and the rest is for Limited or casual decks.
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.
As for how good the Mythics are, I see 5 that will probably see some play in Standard Constructed. Others that might make a splash in Modern.
Not going to bash; everyone should be able to state their opinion without being attacked. However, I disagree with the OP on practically every point. The set seems fine and completely in line with the changes that have been occurring in Magic recently.
I definitely do wish that set mechanics were more designed with constructed playability in mind, but that's not a new problem with Gatecrash. Metalcraft was mostly garbage. Morbid was mostly garbage. Detain was mostly garbage. These are all mechanics with Limited in mind. Basically all mechanics are also too narrow. Why was Unleash always just a single +1/+1 counter? Why wasn't there such a thing as Unleash 2 or 3? Why weren't there drawbacks other than not being able to block? Why weren't there any buffs for not Unleashing the creature instead of just adding a drawback? These are the sorts of questions I ask with almost every mechanic that comes out in Magic today, and Gatecrash certainly seems to continue the trend (Gruul just has a narrow, watered down version of Channel), but it's nothing particular to this set.
In short, Magic is still a decent game, the designers aren't completely ignoring Constructed with this set, and, at worst, they are just continuing a trend they started years ago.
Yes, I play it a lot actually, once a week in a group paper setting and many times a week on MTGO in both commander and 2HG. I should expand on my statement though:
RTR impact:
5 guild leaders - Aside from Isperia and Trostani these do see a lot of play
Scavenge: I never see this anywhere in multiplayer, and very rarely in standard duels
Detain: I never see this anywhere in multiplayer, and very rarely in standard duels.
Populate: I never see this anywhere
Unleash: Obviously not a multiplayer ability and therefore should not be seen.
Overload: The only guild ability I see a lot, with lots of mizzium mortars and cyclonic rifts seeing play. Aside from these 2 rares, not much else though.
Other notable RTR multiplayer cards:
Angel of serenity
Sphinx's revelation
Supreme verdict
Some of the charms
And that's about it
OP, calm down. you are one of many on these forums who are suffering from a condition known as spike syndrome. symptoms consists of complaining about every card that isn't format defining and blaming the apparent lack of new thragtusks (which is funny since the set isn't even half spoiled) on commander, which you see as inferior, another unfortunate symptom of spike syndrome.
i hate to be the bearer of bad news, and i've mentioned it in another joke thread like this one. believe it or not, magic can be played in non tournament settings! the majority of the player base doesnt play competitive mtg, so please gtfo if you are going to stay in your spike bubble and refuse to acknowledge different points of view from people who are playing the same game you are but for different reasons.