So, this is an admittedly crazy idea, but why not axe Vintage and Legacy (which are fundamentally dead formats) and replace it with an Open format? Bring the most degenerate deck you can. No restricted or banned list would be a feature of the format.
This already exists its called type 0. Basically its Vintage with 0 banning. It is a degenerative format, Stuff like Hulk flash are present of course but it is a turn 2 (or earlier) format. Its mostly for very rich vintage players who wanted to REALLY cut loose becuase hey if 1 mox is good 4 is better.
Not necessarily. There are degenerate combos, ramping, and library manipulation throughout the history of Magic. Yeah, you'd like Ancestral Recall, but would you really complain about using Brainstorm instead?
An Open format also creates design space for the RnD team and, I think, would be every bit as diverse as Modern.
As an aside, condensing two formats leaves the slate open to adopt Commander as an official format.
Any of those degenerate strategies based on newer cards are only ever improved by the inclusion of most of the power nine and other broken old timey cards.
In my opinion, the next rotating format, if one comes along, will be a dumpster fire. Modern, legacy, vintage, hell pauper are fundamentally levels of old school magic. Whatever comes along next will, like standard, exist entirely within the "New World Order" of design that I personally hate.
I think that instead of a non-rotating format what WOTC needs to implement is a slow rotating "extended" format. Here me out.
Start say with RTR to currents sets, then every three years or so drop the oldest block. The format would allow for a Modern/Frontier like experience.
Would hopefully be more financially accessible, and the slow rotation would prevent the very problems that plague Modern and Legacy, needing expensive cards.
And play around with the rotation schedule a bit so that you still have that non-rotating vibe.
My thought is that with a super slow rotation decks would be viable for a few years, maybe more, but when older cards get to pricey they'll rotate out and keep the format in check. Also then hopefully your old Standard cards that have no place in Modern could still be playable.
This is just a rough draft idea, curious what people think. I'm trying to come up with a compromise solution to the disparity between Standard and non-rotating formats. There has got to be something in between.
And yes, this would be just NWO cards. If you are not down with NWO then just play Legacy, Vintage, or Old School. That's mostly what I do. But newer players do not always have access or means to those older cards, and when Standard rotates your cards become good for nothing but kitchen table.
I think that instead of a non-rotating format what WOTC needs to implement is a slow rotating "extended" format.
I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly how much sarcasm is in this post, but I do actually think resurrecting Extended would be better than implementing a new non-rotating format. Gigantic - and growing - card pools are going to cause problems for any eternal format, and WotC's refusal to reprint necessary cards at reasonable prices with reasonable print runs means that any non-rotating format will eventually devolve into a situation where you need a corporate sponsor to play.
Extended might not have been the most loved format ever, but at least I seem to remember the prices not being quite as wild as Modern's have become.
If they start a new format it will likely be a revised version of an existing format. My guess is a revised modern with alternative ways to bring cards in without going through standard.
They'd have to pre-emptively ban some things like flash, but a format using standard and masters sets could work. That way it assures everything the company and players want is eventually legal, and allows cards that exist pre modern era to get brought in like counterspell and force of will. Basically, they could finally do a fixed no reserved list eternal format.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
I think that instead of a non-rotating format what WOTC needs to implement is a slow rotating "extended" format.
I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly how much sarcasm is in this post, but I do actually think resurrecting Extended would be better than implementing a new non-rotating format. Gigantic - and growing - card pools are going to cause problems for any eternal format, and WotC's refusal to reprint necessary cards at reasonable prices with reasonable print runs means that any non-rotating format will eventually devolve into a situation where you need a corporate sponsor to play.
Extended might not have been the most loved format ever, but at least I seem to remember the prices not being quite as wild as Modern's have become.
This is something that I have been toying around with as well.
You would want Extended to have a large card pool, to differentiate it from Standard but not so large as to make getting cards from the earliest sets difficult.
I think 4 years is too short. It is just Standard with 2 more years worth of sets.
10 years is too long, as that would basically be (at this point) Modern without a couple of blocks.
7 years feels about right, I think. Maybe 6. That would give you a really big pool of cards to play with but all of the sets would still be recent-ish enough so as to not make any of the cards too scarce/hard to find.
@JaceBluesMaster: that's kinda what I was thinking, about seven to nine years worth of cards. I figured that by starting with RTR block we'd go five years back with room to grow. Then, in about three years, loose a block or so(or maybe a whole years worth). And continue doing this at three year intervals.
Slow enough rotation to keep some stability, but enough rotation to eventually weed out pricey cards.
Cards from RTR are mostly inexpensive. I think any further back and the prices become out of control.
Of course this idea could use a little refinement, but I feel that it's the closest thing to a solution to an ever deeper and more expensive Modern.
Otherwise Modern will be in the same place as Legacy.
Extended might not have been the most loved format ever, but at least I seem to remember the prices not being quite as wild as Modern's have become.
Extended never influenced price heavily because it wasn't a loved format. If it was popular then the best cards would have easily hit the same highs modern does. A new extended would be just as awful as old extended, unplayed except when forced just like block. Any new format would gain the same high cost if it was popular, that is how costs work.
If they start a new format, it'll fail. All the design for the past several years feels the same, so why would people bother playing it ? Standard has been on a decline for a while now, why would playing the same style of format be enticing to anyone?
Is this Brawl! The next messiah for people who have yet to see the Modern light?
I think you meant the "bowl" format, where only curling foil cards are legal and our over costed planeswalker overlords rule over completely random jank.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
So, this is an admittedly crazy idea, but why not axe Vintage and Legacy (which are fundamentally dead formats) and replace it with an Open format? Bring the most degenerate deck you can. No restricted or banned list would be a feature of the format.
This already exists its called type 0. Basically its Vintage with 0 banning. It is a degenerative format, Stuff like Hulk flash are present of course but it is a turn 2 (or earlier) format. Its mostly for very rich vintage players who wanted to REALLY cut loose becuase hey if 1 mox is good 4 is better.
I just read someone's blog about something very very similar at an upcoming tournament. It's completely bonkers. They're doing '93 rules so there's literally no 4-of rule and 40 card decks. They intend on locking the doors once everyone is in to better track attendees and reduce the risk of theft.
@JaceBluesMaster: that's kinda what I was thinking, about seven to nine years worth of cards. I figured that by starting with RTR block we'd go five years back with room to grow. Then, in about three years, loose a block or so(or maybe a whole years worth). And continue doing this at three year intervals.
Slow enough rotation to keep some stability, but enough rotation to eventually weed out pricey cards.
Cards from RTR are mostly inexpensive. I think any further back and the prices become out of control.
Of course this idea could use a little refinement, but I feel that it's the closest thing to a solution to an ever deeper and more expensive Modern.
Otherwise Modern will be in the same place as Legacy.
4-6 years and then rotating wouldn't be that bad, most of those products still have decent availability at that stage and the print volumes mostly keep the prices on all but a few of the Mythics in check.
They don't need to start from a past standard set if the new format can include supplementary sets as well like master sets. Let's be strait here: Wizards does not hate old cards; they like quite a few of the old cards they made. The problem is they also don't like a lot of the mistakes they made and some of those mistakes are cards that people actually like to play. The other aspect is that the game devs don't want Magic the Gathering to become overly complicated to build and run, which is a major issue they are having with Modern at the moment.
The problem is that Modern ended up having decks that possess an insane number of interactions at once that are very hard to follow for inexperienced players. People who play modern regularly (and this also applies to legacy), learn how to handle these situations and can fast track a lot of the busywork, but just like learning math, it can be grueling to build up the acumen to handle it. Online games like MTGO already demonstrate how bad it can get when there's a huge number of interacts, as the game system itself has no way to shortcut the process. I've been mentioning dredge in several places as a good example of this, but the same thing can be said of a few other decks as well. What WoTC wants to do is make decision cards that add depth, but do not add complexity. Cards like Cryptic Command, Lightning Bolt, and Collective Brutality are great for this. Cards like Mox Opal, Snapcaster Mage, Stinkweed Imp, etc, that interact differently based on factors external to the card are the ones that are problematic. That's also why fetch lands are really not that well liked by WoTC designers, but rav shocklands are fine: They push mechanics like Revolt and Landfall.
So, whatever new non-rotating format they push is going to be, it's going to be an exercise in avoidance of those issues and probably will have a ban list built around that tenant. The only reason they haven't just strait up taken a scalpel to modern and gone all one-piece Fox Kids on it is people would riot.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
Why should Modern have to take into account 'hard to follow for inexperienced players.'
You dont (or should not) start with Modern and then complain its too hard to follow.
Avoiding depth of interactions is the exact wrong way to go for a format if you want to retain your player base. Depth, is what keeps people playing. I turn my creatures sideways aka Standard, is derided exactly because it CANNOT have this depth of interactions.
Snaps is problematic? Its the easiest interaction I've ever freaking seen lol.
Why should Modern have to take into account 'hard to follow for inexperienced players.'
You dont (or should not) start with Modern and then complain its too hard to follow.
Avoiding depth of interactions is the exact wrong way to go for a format if you want to retain your player base. Depth, is what keeps people playing. I turn my creatures sideways aka Standard, is derided exactly because it CANNOT have this depth of interactions.
Snaps is problematic? Its the easiest interaction I've ever freaking seen lol.
I never said it did. I said whatever format they make will probably try to avoid any kind of interaction that is hard to follow or requires a massive number of separate individual checks to complete. It will still have older cards that are legal in it, though. If it doesn't I'd be highly surprised.
I don't know what they are going to do exactly, but I do know they have technical limitations to consider and are hoping to break into a new audience using Arena as the point of entry. That game can't run a lot of the stuff that even MTGO can because of the bling. That's why we're going to see more "pick a, b, or c, do you want to interact? Okay go" rather than "I do "A", then "B" happens, do you want to interact? Okay, then "C" happens, Do you want to interact? Okay, then...". That happens a ton in modern and it's what makes it interesting to older players. I'm hoping they can get that fixed for Arena so they can just bring modern to it, but I don't think that is going to happen. Hence why we will see a new format.
Ultimately, it starts becoming a balance between the openness of a game and the mechanical balance of the game. We saw this with the failure of 4th edition dungeons and dragons vs 3.5 edition with the OGL that ultimately resulted in two different games living at the same time: Paizo with Pathfinder and Wizards of the Coast with 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. If someone makes a game really open, but then also makes it competitive, that openness will result in people showcasing the cracks in the system to get the carrot.
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!
If Arena cannot handle what Modern does, then their programmers are utterly failing at their jobs. Its pretty damn simple.
I actually struggle to think of an interaction that would not be straightforward to code.
... and I can already tell you weren't invited to early beta for Arena.
This is from the following thread over at reddit where a bunch of people talked about Arena already, but I agree with SixesMTG on the entire thing and this is what he basically said:
"As an aside, from my playing of it, the game would be too clunky for modern or legacy (it would work fine for fair decks, but KCI or storm or dredge would have big issues), so mtgo is safe for those players.
On the other hand, the game seems great for a quick draft or standard game. Just played one now with a more counter-heavy deck and that worked fine after only a handful of games with the interface."
Trust me, you aren't going to see any of those complex interactions in Arena unless they make a less graphic and flashy version or mode for the game. You'd be getting "Error: Connection Timed Out" the second any of those kinds of decks would fire off given MTGO already struggles with some of those decks. Albeit, that ancient monstrosity is mostly struggling because of it's own age.
Given whatever they make is going to likely mimic the digital game, that limitation will probably shape some of the decision making on what they let into any new "Arena compatible" format. They might very well be able to make a lite graphic version that could pull off the stuff from those decks, or make a shortcut of some sort, but otherwise it's definitely a no go.
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!
So am I right in saying that even basic interaction is poorly performing with the clean start on the code that Arena was to provide?
I'd seen a few posts and tweets about the game not running well, but yeah that kind of goes to what I was saying.
Poor coding.
It's not necessarily poor coding (unless this is built on unity, which in that case it might be that). Watch this video and you'll see the problem (skip to around 8:20). The issue is that there is so much stuff going on your entire screen would be a smorgus board.
Also, on your world view: One persons heaven is another persons hell.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
I'm going to have to get some time in, to make a real critisism. I understand obviously Modern would be harder to do, you have X different mechanics, but in the end.
1. Can you handle stack plays?
2. Can you handle GY interactions?
3. Can you handle cards that are in exile?
If you can do that, I'm having a hard time thinking of things that are going to be difficult to code. I get it, they are not in YET. However lets be real, EVENTUALLY we will return to mechanics that are depending on Exile, Graveyard, and yes, Blue is still a colour for now.
I'm going to have to get some time in, to make a real critisism. I understand obviously Modern would be harder to do, you have X different mechanics, but in the end.
1. Can you handle stack plays?
2. Can you handle GY interactions?
3. Can you handle cards that are in exile?
If you can do that, I'm having a hard time thinking of things that are going to be difficult to code. I get it, they are not in YET. However lets be real, EVENTUALLY we will return to mechanics that are depending on Exile, Graveyard, and yes, Blue is still a colour for now.
The bigger picture to keep in mind is that modern isn't sustainable. The reason modern existed (outside of the damned reserved list), is that it was a way to add value and make standard worth it to jump into. As time progressed and more and more cards got added, the value of standard dropped because there were fewer and fewer cards that could enter and see play in the non-rotating format. Then when they dropped core set reprints it just escalated the issue. If they had any kind of intelligence, they'd have been reprinting cards in core sets that people want to see in modern like Dark Confidant instead of printing the 18th derivative of it with Glintsleeve Siphoner or Asylum Visitor, which are both good cards, but not as flexible as the former. Heck, reprinting Noble Heirarch and Radiant Fountain wouldn't have hurt anything in the middle this low powered amonket standard and might have added teeth to non-energy decks.
But anyway, that's the big reason they probably wont include modern as we know it in Arena.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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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This already exists its called type 0. Basically its Vintage with 0 banning. It is a degenerative format, Stuff like Hulk flash are present of course but it is a turn 2 (or earlier) format. Its mostly for very rich vintage players who wanted to REALLY cut loose becuase hey if 1 mox is good 4 is better.
Any of those degenerate strategies based on newer cards are only ever improved by the inclusion of most of the power nine and other broken old timey cards.
Spirits
Start say with RTR to currents sets, then every three years or so drop the oldest block. The format would allow for a Modern/Frontier like experience.
Would hopefully be more financially accessible, and the slow rotation would prevent the very problems that plague Modern and Legacy, needing expensive cards.
And play around with the rotation schedule a bit so that you still have that non-rotating vibe.
My thought is that with a super slow rotation decks would be viable for a few years, maybe more, but when older cards get to pricey they'll rotate out and keep the format in check. Also then hopefully your old Standard cards that have no place in Modern could still be playable.
This is just a rough draft idea, curious what people think. I'm trying to come up with a compromise solution to the disparity between Standard and non-rotating formats. There has got to be something in between.
And yes, this would be just NWO cards. If you are not down with NWO then just play Legacy, Vintage, or Old School. That's mostly what I do. But newer players do not always have access or means to those older cards, and when Standard rotates your cards become good for nothing but kitchen table.
I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly how much sarcasm is in this post, but I do actually think resurrecting Extended would be better than implementing a new non-rotating format. Gigantic - and growing - card pools are going to cause problems for any eternal format, and WotC's refusal to reprint necessary cards at reasonable prices with reasonable print runs means that any non-rotating format will eventually devolve into a situation where you need a corporate sponsor to play.
Extended might not have been the most loved format ever, but at least I seem to remember the prices not being quite as wild as Modern's have become.
They'd have to pre-emptively ban some things like flash, but a format using standard and masters sets could work. That way it assures everything the company and players want is eventually legal, and allows cards that exist pre modern era to get brought in like counterspell and force of will. Basically, they could finally do a fixed no reserved list eternal format.
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!
This is something that I have been toying around with as well.
You would want Extended to have a large card pool, to differentiate it from Standard but not so large as to make getting cards from the earliest sets difficult.
I think 4 years is too short. It is just Standard with 2 more years worth of sets.
10 years is too long, as that would basically be (at this point) Modern without a couple of blocks.
7 years feels about right, I think. Maybe 6. That would give you a really big pool of cards to play with but all of the sets would still be recent-ish enough so as to not make any of the cards too scarce/hard to find.
Slow enough rotation to keep some stability, but enough rotation to eventually weed out pricey cards.
Cards from RTR are mostly inexpensive. I think any further back and the prices become out of control.
Of course this idea could use a little refinement, but I feel that it's the closest thing to a solution to an ever deeper and more expensive Modern.
Otherwise Modern will be in the same place as Legacy.
Spirits
I think you meant the "bowl" format, where only curling foil cards are legal and our over costed planeswalker overlords rule over completely random jank.
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!
I just read someone's blog about something very very similar at an upcoming tournament. It's completely bonkers. They're doing '93 rules so there's literally no 4-of rule and 40 card decks. They intend on locking the doors once everyone is in to better track attendees and reduce the risk of theft.
Just the very notion makes my skin crawl.
4-6 years and then rotating wouldn't be that bad, most of those products still have decent availability at that stage and the print volumes mostly keep the prices on all but a few of the Mythics in check.
The problem is that Modern ended up having decks that possess an insane number of interactions at once that are very hard to follow for inexperienced players. People who play modern regularly (and this also applies to legacy), learn how to handle these situations and can fast track a lot of the busywork, but just like learning math, it can be grueling to build up the acumen to handle it. Online games like MTGO already demonstrate how bad it can get when there's a huge number of interacts, as the game system itself has no way to shortcut the process. I've been mentioning dredge in several places as a good example of this, but the same thing can be said of a few other decks as well. What WoTC wants to do is make decision cards that add depth, but do not add complexity. Cards like Cryptic Command, Lightning Bolt, and Collective Brutality are great for this. Cards like Mox Opal, Snapcaster Mage, Stinkweed Imp, etc, that interact differently based on factors external to the card are the ones that are problematic. That's also why fetch lands are really not that well liked by WoTC designers, but rav shocklands are fine: They push mechanics like Revolt and Landfall.
So, whatever new non-rotating format they push is going to be, it's going to be an exercise in avoidance of those issues and probably will have a ban list built around that tenant. The only reason they haven't just strait up taken a scalpel to modern and gone all one-piece Fox Kids on it is people would riot.
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 dont (or should not) start with Modern and then complain its too hard to follow.
Avoiding depth of interactions is the exact wrong way to go for a format if you want to retain your player base. Depth, is what keeps people playing. I turn my creatures sideways aka Standard, is derided exactly because it CANNOT have this depth of interactions.
Snaps is problematic? Its the easiest interaction I've ever freaking seen lol.
Spirits
I never said it did. I said whatever format they make will probably try to avoid any kind of interaction that is hard to follow or requires a massive number of separate individual checks to complete. It will still have older cards that are legal in it, though. If it doesn't I'd be highly surprised.
I don't know what they are going to do exactly, but I do know they have technical limitations to consider and are hoping to break into a new audience using Arena as the point of entry. That game can't run a lot of the stuff that even MTGO can because of the bling. That's why we're going to see more "pick a, b, or c, do you want to interact? Okay go" rather than "I do "A", then "B" happens, do you want to interact? Okay, then "C" happens, Do you want to interact? Okay, then...". That happens a ton in modern and it's what makes it interesting to older players. I'm hoping they can get that fixed for Arena so they can just bring modern to it, but I don't think that is going to happen. Hence why we will see a new format.
Ultimately, it starts becoming a balance between the openness of a game and the mechanical balance of the game. We saw this with the failure of 4th edition dungeons and dragons vs 3.5 edition with the OGL that ultimately resulted in two different games living at the same time: Paizo with Pathfinder and Wizards of the Coast with 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. If someone makes a game really open, but then also makes it competitive, that openness will result in people showcasing the cracks in the system to get the carrot.
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!
I actually struggle to think of an interaction that would not be straightforward to code.
Spirits
... and I can already tell you weren't invited to early beta for Arena.
This is from the following thread over at reddit where a bunch of people talked about Arena already, but I agree with SixesMTG on the entire thing and this is what he basically said:
"As an aside, from my playing of it, the game would be too clunky for modern or legacy (it would work fine for fair decks, but KCI or storm or dredge would have big issues), so mtgo is safe for those players.
On the other hand, the game seems great for a quick draft or standard game. Just played one now with a more counter-heavy deck and that worked fine after only a handful of games with the interface."
Trust me, you aren't going to see any of those complex interactions in Arena unless they make a less graphic and flashy version or mode for the game. You'd be getting "Error: Connection Timed Out" the second any of those kinds of decks would fire off given MTGO already struggles with some of those decks. Albeit, that ancient monstrosity is mostly struggling because of it's own age.
Thread for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/86jc3l/play_magic_like_it_is_the_90s_with_arena/
Given whatever they make is going to likely mimic the digital game, that limitation will probably shape some of the decision making on what they let into any new "Arena compatible" format. They might very well be able to make a lite graphic version that could pull off the stuff from those decks, or make a shortcut of some sort, but otherwise it's definitely a no go.
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!
I'd seen a few posts and tweets about the game not running well, but yeah that kind of goes to what I was saying.
Poor coding.
Spirits
Spirits
It's not necessarily poor coding (unless this is built on unity, which in that case it might be that). Watch this video and you'll see the problem (skip to around 8:20). The issue is that there is so much stuff going on your entire screen would be a smorgus board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrSuCL-feH0
Also, on your world view: One persons heaven is another persons hell.
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!
1. Can you handle stack plays?
2. Can you handle GY interactions?
3. Can you handle cards that are in exile?
If you can do that, I'm having a hard time thinking of things that are going to be difficult to code. I get it, they are not in YET. However lets be real, EVENTUALLY we will return to mechanics that are depending on Exile, Graveyard, and yes, Blue is still a colour for now.
Spirits
The bigger picture to keep in mind is that modern isn't sustainable. The reason modern existed (outside of the damned reserved list), is that it was a way to add value and make standard worth it to jump into. As time progressed and more and more cards got added, the value of standard dropped because there were fewer and fewer cards that could enter and see play in the non-rotating format. Then when they dropped core set reprints it just escalated the issue. If they had any kind of intelligence, they'd have been reprinting cards in core sets that people want to see in modern like Dark Confidant instead of printing the 18th derivative of it with Glintsleeve Siphoner or Asylum Visitor, which are both good cards, but not as flexible as the former. Heck, reprinting Noble Heirarch and Radiant Fountain wouldn't have hurt anything in the middle this low powered amonket standard and might have added teeth to non-energy decks.
But anyway, that's the big reason they probably wont include modern as we know it in Arena.
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!