Just as an academic thought experiment, how would people go about removing mana screw/flood from Magic?
One way would be to change the rules of the game. Like have a 2 decks one full of land and one full of non-land cards and the players could pick which to draw from, which--of course--could case complications with things like fate seal and brainstorm effects. The WoW and Vs TCGs has rules to correct for this as well, where any card is a land card.
What cards could be introduces that would help with this? Cards like Land Grant or cards with "landcycling 0" ?
I made a set a while back to address this question, but I'd like to hear from all of you about ideas how to remove or elevate Mana Screw/Flood.
Don't worry about powerlevel for this, per say. Any cards that are working on this problem would fundamentally alter the game, since mana screw/flood is fundamentally a part of Magic. So, these cards would likely be--by their nature--broken. However, they would need to be broken in a particular way for this.
Don't think that mana screw something that needs to be fixed as it is but since it is a thought experiment:
-What about more cards with the Endless Horizons effect?
-Make more draw control effects like Abundance
-Make enchantments that allow any nonland card to be played as a basic land.
-Educate people on proper deck construction
Just as an academic thought experiment, how would people go about removing mana screw/flood from Magic?
The question is "how do we decrease variance in the game?"
I'm not convinced it needs to be decreased.
A large part of magic's draw is the ability for the weaker play to squeeze out a win against a much stronger player. If variance is decreased (especially to something as basic as the game's mana base) then it changes the game fundamentally -- it is no longer the same game, even if you can make an argument that it is a better* game for it.
*Better for whom? Definitely not beginners, or casual players who are the bulk of the player base.
As far as I know, maintaining the current level of variance and fixing mana screw are mutually exclusive goals.
Ok, for the sake of discussion, it is decided that the level of variance is unacceptable. It _has_ to be fixed. But then we run into something else...
The WoW and Vs TCGs has rules to correct for this as well, where any card is a land card.
While Vs (can't comment on WoW) "fixed" the problem of mana screw, they ran into different ones. VS system meant deck construction became predictable -- you must always have a one drop on turn 1, a two drop on turn 2, a three drop on turn 3 and so on. Missing a single drop meant you were effed. It also mean card design took a hit -- you couldn't make cards that accelerated the pace of land drops without breaking the game.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I can't interpret this question any other way than "How would you go about making Magic a worse game?" And, really, I'm not interested in that. There's academic, and then there's counterproductive.
"I didn't like that Magic had about 40% boring resource cards in the deck." - Richard Garfield
Richard Garfield would disagree with you, but MaRo would agree with you.
However, let's not start a debate about it. If you don't want to participate in the thought experiment, don't.
While Vs (can't comment on WoW) "fixed" the problem of mana screw, they ran into different ones. VS system meant deck construction became predictable -- you must always have a one drop on turn 1, a two drop on turn 2, a three drop on turn 3 and so on. Missing a single drop meant you were effed. It also mean card design took a hit -- you couldn't make cards that accelerated the pace of land drops without breaking the game.
You stopped playing that game before the Green Lanturen set came out, hu?
One way would be to change the rules of the game. Like have a 2 decks one full of land and one full of non-land cards and the players could pick which to draw from, which--of course--could case complications with things like fate seal and brainstorm effects. The WoW and Vs TCGs has rules to correct for this as well, where any card is a land card.
What cards could be introduces that would help with this? Cards like Land Grant or cards with "landcycling 0" ?
I made a set a while back to address this question, but I'd like to hear from all of you about ideas how to remove or elevate Mana Screw/Flood.
Don't worry about powerlevel for this, per say. Any cards that are working on this problem would fundamentally alter the game, since mana screw/flood is fundamentally a part of Magic. So, these cards would likely be--by their nature--broken. However, they would need to be broken in a particular way for this.
-What about more cards with the Endless Horizons effect?
-Make more draw control effects like Abundance
-Make enchantments that allow any nonland card to be played as a basic land.
-Educate people on proper deck construction
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
The question is "how do we decrease variance in the game?"
I'm not convinced it needs to be decreased.
A large part of magic's draw is the ability for the weaker play to squeeze out a win against a much stronger player. If variance is decreased (especially to something as basic as the game's mana base) then it changes the game fundamentally -- it is no longer the same game, even if you can make an argument that it is a better* game for it.
*Better for whom? Definitely not beginners, or casual players who are the bulk of the player base.
As far as I know, maintaining the current level of variance and fixing mana screw are mutually exclusive goals.
Ok, for the sake of discussion, it is decided that the level of variance is unacceptable. It _has_ to be fixed. But then we run into something else...
While Vs (can't comment on WoW) "fixed" the problem of mana screw, they ran into different ones. VS system meant deck construction became predictable -- you must always have a one drop on turn 1, a two drop on turn 2, a three drop on turn 3 and so on. Missing a single drop meant you were effed. It also mean card design took a hit -- you couldn't make cards that accelerated the pace of land drops without breaking the game.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Good point.
I like these suggestions. I wonder if there is some way to make them leylines or something to that effect.
"I didn't like that Magic had about 40% boring resource cards in the deck." - Richard Garfield
Richard Garfield would disagree with you, but MaRo would agree with you.
However, let's not start a debate about it. If you don't want to participate in the thought experiment, don't.
You stopped playing that game before the Green Lanturen set came out, hu?