I wanted to trigger discussion in regards to a lot of comments i've been reading as the spoilers unfold.
Most folks seem to be geared towards really hating the power level of the cards that are in Amonkhet. I find this to be a little ironic since pretty much everyone hates standard right now due to the ridiculous amount of over powered threats present (and very little answers).
If we look at how this set is designed, it was meant to come in as BFZ was rotating (pre change). This would have been a very welcomed addition to standard as we are leaving a format with oppressive cards. However, this isn't really mitigated with the fact that Kaladesh block also contains a ridiculous number of over powered cards.
My point is that personally, i gladly welcome a powering down of standard. The power creep was getting to a point where i don't think it's either healthy or sustainable. This is the first standard format in a long time where i have zero interest in playing outside of PPTQs since no one is playing anything remotely fun (I play 4 color cat because that's the deck i've had the most success with - kind of like how there was no point in not playing Emrakul previously).
What i don't get is why folks are so unhappy with this? It's not kamigawa level either. I'd love to know why people are actually upset at the powering down and the fact that the cards require building around and can, hopefully, lead to actual games of magic.
All i see is people who ***** regardless of what gets printed. It's depressing.
You said it yourself, there are too many threats, not enough answers. That's what I'm upset about. They told us they were fixing it. Go look at the new counterspell. It's so much worse than the alternatives. They could have just reprinted miscalculation, but no. Obviously too powerful for standard and modern.
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How I like to win games:
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Burn
Titanshift
Copycat (Given up currently, not entirely sure what it needs)
And they are. Everyone just seems to ignore the fact that it takes Wizards approx a year at least to get that change into their development cycle because every set that is released has been locked in and printed already for a year before they are actually released.
And it's only now, almost a year with no core-set that they're really realized that they messed up by not mitigating the printing of answers from the core sets into the blocks. Because that's really what it's always been, threats in the blocks and answers in the core-set. No core-set = no answers.
It's because standard sucks that lowering the power level is awkward right now. The threat to answer dicotemy still favors the threats to an absurd degree, and since the number of good removal spells and counterspells can still be counted on both hands, people are going to complain. Censor is the best example, as it's the biggest slap in face I've ever received. I would have preferreda an overreaction with good answers as opposed to this trickle effect. Let us have broken answers to deal with the broken threats, then scale it down. The broken threats would still probably win.
I'm not spending one penny on Amonkhet sealed product. I'm getting what I need from the secondary market and telling wizards to go screw themselves in the interim. #makecounterspellsandremovalgreatagain.
- I don't care that it takes them a year plus to fix things. That's just an excuse. They have tenured employees that are paid to get it right the first time. This company has been making sets for 20+ years. You'd think they'd have it figured out by now.
- The reason we see decks with such seemingly over-powered cards is because sets are made up of 3-4 tournament staples and 150 pieces of worthless cardboard. Excited to play Honored Hydra? Yeah, me neither.
- REMOVAL! When they print Doom Blade as a rare 3 mana sorcery, of course Heart of Kiran is going to look over powered. I'll take Doom Blade over Never//Return any day. Same thing goes with counterspells. It doesn't matter what worthless ability you stick on Cancel when it still costs 3 mana.
That 20+ years is kinda what's making it harder for Wizards to develop cards. The devs have to take into mind the projected power level of Standard, how the cards will impact Modern, if anything will disrupt Legacy and Vintage, how it all plays in draft, how it all plays in sealed, will any of it break either Commander formats, will the Johnnies, Timmies, or Vorthoses like it, will it blow out the second hand market. And they have to do all of it without seeing what the formats look like by the time of printing, since they have to design, playtest, commission the art, send them to print, get them all shipped, etc, etc. You may not care that it takes that long, but that's the reality of the world we live in. Expecting people to get things right on the first go with so many moving parts is like expecting to win the lottery with one ticket.
May it's because I'm an old timer, but I remember how bad things got in Urza and Mirrodin blocks. Bad as Heart is, it's not the nonsense from Urza or the meta-crushing power of Affinity. I'd rather the devs err on the side of caution and print under powered stuff with a few gems than have us end up with unchecked power creep like Yu-Gi-Oh.
I think the set seems fine. It's more of a collection of cards that work well with other cards than a set with 2 or 3 cards that can win just by you playing them. Synergistic deck building has always created the best standard formats. This set actively promotes this.
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In case I didn't tell you, I don't care about your opinion I just want your facts. And not the facts that make you seem smart. I want the ones that are actual facts.
I think the problem is not having good answers at lower rarity as well. Fatal Push was a good start. but it's not enough. Also, a lot of the best deck defining cards in Standard are mythics.
Power up and down isn't really much of a problem IMO. Balance is the problem. I think BFZ standard was pretty bad and probably people start stopping playing around that time. A lot of cards were too powerful while most of the rest were severe underpowered. You couldn't make ally decks even though it was one of the themes of the set. They should even out the cards, so most of pool could be usable even in a T3 deck.
I guess some of the most fanatic players are ok with this paradigm. It's been like that for a long time, but I think this kinda design is clearing scaring new players and old players alike. Sorta like Hearthstone. Their design is kinda similar. Lot of power in a few cards in the pool and lot of ***** and filler. This is catching on and people flock to other games that give them better value for their money and time. I think this card design and balancing cause this perception from some of the playerbase who have less patience and loyalty, also scares new players.
It's not an easy thing to change in a physical card game. The only thing they can tweak is tournament and event structures and we see them doing that. Card design changes take time and sadly the market change may be faster than that. We (and them) just have to live with these cycle of increasing and decreasing playerbase. Players can only ***** about it.
I wanted to trigger discussion in regards to a lot of comments i've been reading as the spoilers unfold.
Most folks seem to be geared towards really hating the power level of the cards that are in Amonkhet. I find this to be a little ironic since pretty much everyone hates standard right now due to the ridiculous amount of over powered threats present (and very little answers).
If we look at how this set is designed, it was meant to come in as BFZ was rotating (pre change). This would have been a very welcomed addition to standard as we are leaving a format with oppressive cards. However, this isn't really mitigated with the fact that Kaladesh block also contains a ridiculous number of over powered cards.
My point is that personally, i gladly welcome a powering down of standard. The power creep was getting to a point where i don't think it's either healthy or sustainable. This is the first standard format in a long time where i have zero interest in playing outside of PPTQs since no one is playing anything remotely fun (I play 4 color cat because that's the deck i've had the most success with - kind of like how there was no point in not playing Emrakul previously).
What i don't get is why folks are so unhappy with this? It's not kamigawa level either. I'd love to know why people are actually upset at the powering down and the fact that the cards require building around and can, hopefully, lead to actual games of magic.
All i see is people who ***** regardless of what gets printed. It's depressing.
I'd be fine with them reducing the power of threats if they actually were willing to print strong answers. Instead, we have a set with about as many Modern-playables as Theros had.
Remember when back in the day commons were actually playable in constructed or at least many would be considered "potentially" playable in specific situations? When it was exceptionally rare to see a strictly worse card in the same set? When your cards retained value even after they rotated out of standard?
I'm beginning to think that this all relates to a stupid corporate policy of pushing the game for newer players at any cost, even at the cost of dumbing it down (i.e. new players like planeswalkers and big creatures, so efficient instant speed removal & counterspells are a NO-NO), and maximizing profits by making 95% of the constructed-worthy cards rare or mythics. These watered-down cards in turn (barring a few exceptions) are absolutely worthless after the set rotates out of standard.
I hope this backfires and even less people than ever play standard this new season, that's the only way for them to reverse this idiotic policy.
I'm not as concerned with "answers" to threats as I am the lack of diversity in threats. When standard has 2 deck archetypes that only really see play, its bad. I like formats where there are a lot of different types of decks that can stand toe-to-toe with one another, and you don't feel pigeon-holed into playing one of two decks to feel like you need to win. Obviously adding answers to those top-tier decks helps, but if they tailored them into making other decks shine, it might make for a more diverse environment.
People don't understand or appreciate that (outside of eternal formats) power is always in a vaccuum. Power isn't as important as maximizing players' emotional responses to cards (what they call emphasizing having fun and incentivizing skill). Power does not equate fun.
That said, in regards to eternal formats, new sets not shaking stuff up is frustrating. However people also get angry when new, powerful cards break eternal formats.
Shrug.
Edit Oh in regards to threats and answers - answers have definitely been too weak recently. Wotc is fixing it but it's not easy for them to do it fast due to the time conditions of set design and development.
It's because standard sucks that lowering the power level is awkward right now. The threat to answer dicotemy still favors the threats to an absurd degree, and since the number of good removal spells and counterspells can still be counted on both hands, people are going to complain. Censor is the best example, as it's the biggest slap in face I've ever received. I would have preferreda an overreaction with good answers as opposed to this trickle effect. Let us have broken answers to deal with the broken threats, then scale it down. The broken threats would still probably win.
I'm not spending one penny on Amonkhet sealed product. I'm getting what I need from the secondary market and telling wizards to go screw themselves in the interim. #makecounterspellsandremovalgreatagain.
The threat to answer dichotomy is important. Mostly I see "powering down answers" to be more a thing in certain cases. Like, I saw it as a good thing in THS block. I wasn't quite so sure in BFZ; for the most part I feel that if you animate lands, it's the same as playing mana dorks: You risk removal becoming a cheap instant-speed Stone Rain. Though (of course) mana dorks are less "feel bad".
(As an aside, I really wouldn't mind a Stone Rain for nonbasic lands in particular. Again, I'm of the "you did it to yourself" school.)
I can understand why they're doing it, though. In the days when Counterspell was the standard, you really couldn't play Big Green Things unless they had "can't be countered". Big Green Things were really Big Black Things that you cast from the graveyard. You could play Tiny Red/White Things and maybe just overrun blue control, but that was about it.
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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!
I somewhat agree with OP in that we had reached to top of what is healthy as far as power level is concerned, maybe even being above it already. But they didn't have to power down so hard so fast! This feels like aMercadian Masques drama all over again.
I am really into Amonkhet, the setting and I love reading the stories of the Gatewhatch. But, and this is through the lens of someone who exlusively plays commander, I have seen about 3-5 cards I possibly want. Everything else is overcosted or understatted. In particular the gods: the essence of a god, as splendidly executed in the Theros ones,is that it's only a creature wheb you fullfill a certain criteria. These gods are just creatures with a big drawback and not even good ones at that.
So yeah, i'm probably spending about 20 euros on this set on the second hand market and will just enjoy the story until Hour of Devastation comes around.
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
The main cause of my negative reactions towards the set might just be due to the fact that they did the toning-down with this block, instead of say, a return block thats already well established (zendikar, innistrad, ravnica, you get the idea). Introducing the much awaited egyptian plane with new gods and the return of bolas got me (and I assume others?) really pumped, until I saw how weak most of the cards were. Throw in some ugly as **** expeditions, horrible split cards (both in terms of layout and playability) and absurdly boring, underwhelming gods and the disappointment is perfect.
Toning down the power is a good and necessary thing, no one that cares for the health of the game should want constant power-creep. Getting one Kaladesh after another would damage the game pretty quickly, i think. Thing is just that every consecutive set has to have the relative same power level as Amonkhet so the drop in power can be seen long-term. It's just that Kaladesh is completely overshadowing other blocks and will most likely do so for the rest of its lifespan in standard, unless we get a block that's at least on par with it. And if I'm seeing this correctly, it's even worse for Amonkhet, since it will rotate together with Kaladesh since they reverted back to old rotation, right?
Then again I might completely misjudge this set. Perhaps all the gods are really playable and Amonkhet has lots of good rares that will make a strong impact on standard. It's just... that I can't force myself to believe that.
I'm SO SICK of the "too strong for Standard" argument. It's the new "Dies to removal". We can have a two mana 4/4 with a zillion abilities, but we can't just have Accumulated Knowledge. Makes sense.
The main cause of my negative reactions towards the set might just be due to the fact that they did the toning-down with this block, instead of say, a return block thats already well established (zendikar, innistrad, ravnica, you get the idea). Introducing the much awaited egyptian plane with new gods and the return of bolas got me (and I assume others?) really pumped, until I saw how weak most of the cards were. Throw in some ugly as **** expeditions, horrible split cards (both in terms of layout and playability) and absurdly boring, underwhelming gods and the disappointment is perfect.
Toning down the power is a good and necessary thing, no one that cares for the health of the game should want constant power-creep. Getting one Kaladesh after another would damage the game pretty quickly, i think. Thing is just that every consecutive set has to have the relative same power level as Amonkhet so the drop in power can be seen long-term. It's just that Kaladesh is completely overshadowing other blocks and will most likely do so for the rest of its lifespan in standard, unless we get a block that's at least on par with it. And if I'm seeing this correctly, it's even worse for Amonkhet, since it will rotate together with Kaladesh since they reverted back to old rotation, right?
Then again I might completely misjudge this set. Perhaps all the gods are really playable and Amonkhet has lots of good rares that will make a strong impact on standard. It's just... that I can't force myself to believe that.
It doesn't help that Theros was also an underpowered set, so we've only been able to experience gods and mythology in weak sets.
The main cause of my negative reactions towards the set might just be due to the fact that they did the toning-down with this block, instead of say, a return block thats already well established (zendikar, innistrad, ravnica, you get the idea). Introducing the much awaited egyptian plane with new gods and the return of bolas got me (and I assume others?) really pumped, until I saw how weak most of the cards were. Throw in some ugly as **** expeditions, horrible split cards (both in terms of layout and playability) and absurdly boring, underwhelming gods and the disappointment is perfect.
Toning down the power is a good and necessary thing, no one that cares for the health of the game should want constant power-creep. Getting one Kaladesh after another would damage the game pretty quickly, i think. Thing is just that every consecutive set has to have the relative same power level as Amonkhet so the drop in power can be seen long-term. It's just that Kaladesh is completely overshadowing other blocks and will most likely do so for the rest of its lifespan in standard, unless we get a block that's at least on par with it. And if I'm seeing this correctly, it's even worse for Amonkhet, since it will rotate together with Kaladesh since they reverted back to old rotation, right?
Then again I might completely misjudge this set. Perhaps all the gods are really playable and Amonkhet has lots of good rares that will make a strong impact on standard. It's just... that I can't force myself to believe that.
It doesn't help that Theros was also an underpowered set, so we've only been able to experience gods and mythology in weak sets.
This might either be a weird coincidence, or proof that wotc thinks the mythology alone is enough to sell a set. Then again, would've Theros really been the record-breaking set back then if it hadn't thoughtseize in it? And yet, should Amonkhet bomb, I think wizards will most likely put the blame on the egyptian setting, which according to them turned out to alienate the average magic player, while the true problems are ****** expeditions, ugly split-cads, lame gods and weak power level overall.
I'm SO SICK of the "too strong for Standard" argument. It's the new "Dies to removal". We can have a two mana 4/4 with a zillion abilities, but we can't just have Accumulated Knowledge. Makes sense.
The main cause of my negative reactions towards the set might just be due to the fact that they did the toning-down with this block, instead of say, a return block thats already well established (zendikar, innistrad, ravnica, you get the idea). Introducing the much awaited egyptian plane with new gods and the return of bolas got me (and I assume others?) really pumped, until I saw how weak most of the cards were. Throw in some ugly as **** expeditions, horrible split cards (both in terms of layout and playability) and absurdly boring, underwhelming gods and the disappointment is perfect.
Toning down the power is a good and necessary thing, no one that cares for the health of the game should want constant power-creep. Getting one Kaladesh after another would damage the game pretty quickly, i think. Thing is just that every consecutive set has to have the relative same power level as Amonkhet so the drop in power can be seen long-term. It's just that Kaladesh is completely overshadowing other blocks and will most likely do so for the rest of its lifespan in standard, unless we get a block that's at least on par with it. And if I'm seeing this correctly, it's even worse for Amonkhet, since it will rotate together with Kaladesh since they reverted back to old rotation, right?
Then again I might completely misjudge this set. Perhaps all the gods are really playable and Amonkhet has lots of good rares that will make a strong impact on standard. It's just... that I can't force myself to believe that.
It doesn't help that Theros was also an underpowered set, so we've only been able to experience gods and mythology in weak sets.
Mostly true. Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, very beloved, was actually a very powerful 4-set block that focused on Celtic Mythology. With tribal being a focus we had many existing tribes get a significant upgrades in power like Merfolk in particular who became a real force to be reckoned with cards like Merrow Reejerey. Retroactively this block would go on to provide quite a few good generals when Commander was still a fledgling format and was referred to instead as EDH.
Even the non-legendary "gods" on the plane are quite strong. While each had the same theme of quintuple hybrid mana and the typing of Spirit Avatar, each was quite unique for how it impacted the game. To use three examples: Oversoul of Dusk, Dominus of Fealty and Deity of Scars.
This block also introduced planeswalkers. Specifically Ajani, Chandra, Garruk, Jace and Liliana. They also played no role in the affairs of the plane and the native denizens of the plane, non-planeswalkers, solved the issue. Also to point out, the five planeswalker cards of Rare rarity, were introduced in Lorwyn and the rest of the block didn't have any.
The only problems with Lorwyn/Shadowmoor is people bought more singles than sealed products like booster boxes which is written off by WotC as failed due to sales. The singles for many competitive cards were actually quite pricey. Yet this was also a set that lacked any Expeditions/Inventions/Invocations and it also lacked the Mythic Rarity.
So the set has been spoiled. Anyone changed their minds? I havent... this is coming from an edh player. Legends are bad. The golgari one has potential.
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To the people that say that a card needs to be a higher rarity because of Limited... I hate you guys so much. I present to you with this.
I just want to underline that while not the most powerful of cards, Aftermath cards are generally misevaluated. They are probably more powerful than people perceive them to be.
So the set has been spoiled. Anyone changed their minds? I havent... this is coming from an edh player. Legends are bad. The golgari one has potential.
I'm not seeing anything I want to pick up. It's cool they printed another zombie lord and I think there's a chance somebody will bust shadow of the Grave.
Playing since 1996 and I left the game last year because of the steam pile that was removal being printed. When they commented that Doom blade was too powerful I knew a train wreck was incoming. These are the things they did wrong:
2 mana removal got increased to 3 mana. Shifted up from uncommon to rare 0.50 for doom blade but hero's downfall capped at $16. Not only was the removal crap but you were forced to pay an ass ton for it because it is all we had. Lets keep that trend going but make it worse incoming sorcery speed 3 mana removal. Searing spear/lighting strike is too good. Again lets make every removal for every color worth crap.
4 mana wrath effects are too good. Lets move it up to 5 mana. Oh I know now lets make vehicles and powerful planeswalkers that also dodge the wraths. 4 mana wrath is the breaking of playability.
Last is the death of the 1 mana dork. Every deck is just curve 1-4 and you will win. If I wanted that I'd play hearthstone.
The current good decks actively push the mechanics of Kaladesh.
Energy , +1/+1 counters.
If you want to play these decks you almost cant add Amonkhet cards as they dont really work with the mechanics.
Thats pretty bad.
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For modern theres not much to work with in the latest sets.
Ofcourse they printed Fatal Push but that was actively done and everyone knew it was pushed exactly for modern (just like the revolt mechanic overall, but the cards are not pushed enough to compete in modern or simply do not fill holes that other cards/mechanics wouldnt do better).
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Its unquestionable more interesting to have less "catch-all" answers.
Instead of a 4 mana wrath that deals with creatures its better to have more variety, which produces a wider range of decks and decks that counter these decks.
So instead of a Metagame that is:
A > B > C > A
You get a bigger one, that still follows the same rules, but more variations.
Individual cards that are simply over the top hurt this balance.
But in the end, something has to stand out, and sometimes its more important that a deck is fun rather than totally balanced, high variance can be good, but if that is all there is, it becomes slot-machine magic with less room of "skill".
Hour of Devastation looks like it offers some more flexible removal spells in the Choice Spells, which will help to get more answers.
That meta is better for the game. Besides most match ups are only skewed in game 1. There is a reason we have sideboards. A player's skill will get them through these bad match ups. A little luck is always helpful of course.
WotC spent too much time trying to imitate Hearthstone instead of sticking to what has worked for over 20 years. The game itself is not the issue. Online gameplay and a good client most certainly is.
Standard bannings will be the death of this game. If they continue to ban cards people will stop buying singles. Those that do will be unwilling to invest as much into the singles depressing prices. We are going to be in this weird place for the next 2 years because of the sets changing back to normal rotation. Most players understand that. A statement from WotC about that issue would also help. Letting things ride is going to be better than bannings in the long run.
Playing since 1996 and I left the game last year because of the steam pile that was removal being printed. When they commented that Doom blade was too powerful I knew a train wreck was incoming. These are the things they did wrong:
2 mana removal got increased to 3 mana. Shifted up from uncommon to rare 0.50 for doom blade but hero's downfall capped at $16.
This is probably what has kept me from playing Standard for quite a while now the most. There's just something about shifting all or most of the actually good removal to rare that feels like I'm getting ripped off. Good or at least decent removal should be a basic thing and not something you have so shell out so much money for. Top cards will always be expensive, but I think that having a relatively cheap (both mana cost- and money-wise) option to answer top threats is very important.
B-but ... Limited!
Yeah, I don't care. It can't be too difficult to make a Limited format that isn't completely ripped in half by a card like Doom Blade.
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Most folks seem to be geared towards really hating the power level of the cards that are in Amonkhet. I find this to be a little ironic since pretty much everyone hates standard right now due to the ridiculous amount of over powered threats present (and very little answers).
If we look at how this set is designed, it was meant to come in as BFZ was rotating (pre change). This would have been a very welcomed addition to standard as we are leaving a format with oppressive cards. However, this isn't really mitigated with the fact that Kaladesh block also contains a ridiculous number of over powered cards.
My point is that personally, i gladly welcome a powering down of standard. The power creep was getting to a point where i don't think it's either healthy or sustainable. This is the first standard format in a long time where i have zero interest in playing outside of PPTQs since no one is playing anything remotely fun (I play 4 color cat because that's the deck i've had the most success with - kind of like how there was no point in not playing Emrakul previously).
What i don't get is why folks are so unhappy with this? It's not kamigawa level either. I'd love to know why people are actually upset at the powering down and the fact that the cards require building around and can, hopefully, lead to actual games of magic.
All i see is people who ***** regardless of what gets printed. It's depressing.
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Burn
Titanshift
Copycat (Given up currently, not entirely sure what it needs)
Legacy:
Burn
B/R Reanimator (slowly building
EDH:
Sedris Control/Reanimation
And they are. Everyone just seems to ignore the fact that it takes Wizards approx a year at least to get that change into their development cycle because every set that is released has been locked in and printed already for a year before they are actually released.
And it's only now, almost a year with no core-set that they're really realized that they messed up by not mitigating the printing of answers from the core sets into the blocks. Because that's really what it's always been, threats in the blocks and answers in the core-set. No core-set = no answers.
I'm not spending one penny on Amonkhet sealed product. I'm getting what I need from the secondary market and telling wizards to go screw themselves in the interim. #makecounterspellsandremovalgreatagain.
- The reason we see decks with such seemingly over-powered cards is because sets are made up of 3-4 tournament staples and 150 pieces of worthless cardboard. Excited to play Honored Hydra? Yeah, me neither.
- REMOVAL! When they print Doom Blade as a rare 3 mana sorcery, of course Heart of Kiran is going to look over powered. I'll take Doom Blade over Never//Return any day. Same thing goes with counterspells. It doesn't matter what worthless ability you stick on Cancel when it still costs 3 mana.
May it's because I'm an old timer, but I remember how bad things got in Urza and Mirrodin blocks. Bad as Heart is, it's not the nonsense from Urza or the meta-crushing power of Affinity. I'd rather the devs err on the side of caution and print under powered stuff with a few gems than have us end up with unchecked power creep like Yu-Gi-Oh.
Cockatrice username: Blackcat77
Power up and down isn't really much of a problem IMO. Balance is the problem. I think BFZ standard was pretty bad and probably people start stopping playing around that time. A lot of cards were too powerful while most of the rest were severe underpowered. You couldn't make ally decks even though it was one of the themes of the set. They should even out the cards, so most of pool could be usable even in a T3 deck.
I guess some of the most fanatic players are ok with this paradigm. It's been like that for a long time, but I think this kinda design is clearing scaring new players and old players alike. Sorta like Hearthstone. Their design is kinda similar. Lot of power in a few cards in the pool and lot of ***** and filler. This is catching on and people flock to other games that give them better value for their money and time. I think this card design and balancing cause this perception from some of the playerbase who have less patience and loyalty, also scares new players.
It's not an easy thing to change in a physical card game. The only thing they can tweak is tournament and event structures and we see them doing that. Card design changes take time and sadly the market change may be faster than that. We (and them) just have to live with these cycle of increasing and decreasing playerbase. Players can only ***** about it.
I'd be fine with them reducing the power of threats if they actually were willing to print strong answers. Instead, we have a set with about as many Modern-playables as Theros had.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I'm beginning to think that this all relates to a stupid corporate policy of pushing the game for newer players at any cost, even at the cost of dumbing it down (i.e. new players like planeswalkers and big creatures, so efficient instant speed removal & counterspells are a NO-NO), and maximizing profits by making 95% of the constructed-worthy cards rare or mythics. These watered-down cards in turn (barring a few exceptions) are absolutely worthless after the set rotates out of standard.
I hope this backfires and even less people than ever play standard this new season, that's the only way for them to reverse this idiotic policy.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
That said, in regards to eternal formats, new sets not shaking stuff up is frustrating. However people also get angry when new, powerful cards break eternal formats.
Shrug.
Edit Oh in regards to threats and answers - answers have definitely been too weak recently. Wotc is fixing it but it's not easy for them to do it fast due to the time conditions of set design and development.
The threat to answer dichotomy is important. Mostly I see "powering down answers" to be more a thing in certain cases. Like, I saw it as a good thing in THS block. I wasn't quite so sure in BFZ; for the most part I feel that if you animate lands, it's the same as playing mana dorks: You risk removal becoming a cheap instant-speed Stone Rain. Though (of course) mana dorks are less "feel bad".
(As an aside, I really wouldn't mind a Stone Rain for nonbasic lands in particular. Again, I'm of the "you did it to yourself" school.)
I can understand why they're doing it, though. In the days when Counterspell was the standard, you really couldn't play Big Green Things unless they had "can't be countered". Big Green Things were really Big Black Things that you cast from the graveyard. You could play Tiny Red/White Things and maybe just overrun blue control, but that was about it.
On phasing:
I am really into Amonkhet, the setting and I love reading the stories of the Gatewhatch. But, and this is through the lens of someone who exlusively plays commander, I have seen about 3-5 cards I possibly want. Everything else is overcosted or understatted. In particular the gods: the essence of a god, as splendidly executed in the Theros ones,is that it's only a creature wheb you fullfill a certain criteria. These gods are just creatures with a big drawback and not even good ones at that.
So yeah, i'm probably spending about 20 euros on this set on the second hand market and will just enjoy the story until Hour of Devastation comes around.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Toning down the power is a good and necessary thing, no one that cares for the health of the game should want constant power-creep. Getting one Kaladesh after another would damage the game pretty quickly, i think. Thing is just that every consecutive set has to have the relative same power level as Amonkhet so the drop in power can be seen long-term. It's just that Kaladesh is completely overshadowing other blocks and will most likely do so for the rest of its lifespan in standard, unless we get a block that's at least on par with it. And if I'm seeing this correctly, it's even worse for Amonkhet, since it will rotate together with Kaladesh since they reverted back to old rotation, right?
Then again I might completely misjudge this set. Perhaps all the gods are really playable and Amonkhet has lots of good rares that will make a strong impact on standard. It's just... that I can't force myself to believe that.
It doesn't help that Theros was also an underpowered set, so we've only been able to experience gods and mythology in weak sets.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
This might either be a weird coincidence, or proof that wotc thinks the mythology alone is enough to sell a set. Then again, would've Theros really been the record-breaking set back then if it hadn't thoughtseize in it? And yet, should Amonkhet bomb, I think wizards will most likely put the blame on the egyptian setting, which according to them turned out to alienate the average magic player, while the true problems are ****** expeditions, ugly split-cads, lame gods and weak power level overall.
Even the non-legendary "gods" on the plane are quite strong. While each had the same theme of quintuple hybrid mana and the typing of Spirit Avatar, each was quite unique for how it impacted the game. To use three examples: Oversoul of Dusk, Dominus of Fealty and Deity of Scars.
This block also introduced planeswalkers. Specifically Ajani, Chandra, Garruk, Jace and Liliana. They also played no role in the affairs of the plane and the native denizens of the plane, non-planeswalkers, solved the issue. Also to point out, the five planeswalker cards of Rare rarity, were introduced in Lorwyn and the rest of the block didn't have any.
The only problems with Lorwyn/Shadowmoor is people bought more singles than sealed products like booster boxes which is written off by WotC as failed due to sales. The singles for many competitive cards were actually quite pricey. Yet this was also a set that lacked any Expeditions/Inventions/Invocations and it also lacked the Mythic Rarity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY8h2vp5Xis
2 mana removal got increased to 3 mana. Shifted up from uncommon to rare 0.50 for doom blade but hero's downfall capped at $16. Not only was the removal crap but you were forced to pay an ass ton for it because it is all we had. Lets keep that trend going but make it worse incoming sorcery speed 3 mana removal. Searing spear/lighting strike is too good. Again lets make every removal for every color worth crap.
4 mana wrath effects are too good. Lets move it up to 5 mana. Oh I know now lets make vehicles and powerful planeswalkers that also dodge the wraths. 4 mana wrath is the breaking of playability.
Last is the death of the 1 mana dork. Every deck is just curve 1-4 and you will win. If I wanted that I'd play hearthstone.
Energy , +1/+1 counters.
If you want to play these decks you almost cant add Amonkhet cards as they dont really work with the mechanics.
Thats pretty bad.
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For modern theres not much to work with in the latest sets.
Ofcourse they printed Fatal Push but that was actively done and everyone knew it was pushed exactly for modern (just like the revolt mechanic overall, but the cards are not pushed enough to compete in modern or simply do not fill holes that other cards/mechanics wouldnt do better).
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Its unquestionable more interesting to have less "catch-all" answers.
Instead of a 4 mana wrath that deals with creatures its better to have more variety, which produces a wider range of decks and decks that counter these decks.
So instead of a Metagame that is:
A > B > C > A
You get a bigger one, that still follows the same rules, but more variations.
Individual cards that are simply over the top hurt this balance.
But in the end, something has to stand out, and sometimes its more important that a deck is fun rather than totally balanced, high variance can be good, but if that is all there is, it becomes slot-machine magic with less room of "skill".
Hour of Devastation looks like it offers some more flexible removal spells in the Choice Spells, which will help to get more answers.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
A > B > C > A
That meta is better for the game. Besides most match ups are only skewed in game 1. There is a reason we have sideboards. A player's skill will get them through these bad match ups. A little luck is always helpful of course.
WotC spent too much time trying to imitate Hearthstone instead of sticking to what has worked for over 20 years. The game itself is not the issue. Online gameplay and a good client most certainly is.
Standard bannings will be the death of this game. If they continue to ban cards people will stop buying singles. Those that do will be unwilling to invest as much into the singles depressing prices. We are going to be in this weird place for the next 2 years because of the sets changing back to normal rotation. Most players understand that. A statement from WotC about that issue would also help. Letting things ride is going to be better than bannings in the long run.
This is probably what has kept me from playing Standard for quite a while now the most. There's just something about shifting all or most of the actually good removal to rare that feels like I'm getting ripped off. Good or at least decent removal should be a basic thing and not something you have so shell out so much money for. Top cards will always be expensive, but I think that having a relatively cheap (both mana cost- and money-wise) option to answer top threats is very important.
B-but ... Limited!
Yeah, I don't care. It can't be too difficult to make a Limited format that isn't completely ripped in half by a card like Doom Blade.