I was in another thread tonight, and saw a card and thought "Why is it a Sorcery? Why do we have Sorcery speed at all?" and so I want to ask that here and now.
Perhaps back when the game was young, Sorcery made more sense, from a flavor and thematic perspective. You had spells that were quick and cheap to give you a temporary edge, and then you had your big honking 5-7 mana monstrosities for when you wanted to really deliver some pain. A Sorcery was just a big spell, a spell whose power was tied to its cost and speed - expensive and slow.
Fast forward to 2017 and the style of play has changed a good deal. People are more aggressive with their decks. Creatures have more immediate impact than before, and as like as not are merely spells on a stick. The right play at the right time can be crucial. So why do Sorcery cards even still exist? Unless you have a deck that can mess around with giving your cards flash (which seems convoluted), how many Sorcery cards actually see play? I'm sure they see play if they are costed appropriately and no better alternative effect to theirs exists, but what about others? Would Instant speed on everything be so bad? What would be some effects of this on the game?
Well, I can see you could potentially have a turn 3 Wrath as opposed to a turn 4 one, especially during your opponent's turn. Which would suck, I agree.
But what's the difference between Wrathing your opponent after they've played all their creatures on THEIR turn, and Wrathing them on yours?
Well, I can see you could potentially have a turn 3 Wrath as opposed to a turn 4 one, especially during your opponent's turn. Which would suck, I agree.
But what's the difference between Wrathing your opponent after they've played all their creatures on THEIR turn, and Wrathing them on yours?
That difference is ridiculously huge. You are suggesting that being able to hold open mana, wrath on the opponent's turn after they play a threat, and then follow up with a threat of your own on your turn is in any way similar to spending your turn to Wrath? That is nonsense.
Yes, Instants are more powerful. Yes, Instants are more flexible. Yes, Sorceries are often overlooked because they are Sorceries. But that doesn't mean that the game should change from a system that requires an opportunity cost to one that doesn't. If everything was an Instant the correct play is nearly always to wait until your opponent's turn to act and then get the upper hand on your turn. I don't think that would ultimately make for a better game.
Sorceries are inherently more powerful than creatures. When you resolve a sorcery you immediately gain full value while a creature is more of a long term investment.
In current constructed the actual point of "sorcery = stronger than instant" isnt really true anymore.
Sure, some classic effects are still sorcery. Mainly discard spells and mass removal (but not "always").
This is simply because these effects become massively stronger as instants, as the timing allows some tricks and extra benefits.
For discard, letting them draw the card and then play the discard in the draw-step is a big deal, as it can stop whatever they draw in that turn and virtually make them "skip" the turn if they cannot do anything else.
This is a common play with cards like Vendilion Clique, which ironically enough is blue (so blue gets the "instant" discard, that black is balanced around , kinda ironic ... ).
Mass removal at instant speed suddenly stops haste creatures from having an impact, and manlands too, you can even wait if they have a combat trick and then still kill everything. This grants a huge extra amount of benefits and options.
Against a deck with counterspells, having a mass removal in their turn means if they want to counter it, they are probably tapped out and you are free to untap before its your turn again ; so the timing is on your side, which again, means extra benefits, more options.
If a creature has a drawback upkeep trigger you can wait and cash that in, then still destroy all creatures (happens less today, as creatures tend to have beneficial triggers and almost no bad ones anymore, outside of a handful of black creatures).
In balancing terms, making something instant that would otherwise be sorcery is roughly at a +2 colorless in manacost , thats how huge the benefit is for most spells.
Its even more visible for combat tricks. If they want to work as actual tricks, they have to be instant speed.
However, if you make them sorcery speed, the effect can be bigger, but your opponent will have the options to see it before they make a decision in combat and in some very ironic cases it can even be the "better" play to cast the spell before combat, for example if something like a Sandblast is involved:
Instant scenario:
A 3/3 creature attacks, no blocks, you play your +3/+3 instant trick and they Sandblast your creature in response. Terrible outcome.
Sorcery scenario:
A 3/3 creature gets +3/+3 before it attacks, no blocks, and your opponent cannot kill the creature as its now already 6/6. Wonderful.
This happens because the spells have restrictions and suddenly create a much wider spectrum of possible gameplay decisions and some otherwise bad cards suddenly lead to making the correct play.
In a world in which everything is an instant, you would never have these interactions, the responding player would always trump the active player.
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Especially in limited a lot of spells could very well be instant , but they are sorcery to promote some kind of these interactions (or to simply shift some powerlevels to make it more dynamic and not reprint the same card over and over again), this gives every set a different feeling and suddenly some cards shine, even if they are worse than a former print of the same effect.
----
If a creature simply gets all the benefits of a sorcery spell while providing a body , its strictly better.
All the creatures that have a removal ability are premium good cards that are easily 1st picks quite often.
If a creature is able to repeatable cast a spell with an ability, its also tremendously stronger unless its immediately killed (but for good reason its a "must-kill" often enough).
All the evoke creatures show this quite well. Pushing an spell onto a creature simply results in a much stronger card that you can play in your limited deck without having otherwise "useless" spells that might be too narrow.
Planeswalkers are also tremendously overpowered cards in that regard.
They are repeatable "sorcery" spells and they provide free extra spells turn after turn, which makes lots of sorcery spells look incredible bad (and they are, if a planeswalker can do the same for little extra money, if at all).
That said, sorcery is something that works especially well in Limited.
In constructed you will always opt to play the instant variant if there is any, and planeswalkers over sorcery spells, if you have the option to do so.
Another explanation I heard for this, I believe from MaRo in one of his articles, was that having sorcery-speed cards forces players to be proactive and move the game along. In an all-instant game, playing a card second is better than first, so games would too often wind up as "you make the first move!" "no, you make the first move!" and nothing would happen because as stated earlier, it's better to react to things.
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UBR Sedris RG Omnath, Locus of Rage UB The Scarab God RUG Maelstrom Wanderer WU Dragonlord Ojutai
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Perhaps back when the game was young, Sorcery made more sense, from a flavor and thematic perspective. You had spells that were quick and cheap to give you a temporary edge, and then you had your big honking 5-7 mana monstrosities for when you wanted to really deliver some pain. A Sorcery was just a big spell, a spell whose power was tied to its cost and speed - expensive and slow.
Fast forward to 2017 and the style of play has changed a good deal. People are more aggressive with their decks. Creatures have more immediate impact than before, and as like as not are merely spells on a stick. The right play at the right time can be crucial. So why do Sorcery cards even still exist? Unless you have a deck that can mess around with giving your cards flash (which seems convoluted), how many Sorcery cards actually see play? I'm sure they see play if they are costed appropriately and no better alternative effect to theirs exists, but what about others? Would Instant speed on everything be so bad? What would be some effects of this on the game?
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
But what's the difference between Wrathing your opponent after they've played all their creatures on THEIR turn, and Wrathing them on yours?
Yes, Instants are more powerful. Yes, Instants are more flexible. Yes, Sorceries are often overlooked because they are Sorceries. But that doesn't mean that the game should change from a system that requires an opportunity cost to one that doesn't. If everything was an Instant the correct play is nearly always to wait until your opponent's turn to act and then get the upper hand on your turn. I don't think that would ultimately make for a better game.
Sure, some classic effects are still sorcery. Mainly discard spells and mass removal (but not "always").
This is simply because these effects become massively stronger as instants, as the timing allows some tricks and extra benefits.
For discard, letting them draw the card and then play the discard in the draw-step is a big deal, as it can stop whatever they draw in that turn and virtually make them "skip" the turn if they cannot do anything else.
This is a common play with cards like Vendilion Clique, which ironically enough is blue (so blue gets the "instant" discard, that black is balanced around , kinda ironic ... ).
Mass removal at instant speed suddenly stops haste creatures from having an impact, and manlands too, you can even wait if they have a combat trick and then still kill everything. This grants a huge extra amount of benefits and options.
Against a deck with counterspells, having a mass removal in their turn means if they want to counter it, they are probably tapped out and you are free to untap before its your turn again ; so the timing is on your side, which again, means extra benefits, more options.
If a creature has a drawback upkeep trigger you can wait and cash that in, then still destroy all creatures (happens less today, as creatures tend to have beneficial triggers and almost no bad ones anymore, outside of a handful of black creatures).
In balancing terms, making something instant that would otherwise be sorcery is roughly at a +2 colorless in manacost , thats how huge the benefit is for most spells.
Its even more visible for combat tricks. If they want to work as actual tricks, they have to be instant speed.
However, if you make them sorcery speed, the effect can be bigger, but your opponent will have the options to see it before they make a decision in combat and in some very ironic cases it can even be the "better" play to cast the spell before combat, for example if something like a Sandblast is involved:
Instant scenario:
A 3/3 creature attacks, no blocks, you play your +3/+3 instant trick and they Sandblast your creature in response. Terrible outcome.
Sorcery scenario:
A 3/3 creature gets +3/+3 before it attacks, no blocks, and your opponent cannot kill the creature as its now already 6/6. Wonderful.
This happens because the spells have restrictions and suddenly create a much wider spectrum of possible gameplay decisions and some otherwise bad cards suddenly lead to making the correct play.
In a world in which everything is an instant, you would never have these interactions, the responding player would always trump the active player.
----
Especially in limited a lot of spells could very well be instant , but they are sorcery to promote some kind of these interactions (or to simply shift some powerlevels to make it more dynamic and not reprint the same card over and over again), this gives every set a different feeling and suddenly some cards shine, even if they are worse than a former print of the same effect.
----
If a creature simply gets all the benefits of a sorcery spell while providing a body , its strictly better.
All the creatures that have a removal ability are premium good cards that are easily 1st picks quite often.
If a creature is able to repeatable cast a spell with an ability, its also tremendously stronger unless its immediately killed (but for good reason its a "must-kill" often enough).
All the evoke creatures show this quite well. Pushing an spell onto a creature simply results in a much stronger card that you can play in your limited deck without having otherwise "useless" spells that might be too narrow.
Planeswalkers are also tremendously overpowered cards in that regard.
They are repeatable "sorcery" spells and they provide free extra spells turn after turn, which makes lots of sorcery spells look incredible bad (and they are, if a planeswalker can do the same for little extra money, if at all).
I would always play a Chandra, Torch of Defiance over Chandra's Revolution , as its better in any reasonable scenario.
----
That said, sorcery is something that works especially well in Limited.
In constructed you will always opt to play the instant variant if there is any, and planeswalkers over sorcery spells, if you have the option to do so.
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UBR Sedris
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage
UB The Scarab God
RUG Maelstrom Wanderer
WU Dragonlord Ojutai