Like others have said before, Kaladesh stands out because it's an artifact block.
I think Wizards either needs to rework how they approach artifact blocks in the future, or just not do them ever again.
Two broken artifact blocks that warped Standard, but they're extra careful with Enchantments and Enchantment Matters to the point of outright robbing Theros. Makes no sense.
Two broken artifact blocks that warped Standard, but they're extra careful with Enchantments and Enchantment Matters to the point of outright robbing Theros. Makes no sense.
To be fair, regular enchantments are generally harder to deal with than artifacts overall, especially for Grixis colors.
That's not much of an excuse for the lack of proper enchantment support in the block though.
Like others have said before, Kaladesh stands out because it's an artifact block.
I think Wizards either needs to rework how they approach artifact blocks in the future, or just not do them ever again.
Two broken artifact blocks that warped Standard, but they're extra careful with Enchantments and Enchantment Matters to the point of outright robbing Theros. Makes no sense.
Well, Urza's Saga was an enchantment block, and Kaladesh was after Theros.
Actually, Maro says artifacts are a danger because they warp the color pie. I mean, take Skullclamp. This type of effect, turning creatures into Divinations (either as a sac or a death trigger), is usually something black or green could do. Put Skullclamp in the game, and every color gets access to it. The way it's written, it's better than most blue card draw, and oh, white and red have access to it. Yeah, green has special synergies (mana dorks once you've hit the top of your curve, Fecundity, Beacon of Creation, Pulse of the Tangle, Wirewood Hivemaster), but Skullclamp was broken with...just about everything.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Two broken artifact blocks that warped Standard, but they're extra careful with Enchantments and Enchantment Matters to the point of outright robbing Theros. Makes no sense.
To be fair, regular enchantments are generally harder to deal with than artifacts overall, especially for Grixis colors.
That's not much of an excuse for the lack of proper enchantment support in the block though.
Enchantments are color restricted for the most part as well, which means they could do with them what they've done with artifacts and not risk the same level of consequence (examples of which have been posted above IE Skullclamp etc). I highly doubt a Legendary Enchantment Land was going to be a problem at all, even in Standard, and even less so in EDH.
Grixis can deal with Enchantments by bouncing and countering them, though. I really feel they're too careful with the wrong things and sometimes too liberal with the wrong things. It's upsetting, and pointing it out means getting shut down with "Market Research" or "Data" or "But Mirrodin" - the latter of which is the absolute worst example, because it taught them nothing when they repeated the mistakes in Kaladesh. So basically, Mirrodin is a reason to be extra careful with Enchantments and with Theros, but liberal as hell with a second artifact block for the same problems all over again? Mirrodin is hilarious too because it's a large reason why Kamigawa's 12+ year old "Market Research" is skewed, biased and invalid in addition to being the reason Enchantments keep getting the shaft while artifacts gain a second paradoxical reign to wreck another standard before bannings.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I love MaRo and all those sets. But I don't like situations like this. If anything, I'd have been hesitant to make a second artifact block and more liberal with enchantments rather than upsetting enchantment fans and wrecking a format again with artifacts despite the past.
Funnily enough, when we got a sneak peek of Kaladesh in Origins, it seemed pretty artifact token focused, which was an odd and pretty new way of doing an artifact-focused plane.
I was a bit surprised when that wasn't the case in the actual block. You still had a lot of token generation with Servos and Thopters, but the Fabricate mechanic IMO wasn't pushed as much as Energy or Vehicles.
I don't want them to abandon artifact-focused sets entirely, but they need to resist this bizarre urge they have to throw card design principles that they typically adhere to out the window with these kind of sets.
So even the core sets will be "Large" sets of around 269 cards each. Which means when we are in full Large set deployment, Standard will have over 2000 cards to pick and chose from. That amounts to a 'free' large set worth of cards.
For example, the Scars to M13 Standard period amounted to 1743 cards total; and that period even had an extra large set in it already (Avacyn Restored). Hopefully that gives Standard the card space needed to deal with everything.
Remember a few years ago, when Maro said that they were going to reduce the number of cards in Standard? So much for that.
And that doesn't even take into account all of the supplemental sets being released now.
Trust me when I say it wasn't an enchantment-themed block. It had an enchantment archetype, sure, but it had about five different archetypes (and most of them were degenerate).
Trust me when I say it wasn't an enchantment-themed block. It had an enchantment archetype, sure, but it had about five different archetypes (and most of them were degenerate).
Trust me when I say it wasn't an enchantment-themed block. It had an enchantment archetype, sure, but it had about five different archetypes (and most of them were degenerate).
ROFL! Well, that tells you a bit about how cohesive the design was back in those days...
All anyone remembers from Urza's Saga Standard is Turn 1 Tolarian Academy!
Trust me when I say it wasn't an enchantment-themed block. It had an enchantment archetype, sure, but it had about five different archetypes (and most of them were degenerate).
ROFL! Well, that tells you a bit about how cohesive the design was back in those days...
All anyone remembers from Urza's Saga Standard is Turn 1 Tolarian Academy!
Apparently, the design team (or development team, I can never remember) for one of the sets in the block consisted of one person. The whole of Urza block was hilariously mismanaged, and the more I find out about it, the more I realize that the cluster**** we got might have been a best-case scenario.
Right and they printed the best creature for Theros in a Origins "Herald of the Pantheon"...
The card you mentioned not included in Theros block is silly.
I know Duh...thats whay i said the best creature they printed "for theros" was printed in origins. I was pointing out to the poster who said "but they're extra careful with Enchantments and Enchantment Matters to the point of outright robbing Theros" That they robbed it so bad the best creature for Theros wasnt even printed in theros... and his Flavor text even references theros which makes it even more of a stab in the face.
Trust me when I say it wasn't an enchantment-themed block. It had an enchantment archetype, sure, but it had about five different archetypes (and most of them were degenerate).
It was an enchantment block, but as-played is different from as-fan.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
The card you mentioned not included in Theros block is silly.
Anything, but nothing at the moment...
Modern:
WUBRGAmulet Titan, WUBRGHuman
WUBRAd Nauseam, WBRGDeath Shadow, UBRGScapeshift, UBRGDredge
WURJeskai Nahiri, WURCheeri0s, WBGCounter Company, WRGBurn, UBRMadcap Moon, BRGJund Midrange
UBTurn,BRGriselbrand Reanimator, WGKnight Company, RGRG Tron, RGRG Ponza, XAffinity, XEldrazi Tron
You weren't the only one questioning why cards like Starfield of Nyx and Herald of the Pantheon weren't in the actual Theros block.
To be fair, regular enchantments are generally harder to deal with than artifacts overall, especially for Grixis colors.
That's not much of an excuse for the lack of proper enchantment support in the block though.
Well, Urza's Saga was an enchantment block, and Kaladesh was after Theros.
Actually, Maro says artifacts are a danger because they warp the color pie. I mean, take Skullclamp. This type of effect, turning creatures into Divinations (either as a sac or a death trigger), is usually something black or green could do. Put Skullclamp in the game, and every color gets access to it. The way it's written, it's better than most blue card draw, and oh, white and red have access to it. Yeah, green has special synergies (mana dorks once you've hit the top of your curve, Fecundity, Beacon of Creation, Pulse of the Tangle, Wirewood Hivemaster), but Skullclamp was broken with...just about everything.
On phasing:
Grixis can deal with Enchantments by bouncing and countering them, though. I really feel they're too careful with the wrong things and sometimes too liberal with the wrong things. It's upsetting, and pointing it out means getting shut down with "Market Research" or "Data" or "But Mirrodin" - the latter of which is the absolute worst example, because it taught them nothing when they repeated the mistakes in Kaladesh. So basically, Mirrodin is a reason to be extra careful with Enchantments and with Theros, but liberal as hell with a second artifact block for the same problems all over again? Mirrodin is hilarious too because it's a large reason why Kamigawa's 12+ year old "Market Research" is skewed, biased and invalid in addition to being the reason Enchantments keep getting the shaft while artifacts gain a second paradoxical reign to wreck another standard before bannings.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I love MaRo and all those sets. But I don't like situations like this. If anything, I'd have been hesitant to make a second artifact block and more liberal with enchantments rather than upsetting enchantment fans and wrecking a format again with artifacts despite the past.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I was a bit surprised when that wasn't the case in the actual block. You still had a lot of token generation with Servos and Thopters, but the Fabricate mechanic IMO wasn't pushed as much as Energy or Vehicles.
I don't want them to abandon artifact-focused sets entirely, but they need to resist this bizarre urge they have to throw card design principles that they typically adhere to out the window with these kind of sets.
Remember a few years ago, when Maro said that they were going to reduce the number of cards in Standard? So much for that.
And that doesn't even take into account all of the supplemental sets being released now.
Trust me when I say it wasn't an enchantment-themed block. It had an enchantment archetype, sure, but it had about five different archetypes (and most of them were degenerate).
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
ROFL! Well, that tells you a bit about how cohesive the design was back in those days...
All anyone remembers from Urza's Saga Standard is Turn 1 Tolarian Academy!
My Stupidly Large Number of Current Decks
PucaTrade with me!
The Multiplayer Power Rankings
Cube: the Gittening (My Multiplayer Cube) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
The N00b Cube (Peasant cube for new players) - MTGS Cube List | @ CubeTutor
I know Duh...thats whay i said the best creature they printed "for theros" was printed in origins. I was pointing out to the poster who said "but they're extra careful with Enchantments and Enchantment Matters to the point of outright robbing Theros" That they robbed it so bad the best creature for Theros wasnt even printed in theros... and his Flavor text even references theros which makes it even more of a stab in the face.
It was an enchantment block, but as-played is different from as-fan.
That said, there were some degenerate cards from the enchantment side of things: Opalescence, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Replenish, and Academy Rector all come to mind. And the iconic "bad card" for many years was Carnival of Souls. But Tolarian Academy defined Constructed basically until it was banned, and Memory Jar actually was banned before it was Constructed-legal.
On phasing: