I mean, why does blue need another counter spell? Or red get another 'deal 3 damage to any target'? I feel like it pushes decks to such extremes, and punishes creativity and deck design that is not along those lines. So red burn is now 4 cards stronger and blue control has 4 more counters... it's so boring. This expansion is like a week old and I'm already tired of it. meta control decks and meta burn decks, nothing new. no changes. just different artwork on the same spell effects.
Whoa, you're REALLY oversimplifying things here. The five colors are distinct for a reason. Blue doesn't ramp extra lands, black doesn't destroy artifacts, green doesn't counter, etc. Each color has staple effects like burn, countering spells, getting lands, pumping creatures, drawing cards, pumping all creatures, and so on. But that's just the basic, simple stuff of how each color works, and cards like those keep the game from getting too complicated and help fill out sets for draft and so on. Otherwise, sets would be more like 80 cards, and that's just silly. And there's TONS of all sorts of neat effects and creatures among all five colors! I"m guessing you're fairly new to the game, because each color has so many cool cards and various effects in them, from huge creatures to flashy sorceries to planeswalkers and utility lands. No way is blue JUST countering stuff or white is ONLY lifegain and soldier tokens. Each Magic set is in the same game, after all. If you're really feeling unexcited by new sets, maybe you should make your own Cube or even just take a break from the game.
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EDH/Commander
UBR Sedris RG Omnath, Locus of Rage UB The Scarab God RUG Maelstrom Wanderer WU Dragonlord Ojutai
With a 4 card rule, this is how you actually build decks that are not just random piles of trash, and a game so full of variance, it would only appeal to children.
The spells are rearranged and recombined for variety. Magic doesn't have access to infinite effects, and certain effects lead to better gameplay than others, meaning they show up more.
Banisher Priest-like effects (When this card enters the battlefield, exile target creature/permanent until this card leaves play.)
Blocking extra creatures (This creature can block an additional N creatures each combat.)
Bring back creatures/permanents that went to the graveyard this turn
Can't be attacked (Creatures can't attack you.)
Can't lose the game and opponents can't win
Destroy target attacking or blocking creature
Destroy target creature that damaged you or a creature you control this turn
Destroy target tapped creature
Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater
Destroy all creatures
Destroy all creatures with power 4 or greater
+N/+N (on Auras)
-N/+N (on spells)
-N/+N (on Auras)
+0/+N (on creatures)
+0/+N (on spells)
+0/+N (on Auras)
+N/+N to your team, one-shot
+0/+N to your team, one-shot
+N/+N to your team, ongoing
+0/+N to your team, ongoing
Damage prevention (Prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player.)
Damage redirection (Prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player this turn. If damage is prevented in this way, this card deals that much damage to target creature/player.)
Defender
Deal N damage to target attacking or blocking creature
Double strike
Enchantment destruction
"Enchantress" ability (Whenever you play an enchantment, draw a card.)
Exiling cards from graveyard
First strike
"Flicker" (Exile target creature/permanent, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control—occasionally the creature/permanent returns at the end of the turn.)
Flying
Friendly to enchantments
"Gaseous Form" (This creature neither deals nor receives damage.)
Indestructible
Life gain
Lifelink
"Meddling" (Name a spell. That spell can't be played as long as this card is on the battlefield.)
Pacifism-like effect (Enchanted creature cannot attack or block.)
Preventing actions (Your opponents can't cast spells this turn.)
Protection
Putting enchantments from hand onto the battlefield
Putting planeswalkers from hand onto the battlefield
Return target enchantment from graveyard to hand
Rules setting
Tapping creatures
Taxing
Token generation
"Tutor" for an enchantment (Search your library for an enchantment card and put that card in your hand.)
"Tutor" for a planeswalker (Search your library for a planeswalker card and put that card in your hand.)
Vigilance
"Warlord" (This creature's power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures you control.)
Some of these mechanics make for poor gameplay if they show up too much, such as "creatures can't attack you".
Some of the effects overlap a lot and as such don't work well if showing up in too many variations in the same set.
Dealing N damage to an attacking creature, destroying an attacking creature, destroying or damaging a creature that dealt damage to you this turn, destroying or damaging a tapped creature, banishing an attacking or tapped creature... These are all basic effects that punish an enemy creature that attacks you, and as such make for huge variation, but too many different kinds in just one set.
Now, bolt effects. They just printed Skewer the Critics which works fundamentally different than a normal bolt effect. The difference is a cost reduction, but it's a cost reduction between being unplayable in constructed deck and being incredibly great rate for a cmc 1 card. This transforms your whole deck construction as you will be inspired to optimize the deck. Wizards' technique for variation isn't to find new effects (because most are found at this point; the above list contains the mechanics that don't suck for white), but to transform existing effects into having fundamentally different conditions, this transforms the whole process of deck construction and gameplay. Like, the basic mechanic of winning the game is to get the opponent's life from 20 to 0. All the effects they create is to give this process variety. And every once in a while they make alternate win conditions. But the latter are A) incredibly difficult to balance and B) often linear and makes for sucky gameplay if there are too many that are viable in one format. Think of back when Splice onto Arcane was a thing, and imagine a format where every deck was like that. I shudder at the thought.
Personally I think they're doing a fine job. But it might have to do with the fact that I understand what kind of variety can be reasonably archieved without screwing up the game.
Whoa, you're REALLY oversimplifying things here. The five colors are distinct for a reason. Blue doesn't ramp extra lands, black doesn't destroy artifacts, green doesn't counter, etc. Each color has staple effects like burn, countering spells, getting lands, pumping creatures, drawing cards, pumping all creatures, and so on. But that's just the basic, simple stuff of how each color works, and cards like those keep the game from getting too complicated and help fill out sets for draft and so on. Otherwise, sets would be more like 80 cards, and that's just silly. And there's TONS of all sorts of neat effects and creatures among all five colors! I"m guessing you're fairly new to the game, because each color has so many cool cards and various effects in them, from huge creatures to flashy sorceries to planeswalkers and utility lands. No way is blue JUST countering stuff or white is ONLY lifegain and soldier tokens. Each Magic set is in the same game, after all. If you're really feeling unexcited by new sets, maybe you should make your own Cube or even just take a break from the game.
Each color DOES have cool cards and effects. Unfortunately they dont see play because the best cards are the tried and true ones that are repeated over and over in every expansion, so that the meta never REALLY feels any different. Blue control decks play the same now as they did during the last standard cycle and the one before that. I guess that's my point. I'd like to see what would happen if WOTC just STOPPED feeding into the meta and let things change.
Whoa, you're REALLY oversimplifying things here. The five colors are distinct for a reason. Blue doesn't ramp extra lands, black doesn't destroy artifacts, green doesn't counter, etc. Each color has staple effects like burn, countering spells, getting lands, pumping creatures, drawing cards, pumping all creatures, and so on. But that's just the basic, simple stuff of how each color works, and cards like those keep the game from getting too complicated and help fill out sets for draft and so on. Otherwise, sets would be more like 80 cards, and that's just silly. And there's TONS of all sorts of neat effects and creatures among all five colors! I"m guessing you're fairly new to the game, because each color has so many cool cards and various effects in them, from huge creatures to flashy sorceries to planeswalkers and utility lands. No way is blue JUST countering stuff or white is ONLY lifegain and soldier tokens. Each Magic set is in the same game, after all. If you're really feeling unexcited by new sets, maybe you should make your own Cube or even just take a break from the game.
Each color DOES have cool cards and effects. Unfortunately they dont see play because the best cards are the tried and true ones that are repeated over and over in every expansion, so that the meta never REALLY feels any different. Blue control decks play the same now as they did during the last standard cycle and the one before that. I guess that's my point. I'd like to see what would happen if WOTC just STOPPED feeding into the meta and let things change.
And what's your proposal? And why do you think it's "all the same?" Last rotation blue had midrange strategies with Scarab God and Teferi control. This rotation there's drakes, Mono Blue Tempo, and control. How is that playing the same way?
Just because they print more counters or more burn spells doesn't mean they are playable either. A lot of them or situational it comes to deck building to figure out which one is the best for the deck.
I mean, why does blue need another counter spell? Or red get another 'deal 3 damage to any target'? I feel like it pushes decks to such extremes, and punishes creativity and deck design that is not along those lines. So red burn is now 4 cards stronger and blue control has 4 more counters... it's so boring. This expansion is like a week old and I'm already tired of it. meta control decks and meta burn decks, nothing new. no changes. just different artwork on the same spell effects.
Playing as long as I have, I am constantly reminded about how no matter how much things change, they stay the same... You obviously were not playing back in Tempest-Urzas-6th Type II when ALL of he following counterspells were legal at the same time:
Well for starters, draft. Given that every set is designed to be draftable, you need all the basic functions of the colors in order for that set to work. If you ran a set without any sort of burn, then red would lose all of its removal capabilities. Same with blue's control faction and counterspells. Without those, it basically turns into a pure aggro army race. And not all burn is the same, even from set to set. Lightning Strike was an instant, and extremely versatile. Lava Coil is another high damage creature removal, which exiled to get rid of pesky recursion. Now its Scorchmark, a clear step back given its just 2+exile (albeit an instant).
They absolutely stick to a much smaller variety of cards in the current kind they design sets for limited, namely the commons and uncommons.
A bunch of card "templates" repeat over and over and over till eternity.
You will always have some 2 mana 2/2 vanilla in some form or another in lots of variations that do pretty much the same.
Not doing that would fundamentally change the game and produce an entirely new feeling and theme (like if you replace the 2 mana 2/2 with lots of "morph" creatures, the set still has them, but changes completely and slows down a lot).
Another classic design is the 2U 1/4 creature in different iterations, and a 3U 3/2 flyer , or a 2U 2/2 flyer, you simply get them every time, every set, as these stats are so basic and pretty much define the color blue in limited.
In multicolor sets you could break up that repeat and produce more fresh stats and basic common templates, but they still dont really do that, as it requires much more work than simply repeat what you know worked the last time, which is further pushed as they produce "Return to" sets that have to somewhat bring back existing cycles and card ideas in some new form (like in Ravnica, you get the guild mages, the gates simply return, instead of making a new iteration of them, and the 3 mana artifact cycle is also pretty boring).
But what else to do ?
If they go to an entirely new world, chances are they will do more new stuff, but as of current design they will still simply repeat the same templates for creatures in limited, as changing THAT would be a much bigger deal.
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
The game will survive another 20 years because they are very conservative in the game design. They learned early around 2000 that more complexity will kill the game. Established players loved Odyssey and Time Sprial blocks, and overall tournament attendance was through the roof but sales were the lowest at those times. Basically complexity leaves the vast casual player out who spend loads of money in aggregate to sustain and grow this game.
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
They are flooding Bo1 because that's where aggro has the advantage. They're much less in quantity in Bo3 once the other decks get to side in anti-aggro cards.
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
On Arena, thats because of 1, best of 1, 2 the 'hand fixing' algorithm in best of 1.
Take those burn decks into MTGO best of 3 and they get punked out by plenty of decks.
Not every card can be As Foretold or Electrodominance, interesting build around cards. The game needs removal effects to function and it's only recently that Wizards returned to this philosophy, the black kill spell, the red burn spell and the blue counter spell, these cards are answers, in just the same way as green gets the cheapest most efficient creatures.
The threats in standard come in the form of creatures or planeswalkers, when I started playing Magic, around 20 years ago, blue wouldn't get Sphinx of Foresight a flying 4/4 with an upside for 4 mana, that is a decent value package. Dovin, Grand Arbiter goes in a very different deck to Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and will appeal to a different audience. Most cards are for draft, so you need the answer / threat balance, constructed, ideally, lets you build a synergistic deck with both answers and threats, the best of those threats or answers make there way into eternal formats.
Fatal Push was the first truly good removal spell printed in a long time, please don't complain about Wizards printing answers, we need them, heck on counter spells we need them to be better. I don't just want to turn creatures sideways (well ok I have a soft spot for slivers and Hollow One), the game should have aggro, combo, control and midrange, Wizards already try to avoid combo in standard...
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
The new expansion just hit. Early formats are always dominated with aggro as more complex deckbuilding strategies are experimented with.
Also you probably play best of one without sideboard. Aggro has a massive advantage there, has had for a long time, and it has nothing to do with design variety.
Also the game draws two hands for you and hands you the one with the best curve without telling you. This benefits curve out aggro decks, but not that much.
Also the game draws two hands for you and hands you the one with the best curve without telling you. This benefits curve out aggro decks, but not that much.
I've got the same deck on MTGO as Arena (Xerox Burn) and I can tell you right now the difference is MASSIVE. Its so favoured in Arena its not even funny.
Also the game draws two hands for you and hands you the one with the best curve without telling you. This benefits curve out aggro decks, but not that much.
I've got the same deck on MTGO as Arena (Xerox Burn) and I can tell you right now the difference is MASSIVE. Its so favoured in Arena its not even funny.
I was shown some numbers that said the difference wasn't really that prominent. Sad to hear that it is. I think I'll wait, though, until I see some new numbers.
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
Because Arena is a *****ty free to play grindfest. It punishes experimentation and rewards the simplest decks with the least variance. Red aggro decks are easy to build under that system, and easy to run, have little variance, and work well with the garbage best of 1 tournament format Arena pushes that hinders control.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Sadly "staples" is going to be part of Magic, because, its make the game healthy and still balanced through the years, Wizard barely changed what is Magic through it existence and the only "big" move they really did was planeswalkers, colourless only creature and catering to Commander. They are not doing strong change because they have a formula that works and the popularity still stand even after 25 years+. Personally, I would like to see more risky move such as Timespiral set, and more product that cater to a different crowd (like they did with commander), I'm sure Magic could become more and more strong with even riskier design outside of the standard set for tournament and sealed format
UBR Sedris
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage
UB The Scarab God
RUG Maelstrom Wanderer
WU Dragonlord Ojutai
The long and short of it is.
Lightning Bolt is too good. So they try other spells like Shock, or Lightning Strike, and they also tie them into set mechanics, like Skewer the Critics.
We see the same thing with Counterspell. So they try things like Negate, Essence Scatter, and instead of Mana Leak, Quench. Much like Skewer, you also sometimes get set mechanics like Sinister Sabotage.
With a 4 card rule, this is how you actually build decks that are not just random piles of trash, and a game so full of variance, it would only appeal to children.
Spirits
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2017-2017-06-05 This lists all core mechanics available to cards.
Here is the list of white's primary mechanics.
Banisher Priest-like effects (When this card enters the battlefield, exile target creature/permanent until this card leaves play.)
Blocking extra creatures (This creature can block an additional N creatures each combat.)
Bring back creatures/permanents that went to the graveyard this turn
Can't be attacked (Creatures can't attack you.)
Can't lose the game and opponents can't win
Destroy target attacking or blocking creature
Destroy target creature that damaged you or a creature you control this turn
Destroy target tapped creature
Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater
Destroy all creatures
Destroy all creatures with power 4 or greater
+N/+N (on Auras)
-N/+N (on spells)
-N/+N (on Auras)
+0/+N (on creatures)
+0/+N (on spells)
+0/+N (on Auras)
+N/+N to your team, one-shot
+0/+N to your team, one-shot
+N/+N to your team, ongoing
+0/+N to your team, ongoing
Damage prevention (Prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player.)
Damage redirection (Prevent the next N damage that would be dealt to target creature/player this turn. If damage is prevented in this way, this card deals that much damage to target creature/player.)
Defender
Deal N damage to target attacking or blocking creature
Double strike
Enchantment destruction
"Enchantress" ability (Whenever you play an enchantment, draw a card.)
Exiling cards from graveyard
First strike
"Flicker" (Exile target creature/permanent, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control—occasionally the creature/permanent returns at the end of the turn.)
Flying
Friendly to enchantments
"Gaseous Form" (This creature neither deals nor receives damage.)
Indestructible
Life gain
Lifelink
"Meddling" (Name a spell. That spell can't be played as long as this card is on the battlefield.)
Pacifism-like effect (Enchanted creature cannot attack or block.)
Preventing actions (Your opponents can't cast spells this turn.)
Protection
Putting enchantments from hand onto the battlefield
Putting planeswalkers from hand onto the battlefield
Return target enchantment from graveyard to hand
Rules setting
Tapping creatures
Taxing
Token generation
"Tutor" for an enchantment (Search your library for an enchantment card and put that card in your hand.)
"Tutor" for a planeswalker (Search your library for a planeswalker card and put that card in your hand.)
Vigilance
"Warlord" (This creature's power and toughness are equal to the number of creatures you control.)
Some of these mechanics make for poor gameplay if they show up too much, such as "creatures can't attack you".
Some of the effects overlap a lot and as such don't work well if showing up in too many variations in the same set.
Dealing N damage to an attacking creature, destroying an attacking creature, destroying or damaging a creature that dealt damage to you this turn, destroying or damaging a tapped creature, banishing an attacking or tapped creature... These are all basic effects that punish an enemy creature that attacks you, and as such make for huge variation, but too many different kinds in just one set.
Now, bolt effects. They just printed Skewer the Critics which works fundamentally different than a normal bolt effect. The difference is a cost reduction, but it's a cost reduction between being unplayable in constructed deck and being incredibly great rate for a cmc 1 card. This transforms your whole deck construction as you will be inspired to optimize the deck. Wizards' technique for variation isn't to find new effects (because most are found at this point; the above list contains the mechanics that don't suck for white), but to transform existing effects into having fundamentally different conditions, this transforms the whole process of deck construction and gameplay. Like, the basic mechanic of winning the game is to get the opponent's life from 20 to 0. All the effects they create is to give this process variety. And every once in a while they make alternate win conditions. But the latter are A) incredibly difficult to balance and B) often linear and makes for sucky gameplay if there are too many that are viable in one format. Think of back when Splice onto Arcane was a thing, and imagine a format where every deck was like that. I shudder at the thought.
Personally I think they're doing a fine job. But it might have to do with the fact that I understand what kind of variety can be reasonably archieved without screwing up the game.
Each color DOES have cool cards and effects. Unfortunately they dont see play because the best cards are the tried and true ones that are repeated over and over in every expansion, so that the meta never REALLY feels any different. Blue control decks play the same now as they did during the last standard cycle and the one before that. I guess that's my point. I'd like to see what would happen if WOTC just STOPPED feeding into the meta and let things change.
Spirits
If there's no consistency there's just who can beat the other guy's face in the fastest, forever.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
And what's your proposal? And why do you think it's "all the same?" Last rotation blue had midrange strategies with Scarab God and Teferi control. This rotation there's drakes, Mono Blue Tempo, and control. How is that playing the same way?
Just because they print more counters or more burn spells doesn't mean they are playable either. A lot of them or situational it comes to deck building to figure out which one is the best for the deck.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Lol...
Playing as long as I have, I am constantly reminded about how no matter how much things change, they stay the same... You obviously were not playing back in Tempest-Urzas-6th Type II when ALL of he following counterspells were legal at the same time:
2 Counterspell
2 Mana Leak
2 Memory Lapse
2 Miscalculation
2 Remove Soul
3 Forbid
4 Dismiss
4 Rewind
4 Quash
5 Desertion
1 Power Sink
Jalira, Master Polymorphist | Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | Bosh, Iron Golem | Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Brago, King Eternal | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Wort, Boggart Auntie | Wort, the Raidmother
Captain Sisay | Rhys, the Redeemed | Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight | Obzedat, Ghost Council | Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind | Vorel of the Hull Clade
Uril, the Miststalker | Prossh, Skyraider of Kher | Nicol Bolas | Progenitus
Ghave, Guru of Spores | Zedruu the Greathearted | Damia, Sage of Stone | Riku of Two Reflections
A bunch of card "templates" repeat over and over and over till eternity.
You will always have some 2 mana 2/2 vanilla in some form or another in lots of variations that do pretty much the same.
Not doing that would fundamentally change the game and produce an entirely new feeling and theme (like if you replace the 2 mana 2/2 with lots of "morph" creatures, the set still has them, but changes completely and slows down a lot).
Another classic design is the 2U 1/4 creature in different iterations, and a 3U 3/2 flyer , or a 2U 2/2 flyer, you simply get them every time, every set, as these stats are so basic and pretty much define the color blue in limited.
In multicolor sets you could break up that repeat and produce more fresh stats and basic common templates, but they still dont really do that, as it requires much more work than simply repeat what you know worked the last time, which is further pushed as they produce "Return to" sets that have to somewhat bring back existing cycles and card ideas in some new form (like in Ravnica, you get the guild mages, the gates simply return, instead of making a new iteration of them, and the 3 mana artifact cycle is also pretty boring).
But what else to do ?
If they go to an entirely new world, chances are they will do more new stuff, but as of current design they will still simply repeat the same templates for creatures in limited, as changing THAT would be a much bigger deal.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
That's exactly what you have now. Have you tried Arena? The constructed events and the top tier in ranked is just all aggro. Mono red and red burn decks. A few white/red aggro decks. That's it. Despite all their mechanics, still nothing else performs like drag and drop aggro.
They are flooding Bo1 because that's where aggro has the advantage. They're much less in quantity in Bo3 once the other decks get to side in anti-aggro cards.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
On Arena, thats because of 1, best of 1, 2 the 'hand fixing' algorithm in best of 1.
Take those burn decks into MTGO best of 3 and they get punked out by plenty of decks.
Spirits
The threats in standard come in the form of creatures or planeswalkers, when I started playing Magic, around 20 years ago, blue wouldn't get Sphinx of Foresight a flying 4/4 with an upside for 4 mana, that is a decent value package. Dovin, Grand Arbiter goes in a very different deck to Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and will appeal to a different audience. Most cards are for draft, so you need the answer / threat balance, constructed, ideally, lets you build a synergistic deck with both answers and threats, the best of those threats or answers make there way into eternal formats.
Fatal Push was the first truly good removal spell printed in a long time, please don't complain about Wizards printing answers, we need them, heck on counter spells we need them to be better. I don't just want to turn creatures sideways (well ok I have a soft spot for slivers and Hollow One), the game should have aggro, combo, control and midrange, Wizards already try to avoid combo in standard...
The new expansion just hit. Early formats are always dominated with aggro as more complex deckbuilding strategies are experimented with.
Also you probably play best of one without sideboard. Aggro has a massive advantage there, has had for a long time, and it has nothing to do with design variety.
Also the game draws two hands for you and hands you the one with the best curve without telling you. This benefits curve out aggro decks, but not that much.
I've got the same deck on MTGO as Arena (Xerox Burn) and I can tell you right now the difference is MASSIVE. Its so favoured in Arena its not even funny.
Spirits
I was shown some numbers that said the difference wasn't really that prominent. Sad to hear that it is. I think I'll wait, though, until I see some new numbers.
Because Arena is a *****ty free to play grindfest. It punishes experimentation and rewards the simplest decks with the least variance. Red aggro decks are easy to build under that system, and easy to run, have little variance, and work well with the garbage best of 1 tournament format Arena pushes that hinders control.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Its funny you mention Timespiral, as it was one of the lowest rated/least successful sets, from what I've read.
Spirits
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Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Which makes -1/-1 counter themes rarer than they should be, because Wizards doesn't like mixing counter type themes in adjacent sets.
Not that I think we should have more -1/-1 counter shenanigans, of course.