When were the Commander decks made for this purpose? It's not often we get a reprint that costs more than $20 in them and since they have to follow one or several themes we don't get random high costing reprints like in this set.
But there were at least two decks in recent Commander editions with the counters subtheme (Ezuri and Atraxa) where Doubling Season would fit right in. And it wasn't as expensive back than, too.
I mean, each year they print decent-to-great Commander precons, while quality Modern product comes out every 3 years or so. Of course I'm frustrated that my format of choice is ignored again.
I mostly play Modern. This set has ONE card I'm happy to see reptinted (Spell Snare). Why would it fare among the best reprint sets ever?
Okay, reprinting overpriced EDH/casual cards is good. But we've got annual Commander product designed specifically for that! They could've put Doubling Season in a Commander 20XX deck years ago and it would've never become a $60 card. On another note, in my experience it's been considerably more difficult to move pricey casual cards compared to constructed staples. Even though the set has high EV, the liquidity might just not be there.
Oh, and the art is ugly. It's up there with Battle for Zendikar in the contest for the most plastic set ever.
Different products for different crowds, huh? I guess I never was in the crowd for this one.
We’ve gotten Kamigawa, Innistrad, Theros, and Amonkhet. That’s not that many. I can’t quite recall if Ixalan is top down or bottom up, but even if it is top down they still make up the minority of Planes. And Kamigawa always felt like one of the most magical of planes. The least for me would be something like Mirrodin, which is as bottom up as you can get.
That's true if we apply the top-down vs. bottom-up classification, which is indicative of the creative process behind, but not necessarily of the way the plane actually feels like.
However, if we try to describe each modern plane in a couple of words, we'll get something like this:
Dominaria - high fantasy/post-apocalyptic (Time Spiral)
Mirrodin - artifacts
Kamigawa - traditional Japanese mythology
Ravnica - guilds (two-color combinations)
Lorwyn - Celtic mythology
Alara - shards (three-color combinations)
Zendikar - D&Dsque adventure
Innistrad - gothic horror
Theros - Greek mythology
Tarkir - wedges (three-color combinations)/dragons
Kaladesh - Indian steampunk
Amonkhet - Egyptian mythology
Ixalan - pirates vs. dinosaurs
Basically, there are two kinds of planes: the what-planes which are best described by what the plane is all about either mechanically or thematically (Dominaria, Mirrodin, Ravnica, Alara, Zendikar, Innistrad, Tarkir and Ixalan), and the where-planes which draw heavy influence from the real world mythos and cultures (Kamigawa, Lorwyn, Theros, Kaladesh and Amonkhet). Kaladesh is actually stuck somewhere in the middle, but I've put it in the "where" group because it's hard to concisely describe it without referencing India.
Now if we closely look at it, the where-planes aren't doing that well. All of them but Theros have enjoyed mixed reception in terms of sales, while the best received settings were what-planes. In fact, the only blunder of a what-plane so far is Ixalan.
So I think the best way to move forward is to scale down on the where-iness of planes and explore original ideas. I meant that by saying "put magical back in magic". Magic is supposed to surprise, and there is hardly anything surprising about pirates, pyramids and gods.
They will most likely be very conservative about it, which is boring, but not necessarily bad. Since their newest planes (from Kaladesh on, but I'd argue that Theros and Tarkir also ended up rather meh) haven't done particularly well, WotC needs time to figure out what exactly went wrong.
Personally, I think the "planes vaguely based on real world cultures" appproach got old extremely fast as it strangled creativity and dialed back on magical in a game of magic. For example, I'd love to see a "winter" plane, but not a Norse plane, because the latter sets certain expectations that need to be met in order to satsfy the "Norse" criteria, like some pop-culture references to the mythology, while they can do pretty much anything with the former.
Core sets are definitely needed. The last few years of almost zero reprints and basic cards made the game worse in the end. They are bringing them back because we need a place for steady reprints for Standard. You can't reprint many cards in most Standard sets and a Core set is where that can happen.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
Board the Weatherlight could be good in the right deck, but lacks obvious home and dosen't seem to enable anything on its own. Won't see any play currently, but maybe one day... Would've been busted at 1CMC though.
Seal Away is a marginal upgrade over seldom played Journey to Nowhere - instant speed generally wins over the ability to target any creature in play.
Merfolk Trickster is a contedner for the Harbinger of the Tides slot in Merfolk. It might end up a dud, but some interactions are cute enough (it shrinks Goyf, forces Ravager and Ballista to be sacrificed, stops Storm creatures and Devoted Druid from going off, etc).
Wizard’s Retort isn't going anywhere, there are not enough good 1-drop Wizards to support this card in a tribal tempo-y shell.
I'd try to build a deck where Torgaar, Famine Incarnate consistently hits the battlefield on turn 2/turn 3. It matches well against Goyf, delve threats and Hollow Ones, manages to dodge a lot of removal in the format, and puts immediate pressure on the opponent. This guy looks downright broken if the correct configuration of the deck is found.
As long as there are no goblins for Goblin Warchief to make cost 1 less, like Ringleader or Matron, Goblin Chieftain looks strictly better.
Skirk Prospector is cool and all, however the current Dirty Kitty decklists from the deck creation forum don't look very competitive - the deck kinda crumbles apart without both Prospector and Fecundity in play, and there are no cards that help digging for either. Anyway, Prospector is yet another wild card that might become a centerpiece of a new tiered deck or do absolutely nothing, and I'm more optimistic about Torgaar tbqh.
Steel Leaf Champion obviously replaces Leatherback Baloth in Stompy, but I don't believe that it'd be enough to bring the deck back on Tier 3-ish level. I don't think it's very good in Elves though, a 5/4 beatstick is much less scary than Ezuri or Shaman of the Pack on an elf-ridden board.
A proposed white (Boros?) "legendary weenies" deck needs more than Mox Amber to be worth it, and I don't see much use for the mox elsewhere.
The Theros temples has mostly seen play in combo decks, so there might be a slot for Zhalfirin Void in KCI Eggs, but that's it. Other colorless-heavy archetypes already have better utility lands at their disposal.
Overall, Dominaria seems to be on the lower end of the new Modern hotness scale.
I'd suggest something like this, but honestly this looks more like a bad Humans deck. Lack of playables and decent payoff cards makes Samurai a very difficult tribe to build around.
The constant narrative of "this is too strong/complex for Standard" that Wizards employed severeal years ago is doing more harm than good at this point. As a result, weird, creative, out-of the-box designs barely get any competitive scene attention, ending up either getting pushed to supplementary sets or dying in developmental hell (here, have yet another enchantment that does something unique for measly 7 mana). I mean, come on. I'd be much more interested in a poorly balanced Standard format where I get to do some cool, never-before-seen things than in nth consecutive Standard that is predictably dominated by creature-based midrange strategies and has glaring balance issues anyway. Lack of interest for Standard takes away excitement for new Standard sets.
The fact that Wizards isn't really pushing recently used mechanics design-wise is of no help, sadly. Why Cycling did nothing new in Amonkhet compared to its previous appearances? Why were Vehicles designed as undercosted colorless creatures you need to turn on rather than artifacts that do artifact things and occassionally serve double duty (think more Cultivator's Caravan, less Smuggler's Copter)? Why no cards with energy as an alternative casting cost? And so on.
Wow, aren't these borders ugly. Am I really supposed to be hyped about premium rare pieces of cardboard that at first glance look nothing at all like Magic cards?
...starting Modern from 8th ed+Mirrodin-on gave it inherent problems. From then until arguably Magic Origins there's a lot of R&D still 'finding itself' as it learns and settles on design consistencies.
It's a large chunk of Magic's history where the game was being balanced and seeing a lot of innovation.
I have no idea why anybody would think that the design consistencies are settled once and for all. Such notion is usually brought up by people supporting Frontier with the reason that, unlike Modern which is full of old 'mistake' cards, the past couple years worth of sets are created under a single design paradigm and (with the exception of Khans) are rather consistent in power level. Hence Frontier is supposed to be an ever-healthy format not plagued by antique designs like Blood Moon.
Then players abandon Standard at their game stores, the pros trash the "3/10 format" on social media, the rumor is that the sales are down, and Wizards is forced to act up. New rotation schedule is hastily reverted. Standard Showdown is introduced because apparently FNM wasn't attractive enough. Now we have bans in Standard that are not based on total dominance of an archetype for the first time since 1999. How can the current R&D philosophy be anywhere close to final when its results are so disastrous for the game? If anything, we should expect drastic changes in design/development in the next two years, and who knows where the power level will be then.
So far, the spoilers for this set seem pretty crazy. If this continues, I suspect the set will have a huge long term impact, and likely provoke some bans, either in the form of cards it helps break, or in cards from it getting banned.
None of the cards spoiler so far looks particularly impactful though.
Yahenni's Expertise seems to be the best of the bunch thanks to the interaction with Beck//Call that is likely worth exploring in combination with Brain in a Jar, providing the namesake deck with more consistency. However, I don't think that the card slots in Grixis or Restore Balance because the baseline -3/-3 effect is way below par if you want to play fair or, in case of Balance, is simply redundant.
Trophy Mage needs a shell, Lantern doesn't really want that card. Scrap Trawler lacks the second combo piece. Voidslime sees zero play, so I doubt that Disallow will see any. Pia's Revolution is basically Athreos, God of Passage for artifacts - a punisher effect that always performs worse than you'd like it to. The rest is straight up unplayable.
Sets rotating too fast were never the issue, rotation happening too often was. When OGW and EMN rolled out, rotation was just around the corner - hence very little incentive to get into Standard by that point. Asking the newish and more casual players to spend $200 on a deck they'll maybe play once a week for a couple of months (and then it's gone) seemed like a terrible idea from the get-go.
Problem is, in Magic the official "casual, newbie-friendly" and "competitive" constructed format is the same one. Guy walks into a store, buys an intro deck and maybe some packs, wants to throw a deck together and have some fun - he's recommended to start with Standard. The competitive crowd - pros and SSG/GP grinders - has to play Standard as all Pro Tous are Standard and there are generally more Standard events than Modern/Legacy. Yet the needs and spending habits of these two groups are so vastly different it's hard to shape a format that would be appealing for (and bought into by) both.
I mean, each year they print decent-to-great Commander precons, while quality Modern product comes out every 3 years or so. Of course I'm frustrated that my format of choice is ignored again.
Okay, reprinting overpriced EDH/casual cards is good. But we've got annual Commander product designed specifically for that! They could've put Doubling Season in a Commander 20XX deck years ago and it would've never become a $60 card. On another note, in my experience it's been considerably more difficult to move pricey casual cards compared to constructed staples. Even though the set has high EV, the liquidity might just not be there.
Oh, and the art is ugly. It's up there with Battle for Zendikar in the contest for the most plastic set ever.
Different products for different crowds, huh? I guess I never was in the crowd for this one.
However, if we try to describe each modern plane in a couple of words, we'll get something like this:
Dominaria - high fantasy/post-apocalyptic (Time Spiral)
Mirrodin - artifacts
Kamigawa - traditional Japanese mythology
Ravnica - guilds (two-color combinations)
Lorwyn - Celtic mythology
Alara - shards (three-color combinations)
Zendikar - D&Dsque adventure
Innistrad - gothic horror
Theros - Greek mythology
Tarkir - wedges (three-color combinations)/dragons
Kaladesh - Indian steampunk
Amonkhet - Egyptian mythology
Ixalan - pirates vs. dinosaurs
Basically, there are two kinds of planes: the what-planes which are best described by what the plane is all about either mechanically or thematically (Dominaria, Mirrodin, Ravnica, Alara, Zendikar, Innistrad, Tarkir and Ixalan), and the where-planes which draw heavy influence from the real world mythos and cultures (Kamigawa, Lorwyn, Theros, Kaladesh and Amonkhet). Kaladesh is actually stuck somewhere in the middle, but I've put it in the "where" group because it's hard to concisely describe it without referencing India.
Now if we closely look at it, the where-planes aren't doing that well. All of them but Theros have enjoyed mixed reception in terms of sales, while the best received settings were what-planes. In fact, the only blunder of a what-plane so far is Ixalan.
So I think the best way to move forward is to scale down on the where-iness of planes and explore original ideas. I meant that by saying "put magical back in magic". Magic is supposed to surprise, and there is hardly anything surprising about pirates, pyramids and gods.
They will most likely be very conservative about it, which is boring, but not necessarily bad. Since their newest planes (from Kaladesh on, but I'd argue that Theros and Tarkir also ended up rather meh) haven't done particularly well, WotC needs time to figure out what exactly went wrong.
Personally, I think the "planes vaguely based on real world cultures" appproach got old extremely fast as it strangled creativity and dialed back on magical in a game of magic. For example, I'd love to see a "winter" plane, but not a Norse plane, because the latter sets certain expectations that need to be met in order to satsfy the "Norse" criteria, like some pop-culture references to the mythology, while they can do pretty much anything with the former.
Last time they revamped core sets, we've got Doom Blade, Duress, Essence Scatter, Lightning Bolt, Llanowar Elves, Ponder, Rampant Growth, Soul Warden and some other stuff, all at common. Apart from the goblin, these commons are nowhere near as interesting.
They tried all sorts of gimmics (slivers, cards designed by non-magic people, flipwalkers) to sell core sets before discontinuing them anyway because their vision of what a core set should be was nigh unmarketable. And now, judging by the leaked cards, they bring core sets back with little to no change to that vision. I have no idea why they try to push the idea of a simplified set made with new payers in mind when such sets have been underwhelming for decades. One can make a case that new players are scared by complexity, but opening a booster pack with ten unplayable vanilla-ish commons is an all alround feel-bad. I mean, yes we need reprints and safety valves, but Cancel is no safety valve and the kind of reprint nobody wants.
Overall, Dominaria seems to be on the lower end of the new Modern hotness scale.
3 Concealed Courtyard
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Horizon Canopy
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Unclaimed Territory
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Thraben Inspector
4 Hand of Honor
2 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
3 Isao, Enlightened Bushi
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Xathrid Necromancer
4 Kitesail Freebooter
1 Sensei Golden-Tail
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Mirror Entity
1 Chameleon Colossus
4 Aether Vial
4 Path to Exile
1 Xathrid Necromancer
3 Stony Silence
2 Dismember
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Fiend Hunter
2 Auriok Champion
2 Rest in Peace
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
The fact that Wizards isn't really pushing recently used mechanics design-wise is of no help, sadly. Why Cycling did nothing new in Amonkhet compared to its previous appearances? Why were Vehicles designed as undercosted colorless creatures you need to turn on rather than artifacts that do artifact things and occassionally serve double duty (think more Cultivator's Caravan, less Smuggler's Copter)? Why no cards with energy as an alternative casting cost? And so on.
I really hope that Unstable sells well.
And this looks close to unplayable. The point of a Moon effect IS to have non-games.
I have no idea why anybody would think that the design consistencies are settled once and for all. Such notion is usually brought up by people supporting Frontier with the reason that, unlike Modern which is full of old 'mistake' cards, the past couple years worth of sets are created under a single design paradigm and (with the exception of Khans) are rather consistent in power level. Hence Frontier is supposed to be an ever-healthy format not plagued by antique designs like Blood Moon.
Then players abandon Standard at their game stores, the pros trash the "3/10 format" on social media, the rumor is that the sales are down, and Wizards is forced to act up. New rotation schedule is hastily reverted. Standard Showdown is introduced because apparently FNM wasn't attractive enough. Now we have bans in Standard that are not based on total dominance of an archetype for the first time since 1999. How can the current R&D philosophy be anywhere close to final when its results are so disastrous for the game? If anything, we should expect drastic changes in design/development in the next two years, and who knows where the power level will be then.
None of the cards spoiler so far looks particularly impactful though.
Yahenni's Expertise seems to be the best of the bunch thanks to the interaction with Beck//Call that is likely worth exploring in combination with Brain in a Jar, providing the namesake deck with more consistency. However, I don't think that the card slots in Grixis or Restore Balance because the baseline -3/-3 effect is way below par if you want to play fair or, in case of Balance, is simply redundant.
Trophy Mage needs a shell, Lantern doesn't really want that card. Scrap Trawler lacks the second combo piece. Voidslime sees zero play, so I doubt that Disallow will see any. Pia's Revolution is basically Athreos, God of Passage for artifacts - a punisher effect that always performs worse than you'd like it to. The rest is straight up unplayable.
Problem is, in Magic the official "casual, newbie-friendly" and "competitive" constructed format is the same one. Guy walks into a store, buys an intro deck and maybe some packs, wants to throw a deck together and have some fun - he's recommended to start with Standard. The competitive crowd - pros and SSG/GP grinders - has to play Standard as all Pro Tous are Standard and there are generally more Standard events than Modern/Legacy. Yet the needs and spending habits of these two groups are so vastly different it's hard to shape a format that would be appealing for (and bought into by) both.