Well one of the better recent standards was Innstrad-RTR a format that completely revolved around a stupid card in Thragtusk and other overpowered cards like snapcaster, liliana, resto angel, sphinx's rev. It was kind of a situation of balancing stupid cards against each other and it was just fine.
I think there is a bunch of issues that are stacking up against each other, I don't think mythic rarity or splashy cards are to blame. I think perhaps the lack of a core set is a possible contributing reason though.
Basically there is no hate cards, when you stacked powerful cards against each other you had things like well thragtusk a hate card for everything and thundermaw hellkite ready to kill off some lingering souls tokens. Both of these were core set cards, they could print and plug holes in the formats hate easily and efficiently. Without needing creatives involvement the core set could just be mechanical, how do we want to tune our standard format?, make a set with a lot shorter run up time.
Another issue is the printing a lot of the removal and counterspells at rare, when you do that you take away rare slots you take away options for more stupid cards and more stupid cards at rare (thrag and snappy were rare). This had just started happening in RTR but it seemed fine but then it continued into Theros. Removal specifically saying plainswalker needs to be rare and more and more stable cards are becoming rare now. Khans actually reversed that trend which lead to a better standard. By putting removal , counters and burn in the rare slot you severely weaken black blue and red by removing options with build around rares. Leading to very green and white based standards.
Stop stacking all the power cards with in the same archetypes and/or colours. RTR and Khans were multicoloured formats which results in very goodstuff standards but those standard were actually quite good, because you could flex your deck to beat strong decks. Right now the mana fixing is tied to archetypes putting them way above the other decks. Aether hub and spire of industry are the key cards in standards best decks and it just isn't fair to decks not in those archetypes. Those archetypes get to play goodstuff and no one else does. Which means that even if good cards are printed for other decks those archetypes can easily play them.
The problem I've had with the game lately is that I'm just bored. Ever since BFZ, sets just seem dull to me. There's just something missing, and a lot of it has to do with WotC's "everything is too strong for Standard" mentality. Apparently, everything is too fun for standard, too. Take BFZ itself. It brought back two beloved mechanics, landfall and allies, and made them weak, bland, and unexciting. They were also obsessed with Eldrazi at this time, and printed so many that they became overdone and boring. But Innistrad had to have Eldrazi too. Between the original Rise of the Eldrazi and BFZ and SOI blocks, eldrazi are now the 23rd most common creature type in magic, which is more than angels, wurms and golems, among others. It was overkill.
Now, here we are in a roughly three-deck standard with absurd, mostly mythic rare threats, and very few ways to meaningfully answer them.
Then, of course, there's the story, which is in the hands of amateur writers who seem to think that excessive use of adjectives makes for good writing. It's a prosaic, unspeakably bland bunch of stories full of clunky dialogue, excessive reliance on tired tropes, and, worst of all, retcon after retcon after retcon. Why should we get invested in characters or worlds when they're so likely to be fundamentally changed on a whim?
Ok, I could rant for a while, but I'm done for now. I can't remember a time when I was ever this dissatisfied with the overall state of Magic. I don't normally jump on every hate train that leaves the station, especially during spoiler season. It sucks, and I hate that I feel this way.
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Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 6/29/20 (Core Set 2021).
I dunno. Some shops seem to be dropping MtG and Pokemon in full favor of FoW and YGO. Of the four closest to me, two dropped their MtG singles stock offering the same tired singles for, at least, since SOI was released.
I can't stand YGO as a game and I don't know how I feel about FoW. So I tend to avoid those shops in general. I'll drop by once in a while to see if anything changed or someone liquidated their collection but otherwise...
Everyone says there are no answers. What if they just printed Counterspell, Lightning Bolt, Doom Blade, Path to Exile and ... I don't know, a functional Tormod's Crypt? Those are all many times reprinted, and we know they aren't broken. Would that just turn it into mini-legacy? Would that be a bad thing?
The Eldrazi always felt out of place to me. Like this weird experiment a buddy and I did by gabbing some junk cards from other CCGs and applying MtG rules to them. Like they were some kind of experimental CCG WotC never published but opted to use elements from.
I tried to read the story of Gideon today.... It was complete and utter garbage. I made it to... I dunno some nonsense about him being a prisoner and taught how to wield magic or something before I stopped reading. I had to read the paragraph about his name change twice before I understood it was talking about the same character. Is this how the rest of the background stories read?
Good point on #1. The cards are pages out of a tome and I always felt those pages were written by different people and the art reflected the world as viewed through their eyes. Did you know there is no known accurate zoological depiction of a Dodo bird? Every image we have is derived from drawings or paintings, many of which were drawn by people with no training. The modern Dodo is derived on modern understanding and theory of biology in much the same way we depict Dinosaurs. So every drawing or painting of a Dodo is based on that artists perception.
It never bothered me that the art was different because I figured it was a story as written by different people with different viewpoints. Sure there are a few gaffs but eh...
Now, I don't feel like I'm looking at pages out of a tome but rather looking through a monitor at a video still or photo. The modern frames seem to strongly enforce that idea. Ever notice the image size changed from a square to a "wide screen" format? This is hugely evident comparing the Ice Age cards to their reprints in Coldsnap that show the same art but different card frames.
It's not that I feel one is better than the other. It's that there was a certain... charm that has gone out of the game.
I suppose it's a matter of whether the charm you speak of really registered with the current crop of designers. The emphasis these days seems to be on the cinematic, for lack of a better word--excitement for its own sake? (q.v. the previously mentioned overfocus on creatures and planeswalkers, at the expense of burn and more sedate control mechanisms.)
And it wouldn't be the first time WotC tried to make a game more cinematic--I'm thinking of D&D 4th edition, which I think was really trying to emulate fantasy films. The thing that brought it home for me, once I reflected on it? The minion rule (i.e. you could have enemies that, no matter what their armor class or damage output or other abilities, fell with just one hit, no matter how light). We might have a case of adrenaline overdose at WotC, nowadays. And charm, I think, is necessarily a little sedate, in that it requires thinking things through, without constant action.
I don't know what FoW stands for, but I think Yugi-Ou can be deemed partly responsible for the situation. It's not really meant to be balanced; it's instead supposed to emulate the constant power/advantage shifts in a shounen manga battle. End result: Constant excitement, to the point of...{scowls} "addiction" is the only word coming to mind, but that's probably too strong. And those who migrate from Yugi-Ou to Magic may well be looking for more of the same. (Although I'm confident there are other cultural currents I'm not aware of; part of the problem with autism.)
There's also the problem of WotC being worried about letting the game become "unfun" for new players. The concern I'm thinking of was brought up at the MTGCommander forum about Vizier of the Menagerie; design apparently thought that the exposed topcard from Courser of Kruphix could lead to "feel-bad" situations for the opponent, in case they don't have an answer to what's coming up. Hence, the more secretive mechanic for the Vizier. And of course, this is what's leading to the paucity of (non-rare) counterspells, land destruction, etc. But I'm not sure ensuring that a new player's schemes can run without much interruption is a good thing (or is this a side effect of design for Limited being a major factor?); it's certainly doubtful it will let their attitude towards the game mature. It doesn't really encourage a sense of caution and restraint, good things even outside the game. And even given all this, is it really that frustrating to be thwarted at times? It sounds like treating the game more seriously than it merits...(Granted, I remember managing to frustrate a beginning player with his Thallid deck, with my Momentary Blink/Mystic Snake/etc. deck. However, even after I beat him, he perked back up when I suggested Leyline of Lifeforce to him. But he was generally bothered that people were using online archetypes for their decks; he actually suggested a legendary deck rule. I'm honestly not sure how you'd enforce that...)
FoW stands for Force of Will, the game, not the card. It's basically a Manga driven game that seems to largely target the male population based on its art consisting of scantily clad characters. I could be wrong about the male population part, I dunno.
2. Flavor text. Flavor text was always a hit or miss thing but 90% of what I read these days is a statement of fact, something embarassing (through trying too hard) or just plain uninteresting. I sometimes feel they're computer generated.
Amen. Most of it is so awful these days. A lot of it is either some variation of "We have to win, no matter what!" or just painful, cringeworthy exposition. The one that springs to mind is Plated Crusher; it's such an awkwardly written, obvious color pie reference.
The over-coddling to new players and 'fun' play style is destroying the health of the game. It's like feeding a child only desserts and omitting vegetables because the child doesn't like vegetables. Even though that's what they need to stay healthy.
Well, here we are, with only so-called 'fun' cards and narrow sense of 'fun' play styles. But why are players not having fun?
As for sets, jumping here and there between planes is very nauseating, disorienting, and repetitive. There needs to be a home world that is returned to every 3-4 blocks. One, seeing so many different themes becomes so cliche and unsurprising eventually. A Greek world here, an Egyptian world there. Yawn.
Two, a home world that is frequently returned to reorients the plot for the audience. Some place that compels the audience to feel a strong bond with. Undoubtedly, I want this home world to be Dominaria due to its immense lore and possibilities, and great familiarity. Admittedly I haven't bought Magic cards in a decade. The only chance for me to buy again is when they return to Dominaria. So if they never return there, I'll never buy new cards.
I also feel like I'm no longer part of a community. I used to go out of my way to be friendly to new players, give them tips, let them borrow cards, etc. I don't do that anymore because of all of the steps over the years WOTC has taken to alienate me as a player and a customer. I'll be damned if I'll go out of my way to help a game that constantly belittles my opinions and treats me like an ******** rather than a loyal customer. Judge/Spoiler-gate was the tipping point for me, along with the moves to dumb down/weaken the game and treat collectors like idiots to milk rather than people who bought in early into the game. Nice gimmicks WOTC - when will you start focusing on the game again.
And the stories...don't get me started on those. Try-hard quotes are the worst. WOTC pays bottom of the barrel wages and it's showing in several aspects of their business.
FoW stands for Force of Will, the game, not the card. It's basically a Manga driven game that seems to largely target the male population based on its art consisting of scantily clad characters. I could be wrong about the male population part, I dunno.
It's actually marketed to Teenagers and young adults in Japan, but the game itself is fairly enjoyable mechanics wise. The primary issues the game has is that the company is trying to expand to a broader US audience, hasn't figured out how to balance the power of the different colors yet, and is running into printing issues.
Right now what just killed standard for me is the extreme, overbearing hate cards that just kill artifact strategies out right. They basically never gave any Tezzeret deck a chance and killed improvise with a sledge hammer before it ever got a chance to see play. I'm just praying there will be stronger answers in Hour of Devastation to sort of make up for this.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
FoW stands for Force of Will, the game, not the card. It's basically a Manga driven game that seems to largely target the male population based on its art consisting of scantily clad characters. I could be wrong about the male population part, I dunno.
It's actually marketed to Teenagers and young adults in Japan, but the game itself is fairly enjoyable mechanics wise. The primary issues the game has is that the company is trying to expand to a broader US audience, hasn't figured out how to balance the power of the different colors yet, and is running into printing issues.
Right now what just killed standard for me is the extreme, overbearing hate cards that just kill artifact strategies out right. They basically never gave any Tezzeret deck a chance and killed improvise with a sledge hammer before it ever got a chance to see play. I'm just praying there will be stronger answers in Hour of Devastation to sort of make up for this.
Aren't most CCG and TCG games marketed, more or less, towards teenagers?
There are adult card games of course, but none I'm aware of with the scope of the games we're talking about. Wait... Is Exploding Kittens pretty popular? And what's that other adult one... that's not a CCG I think, never mind.
FoW stands for Force of Will, the game, not the card. It's basically a Manga driven game that seems to largely target the male population based on its art consisting of scantily clad characters. I could be wrong about the male population part, I dunno.
It's actually marketed to Teenagers and young adults in Japan, but the game itself is fairly enjoyable mechanics wise. The primary issues the game has is that the company is trying to expand to a broader US audience, hasn't figured out how to balance the power of the different colors yet, and is running into printing issues.
Right now what just killed standard for me is the extreme, overbearing hate cards that just kill artifact strategies out right. They basically never gave any Tezzeret deck a chance and killed improvise with a sledge hammer before it ever got a chance to see play. I'm just praying there will be stronger answers in Hour of Devastation to sort of make up for this.
Aren't most CCG and TCG games marketed, more or less, towards teenagers?
There are adult card games of course, but none I'm aware of with the scope of the games we're talking about. Wait... Is Exploding Kittens pretty popular? And what's that other adult one... that's not a CCG I think, never mind.
Again, I'm talking about the reason why there's a proliferation of anime fan service on the FoW cards more than insinuating anything from the remark. I've commented elsewhere that the US population is less sensitive to blood and violence than the human body and nudity, where as Japan is nearly the opposite in some regards. This entire trend has been going on for ages and can be seen in box art for video games like Kirby. They literally changed Kirby's expression on the nintendo 64 box from a happy smiley Kirby to a scowling Kirby. America: Why be happy when you can be angry at the world!
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
By the way, don't bother reading the story for this upcoming block. Your own imagination can come up with a better story from the spotlight cards than what the official story is.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The new set will definitely shake things up but how much? There is still the Splinter Twin of the format with Copycat that is a huge barrier. I've decided to stick with Tier 2 or 3 decks for some FNM fun along with some homebrews. I no longer have any aspirations of going competitive anymore.
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Be sure to check out my podcast, Magic with Zuby! Your resource for all things Magic the Gathering!
A lot of the set spoiled now, and just...a resounding meh.
Outside of a few cute cards, its not doing a thing for me. If I wanted to play a watered down format, I would look at Frontier before Standard, and...I dont want to play a watered down format.
So nope, this is looking like a huge swing and a miss to me, at least Kaladesh had some janky cards, there is almost nothing I even want to cast or build around out of this set.
Not really. With modern easily available and Legacy events closeby I can get my weekly magic fix without having to play standard. I will continue to keep a deck together for Standard to use at Game Day but that's the extent of my standard play. Though this Fling reprint with Ravenous Intruder being in Aether Revolt has me brewing.
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Standard: GR Pummeler
Modern: Mono-Red Control, Lantern Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Skred Infect
Pauper: Affinity
EDH: Gaddock Teeg Kithkin Tribal, Meren
Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)
A lot of the set spoiled now, and just...a resounding meh.
Outside of a few cute cards, its not doing a thing for me. If I wanted to play a watered down format, I would look at Frontier before Standard, and...I dont want to play a watered down format.
So nope, this is looking like a huge swing and a miss to me, at least Kaladesh had some janky cards, there is almost nothing I even want to cast or build around out of this set.
Sad times. :/
Standard and frontier are not watered down formats. Modern is a complete natural disaster of a competitive format. Theirs just so much wrong with standard right now it makes even modern look good.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Oddly enough, even though you are on ignore, the site notifies me when you respond to me Colt.
You are wrong btw. You have never demonstrated that you know what you are talking about at competitive levels, and your views are biased by your price concerns. All you post is what you hear from various vendors and your own misguided desires for cards to be worthless.
Standard and Frontier are less powerful. If power is the flavour, then yes, they are watered down.
Regardless, you are wrong. Simple as that. Modern is great from a competitive point of view, from a brewing point of view, from a spectating point of view. Numbers, and articles back this up.
Oddly enough, even though you are on ignore, the site notifies me when you respond to me Colt.
You are wrong btw. You have never demonstrated that you know what you are talking about at competitive levels, and your views are biased by your price concerns. All you post is what you hear from various vendors and your own misguided desires for cards to be worthless.
Standard and Frontier are less powerful. If power is the flavour, then yes, they are watered down.
Regardless, you are wrong. Simple as that. Modern is great from a competitive point of view, from a brewing point of view, from a spectating point of view. Numbers, and articles back this up.
It's got nothing to do with price Idsurge. Modern is stale at the competitive level, and it's hard to play the format casually due to how extremely varied the power level can be in the card pool.
Also, I don't need to know you are ignoring me. That's being facetious to another poster for no real reason other than you don't agree with him.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
"It's got nothing to do with price Idsurge. Modern is stale at the competitive level, and it's hard to play the format casually due to how extremely varied the power level can be in the card pool."
As usual, you move the goal posts and post opinions as if they are fact.
Are we talking casual, or are we talking Competitive? Stale? Do I need to list all the decks you can play at Tier 1-3 levels? Its a very diverse competitive format.
It's only as stale as one's creativity. Sorry if some jank garbage rolls up and plays someone with a Tier 1 deck, it may not work out.
"It's got nothing to do with price Idsurge. Modern is stale at the competitive level, and it's hard to play the format casually due to how extremely varied the power level can be in the card pool."
As usual, you move the goal posts and post opinions as if they are fact.
Are we talking casual, or are we talking Competitive? Stale? Do I need to list all the decks you can play at Tier 1-3 levels? Its a very diverse competitive format.
It's only as stale as one's creativity. Sorry if some jank garbage rolls up and plays someone with a Tier 1 deck, it may not work out.
So you want to start an argument about modern? Is that your goal? You like modern, I like frontier and normally standard to some extent. Just drop this before it turns into a dumpster fire in a thread that is about standard not working out right now.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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I think there is a bunch of issues that are stacking up against each other, I don't think mythic rarity or splashy cards are to blame. I think perhaps the lack of a core set is a possible contributing reason though.
Basically there is no hate cards, when you stacked powerful cards against each other you had things like well thragtusk a hate card for everything and thundermaw hellkite ready to kill off some lingering souls tokens. Both of these were core set cards, they could print and plug holes in the formats hate easily and efficiently. Without needing creatives involvement the core set could just be mechanical, how do we want to tune our standard format?, make a set with a lot shorter run up time.
Another issue is the printing a lot of the removal and counterspells at rare, when you do that you take away rare slots you take away options for more stupid cards and more stupid cards at rare (thrag and snappy were rare). This had just started happening in RTR but it seemed fine but then it continued into Theros. Removal specifically saying plainswalker needs to be rare and more and more stable cards are becoming rare now. Khans actually reversed that trend which lead to a better standard. By putting removal , counters and burn in the rare slot you severely weaken black blue and red by removing options with build around rares. Leading to very green and white based standards.
Stop stacking all the power cards with in the same archetypes and/or colours. RTR and Khans were multicoloured formats which results in very goodstuff standards but those standard were actually quite good, because you could flex your deck to beat strong decks. Right now the mana fixing is tied to archetypes putting them way above the other decks. Aether hub and spire of industry are the key cards in standards best decks and it just isn't fair to decks not in those archetypes. Those archetypes get to play goodstuff and no one else does. Which means that even if good cards are printed for other decks those archetypes can easily play them.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Now, here we are in a roughly three-deck standard with absurd, mostly mythic rare threats, and very few ways to meaningfully answer them.
Then, of course, there's the story, which is in the hands of amateur writers who seem to think that excessive use of adjectives makes for good writing. It's a prosaic, unspeakably bland bunch of stories full of clunky dialogue, excessive reliance on tired tropes, and, worst of all, retcon after retcon after retcon. Why should we get invested in characters or worlds when they're so likely to be fundamentally changed on a whim?
Ok, I could rant for a while, but I'm done for now. I can't remember a time when I was ever this dissatisfied with the overall state of Magic. I don't normally jump on every hate train that leaves the station, especially during spoiler season. It sucks, and I hate that I feel this way.
My 720 Peasant Cube
I can't stand YGO as a game and I don't know how I feel about FoW. So I tend to avoid those shops in general. I'll drop by once in a while to see if anything changed or someone liquidated their collection but otherwise...
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
I tried to read the story of Gideon today.... It was complete and utter garbage. I made it to... I dunno some nonsense about him being a prisoner and taught how to wield magic or something before I stopped reading. I had to read the paragraph about his name change twice before I understood it was talking about the same character. Is this how the rest of the background stories read?
It never bothered me that the art was different because I figured it was a story as written by different people with different viewpoints. Sure there are a few gaffs but eh...
Now, I don't feel like I'm looking at pages out of a tome but rather looking through a monitor at a video still or photo. The modern frames seem to strongly enforce that idea. Ever notice the image size changed from a square to a "wide screen" format? This is hugely evident comparing the Ice Age cards to their reprints in Coldsnap that show the same art but different card frames.
It's not that I feel one is better than the other. It's that there was a certain... charm that has gone out of the game.
And it wouldn't be the first time WotC tried to make a game more cinematic--I'm thinking of D&D 4th edition, which I think was really trying to emulate fantasy films. The thing that brought it home for me, once I reflected on it? The minion rule (i.e. you could have enemies that, no matter what their armor class or damage output or other abilities, fell with just one hit, no matter how light). We might have a case of adrenaline overdose at WotC, nowadays. And charm, I think, is necessarily a little sedate, in that it requires thinking things through, without constant action.
I don't know what FoW stands for, but I think Yugi-Ou can be deemed partly responsible for the situation. It's not really meant to be balanced; it's instead supposed to emulate the constant power/advantage shifts in a shounen manga battle. End result: Constant excitement, to the point of...{scowls} "addiction" is the only word coming to mind, but that's probably too strong. And those who migrate from Yugi-Ou to Magic may well be looking for more of the same. (Although I'm confident there are other cultural currents I'm not aware of; part of the problem with autism.)
There's also the problem of WotC being worried about letting the game become "unfun" for new players. The concern I'm thinking of was brought up at the MTGCommander forum about Vizier of the Menagerie; design apparently thought that the exposed topcard from Courser of Kruphix could lead to "feel-bad" situations for the opponent, in case they don't have an answer to what's coming up. Hence, the more secretive mechanic for the Vizier. And of course, this is what's leading to the paucity of (non-rare) counterspells, land destruction, etc. But I'm not sure ensuring that a new player's schemes can run without much interruption is a good thing (or is this a side effect of design for Limited being a major factor?); it's certainly doubtful it will let their attitude towards the game mature. It doesn't really encourage a sense of caution and restraint, good things even outside the game. And even given all this, is it really that frustrating to be thwarted at times? It sounds like treating the game more seriously than it merits...(Granted, I remember managing to frustrate a beginning player with his Thallid deck, with my Momentary Blink/Mystic Snake/etc. deck. However, even after I beat him, he perked back up when I suggested Leyline of Lifeforce to him. But he was generally bothered that people were using online archetypes for their decks; he actually suggested a legendary deck rule. I'm honestly not sure how you'd enforce that...)
Amen. Most of it is so awful these days. A lot of it is either some variation of "We have to win, no matter what!" or just painful, cringeworthy exposition. The one that springs to mind is Plated Crusher; it's such an awkwardly written, obvious color pie reference.
I don't know if we'll ever see anything as awesome as Null Rod, Lhurgoyf or Nemesis of Reason.
My 720 Peasant Cube
Well, here we are, with only so-called 'fun' cards and narrow sense of 'fun' play styles. But why are players not having fun?
As for sets, jumping here and there between planes is very nauseating, disorienting, and repetitive. There needs to be a home world that is returned to every 3-4 blocks. One, seeing so many different themes becomes so cliche and unsurprising eventually. A Greek world here, an Egyptian world there. Yawn.
Two, a home world that is frequently returned to reorients the plot for the audience. Some place that compels the audience to feel a strong bond with. Undoubtedly, I want this home world to be Dominaria due to its immense lore and possibilities, and great familiarity. Admittedly I haven't bought Magic cards in a decade. The only chance for me to buy again is when they return to Dominaria. So if they never return there, I'll never buy new cards.
........................
And the stories...don't get me started on those. Try-hard quotes are the worst. WOTC pays bottom of the barrel wages and it's showing in several aspects of their business.
It's actually marketed to Teenagers and young adults in Japan, but the game itself is fairly enjoyable mechanics wise. The primary issues the game has is that the company is trying to expand to a broader US audience, hasn't figured out how to balance the power of the different colors yet, and is running into printing issues.
Right now what just killed standard for me is the extreme, overbearing hate cards that just kill artifact strategies out right. They basically never gave any Tezzeret deck a chance and killed improvise with a sledge hammer before it ever got a chance to see play. I'm just praying there will be stronger answers in Hour of Devastation to sort of make up for this.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Aren't most CCG and TCG games marketed, more or less, towards teenagers?
There are adult card games of course, but none I'm aware of with the scope of the games we're talking about. Wait... Is Exploding Kittens pretty popular? And what's that other adult one... that's not a CCG I think, never mind.
Again, I'm talking about the reason why there's a proliferation of anime fan service on the FoW cards more than insinuating anything from the remark. I've commented elsewhere that the US population is less sensitive to blood and violence than the human body and nudity, where as Japan is nearly the opposite in some regards. This entire trend has been going on for ages and can be seen in box art for video games like Kirby. They literally changed Kirby's expression on the nintendo 64 box from a happy smiley Kirby to a scowling Kirby. America: Why be happy when you can be angry at the world!
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Selling some cards I don't want.
Generally less than tcg mid.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Podcast
Outside of a few cute cards, its not doing a thing for me. If I wanted to play a watered down format, I would look at Frontier before Standard, and...I dont want to play a watered down format.
So nope, this is looking like a huge swing and a miss to me, at least Kaladesh had some janky cards, there is almost nothing I even want to cast or build around out of this set.
Sad times. :/
Spirits
Modern: Mono-Red Control, Lantern Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Skred Infect
Pauper: Affinity
EDH: Gaddock Teeg Kithkin Tribal, Meren
Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)
Standard and frontier are not watered down formats. Modern is a complete natural disaster of a competitive format. Theirs just so much wrong with standard right now it makes even modern look good.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
You are wrong btw. You have never demonstrated that you know what you are talking about at competitive levels, and your views are biased by your price concerns. All you post is what you hear from various vendors and your own misguided desires for cards to be worthless.
Standard and Frontier are less powerful. If power is the flavour, then yes, they are watered down.
Regardless, you are wrong. Simple as that. Modern is great from a competitive point of view, from a brewing point of view, from a spectating point of view. Numbers, and articles back this up.
Spirits
It's got nothing to do with price Idsurge. Modern is stale at the competitive level, and it's hard to play the format casually due to how extremely varied the power level can be in the card pool.
Also, I don't need to know you are ignoring me. That's being facetious to another poster for no real reason other than you don't agree with him.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
As usual, you move the goal posts and post opinions as if they are fact.
Are we talking casual, or are we talking Competitive? Stale? Do I need to list all the decks you can play at Tier 1-3 levels? Its a very diverse competitive format.
It's only as stale as one's creativity. Sorry if some jank garbage rolls up and plays someone with a Tier 1 deck, it may not work out.
Spirits
So you want to start an argument about modern? Is that your goal? You like modern, I like frontier and normally standard to some extent. Just drop this before it turns into a dumpster fire in a thread that is about standard not working out right now.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!