I returned to magic during the original Rav block, and have heavily drafted every block since then. But, thanks to the wonders of Magic online and flashback drafts (which they actually used to do fairly often, because you know, someone had the bright idea that maybe you should embrace Magic's awesome history while simulatenously making money), I've been able to play multiple drafts of basically every Magic format that was designed with draft in mind.
So, I"m going to assign my ratings of each individual format. For the most part, if a format was a full block format I'll only rate the full block, with a few exceptions. I'm also not counting sets taht weren't designed iwth limited in mind, like pre- M10 core sets, or Ice Age and earlier.
Ratings will be on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst, and 10 being the best.
So, from the beginning:
Mirage Block: 5. Surprisingly not bad given the era that it came from. Some obnoxiously overpowered commons (Empyrial Armor, Kaervek's Torch, Undo), and not enough quality creatures, but overall enjoyable.
Tempest Block: 6. Solid format. Rolling Thunder and Capsize are big strikes against it, adn again creatures are a little weak leading to games that drag on too long, but it's overall pretty fun. I'm looking forward to the new MTGO remastered version.
Urza's block: 4. Not a very balnaced format. black is so overpowered in the first set, and then the third pack is just awful. I've never had a good time playing this format, so I haven't played too much.
Mercadian Masques block: 2. This is a bad, bad format. Awful creatures. Activated abilities that dominate the board and make combat impossible. Decking and winning by timeout are very real win conditions. This is one of hte worst formats ever.
Invasion block: 8. Wizards followed up with a really strong offering. Lots of cool things you can do, powerful cards, and just an overall enjoyable format.
Oddyssey block: 4. A departure from invasion. Very few playables. Unbalanced sets by color with Torment/Judgment. Creatures that make combat impossible, like mongrel and the healer. The ground gets gummed up, and the games just don't play out in an enjoyable manner.
Onslaught block: 3. This is a really bad format. No removal at common. Ridiculous creatures that dominate the board like Goblin Sparsksmith and the Elf pump guy. Zombie Cutthroat. A very forgettable format.
Original Mirrodin block: 6. I enjoyed this format. There were a lot of cool themes and interactions going on, and the novelty of an artifact set made things interesting. Some obnoxious commons, like Cranial Plating and Spikeshot Goblin, but that is par for the course in the first half of limited magic's history. Still, I find this to be an enjoyable format, although it doesn't stand up with the all time greats.
Kamigawa Block: 5. A fairly uninteristing format. The power level was a little low, and there were again obnxoious commons (Kabuto Moth). Not an all time stinker, but very forgettable.
Ravnica Block: 8. This kind of marks the turning point where Wizards got a lot better at limited. The guilds in the packs set things up interesting, and the power level finally started to catch up in terms of both solid common creatures to go along with the typical super strong spells. Lot's of iconic and beloved cards at common and uncommon. The bounce lands were probably too good for common, but it was nice that the format had really good fixing. Also a soft spot in my heart because Rav/ Time Spiral is the golden age of standard as well.
Cold Snap: 1. This format was a mess. Ripple is arguably the worst designed limited mechanic of all time. The best strategies all involved just overloading on 1 or two commons (Martyr of Ashes/Ice Fall, the 1U Illusion guy, any ripple card). Low overall power level, making these stupid synergies even worse to play against. This is not Wizard's finest moment.
Time Spiral Block: 10. Best limited format of all time. Immensely complex, yet very balanced. Bombs were very strong, but not just completely unbeatable. The Time Shifted cards in pack 1 added an interesting dynamic. I think Suspend is the best limited mechanic of all time. I understand how this was confusing to new players, but while that's a reality that has to be factored in to the business of making magic, I don't think it shoudl factor in to rating a limited format on its own merits. I have never yet been sick of Time Spiral drafts, which is not true of any other format I've played.
Lorwyn block: 4. Tribal dominated formats tend to be bad in limited. They have a lot of cards with super high variance, that can dominate in some situations and be worthless in others. Being in an open tribe usually leads to a near unbeatable deck.
Shadowmoor Block: 7. This was an interesting format. The different ways you could try to set yourself up for the third pack were interesting. The fact that mono-colored decks were very playable was a very unique aspect. It was a very balanced format, as you had a ton of options between two color and mono colored decks.
Shards Block: 3. This was a bad format. Triple Shards was actually pretty interesting and enjoyable, but Conflux was a terribly underpowered set, and Alara Reborn was way overpowered. Mana fixing was awful, leaving you the options of drafting underpowered but consistent two color decks, or powerful 3+ color decks with bad mana. Mana Screw was a decider in a ton of games, and the old drop 1 drop two drop wooly Thoctar off of 3 basic lands probably led to more "luck sack" rants than anything else in MODO history.
M10: 5. This was interesting as they overhauled the core set. Their initial attempt was a decent effort, but overall a little underpowered, and not particularly balanced. (IIRC Green and Red were both awful).
Zendikar Block: 5. The first ever hyper aggressive limited format, this basically boiled down to taking two drops. However, unlike later aggressive formats, there was actually decent cheap removal that could allow you to no just completely run over. Landfall is one of the best limited mechanics of all time, and the fact that you always wanted 18 lands made things interesting.
Rise of the Eldrazi: 9. One of the best formats in magic history. The games just played out in really fun ways, and the novelty of casting monstrous 8+ drops was really cool. There were tons of fun, niche strategies that were also competitive (Tokens with Raid Bombardment, Kiln Fiend/ Distortion Strike, Vent Sentinel Defenders). The only knocks on it were Drana (one of the most unbeatable limited cards ever, and one that showed up too often), and the fact that there were a few too many unplayable vanilla creatures. I'm not a big man of Vanilla creatures in general, but when they are all unplayable it's really annoying. Still, a top 3 limited format.
M11: 6. This was a step up from m10, and I enjoyed the format. It was a little control slanted, and there were too many ridiculous bombs (5 Planeswalkers, 5 titans, and Baneslayer angel at mythic lol), but overall it was pretty fun.
Scars of Mirrodin block: 7. I liked this format a lot. It was bomb heavy, yes, but most decks had bombs, and the removal was fantastic. Infect was obnoxious, but by the time of the full block it was no longer the menace it was in triple scars. The format supported both aggressive decks and controllish builds, as well as almost combo-ish infect decks. I liked the high power level of the format, as even ridiculous creatures could backfire to the numerous control magic effects. Power levels were high across the board.
m12: 6. Kind of the opposite of M12, as this slanted heavily aggressive with bloodthirst, and tons of aggressively costed creatures. Again, though, I liked the format, even if it wasn't too deep. Not bad for a core set.
Triple Innistrad: 8. Innistrad was a lot of fun, but in my opinion (and I know I'm in the minority), it had some serious flaws that I just couldn't overlook. The beloved Spider Spawning deck is one of them. The deck played non-interactive magic, and if it got going you couldn't do anything about it outside of a few niche answers. Travel Preparations is another one, as that card led to more ridiculously one sided, short games of magic than I've ever seen. The ridiculously conditional removal was also something that was incredibly frustrating. Just really foolish sitting there with a Victim of Night staring down an Olivia Voldaren and knowing you can't win. Or just getting completely blown out by a Geist Flame that ate two creatures. That level of variance was just very frustrating. Still, the format was overall very enjoyable, and I was still able to have fun in spite of the things I hated about it.
Full Innistrad: 6. Dark Ascension was a terrible limited set, that just took away most of the cool synergies and led to a much less fun experience. Both the good and bad aspects of the format were watered down, and it just wasn't the same.
Avacyn Restored: 5. Again, I'm in the minority, as I didn't hate the format. Yes, it was a 4 color format, as black wasn't a thing, but the good black cards had single plack costs (Death Wind, Human Frailty, Marrow Bats), so they were just kind of extra removal spells for the four real colors. The pumping soul bond creatures were all overwpoered Druid's Familiar and Wolfir Silverheart wrecked a lot of games. Miracled bonfire and entreat the angels led to a lot of feel bad losses. It was an interesting format in that I felt like the games played out in a pretty fun way, except that 10% of the time they'd be completely ruined by a miracle or a druid's familiar curve.
M13: 7. This was the best of the core sets, and with Magic Origins being the last core set, there's only one chance left to lose the crown. This was just a very reasonable, well-balanced format. Bombs were not too bad, and it was just a good environment.
Return to Ravnica: 5. The definition of mediocrity. You drafted a guild, and hoped you got there. Very few archetypes. Pack Rat as one of the most unbeatable bombs ever.
Gatecrash: 3. Way too aggressive a format. Non-existent removal. Games decided way too early on. Unbalanced guilds. Just a bad format.
Full RTR block: This was just a terrible format. It didn't play out well at all, you lost most of the guild synergies, and it was just garbage. I basically couldn't play this format it was so unenjoyable, especially coming on the heals of Gatecrash.
M14: 3. This was a big time regression. I love drafting control, but it should be a playable deck, not a format dominating one. Divination and Opportunity owend the format, and the blue commons went sooo deep that relaly only black-red could compete. this was a bad format.
Theros Block: 1. We (hopefully) bottomed out here. This format combined some of the worst aspects of Magic. Completely dominated by tempo. Voltroning a creature was a central theme. Because voltronning a creature was a central theme, removal was a joke. This and Coldsnap are least fun I've ever had playing limited Magic, and this gets last place in my book because it came an in era where they should have known better.
M15: 4. Another poor core set offering. Not much to say here. Triplicate spirits was obnoxious and dominating. Unexciting games. Completely meh.
Khans + Fate Reforged: 8. Boom, wizards hit a much needed home run. This was a great format. The guilds were balanced. Aggressive and controlling decks were viable. Removal was decent, and getting completely tempoed out was pretty rare. People complained a lot about the bombs in FRF, but I tended to disagree. Yes, Citadel Siege was not a real magic card, and that's a big strike. But with only one pack, you didn't see it too often. The Mythics were very strong, but really not worse than mythics from any other format. A lot of rares categorized as bombs.
Interesting that I agree with about 80% of your ratings, and your reasoning, so we clearly have generally similar taste, but I VEHEMENTLY disagree about suspend. I think suspend was the anchor that dragged TSP block from being a great format down to being a decent one.
My reasoning is this: we all know that one of the more frustrating parts of magic is the mana system, and mana curves in general. In addition to actual mana screw and mana flood there are the games where you draw all your 2 drops late in the game and they're just speed bumps, and all that ends up mattering is that your opponent curved out and you didn't (or vice versa). Suspend is like that, but moreso. Casting a decent 2-drop on turn 2 is much better than casting it on turn 4. Drawing an errant ephemeron on turn 2 is even MORE better than drawing it on turn 4. It's just so infuritating when you draft a deck with a bunch of suspend cards, and then you just don't have anything to suspend and your opponent does, and you're like "I _know_ I have more suspend cards than you do, because I have 11 of them", but you're just so far behind on tempo.
The other problem with TSP draft is sprout swarm. Both because it's so powerful, and because it comes in the last pack, so there are all these other cards (like deathspore thallid) that you have to pick or not pick without knowing whether or not you will win the sprout swarm lottery.
But, like I said, I mostly agree with your ratings, and I appreciate the commentary.
Theros wasn't nearly that bad to me, more of a 4 or 5. I have similar feelings about RTR block, It's just mediocre but definitely not as bad as coldsnap.
I think most of those ratings are within spitting distance of mine. I would only comment that triple Champions of Kamigawa is in my opinion the best triple set draft ever made, narrowly beating out RoE. Every color was playable and had multiple interesting directions you could go with it, there was a lot of synergy between the various cards, there were no really stupid bombs (Jitte is in Betrayers) and there were even two pretty solid and balanced gimmick decks (5CG and Dampen). Full block Kamigawa is much less good, mostly because Saviours is such a ***** set but also because of random Jitte.
I also think you're too harsh on Theros. When playing swiss, you'd sometimes not draft nor played against the idiotic white heroic deck and thus could have a real game of magic. I personally think Gatecrash was way worse. (Also, triple worldwake, even though it was not an official format, and was only available during the release week on MTGO, was really stupid.)
I also liked Kamigawa much better than Mirrodin. Mirrodin had awful I-win cards. Some thankfully at rares (theswords), but others like loxodon warhammer and skullclamp at uncommon, or even commons, like cranial plating or bonesplitter. (OTOH, of course, when R&D introduces those new ideas and produces busted cards, it makes for lasting impressions.) And Jitte. Kamigawa, the set, was nice with different synergies and decks.
Re: suspend. It was bad in triple time spirla, where the combination of Suspend plus storm made for some awful games. In the full blcok it was balanced, and it was great in Modern Masters as well.
RE: Triple Champions of Kamigawa. Unfortunately I've only played the full block, which wasn't very exciting. Can't speak to triple champions, although triple large set is often better than full block.
Triple Theros was okay, not awful. The block just got worse with each advancing set. The full set is the least fun I've ever had playing limited magic. When the options for draft were M14, Theros and RTR block, I just shut my MODO account down for about 6 months, something I've never done before.
Yeah, I didn't mention MMA, which is a solid 8 or 9. VMA is probably a 7. MED4 is an 8, MED3 is a 6, MED 1 and 2 are both 2-3.
And the Sprout Swarm menace is vastly overstated, IMO. It was a mess in sealed, but all of these rankings refer to draft only, which I should have clarified. In draft, it was a very good common, but also quite slow. If the board gummed up, it would give you inevitability, but it was also very slow to get going.
I seem to be in the minority because I really liked Gatecrash. Dimir was always open so I would take every Devour Flesh and Death's Approach to keep Boros off of battalion. In 25 MTGO drafts and 10-15 paper drafts I would be surprised if there were more than 5 battalion attacks against me.
Theros and BTT were both terrible formats that made me stop playing Magic for months. JBT was a solid improvement because you could actually kill a voltron for less than 5 mana, but still only a 5 out of 10.
Khans was probably my favorite format since I started limited late in Innistrad. UG morph with 0-3 splash colors was such a fun deck to play. Morph is a great limited mechanic and the bombs weren't unbeatable. A little light on removal but bounce was much better than normal. 9 or 10 out of 10 for me, though I haven't drafted a lot of sets.
Dragons so far has been fine, but not nearly as fun as Khans. Red is too good and playing against dash is miserable. 6 or 7 out of 10 because there can't be too many RB drafters at the table. Sealed is probably the most aggressive of any format I have played, making it a 3 out of 10.
Onslaught wasn't nearly that bad. And there was common removal - pacifism, shock, etc.
Basically, just don't play blue (unless you're super lucky) and you're fine in that format. It's certainly better than Lorwyn, which was "did you draft a bomb?"
Onslaught wasn't nearly that bad. And there was common removal - pacifism, shock, etc.
Basically, just don't play blue (unless you're super lucky) and you're fine in that format. It's certainly better than Lorwyn, which was "did you draft a bomb?"
Also Theros was 15/10. Awesome format.
Onslaught block was fine for removals, although turn 2 sparksmith probably still means game over. 3x Onslaught means you must play red or black...
Onslaught wasn't nearly that bad. And there was common removal - pacifism, shock, etc.
Basically, just don't play blue (unless you're super lucky) and you're fine in that format. It's certainly better than Lorwyn, which was "did you draft a bomb?"
Onslaught wasn't nearly that bad. And there was common removal - pacifism, shock, etc.
Basically, just don't play blue (unless you're super lucky) and you're fine in that format. It's certainly better than Lorwyn, which was "did you draft a bomb?"
Also Theros was 15/10. Awesome format.
Wait you actually liked full Theros block?
Yeah, it was awesome. No removal (aside from another huge dude or at some huge cost) is a lot of fun. Much more fun than removal-heavy formats.
Just look at the current format. Every single opponent is always playing B/R dash and all of them have enough kill spells to remove every creature you ever cast. It's a bad format when the opponent always has an answer for your blockers no matter how many times you topdeck something.
If I never see a set with removal as bad as Theros block again, I'll be very happy. That entire format was a four step process:
1. Play dude
2. Put enchantment on dude
3. Attack with dude
4. Cast [generic +2/+2 trick] on dude
Then you win or lose depending on your opponent's ability to do the same thing first. It had about as much interaction as your average Charbelcher mirror.
I loved Triple Theros, but I agree Born of the Gods hurt it a lot as a limited format (the set was probably the really problem with the whole block). I also can't believe the hated M15 which is my favourite Core set for limited. Heck, I was happily playing it over Khans last Autumn.
I'm gonna list some of the worst I've played recently.
DTK
Talk about a linear format. Good removal is rare (especially in white), lifelink is rare, and its about beating your opponent down with dumb creatures. I thought I disliked Khans but that's only because I played it too much. Your options for archetypes are far better.
M15
This is the least fun format I've probably played since Innistrad when I started drafting. It's just not fun.
Theros block
Better than 3x Theros but still really narrow strategies. UG is the easiest to pick and then Wx anything (well not green)
3x Theros
Man this format blew. Non-interactive luck-fest.
Yea. When they say Dragons, they meant dragons for Constructed. Design-wise, all the uncommon dragons come out at 6cmc. "Templative" and robotic design. Where's the "this dragon cost 1 less for each insert blank you control". I refused to believe that a 4cmc dragon can't be designed. They did it with Phantasmal Dragon, I'm sure there're many more ways to get good and cheap dragons out with small drawbacks.
DtK and FRF are close to Theros in terms of horrid gameplay.
I also believe they overcooked the +1/+1 counters theme. It's too much.
Ah, I love this game, mostly because I love praising the formats I enjoyed, and because it's similarly satisfying to get to rag on formats I disliked.
Mirage Block: I haven't played this one as much (4-5 drafts, perhaps), but that was honestly because I didn't like it much. Most of the cards don't do anything, and those that do also do too much (Kaervek's Torch and that sort of thing). It's hard to cobble together a deck that doesn't have some amount of unplayable garbage, and I didn't love the gameplay either. 2/10. Tempest Block: I like this one. Both grindy decks and aggressive decks are eminently viable, and gameplay was pretty fun. Obscenely broken commons/uncommons such as Rolling Thunder, Evincar's Justice and Flame Wave were obvious mistakes, however, and just utterly losing a game singlehandedly because of those cards wasn't super fun. Overall I'll give it 7/10. Urza Block: I've only really played triple Saga, actually, which I liked more than one would think. Much has been said about Pestilence at common, but I feel like its reputation has outgrown it by quite a bit; Urza block is an enchantment block, and playing maindeck enchantment removal was completely reasonable. As such, answering Pestilence wasn't as tricky as you might think. Of course, it was still the best common and all that, but not by as much as people would have you think... at least not in my experience. For my part, my favorite color was white, not black, but that was probably mostly because everyone else attempted to force black. Anyway, I feel like this format was quite underrated, and would give it 6/10. Masques Block: Never played it. Invasion Block: This is one of my favorites. One of the grindiest formats of all time; a ton of cards were 2-for-1s and 3-for-1s. Heck, even 4-for-1s at uncommon wasn't unheard of (Sunscape Battlemage, for instance). Lots of card draw, lots of creatures dying left and right - that's how I like it. The unfortunate part about the format was how it asked you to play several colors, but didn't actually provide the necessary fixing for this. The common manafix was of way lower quality than we've come to expect, so playing 3+ colors was typically what you had to do, but you also had to get pretty lucky with your lands. 8/10. Odyssey Block: Fairly forgettable, I'd say, though not a bad format or anything. Graveyard-based, and strangely unbalanced in that Torment was super strong for black (and indeed black had more cards in Torment than any other color), and Judgment was strong for green and white. I'm not so sure how much I loved this structure, and I also found the format to have little room to maneuver; splashing is essentially impossible, and your playable count is going to be rather low. 5/10. Onslaught Block: I have fond memories of this block, it being my first full block since I started playing, but I do not have fond memories of the draft format, to be honest. Seemed to me like this was always a battle of clunky creature decks (decks often having 20-21 creatures) and board stalls due to creatures on either side that prevented anyone from doing anything. 3/10. Mirrodin Block: A pretty good format. A solid amount of removal and tricks and different things to do. Unfortunately, I haven't played this format as much as I'd have liked to, so I don't feel comfortable rating it. Kamigawa Block: I did like this format more than most, but I suppose that's partly due to this being my first draft format that I actually played somewhat regularly. Everyone loved their first, right? That said, I felt like Saviors made the format worse, and I liked it better with triple Champions or CCB. Soulshift was pretty cool, and overall the mechanics worked well enough for Limited (if nothing else). 7/10. Ravnica Block: This was when Magic really got me excited, and I first ventured into serious play (my first Nationals was with RGD, for example). Ravnica was an amazing format, almost certainly the best format WotC had produced up until this point. It managed to replicate (no pun intended) most of what Invasion block did well while shoring up most of it flaws. 9/10. Coldsnap: This format was absolutely putrid. Triple small set is never anything you should ever play, and Coldsnap certainly was no exception. Ripple was... 1/10. Time Spiral Block: Getting to praise this format yet again is the payoff I have earned for having written this far. I just can't ever have enough of TPF, and it is without a shred of doubt my favorite format of all time (and I have sampled most of them). Almost every card is interesting in some way, provides multiple modes or uses, combos with some other card, and so on. The number of playables is high, and the number of distinct, fun and eminently playable archetypes is through the roof (I don't think any format ever has been able to match TPF when it comes to diversity). Rebels, Slivers, Storm, Madness, 5CC, UW Skies, 2-creature control, WG Aggro, and so on. Usually for a format I find a couple of archetypes I really like & draft those over and over. TPF has something like ten different archetypes that I really like. Now, Sprout Swarm certainly is a stain on an otherwise fantastic format, and it's a card you have to keep in mind as you draft. But if you do, stopping it isn't actually hard; what's obnoxious about the card honestly isn't primarily its power level, but the way it dominates a game and turns it into a monotone EOT-Sprout-Swarm-a-bunch game, and that sucks. I'll deduct .5 points for Sprout Swarm and give TPF 9.5/10. Lorwyn Block: Triple Lorwyn was reasonably fun gameplay-wise, but the draft portion was pretty uninteresting, as once you're settled into an archetype, things were rather straightforward. I did not love the addition of Morningtide, however; the cards were less interesting, and reinforce also made blocking kind of impossible. 6/10. Shadowmoor Block: I liked this one more. The hybrid mechanic was a fun one to play around with, as were mechanics such as wither and the untap symbol. Eventide made the format worse, I think, but I still liked it quite a bit. I had a number of narrow archetypes I enjoyed quite a bit here, such as the Flourishing Defenses deck and the mill deck. Barrenton Medic was another hidden gem, and Puca's Mischief was awesome. 7/10. Shards Block: I didn't play triple Shards or SSC as I was traveling & therefore away from the game, but I did play the full block a bit. It wasn't bad; the five-color deck with infinite bombs and removal was certainly entertaining, but the format also suffered greatly, in my mind, from having not quite good enough fixing for what it asked you to do. You often ended up with a very bad manabase that didn't get anything going, but the rewards for going multicolored was so great that you often couldn't not do it. Sometimes you're just going to slam a turn 3 Woolly Thoctar and win the game, and playing a risky manabase often paid off in spades, and that's kind of tilting for the other player. 5/10. Zendikar Block: When people say "this format is like Zendikar", that is not praise. That means that the format is so fast that it is kind of ruined. Because that's what Zendikar was; control decks were absolutely not a thing (though this draft video might have you think otherwise), and you took 2-drops over cards that would have been bombs in any other format. The format was ridiculously fast; turn 5 kills were not uncommon. Monoblack aggro and monored aggro were probably the best. The primary reason for the aggressiveness of the format was the landfall mechanic, because made creatures be "turned on" on your turn, while being off on the opponent's turn. As such, attackers were better than normal while defenders were worse than normal. 2/10. Rise of the Eldrazi: The polar opposite of Zendikar. Now everything is slow and grindy, and random bears are completely and utterly unplayable. RoE was about as good as you could ever expect from a one-set format, and supported a ton of interesting archetypes. It had a lot of depth and variety. It did have one big flaw, though, as I see it: a fairly large number of unplayables, and often you'd see packs with only five cards taken from them, yet all the remaining cards were absolute garbage (regardless of archetype). Other than that, though, amazing. One of 3-4 formats to be frequently cited as being the best draft format of all time. 9/10. Scars of Mirrodin: A good block, but with one huge flaw: the number of bombs. The bombs in this format were totally unreasonable and too many to mention, and they included many cards we'd be calling Mythic Uncommons today. But the gameplay and the mechanics were, I think, quite fun (until they played Elesh Norn or Sunblast Angel or Carnifex Demon or whatever, of course), so overall I enjoyed it. But it could also be a quite upsetting format to play. My first GP top 8 was in this format, so I guess I have a special place for it for that reason. 6/10. Innistrad: Triple Innistrad was great, DII was good. Innistrad was incredibly deep. Blah blah Spider Spawning. The format was, however, much better then than it is now; now the format is explored and everyone knows everything about it, but during the format's evolution it might have been the best of all time, simply due to how long it actually took to figure it out completely. I still find it fun to revisit, but not as fun as some of the other great formats. I just wish I could have everyone forget everything they knew about the format & we'd rediscover it again and again. Triple Innistrad gets 9/10, DII gets 8/10. Avacyn Restored: Oh no. This format was awful. It was incredibly uninteractive, & had very in-your-face random elements that just weren't cool. I've never been as tilted as I was after the Avacyn Restored Pro Tour when I'd lost multiple matches in a row to miracled mythic rares in draft (Entreat the Angels and Bonfire of the Damned) to get knocked out; it is the only time I can remember when I seriously contemplated quitting the game. Overall I did quite well at AVR, but I still didn't enjoy it much. 2/10, but I'd sooner revisit Zendikar. Return to Ravnica Block: Quite medium, I'd say. Return to Ravnica was certainly okay, but nothing to write home about (like 6/10). Gatecrash was very bad (3/10), and the full block was kind of shrug-worthy. Dragon's Maze made a lot of promises about sweet decks involving lots of colors and Gatekeepers, but 2-color decks still ruled the day as it turned out. Though there were 10 archetypes (plus, I guess, some bad multicolored decks), these didn't really feel that distinct from one another in my opinion. I didn't love this format. 5/10. Theros Block: Triple Theros was fairly bad. Not terrible, just not in any way, shape or form a good limited format. It was highly uninteractive, and the threats were very hard to actually deal with. BTT just reinforced the bad things about Theros & made it way worse. At this time, for the first time in more than 10 years, I moved from playing Limited to playing Constructed, as I did not find any enjoyment in BTT (and I endured both Zendikar and Avacyn Restored). Journey into Nyx made things better, I'd say, but it did not fix the format, and overall this was my least favorite block so far, and I did not play much Magic during this time. 2/10. Khans of Tarkir: Khans was solid. I wasn't as high on it as many other people, but I certainly enjoyed it. The gameplay was pretty good, the strategies supported were rather diverse (if not too numerous), and it was reasonably well balanced. The morphs were well designed. I actually liked it more with Fate Reforged in the mix, though I can't really think of a good reason for that other than that I did well, which obviously makes Magic more fun, as on paper, Fate Reforged should have made the format worse (what with its bad commons and stupid rare bombs and all). In any case, quite enjoyable, would revisit. 8/10.
I'll wait to review DDF, as it's a little too new still, I think.
I've played a bunch more formats too, such as the Core Sets, Vintage Masters, Modern Masters, all the Masters Editions, etc. But I've written quite enough for now.
Edit: reading other comments now (didn't want to be influenced), and it's funny how many similarities there are between mine and Spairy's review (and complete opposites, such as regardling landfall). Both mentioning Woolly Thoctar specifically from Shards block made me chuckle.
No removal (aside from another huge dude or at some huge cost) is a lot of fun. Much more fun than removal-heavy formats.
Wow, this is as different from where I stand as you could possibly get. No criticism of you, of course; we're all different, & it's fascinating to me that we can be that far apart when it comes to what we like about the game.
Talk about a linear format. Good removal is rare (especially in white)
Although I agree in that I like KTK more than DTK and I do think the latter is linear, I have to disagree on the presence of removal. At least in comparison to KTK, I think that good removal is far more plentiful. Mostly in red, but in white specifically, Pacifism is still fantastic even if it's hampered in this set by Exploit, and Enduring Victory is quite a bit better than it looks. In comparison, Kill Shot and Smite the Monstrous in Khans were both much more conditional (though maybe that means they were easier to pick up).
I've only lightly touched on the older draft formats (odyssey and earlier), so I don't have too much of an opinion on them but from after that:
Mirrodin Block: 6/10 An all around solid block, but was not particularly spectacular. TBH nothing huge stood out in the block and overall I had fun with it but wouldn't want to draft it a whole lot. Favorite deck was 5 color sunburst.
Kamigawa Block: 7/10 I would have loved to have played Champions Champions Betrayers, as I can see where people are coming from on saviors power level, but overall I still quite liked this block. I'm the kind of guy who can enjoy a nice value durdle fest though. Favorite deck; Ogres n' Demons
Ravnica Block: 9/10 Probably one of the best formats ever, the amount of different directions you could go, and still be viable, was immense. The flavor was sweet, the cards were fun and the Karoo lands made for better deck building. Overall a great format. Favorite deck: All of them really, orzhov was my favorite guild however.
Time Spiral Block: 8/10 Another very deep and fun format. My one problem with the format was they were trying to fit in so much flavor that there were just to many different strategies, so some of them got spread very thin (like madness). Overall a fun format, but I always felt it a bit overrated. Favorite Deck: Thalids
Lorwyn: 6/10: A block that could have been amazing but was hampered by inconsistency. While I felt the tribes were fairly even in this block, it always felt like half the table got poor tribal support while the other half got insane nutso ones. It always felt bad going into a draft and just not getting support for anything, and ending up with a generic mess of a deck, and it seemed to happen a lot in this format. However when things did work out, it could be a lot of fun to have a good merfolk deck go up against a good goblin deck, or a good elf deck up against a good giant deck. Favorite Deck: Merfolk and Treefolk
Shadowmoor: 9/10, my personal favorite format of all time. I loved playing mono colored decks that technically could also be 5 colors. I loved some of the weird build around me cards like blowfly infestation. I loved that elsewhere flask had its own archetype. Overall I had the most fun with this format, so despite a few flaws it stands as my favourite. Favorite Deck: Mono Black -1/-1 Counters
Shards of Alara Block: 8/10 I liked this block quite a lot. I actually quite liked how each pack sort of varied greatly in power level, making fixing paramount early. I liked each shards build around me mechanic (well except unearth wasn't really much of a build around) and just found it pretty fun to play. Favorite Deck: Jund Devourer, or Grixis Control
Zendikar: 7/10, As I generally shy away from aggro decks, I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did. Maybe its because everyone was expected to try and win as quickly as possible, so the beat beat beat gameplay got kind of cathartic. In any event, it was a solid format, with some fun mechanics, landfall being particularly fun for deck building. Favorite Deck: Allies or Mono Red
Rise of the Eldrazi: 9/10, an extremely fun slow format, which fits me like a glove. I loved some of the crazy decks you could build, I loved playing massive fatties and being rewarded, and I loved the flavor. My one complaint is that there were just a few too many bad cards at common. A lot of the time I went to deck building with maybe 18-21 playable, and was forced to run some bad filler. This wasn't the first format like this but it stood out for me more than any other, probably because of how fun it was. Favorite Deck: Mnemonic Control
Scars Block: 6/10 I did not play a lot of this format but I know people were rather upset with new phyrexia. From what I did play I rather enjoyed it, although losing to infect was sometimes pretty heartbreaking. Not much to say on it really. Favorite Deck: Mono Removal
M12: 5/10 Pretty much exactly what I expect now from a core set, fairly aggro and very basic. Didn't love it didn't hate it. Favorite Deck: U/W flyers
Innistrad: 9/10 I love graveyard themes, and this was the mother of them all. The fact that I have won games with laboratory maniac speaks volumes for this sets diversity. And while it was disheartening to lose once again to travel prep, overall IID was a hell of a format. Favorite Deck: Zombos, or Spiders
Avacyn: 3/10 Just a icky format. There were about 2-3 premium commons in every color and everything else was pretty bad. The strategies were for the most part pretty boring, and there was no where near enough removal to stop the big scary bombs the set had. Favorite Deck: Mono Black Loner
M13: 6/10 Not a bad core set at all, a bit better than m13. There was a lot of power in this set, very good removal and creatures at common and uncommon. But overall very simple. Favorite Deck: Roaring Primadox Value
RTR block: 9/10 I'm probably one of the few people who liked this better than the original ravnica (and I loved the original). Every guild was fun, I liked the power level of the removal, I liked being able to play with the guilds again. While I do think original ravnica had a better structure for drafting (4 guilds, then 3, then the last 3, as apposed to 10, 5, 5) I just loved the variety of fun cards. Favorite Deck: Esper / Jund / Bug were all pretty sweet, but just about any deck was good
M14: 8/10 My favorite core set so far. Unlike m13, the power level was toned way down this set. However by doing this, it just made a lot more cards playable, such as a vanilla 4/6 for 6 being one of the best top ends in the format. There weren't a tonne of strategies, but the ones that were there were rather refined and well thought out, making it quite a lot of fun. Favorite Deck: R/B sacrificial duders
Modern Masters: 7/10 There was a lot to do in this format, A LOT, but quite frankly it didn't feel balanced enough. Certain decks just felt a heck of a lot better when they came together. Still there were some fun strategies so overall I was bad at it, but enjoyed it. Favorite Deck: Faeries
Theros Block: 5/10 Triple theros was awful, just plain awful, and born of the gods did little to alleviate this. However, journey into nyx somehow managed to save this poor excuse of a block and make it ok. Still not great, but made battlecruiser magic a bit worse and gave us a bit better removal. Still not great but decent. Favorite Deck: B/G graveyard/constellation
m15: 4/10 The worst core set I've played. The set is streched waaaayyy to thin. They tried to give every 2 color combination its own identitiy and almost none of them adequately worked. Theres a small artifact theme which sucks, a small sliver theme which sucks, a small value self bounce theme which sucks... etc. There was a lot of potential in this but it ended up just being dull. Favorite Deck: U/B
Vitage masters: 8/10 Had a fair amount of fun with this set, enjoyed it more than modern masters even. The birds could be a real pain but there were some very fun strategies to be had. The fact that storm was possible is a testament to the design of this set. Overall, it had some kinks but it was a pretty fun set none the less. Favorite deck: b/U/r control
KTK: 9/10 I've got to say this format was great, a massive breath of fresh air after theros and m15s poor performances. Each wedge was unique and fun, and the fixing was excellent. Overall a great set. Favorite Deck: Sultai Sultai Sultai
DTK: 8/10 A bit faster than Khans, and less useful ways of drowning your opponent in card advantage. But still a fun format, and I've been enjoying it so far. Still a little early to say how it truly stacks up overall but I like the removal, I like each clan and I generally have fun when I play it. Favorite Deck: Exploit or U/G Morphs
I enjoyed Theros block (JNY-BNG-THS) block a whole lot, a huge amount better than BNG-THS-THS or THS-THS-THS. Full Theros block was not at all just about voltrons, it had in my view plenty of diversity and with the full block of cards there was plenty of variety in cards used. I have not played for long, though, so I don't have much to compare it to other than the awful THS-THS-THS, M14, M15, KTK (which I also enjoyed a whole lot).
TSP block: I agree with the OP on suspend. I liked this format except for Sprout Swarm, but that card was so ruinous to the format that I can't rate the full block above a 6. (Would be 8 or 9 if that one card had been moved from common to rare).
Mercadian: It's terrible on MTGO, agreed. But in the real world where you were drafting triple Masques, or double Masques single Nemesis, the format was a highpoint of early Limited. Prophecy was the killer. MMM and MMN were formats I would rate as 6 or 7.
Theros: I'm not a fan but I don't regard it as terrible.
Kamigawa: Triple Champions was pathbreaking as the first Limited format where aggro and combo were both seriously supported. While Innistrad did the same things and did them better, Champions by itself deserves at least a 7 for breaking such ground. Dampen Thought combo, in particular.
I think the most fun blocks I've played limited in are the Invasion Block, Rath Cycle, and Alara blocks. I love multicolored blocks, and the Tempest block was just a load of fun, and a really strong block in general.
In hindsight, I wish that Kamigawa didn't snuff my desire to play, because I missed out on the Ravnica block which tons of people tell me was their all time favorite block.
I started drafting heavily with Scars block, though because of the way college was scheduled I generally drafted a lot more in the fall than the spring:
Triple Scars - 7/10. Infect gave it a nice unique dynamic and there were probably slightly more interesting commons than normal thanks to the large number of artifacts. Furnace Celebration was a fun deck when it came together. Overall kind of vanilla and metalcraft wasn't too exciting. I also wish proliferate had been more viable, or at least that UG/UB infect/proliferate decks had been better in triple Scars.
Favorite deck: Furnace Celebration
Innistrad - 10/10. Fantastic format with interesting archetypes and highly interactive games. I don't think Dark Ascension hurt it too much, I'd probably give IID a 9/10, only lower because Burning Vengeance and Spider Spawning got worse and those were cool decks.
Favorite deck: UR Burning Vengeance
Avacyn - 3/10. Bland mechanics and not very interesting games.
Triple RTR - 6/10. I wish it had had more mana fixing or more interaction between guilds that shared a color because it mostly just ended up as "draft a guild". Didn't play enough of the other formats that block to rate them.
Favorite deck: Probably Selesnya
Theros block - 2/10. I hate Voltron strategies so this block basically said "This is not for you. Don't draft this." I basically only drafted UB or UG control, neither of which was particularly interesting. Psychic Intrusion is one of my all time favorite limited cards though.
Favorite deck: UB control
Triple KTK - 9/10. Lots of interesting decks, and I like the way morphs smooth out your mana curve and the abundant fixing. I have more copies of Villainous Wealth than I do some of the uncommons from Khans so that probably says something about how greedy my decks liked to get...
Favorite deck: GB toughness matters, Goblinslide, all-in RW token/warrior...actually I like lots of archetypes from Khans.
Khans: This is the format that hooked me to limited. I had so much fun with it and had very good results, and I also really liked the huge range of limited strategies (I liked 4-color strategies the most).
Fate: I liked this format, slightly less than khans, but it's still very enjoyable. I liked straight 3-color much more in this format and had some of my most memorable 3-0's.
Dragons: I like this too! It's very different from khnas, but in a good way. It's a fast format, but not too much to be fun.
Modern Masters: I drafted very little of this format, but it was awesome. Most memorable deck was a U/W affinity deck that was wide open in the draft and was a ton of fun (who dosen't like recurring Aether Spellbomb with Sanctum Gargoyle and Esperzoa and 2 Etherium Sculptors on the battlefield?)
I've only ever done paper drafts, and only 2 or 3 per set, but I'd note that my ratings would change for part of the block vs. full block.
For example, I'd give triple-Champions of Kamigawa 8.5/10 - superb format, with lots of fun archetypes. Full Kamigawa block gets maybe a 5/10 because Saviors sucked so much.
I liked Theros block more than most people. I'd give triple-Theros 6/10, and full block 7/10. BTT was pretty terrible, though.
RtR was pretty solid, but Gatecrash was so fast it wasn't fun to play with or against. 3/10 for Gatecrash.
I love all 3 Tarkir formats. 9/10 to triple-Khans, my favorite of the three.
Triple Shadowmoor was a little unbalanced (black was really weak) but Shad/Eventide was a lot of fun. Certainly better than Lor/Mor. 7/10 for Shadowmoor/Eventide.
My first-ever sealed was the Invasion prerelease and my first draft was IPA, which was really fun even though I'm sure I drafted terribly.
Favorite overall: full original Ravnica block, or Rav/Rav/Guildpact. 10/10 to both of those.
Didn't draft enough of the M10-15 sets to get a sense for how they played. Liked M12 (whichever set had bloodthirst; I think that was m12?) the best, and M15 the least.
M11: I don't have a great recollection of this format, but I have fond memories of being ahead of the curve knowing that Infantry Veteran is a real card. I knew this because at the time I had played many games with those new player decks, getting myself accustomed to the interface, and the Vet felt good in the white deck.
Scars: 9/10. Even the annoying stuff like deciding when to go infect was a good kind of annoying, a skill test. Plenty of artifacts meant easier sealed building and less in-game color screw as you still have cards to play in the mean time.
M12: 10/10. I love aggressive formats as long as there is interactivity. I also love Aether Adept. And Mind Control. And Frost Breath. That the titans were in this format and I still had a 75% win rating in 4 pack sealed (where you are even more likely to draw any one card in your 30 card deck!) is a testament to how well this format was balanced.
Innistrad + DKA : 8/10 There was a good level of mana fixing, presumably to help cast off-color flashbacks. Shimmering Grotto, Traveler's Amulet...something else I'm probably forgetting. The worst memories I have involve powerful cards that change the race out of nowhere like Travel Preparations and Wild Hunger. The most enjoyable memories involved tough decisions due to werewolves transforming.
AVR: 0/10 Color imbalance, too much pseudohaste with Soulbond, bad combo cards that were total stinkers when you didn't draw the combo, lame removal, rage-inducing miracles
M13: I barely touched this
RTR: 5/10 Color imbalance and narrowing of color pairs due to guilds
GTC: 4/10 Same as above. Worse because of uninteractive aggro. (I only like aggro when there is a viable defense of blocking their 2/1s with your own 2/1s. This doesn't happen when Boros' dudes get better than your dudes with Battalion -> you can't block so you have to race)
Dragon's Maze: LOL didn't play/10
M14: I didn't play much of this but I won a PE sealed event in this format so I'm obliged to mention that. I also recall a sealed deck (in a different event, I wasn't so lucky) with two Opportunities and loads of black removal plus Elixir of Immortality. So I'll rate it 9/10.
Theros: 3/10 bad removal coupled with Bestow
Super Secret Format: 2THS + 2JOU 4 pack sealed: 7.75/10. This was actually fun somehow. I suppose the removal in Journey got better. Even that four mana tapper lion would get the job done against a giant monster.
M15: 2/10 it was as unbalanced as Vintage Masters, except everyone knew what was best, whereas in Vintage Masters at least you'd get people playing with lower power high synergy cards, in M15 it was Triplicate Spirits or bust.
KTK: 4/10 color imbalance
KTK + FRF: 8/10 still unbalanced but instead of a single wedge being overpowered it was black and white, so you had more options and 90% of pools could be built into a successful deck.
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So, I"m going to assign my ratings of each individual format. For the most part, if a format was a full block format I'll only rate the full block, with a few exceptions. I'm also not counting sets taht weren't designed iwth limited in mind, like pre- M10 core sets, or Ice Age and earlier.
Ratings will be on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the worst, and 10 being the best.
So, from the beginning:
Mirage Block: 5. Surprisingly not bad given the era that it came from. Some obnoxiously overpowered commons (Empyrial Armor, Kaervek's Torch, Undo), and not enough quality creatures, but overall enjoyable.
Tempest Block: 6. Solid format. Rolling Thunder and Capsize are big strikes against it, adn again creatures are a little weak leading to games that drag on too long, but it's overall pretty fun. I'm looking forward to the new MTGO remastered version.
Urza's block: 4. Not a very balnaced format. black is so overpowered in the first set, and then the third pack is just awful. I've never had a good time playing this format, so I haven't played too much.
Mercadian Masques block: 2. This is a bad, bad format. Awful creatures. Activated abilities that dominate the board and make combat impossible. Decking and winning by timeout are very real win conditions. This is one of hte worst formats ever.
Invasion block: 8. Wizards followed up with a really strong offering. Lots of cool things you can do, powerful cards, and just an overall enjoyable format.
Oddyssey block: 4. A departure from invasion. Very few playables. Unbalanced sets by color with Torment/Judgment. Creatures that make combat impossible, like mongrel and the healer. The ground gets gummed up, and the games just don't play out in an enjoyable manner.
Onslaught block: 3. This is a really bad format. No removal at common. Ridiculous creatures that dominate the board like Goblin Sparsksmith and the Elf pump guy. Zombie Cutthroat. A very forgettable format.
Original Mirrodin block: 6. I enjoyed this format. There were a lot of cool themes and interactions going on, and the novelty of an artifact set made things interesting. Some obnoxious commons, like Cranial Plating and Spikeshot Goblin, but that is par for the course in the first half of limited magic's history. Still, I find this to be an enjoyable format, although it doesn't stand up with the all time greats.
Kamigawa Block: 5. A fairly uninteristing format. The power level was a little low, and there were again obnxoious commons (Kabuto Moth). Not an all time stinker, but very forgettable.
Ravnica Block: 8. This kind of marks the turning point where Wizards got a lot better at limited. The guilds in the packs set things up interesting, and the power level finally started to catch up in terms of both solid common creatures to go along with the typical super strong spells. Lot's of iconic and beloved cards at common and uncommon. The bounce lands were probably too good for common, but it was nice that the format had really good fixing. Also a soft spot in my heart because Rav/ Time Spiral is the golden age of standard as well.
Cold Snap: 1. This format was a mess. Ripple is arguably the worst designed limited mechanic of all time. The best strategies all involved just overloading on 1 or two commons (Martyr of Ashes/Ice Fall, the 1U Illusion guy, any ripple card). Low overall power level, making these stupid synergies even worse to play against. This is not Wizard's finest moment.
Time Spiral Block: 10. Best limited format of all time. Immensely complex, yet very balanced. Bombs were very strong, but not just completely unbeatable. The Time Shifted cards in pack 1 added an interesting dynamic. I think Suspend is the best limited mechanic of all time. I understand how this was confusing to new players, but while that's a reality that has to be factored in to the business of making magic, I don't think it shoudl factor in to rating a limited format on its own merits. I have never yet been sick of Time Spiral drafts, which is not true of any other format I've played.
Lorwyn block: 4. Tribal dominated formats tend to be bad in limited. They have a lot of cards with super high variance, that can dominate in some situations and be worthless in others. Being in an open tribe usually leads to a near unbeatable deck.
Shadowmoor Block: 7. This was an interesting format. The different ways you could try to set yourself up for the third pack were interesting. The fact that mono-colored decks were very playable was a very unique aspect. It was a very balanced format, as you had a ton of options between two color and mono colored decks.
Shards Block: 3. This was a bad format. Triple Shards was actually pretty interesting and enjoyable, but Conflux was a terribly underpowered set, and Alara Reborn was way overpowered. Mana fixing was awful, leaving you the options of drafting underpowered but consistent two color decks, or powerful 3+ color decks with bad mana. Mana Screw was a decider in a ton of games, and the old drop 1 drop two drop wooly Thoctar off of 3 basic lands probably led to more "luck sack" rants than anything else in MODO history.
M10: 5. This was interesting as they overhauled the core set. Their initial attempt was a decent effort, but overall a little underpowered, and not particularly balanced. (IIRC Green and Red were both awful).
Zendikar Block: 5. The first ever hyper aggressive limited format, this basically boiled down to taking two drops. However, unlike later aggressive formats, there was actually decent cheap removal that could allow you to no just completely run over. Landfall is one of the best limited mechanics of all time, and the fact that you always wanted 18 lands made things interesting.
Rise of the Eldrazi: 9. One of the best formats in magic history. The games just played out in really fun ways, and the novelty of casting monstrous 8+ drops was really cool. There were tons of fun, niche strategies that were also competitive (Tokens with Raid Bombardment, Kiln Fiend/ Distortion Strike, Vent Sentinel Defenders). The only knocks on it were Drana (one of the most unbeatable limited cards ever, and one that showed up too often), and the fact that there were a few too many unplayable vanilla creatures. I'm not a big man of Vanilla creatures in general, but when they are all unplayable it's really annoying. Still, a top 3 limited format.
M11: 6. This was a step up from m10, and I enjoyed the format. It was a little control slanted, and there were too many ridiculous bombs (5 Planeswalkers, 5 titans, and Baneslayer angel at mythic lol), but overall it was pretty fun.
Scars of Mirrodin block: 7. I liked this format a lot. It was bomb heavy, yes, but most decks had bombs, and the removal was fantastic. Infect was obnoxious, but by the time of the full block it was no longer the menace it was in triple scars. The format supported both aggressive decks and controllish builds, as well as almost combo-ish infect decks. I liked the high power level of the format, as even ridiculous creatures could backfire to the numerous control magic effects. Power levels were high across the board.
m12: 6. Kind of the opposite of M12, as this slanted heavily aggressive with bloodthirst, and tons of aggressively costed creatures. Again, though, I liked the format, even if it wasn't too deep. Not bad for a core set.
Triple Innistrad: 8. Innistrad was a lot of fun, but in my opinion (and I know I'm in the minority), it had some serious flaws that I just couldn't overlook. The beloved Spider Spawning deck is one of them. The deck played non-interactive magic, and if it got going you couldn't do anything about it outside of a few niche answers. Travel Preparations is another one, as that card led to more ridiculously one sided, short games of magic than I've ever seen. The ridiculously conditional removal was also something that was incredibly frustrating. Just really foolish sitting there with a Victim of Night staring down an Olivia Voldaren and knowing you can't win. Or just getting completely blown out by a Geist Flame that ate two creatures. That level of variance was just very frustrating. Still, the format was overall very enjoyable, and I was still able to have fun in spite of the things I hated about it.
Full Innistrad: 6. Dark Ascension was a terrible limited set, that just took away most of the cool synergies and led to a much less fun experience. Both the good and bad aspects of the format were watered down, and it just wasn't the same.
Avacyn Restored: 5. Again, I'm in the minority, as I didn't hate the format. Yes, it was a 4 color format, as black wasn't a thing, but the good black cards had single plack costs (Death Wind, Human Frailty, Marrow Bats), so they were just kind of extra removal spells for the four real colors. The pumping soul bond creatures were all overwpoered Druid's Familiar and Wolfir Silverheart wrecked a lot of games. Miracled bonfire and entreat the angels led to a lot of feel bad losses. It was an interesting format in that I felt like the games played out in a pretty fun way, except that 10% of the time they'd be completely ruined by a miracle or a druid's familiar curve.
M13: 7. This was the best of the core sets, and with Magic Origins being the last core set, there's only one chance left to lose the crown. This was just a very reasonable, well-balanced format. Bombs were not too bad, and it was just a good environment.
Return to Ravnica: 5. The definition of mediocrity. You drafted a guild, and hoped you got there. Very few archetypes. Pack Rat as one of the most unbeatable bombs ever.
Gatecrash: 3. Way too aggressive a format. Non-existent removal. Games decided way too early on. Unbalanced guilds. Just a bad format.
Full RTR block: This was just a terrible format. It didn't play out well at all, you lost most of the guild synergies, and it was just garbage. I basically couldn't play this format it was so unenjoyable, especially coming on the heals of Gatecrash.
M14: 3. This was a big time regression. I love drafting control, but it should be a playable deck, not a format dominating one. Divination and Opportunity owend the format, and the blue commons went sooo deep that relaly only black-red could compete. this was a bad format.
Theros Block: 1. We (hopefully) bottomed out here. This format combined some of the worst aspects of Magic. Completely dominated by tempo. Voltroning a creature was a central theme. Because voltronning a creature was a central theme, removal was a joke. This and Coldsnap are least fun I've ever had playing limited Magic, and this gets last place in my book because it came an in era where they should have known better.
M15: 4. Another poor core set offering. Not much to say here. Triplicate spirits was obnoxious and dominating. Unexciting games. Completely meh.
Khans + Fate Reforged: 8. Boom, wizards hit a much needed home run. This was a great format. The guilds were balanced. Aggressive and controlling decks were viable. Removal was decent, and getting completely tempoed out was pretty rare. People complained a lot about the bombs in FRF, but I tended to disagree. Yes, Citadel Siege was not a real magic card, and that's a big strike. But with only one pack, you didn't see it too often. The Mythics were very strong, but really not worse than mythics from any other format. A lot of rares categorized as bombs.
DTK: 5. Okay format, not a lot of depth.
My reasoning is this: we all know that one of the more frustrating parts of magic is the mana system, and mana curves in general. In addition to actual mana screw and mana flood there are the games where you draw all your 2 drops late in the game and they're just speed bumps, and all that ends up mattering is that your opponent curved out and you didn't (or vice versa). Suspend is like that, but moreso. Casting a decent 2-drop on turn 2 is much better than casting it on turn 4. Drawing an errant ephemeron on turn 2 is even MORE better than drawing it on turn 4. It's just so infuritating when you draft a deck with a bunch of suspend cards, and then you just don't have anything to suspend and your opponent does, and you're like "I _know_ I have more suspend cards than you do, because I have 11 of them", but you're just so far behind on tempo.
The other problem with TSP draft is sprout swarm. Both because it's so powerful, and because it comes in the last pack, so there are all these other cards (like deathspore thallid) that you have to pick or not pick without knowing whether or not you will win the sprout swarm lottery.
But, like I said, I mostly agree with your ratings, and I appreciate the commentary.
I also liked Kamigawa much better than Mirrodin. Mirrodin had awful I-win cards. Some thankfully at rares (the swords), but others like loxodon warhammer and skullclamp at uncommon, or even commons, like cranial plating or bonesplitter. (OTOH, of course, when R&D introduces those new ideas and produces busted cards, it makes for lasting impressions.) And Jitte. Kamigawa, the set, was nice with different synergies and decks.
RE: Triple Champions of Kamigawa. Unfortunately I've only played the full block, which wasn't very exciting. Can't speak to triple champions, although triple large set is often better than full block.
Triple Theros was okay, not awful. The block just got worse with each advancing set. The full set is the least fun I've ever had playing limited magic. When the options for draft were M14, Theros and RTR block, I just shut my MODO account down for about 6 months, something I've never done before.
Yeah, I didn't mention MMA, which is a solid 8 or 9. VMA is probably a 7. MED4 is an 8, MED3 is a 6, MED 1 and 2 are both 2-3.
And the Sprout Swarm menace is vastly overstated, IMO. It was a mess in sealed, but all of these rankings refer to draft only, which I should have clarified. In draft, it was a very good common, but also quite slow. If the board gummed up, it would give you inevitability, but it was also very slow to get going.
Theros and BTT were both terrible formats that made me stop playing Magic for months. JBT was a solid improvement because you could actually kill a voltron for less than 5 mana, but still only a 5 out of 10.
Khans was probably my favorite format since I started limited late in Innistrad. UG morph with 0-3 splash colors was such a fun deck to play. Morph is a great limited mechanic and the bombs weren't unbeatable. A little light on removal but bounce was much better than normal. 9 or 10 out of 10 for me, though I haven't drafted a lot of sets.
Dragons so far has been fine, but not nearly as fun as Khans. Red is too good and playing against dash is miserable. 6 or 7 out of 10 because there can't be too many RB drafters at the table. Sealed is probably the most aggressive of any format I have played, making it a 3 out of 10.
Basically, just don't play blue (unless you're super lucky) and you're fine in that format. It's certainly better than Lorwyn, which was "did you draft a bomb?"
Also Theros was 15/10. Awesome format.
Onslaught block was fine for removals, although turn 2 sparksmith probably still means game over. 3x Onslaught means you must play red or black...
Wait you actually liked full Theros block?
Yeah, it was awesome. No removal (aside from another huge dude or at some huge cost) is a lot of fun. Much more fun than removal-heavy formats.
Just look at the current format. Every single opponent is always playing B/R dash and all of them have enough kill spells to remove every creature you ever cast. It's a bad format when the opponent always has an answer for your blockers no matter how many times you topdeck something.
1. Play dude
2. Put enchantment on dude
3. Attack with dude
4. Cast [generic +2/+2 trick] on dude
Then you win or lose depending on your opponent's ability to do the same thing first. It had about as much interaction as your average Charbelcher mirror.
DTK
Talk about a linear format. Good removal is rare (especially in white), lifelink is rare, and its about beating your opponent down with dumb creatures. I thought I disliked Khans but that's only because I played it too much. Your options for archetypes are far better.
M15
This is the least fun format I've probably played since Innistrad when I started drafting. It's just not fun.
Theros block
Better than 3x Theros but still really narrow strategies. UG is the easiest to pick and then Wx anything (well not green)
3x Theros
Man this format blew. Non-interactive luck-fest.
DtK and FRF are close to Theros in terms of horrid gameplay.
I also believe they overcooked the +1/+1 counters theme. It's too much.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Mirage Block: I haven't played this one as much (4-5 drafts, perhaps), but that was honestly because I didn't like it much. Most of the cards don't do anything, and those that do also do too much (Kaervek's Torch and that sort of thing). It's hard to cobble together a deck that doesn't have some amount of unplayable garbage, and I didn't love the gameplay either. 2/10.
Tempest Block: I like this one. Both grindy decks and aggressive decks are eminently viable, and gameplay was pretty fun. Obscenely broken commons/uncommons such as Rolling Thunder, Evincar's Justice and Flame Wave were obvious mistakes, however, and just utterly losing a game singlehandedly because of those cards wasn't super fun. Overall I'll give it 7/10.
Urza Block: I've only really played triple Saga, actually, which I liked more than one would think. Much has been said about Pestilence at common, but I feel like its reputation has outgrown it by quite a bit; Urza block is an enchantment block, and playing maindeck enchantment removal was completely reasonable. As such, answering Pestilence wasn't as tricky as you might think. Of course, it was still the best common and all that, but not by as much as people would have you think... at least not in my experience. For my part, my favorite color was white, not black, but that was probably mostly because everyone else attempted to force black. Anyway, I feel like this format was quite underrated, and would give it 6/10.
Masques Block: Never played it.
Invasion Block: This is one of my favorites. One of the grindiest formats of all time; a ton of cards were 2-for-1s and 3-for-1s. Heck, even 4-for-1s at uncommon wasn't unheard of (Sunscape Battlemage, for instance). Lots of card draw, lots of creatures dying left and right - that's how I like it. The unfortunate part about the format was how it asked you to play several colors, but didn't actually provide the necessary fixing for this. The common manafix was of way lower quality than we've come to expect, so playing 3+ colors was typically what you had to do, but you also had to get pretty lucky with your lands. 8/10.
Odyssey Block: Fairly forgettable, I'd say, though not a bad format or anything. Graveyard-based, and strangely unbalanced in that Torment was super strong for black (and indeed black had more cards in Torment than any other color), and Judgment was strong for green and white. I'm not so sure how much I loved this structure, and I also found the format to have little room to maneuver; splashing is essentially impossible, and your playable count is going to be rather low. 5/10.
Onslaught Block: I have fond memories of this block, it being my first full block since I started playing, but I do not have fond memories of the draft format, to be honest. Seemed to me like this was always a battle of clunky creature decks (decks often having 20-21 creatures) and board stalls due to creatures on either side that prevented anyone from doing anything. 3/10.
Mirrodin Block: A pretty good format. A solid amount of removal and tricks and different things to do. Unfortunately, I haven't played this format as much as I'd have liked to, so I don't feel comfortable rating it.
Kamigawa Block: I did like this format more than most, but I suppose that's partly due to this being my first draft format that I actually played somewhat regularly. Everyone loved their first, right? That said, I felt like Saviors made the format worse, and I liked it better with triple Champions or CCB. Soulshift was pretty cool, and overall the mechanics worked well enough for Limited (if nothing else). 7/10.
Ravnica Block: This was when Magic really got me excited, and I first ventured into serious play (my first Nationals was with RGD, for example). Ravnica was an amazing format, almost certainly the best format WotC had produced up until this point. It managed to replicate (no pun intended) most of what Invasion block did well while shoring up most of it flaws. 9/10.
Coldsnap: This format was absolutely putrid. Triple small set is never anything you should ever play, and Coldsnap certainly was no exception. Ripple was... 1/10.
Time Spiral Block: Getting to praise this format yet again is the payoff I have earned for having written this far. I just can't ever have enough of TPF, and it is without a shred of doubt my favorite format of all time (and I have sampled most of them). Almost every card is interesting in some way, provides multiple modes or uses, combos with some other card, and so on. The number of playables is high, and the number of distinct, fun and eminently playable archetypes is through the roof (I don't think any format ever has been able to match TPF when it comes to diversity). Rebels, Slivers, Storm, Madness, 5CC, UW Skies, 2-creature control, WG Aggro, and so on. Usually for a format I find a couple of archetypes I really like & draft those over and over. TPF has something like ten different archetypes that I really like. Now, Sprout Swarm certainly is a stain on an otherwise fantastic format, and it's a card you have to keep in mind as you draft. But if you do, stopping it isn't actually hard; what's obnoxious about the card honestly isn't primarily its power level, but the way it dominates a game and turns it into a monotone EOT-Sprout-Swarm-a-bunch game, and that sucks. I'll deduct .5 points for Sprout Swarm and give TPF 9.5/10.
Lorwyn Block: Triple Lorwyn was reasonably fun gameplay-wise, but the draft portion was pretty uninteresting, as once you're settled into an archetype, things were rather straightforward. I did not love the addition of Morningtide, however; the cards were less interesting, and reinforce also made blocking kind of impossible. 6/10.
Shadowmoor Block: I liked this one more. The hybrid mechanic was a fun one to play around with, as were mechanics such as wither and the untap symbol. Eventide made the format worse, I think, but I still liked it quite a bit. I had a number of narrow archetypes I enjoyed quite a bit here, such as the Flourishing Defenses deck and the mill deck. Barrenton Medic was another hidden gem, and Puca's Mischief was awesome. 7/10.
Shards Block: I didn't play triple Shards or SSC as I was traveling & therefore away from the game, but I did play the full block a bit. It wasn't bad; the five-color deck with infinite bombs and removal was certainly entertaining, but the format also suffered greatly, in my mind, from having not quite good enough fixing for what it asked you to do. You often ended up with a very bad manabase that didn't get anything going, but the rewards for going multicolored was so great that you often couldn't not do it. Sometimes you're just going to slam a turn 3 Woolly Thoctar and win the game, and playing a risky manabase often paid off in spades, and that's kind of tilting for the other player. 5/10.
Zendikar Block: When people say "this format is like Zendikar", that is not praise. That means that the format is so fast that it is kind of ruined. Because that's what Zendikar was; control decks were absolutely not a thing (though this draft video might have you think otherwise), and you took 2-drops over cards that would have been bombs in any other format. The format was ridiculously fast; turn 5 kills were not uncommon. Monoblack aggro and monored aggro were probably the best. The primary reason for the aggressiveness of the format was the landfall mechanic, because made creatures be "turned on" on your turn, while being off on the opponent's turn. As such, attackers were better than normal while defenders were worse than normal. 2/10.
Rise of the Eldrazi: The polar opposite of Zendikar. Now everything is slow and grindy, and random bears are completely and utterly unplayable. RoE was about as good as you could ever expect from a one-set format, and supported a ton of interesting archetypes. It had a lot of depth and variety. It did have one big flaw, though, as I see it: a fairly large number of unplayables, and often you'd see packs with only five cards taken from them, yet all the remaining cards were absolute garbage (regardless of archetype). Other than that, though, amazing. One of 3-4 formats to be frequently cited as being the best draft format of all time. 9/10.
Scars of Mirrodin: A good block, but with one huge flaw: the number of bombs. The bombs in this format were totally unreasonable and too many to mention, and they included many cards we'd be calling Mythic Uncommons today. But the gameplay and the mechanics were, I think, quite fun (until they played Elesh Norn or Sunblast Angel or Carnifex Demon or whatever, of course), so overall I enjoyed it. But it could also be a quite upsetting format to play. My first GP top 8 was in this format, so I guess I have a special place for it for that reason. 6/10.
Innistrad: Triple Innistrad was great, DII was good. Innistrad was incredibly deep. Blah blah Spider Spawning. The format was, however, much better then than it is now; now the format is explored and everyone knows everything about it, but during the format's evolution it might have been the best of all time, simply due to how long it actually took to figure it out completely. I still find it fun to revisit, but not as fun as some of the other great formats. I just wish I could have everyone forget everything they knew about the format & we'd rediscover it again and again. Triple Innistrad gets 9/10, DII gets 8/10.
Avacyn Restored: Oh no. This format was awful. It was incredibly uninteractive, & had very in-your-face random elements that just weren't cool. I've never been as tilted as I was after the Avacyn Restored Pro Tour when I'd lost multiple matches in a row to miracled mythic rares in draft (Entreat the Angels and Bonfire of the Damned) to get knocked out; it is the only time I can remember when I seriously contemplated quitting the game. Overall I did quite well at AVR, but I still didn't enjoy it much. 2/10, but I'd sooner revisit Zendikar.
Return to Ravnica Block: Quite medium, I'd say. Return to Ravnica was certainly okay, but nothing to write home about (like 6/10). Gatecrash was very bad (3/10), and the full block was kind of shrug-worthy. Dragon's Maze made a lot of promises about sweet decks involving lots of colors and Gatekeepers, but 2-color decks still ruled the day as it turned out. Though there were 10 archetypes (plus, I guess, some bad multicolored decks), these didn't really feel that distinct from one another in my opinion. I didn't love this format. 5/10.
Theros Block: Triple Theros was fairly bad. Not terrible, just not in any way, shape or form a good limited format. It was highly uninteractive, and the threats were very hard to actually deal with. BTT just reinforced the bad things about Theros & made it way worse. At this time, for the first time in more than 10 years, I moved from playing Limited to playing Constructed, as I did not find any enjoyment in BTT (and I endured both Zendikar and Avacyn Restored). Journey into Nyx made things better, I'd say, but it did not fix the format, and overall this was my least favorite block so far, and I did not play much Magic during this time. 2/10.
Khans of Tarkir: Khans was solid. I wasn't as high on it as many other people, but I certainly enjoyed it. The gameplay was pretty good, the strategies supported were rather diverse (if not too numerous), and it was reasonably well balanced. The morphs were well designed. I actually liked it more with Fate Reforged in the mix, though I can't really think of a good reason for that other than that I did well, which obviously makes Magic more fun, as on paper, Fate Reforged should have made the format worse (what with its bad commons and stupid rare bombs and all). In any case, quite enjoyable, would revisit. 8/10.
I'll wait to review DDF, as it's a little too new still, I think.
I've played a bunch more formats too, such as the Core Sets, Vintage Masters, Modern Masters, all the Masters Editions, etc. But I've written quite enough for now.
Edit: reading other comments now (didn't want to be influenced), and it's funny how many similarities there are between mine and Spairy's review (and complete opposites, such as regardling landfall). Both mentioning Woolly Thoctar specifically from Shards block made me chuckle.
Wow, this is as different from where I stand as you could possibly get. No criticism of you, of course; we're all different, & it's fascinating to me that we can be that far apart when it comes to what we like about the game.
Although I agree in that I like KTK more than DTK and I do think the latter is linear, I have to disagree on the presence of removal. At least in comparison to KTK, I think that good removal is far more plentiful. Mostly in red, but in white specifically, Pacifism is still fantastic even if it's hampered in this set by Exploit, and Enduring Victory is quite a bit better than it looks. In comparison, Kill Shot and Smite the Monstrous in Khans were both much more conditional (though maybe that means they were easier to pick up).
Mirrodin Block: 6/10 An all around solid block, but was not particularly spectacular. TBH nothing huge stood out in the block and overall I had fun with it but wouldn't want to draft it a whole lot. Favorite deck was 5 color sunburst.
Kamigawa Block: 7/10 I would have loved to have played Champions Champions Betrayers, as I can see where people are coming from on saviors power level, but overall I still quite liked this block. I'm the kind of guy who can enjoy a nice value durdle fest though. Favorite deck; Ogres n' Demons
Ravnica Block: 9/10 Probably one of the best formats ever, the amount of different directions you could go, and still be viable, was immense. The flavor was sweet, the cards were fun and the Karoo lands made for better deck building. Overall a great format. Favorite deck: All of them really, orzhov was my favorite guild however.
Time Spiral Block: 8/10 Another very deep and fun format. My one problem with the format was they were trying to fit in so much flavor that there were just to many different strategies, so some of them got spread very thin (like madness). Overall a fun format, but I always felt it a bit overrated. Favorite Deck: Thalids
Lorwyn: 6/10: A block that could have been amazing but was hampered by inconsistency. While I felt the tribes were fairly even in this block, it always felt like half the table got poor tribal support while the other half got insane nutso ones. It always felt bad going into a draft and just not getting support for anything, and ending up with a generic mess of a deck, and it seemed to happen a lot in this format. However when things did work out, it could be a lot of fun to have a good merfolk deck go up against a good goblin deck, or a good elf deck up against a good giant deck. Favorite Deck: Merfolk and Treefolk
Shadowmoor: 9/10, my personal favorite format of all time. I loved playing mono colored decks that technically could also be 5 colors. I loved some of the weird build around me cards like blowfly infestation. I loved that elsewhere flask had its own archetype. Overall I had the most fun with this format, so despite a few flaws it stands as my favourite. Favorite Deck: Mono Black -1/-1 Counters
Shards of Alara Block: 8/10 I liked this block quite a lot. I actually quite liked how each pack sort of varied greatly in power level, making fixing paramount early. I liked each shards build around me mechanic (well except unearth wasn't really much of a build around) and just found it pretty fun to play. Favorite Deck: Jund Devourer, or Grixis Control
Zendikar: 7/10, As I generally shy away from aggro decks, I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did. Maybe its because everyone was expected to try and win as quickly as possible, so the beat beat beat gameplay got kind of cathartic. In any event, it was a solid format, with some fun mechanics, landfall being particularly fun for deck building. Favorite Deck: Allies or Mono Red
Rise of the Eldrazi: 9/10, an extremely fun slow format, which fits me like a glove. I loved some of the crazy decks you could build, I loved playing massive fatties and being rewarded, and I loved the flavor. My one complaint is that there were just a few too many bad cards at common. A lot of the time I went to deck building with maybe 18-21 playable, and was forced to run some bad filler. This wasn't the first format like this but it stood out for me more than any other, probably because of how fun it was. Favorite Deck: Mnemonic Control
Scars Block: 6/10 I did not play a lot of this format but I know people were rather upset with new phyrexia. From what I did play I rather enjoyed it, although losing to infect was sometimes pretty heartbreaking. Not much to say on it really. Favorite Deck: Mono Removal
M12: 5/10 Pretty much exactly what I expect now from a core set, fairly aggro and very basic. Didn't love it didn't hate it. Favorite Deck: U/W flyers
Innistrad: 9/10 I love graveyard themes, and this was the mother of them all. The fact that I have won games with laboratory maniac speaks volumes for this sets diversity. And while it was disheartening to lose once again to travel prep, overall IID was a hell of a format. Favorite Deck: Zombos, or Spiders
Avacyn: 3/10 Just a icky format. There were about 2-3 premium commons in every color and everything else was pretty bad. The strategies were for the most part pretty boring, and there was no where near enough removal to stop the big scary bombs the set had. Favorite Deck: Mono Black Loner
M13: 6/10 Not a bad core set at all, a bit better than m13. There was a lot of power in this set, very good removal and creatures at common and uncommon. But overall very simple. Favorite Deck: Roaring Primadox Value
RTR block: 9/10 I'm probably one of the few people who liked this better than the original ravnica (and I loved the original). Every guild was fun, I liked the power level of the removal, I liked being able to play with the guilds again. While I do think original ravnica had a better structure for drafting (4 guilds, then 3, then the last 3, as apposed to 10, 5, 5) I just loved the variety of fun cards. Favorite Deck: Esper / Jund / Bug were all pretty sweet, but just about any deck was good
M14: 8/10 My favorite core set so far. Unlike m13, the power level was toned way down this set. However by doing this, it just made a lot more cards playable, such as a vanilla 4/6 for 6 being one of the best top ends in the format. There weren't a tonne of strategies, but the ones that were there were rather refined and well thought out, making it quite a lot of fun. Favorite Deck: R/B sacrificial duders
Modern Masters: 7/10 There was a lot to do in this format, A LOT, but quite frankly it didn't feel balanced enough. Certain decks just felt a heck of a lot better when they came together. Still there were some fun strategies so overall I was bad at it, but enjoyed it. Favorite Deck: Faeries
Theros Block: 5/10 Triple theros was awful, just plain awful, and born of the gods did little to alleviate this. However, journey into nyx somehow managed to save this poor excuse of a block and make it ok. Still not great, but made battlecruiser magic a bit worse and gave us a bit better removal. Still not great but decent. Favorite Deck: B/G graveyard/constellation
m15: 4/10 The worst core set I've played. The set is streched waaaayyy to thin. They tried to give every 2 color combination its own identitiy and almost none of them adequately worked. Theres a small artifact theme which sucks, a small sliver theme which sucks, a small value self bounce theme which sucks... etc. There was a lot of potential in this but it ended up just being dull. Favorite Deck: U/B
Vitage masters: 8/10 Had a fair amount of fun with this set, enjoyed it more than modern masters even. The birds could be a real pain but there were some very fun strategies to be had. The fact that storm was possible is a testament to the design of this set. Overall, it had some kinks but it was a pretty fun set none the less. Favorite deck: b/U/r control
KTK: 9/10 I've got to say this format was great, a massive breath of fresh air after theros and m15s poor performances. Each wedge was unique and fun, and the fixing was excellent. Overall a great set. Favorite Deck: Sultai Sultai Sultai
DTK: 8/10 A bit faster than Khans, and less useful ways of drowning your opponent in card advantage. But still a fun format, and I've been enjoying it so far. Still a little early to say how it truly stacks up overall but I like the removal, I like each clan and I generally have fun when I play it. Favorite Deck: Exploit or U/G Morphs
TSP block: I agree with the OP on suspend. I liked this format except for Sprout Swarm, but that card was so ruinous to the format that I can't rate the full block above a 6. (Would be 8 or 9 if that one card had been moved from common to rare).
Mercadian: It's terrible on MTGO, agreed. But in the real world where you were drafting triple Masques, or double Masques single Nemesis, the format was a highpoint of early Limited. Prophecy was the killer. MMM and MMN were formats I would rate as 6 or 7.
Theros: I'm not a fan but I don't regard it as terrible.
Kamigawa: Triple Champions was pathbreaking as the first Limited format where aggro and combo were both seriously supported. While Innistrad did the same things and did them better, Champions by itself deserves at least a 7 for breaking such ground. Dampen Thought combo, in particular.
In hindsight, I wish that Kamigawa didn't snuff my desire to play, because I missed out on the Ravnica block which tons of people tell me was their all time favorite block.
Triple Scars - 7/10. Infect gave it a nice unique dynamic and there were probably slightly more interesting commons than normal thanks to the large number of artifacts. Furnace Celebration was a fun deck when it came together. Overall kind of vanilla and metalcraft wasn't too exciting. I also wish proliferate had been more viable, or at least that UG/UB infect/proliferate decks had been better in triple Scars.
Favorite deck: Furnace Celebration
Innistrad - 10/10. Fantastic format with interesting archetypes and highly interactive games. I don't think Dark Ascension hurt it too much, I'd probably give IID a 9/10, only lower because Burning Vengeance and Spider Spawning got worse and those were cool decks.
Favorite deck: UR Burning Vengeance
Avacyn - 3/10. Bland mechanics and not very interesting games.
Triple RTR - 6/10. I wish it had had more mana fixing or more interaction between guilds that shared a color because it mostly just ended up as "draft a guild". Didn't play enough of the other formats that block to rate them.
Favorite deck: Probably Selesnya
Theros block - 2/10. I hate Voltron strategies so this block basically said "This is not for you. Don't draft this." I basically only drafted UB or UG control, neither of which was particularly interesting. Psychic Intrusion is one of my all time favorite limited cards though.
Favorite deck: UB control
Triple KTK - 9/10. Lots of interesting decks, and I like the way morphs smooth out your mana curve and the abundant fixing. I have more copies of Villainous Wealth than I do some of the uncommons from Khans so that probably says something about how greedy my decks liked to get...
Favorite deck: GB toughness matters, Goblinslide, all-in RW token/warrior...actually I like lots of archetypes from Khans.
M15: I liked this format, but mainly beacause I'm a spike and having 3 Triplicate Spirits and 2 Sanctified Charges in the same deck is fun
Khans: This is the format that hooked me to limited. I had so much fun with it and had very good results, and I also really liked the huge range of limited strategies (I liked 4-color strategies the most).
Fate: I liked this format, slightly less than khans, but it's still very enjoyable. I liked straight 3-color much more in this format and had some of my most memorable 3-0's.
Dragons: I like this too! It's very different from khnas, but in a good way. It's a fast format, but not too much to be fun.
Modern Masters: I drafted very little of this format, but it was awesome. Most memorable deck was a U/W affinity deck that was wide open in the draft and was a ton of fun (who dosen't like recurring Aether Spellbomb with Sanctum Gargoyle and Esperzoa and 2 Etherium Sculptors on the battlefield?)
For example, I'd give triple-Champions of Kamigawa 8.5/10 - superb format, with lots of fun archetypes. Full Kamigawa block gets maybe a 5/10 because Saviors sucked so much.
I liked Theros block more than most people. I'd give triple-Theros 6/10, and full block 7/10. BTT was pretty terrible, though.
RtR was pretty solid, but Gatecrash was so fast it wasn't fun to play with or against. 3/10 for Gatecrash.
I love all 3 Tarkir formats. 9/10 to triple-Khans, my favorite of the three.
Triple Shadowmoor was a little unbalanced (black was really weak) but Shad/Eventide was a lot of fun. Certainly better than Lor/Mor. 7/10 for Shadowmoor/Eventide.
My first-ever sealed was the Invasion prerelease and my first draft was IPA, which was really fun even though I'm sure I drafted terribly.
Favorite overall: full original Ravnica block, or Rav/Rav/Guildpact. 10/10 to both of those.
Didn't draft enough of the M10-15 sets to get a sense for how they played. Liked M12 (whichever set had bloodthirst; I think that was m12?) the best, and M15 the least.
Scars: 9/10. Even the annoying stuff like deciding when to go infect was a good kind of annoying, a skill test. Plenty of artifacts meant easier sealed building and less in-game color screw as you still have cards to play in the mean time.
M12: 10/10. I love aggressive formats as long as there is interactivity. I also love Aether Adept. And Mind Control. And Frost Breath. That the titans were in this format and I still had a 75% win rating in 4 pack sealed (where you are even more likely to draw any one card in your 30 card deck!) is a testament to how well this format was balanced.
Innistrad + DKA : 8/10 There was a good level of mana fixing, presumably to help cast off-color flashbacks. Shimmering Grotto, Traveler's Amulet...something else I'm probably forgetting. The worst memories I have involve powerful cards that change the race out of nowhere like Travel Preparations and Wild Hunger. The most enjoyable memories involved tough decisions due to werewolves transforming.
AVR: 0/10 Color imbalance, too much pseudohaste with Soulbond, bad combo cards that were total stinkers when you didn't draw the combo, lame removal, rage-inducing miracles
M13: I barely touched this
RTR: 5/10 Color imbalance and narrowing of color pairs due to guilds
GTC: 4/10 Same as above. Worse because of uninteractive aggro. (I only like aggro when there is a viable defense of blocking their 2/1s with your own 2/1s. This doesn't happen when Boros' dudes get better than your dudes with Battalion -> you can't block so you have to race)
Dragon's Maze: LOL didn't play/10
M14: I didn't play much of this but I won a PE sealed event in this format so I'm obliged to mention that. I also recall a sealed deck (in a different event, I wasn't so lucky) with two Opportunities and loads of black removal plus Elixir of Immortality. So I'll rate it 9/10.
Theros: 3/10 bad removal coupled with Bestow
Super Secret Format: 2THS + 2JOU 4 pack sealed: 7.75/10. This was actually fun somehow. I suppose the removal in Journey got better. Even that four mana tapper lion would get the job done against a giant monster.
M15: 2/10 it was as unbalanced as Vintage Masters, except everyone knew what was best, whereas in Vintage Masters at least you'd get people playing with lower power high synergy cards, in M15 it was Triplicate Spirits or bust.
KTK: 4/10 color imbalance
KTK + FRF: 8/10 still unbalanced but instead of a single wedge being overpowered it was black and white, so you had more options and 90% of pools could be built into a successful deck.