Today, we had an announcement that everyone was expecting: Ravnica again! On its own, this is fun, because Ravnica is fun. However, the announcement that two (TWO) more large sets will be set in Ravnica as well (meaning that the Fall 18, Winter 19, and Spring 19 are all Ravnica) disturbs me. Here is why:
1. This is yet another flip-flop on the blocks versus single large sets change. Yes, each is a large set, but they are basically 3 sets conjoined by setting, theme (two-color combos) and plot (Bolas, again). In essence, this is a three-large-set block released over a full year.
2. This suggests that they do not have any new ideas. They stated that they want to layer new and old settings like bacon, 1 new, 1 old. This is a breaking of that promise. Ixalan was for children. Dominaria was fun but watered down power-wise. Surely they have a Viking world or Western world or post-apocalyptic world they can use in the next 12 months?
3. Each set will be drafted separately, as they are large sets. This leads to the stupidity of unevenly-colored limited play. This is why I did not enjoy Ixalan draft: the color combos are not balanced. Now, each of the first two large sets will have only have the guilds. Dragon's Maze was the most fun Ravnica to play in limited, and that will not happen this time around.
4. The beauty of Ravnica is that it never needed a top-down plot of theme; the color pie, and the two-color guilds were the plot, and their identity and interrelationship was what made it fun. It was world-view tribal, rather than race type tribal. Now, it will be overshadowed by the serialized cartoon style of Gatewatch v Bolas, and only two years after Amonkhet (less really), which already did this.
However, there is a larger problem. The Battlebond set disclosure released with this makes me wonder what direction WOTC is moving with the game. They are trying to market to a casual audience, but if that is there focus (rather than being like Dota, and building around a popular professional scene with millionaire players), why invest so many resources into pro points, e-celebrity, and perks for Magic's "elite"? There is a lack of focus. They are releasing too much supplemental product, and the main product is suffering, Dominaria aside.
What makes this more disturbing is that Ravnica is a precious resource that should be tended to with care. It's a setting that is always going to be enjoyable, unless its milked to exhaustion. This, combined with the casual-and-pro-at-once shotgun approach, makes me feel almost like WOTC is strip-mining its own IP for short-term gain.
Ironically, where this can be seen is a product quite opposite to MTG and its player base: the UFC. Under Zuffa and the Fertitta brothers, the UFC was built around a theory that the best should fight the best, and that the sport was for warriors. Each weight class was tended to in order to set up compelling challengers to the belt whether the present champion defended or was dethroned. Great matchmaking and fighter development produced stars like Ronda Rousey, Georges Saint Pierre, Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar, and eventually, mega star Conor McGregor.
However, when WME-IMG (a Hollywood management company far removed from the Italian mobster sons that ran Zuffa), the sport began experiencing a similar strip-mining. "Money fights" rather than compelling top-notch fights became soup dejour. Michael Bisping defended his belt against his old rival in #13 ranked, 44 year old Dan Henderson. Ronda Rousey took a title fight immediately upon her year-long absence ending rather than a tune-up (and being soundly smashed by a girl who punches like a dude). McGregor took leave of planet earth and fought Mayweather in boxing, halting the sport's biggest star for 2 years, while holding up 2 weight classes. Brock Lesnar came back for one fight, won, failed a steroid test, and left again. All short-term gain, all long-term loss.
The attitude has landed the UFC, 2 years later, with aging and fading stars, few rising heroes, a roster of fighters using trash talk to sell a possible money fight with an irrelevant opponent, and dropping numbers. UFC 224 was so horrendous they did not market it, and the PPV numbers are looking hideous. They did not develop their product, or use their on-hand resources wisely. They planned around today and tomorrow, not next year. Using Ravnica 3 times, in three separate stand-alone sets, while making the plot Bolas-v-Gatewatch centered, bothers me. It is the same as the UFC since July 2016.
This, combined with the far-left tilt of the virtue signaling in Magic, makes me feel like the current team lacks both creativity (right brain) or business sense (left brain). Or did I get that backwards? Anyway, this is my take, and its too long, but it is what it is. I feel like the IP is being wasted, and ideology and culture is overshadowing ideas and logic.
I guess I'm the opposite and really like the idea of having a year of Ravnica. For one, it sounds like they are finally putting this entire gatewatch nightmare to rest and concluding the story early, which is a good thing. They also showed off some interesting designs for the guilds and I suspect that we will see some new mechanics, especially with three big sets. There's no arguing they are making a three block set with how they are doing this and the reason for it is the weakening MtG market. They don't want to create an original world right now for fear of pushing people away from the game and I can't help but feel that if they did make an original set right now, it would just get tainted by the Gatewatch storyline.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
You have a point. I was much younger, but the Weatherlight crew never offended my sensibilities the same way. I think the game needs more emphasis on its plot, as a fantasy genre. As GOT proved, fantasy is far from dead in the public eye.
You have a point. I was much younger, but the Weatherlight crew never offended my sensibilities the same way. I think the game needs more emphasis on its plot, as a fantasy genre. As GOT proved, fantasy is far from dead in the public eye.
Also, keep in mind the next couple of sets have the full force of the play design team behind them. There is a very good reason they picked Ravnica as the plane: It offers the greatest flexibility as far as making use of old cards and newly created ones. They could basically make a reprint set of old mechanics if they have to.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Three sets of Ravnica? That's desperate, like when a band declares it's going "back to their roots" and its like "we're ran out of both money and ideas so we're going to keep on rehashes of our best seller and you're going to say you love and can't have enough of it".
I dunno, don't have too much of a problem of Bolas vs Gatewatch, in fact the only complaint would be why not also having a vs Nahiri vs Phyrexians vs Eldrazi... guess I'm a sucker for World of Ham. Like, which is the character people seem to love? Niv-Mizzet, oh yet another UR egotistical dragon full of himself, there hasn't truly been one like him before...
Hell, the first block could have happened in a afternoon as far as the cards went, and given the obvious need for the ten color pairs, it's damn obvious since the beginning that nothing can possibly ever happen to any of the guilds. And given how Ravnica is their poster plane, it's also evident the villains are going to be posed as jobbers unlike Mirrodin. Too bad, a "Ravnica boned" monocolored set after being conqured by Bolas would have been the lulz.
Three sets of Ravnica? That's desperate, like when a band declares it's going "back to their roots" and its like "we're ran out of both money and ideas so we're going to keep on rehashes of our best seller and you're going to say you love and can't have enough of it".
You took the words right out of my mouth. I will be keeping an eye on people's reactions once rotations start, and most of Standard's content is Ravnica, to see if people start going "Ugh this is so stale!!?"
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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching.
I mean, I wouldn't really want more of Dominaria to take the place of Ravnica, I would rather something interesting and new. So I don't really get that complaint at all.
I don't think Ravnica is really an issue though. They aren't going back on their word, and they're swinging the pendulum way hard again, but we just had Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan so it's not like Dominaria and then Ravnica x3 is that different.
The part people are missing is Bolas has a planar gate. If wizards story writing and creative team knows what they are doing I've got a very sneaking suspicion we are going to get maybe two sets on traditional Ravnica as we know it, and then the third set is going to be a "Hey guys, remember how Bolas had a factory making Lazotep plated Eternal super soldiers? Now he has Lazotep sand worms!" Plus whatever else he's going to bring onto the plane. I definitely don't mind the idea of three sets on Ravnica if one set is basically the fight to save the place.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I mean, I wouldn't really want more of Dominaria to take the place of Ravnica, I would rather something interesting and new. So I don't really get that complaint at all.
I don't think Ravnica is really an issue though. They aren't going back on their word, and they're swinging the pendulum way hard again, but we just had Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan so it's not like Dominaria and then Ravnica x3 is that different.
The complaint isn't that they are going back to existing planes. It's the fact that Ravnica had already been revisited before and that they cut a Dominaria set to make room for three Ravnica sets.
There's plenty of other planes available that haven't been revisited yet. Kamigawa, Rabiah, Lorwyn, Shandalar, Ulgrotha... two sets of one of them and the two Dominaria sets and there wouldn't be an issue at all.
I mean, I wouldn't really want more of Dominaria to take the place of Ravnica, I would rather something interesting and new. So I don't really get that complaint at all.
I don't think Ravnica is really an issue though. They aren't going back on their word, and they're swinging the pendulum way hard again, but we just had Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan so it's not like Dominaria and then Ravnica x3 is that different.
The complaint isn't that they are going back to existing planes. It's the fact that Ravnica had already been revisited before and that they cut a Dominaria set to make room for three Ravnica sets.
There's plenty of other planes available that haven't been revisited yet. Kamigawa, Rabiah, Lorwyn, Shandalar, Ulgrotha... two sets of one of them and the two Dominaria sets and there wouldn't be an issue at all.
Dominaria has enough diversity to do multiple sets on. Not to mention there still are planes like Mercadia that have been nearly forgotten by the older players. Plus I wouldn't mind having a set dealing with some of the nations of Dominaria.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Going back to an endless parade of Dominaria is something I wouldn’t want. I’m not a fan again of so much Ravnica, but I’m hopeful the stuff after won’t be so villain focused like it has been non stop so that will be nice if it happens.
I’ll add I’m being hyperbolic given the likely inevitable reply, but for me I want the Bolas nonsense done. That’s worth an extra Ravnica. I don’t think they should try to cram it into one set, so two is inevitable. I just wish the delay was longer.
Wotc statements of what they are doing and what not has ZERO worth, its worthless text.
Literally every statement they had in the last like 2 years they broke, they keep changing whatever at whatever moment they like.
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It was given that Ravnica comes back , its a great setting, naturally has 2 color combinations and its the prime plane to reprint the dual lands, so thats never a bad thing.
To announce that the story has to do with Nicol Bolas is a serious spoiler that is just unnecessary. Bolas worked best if he plotted in shadows and manipulated people and events like a omnipotent being. The moment they act openly it becomes bad and doesnt make Bolas justice.
The fact that the gatewatch isnt DEAD is a joke already, they should not have survived Amonkhet at all and that they are powered up that soon simply doesnt give enough build up time.
Bolas has enough time to plot and make the plan perfect. Theres no need to rush anything and no need to show any form of mercy, Nicol Bolas enemies should be annihilated and not just run away and be ignored.
Its a massive problem of the story that makes Nicol Bolas unbelievable and silly, instead of a powerful threat that you cannot mess around with.
1. This is yet another flip-flop on the blocks versus single large sets change. Yes, each is a large set, but they are basically 3 sets conjoined by setting, theme (two-color combos) and plot (Bolas, again). In essence, this is a three-large-set block released over a full year.
From the article announcing the current "three-and-one" set model:
The reason for that is because from a creative standpoint, we plan to stay on worlds for as many sets as makes sense for the story. Some worlds will be a single set while others might be two or three sets. If we stay on a world for more than one set, something about how the world is structured will let us have a delineation between the sets. Sometimes, but not all the times, we will have mechanical carryover between sets that share a world. For instance, under this new model, if we chose to stay on Kaladesh for two sets, we might have chosen to use energy in both sets (most likely playing around in different design spaces), but the rest of the mechanics would have been unique to their set. Note that sets that share a world won't necessarily overlap in any mechanics.
MaRo explicitly said they would be doing things like this, and people who were paying attention at the time already had it pegged as basically necessary for coming back to Ravnica - you can't do just one set of Ravnica, there's no room for all ten guilds.¹ I wish people would stop making up "promises" wizards made.
2. This suggests that they do not have any new ideas. They stated that they want to layer new and old settings like bacon, 1 new, 1 old. This is a breaking of that promise. Ixalan was for children. Dominaria was fun but watered down power-wise. Surely they have a Viking world or Western world or post-apocalyptic world they can use in the next 12 months?
Please link to where someone said they were explicitly alternating between 1 old world and 1 new, because we had three new worlds in a row before Dominaria. As far as I know they want to do 1:1 old and new worlds on average, that doesn't mean strictly alternating.
3. Each set will be drafted separately, as they are large sets. This leads to the stupidity of unevenly-colored limited play. This is why I did not enjoy Ixalan draft: the color combos are not balanced. Now, each of the first two large sets will have only have the guilds. Dragon's Maze was the most fun Ravnica to play in limited, and that will not happen this time around.
Reactions to Dragon's Maze draft are mixed at best, and both RAV-RAV-RAV, RTR-RTR-RTR and GTC-GTC-GTC draft have defenders.
This, combined with the far-left tilt of the virtue signaling in Magic, makes me feel like the current team lacks both creativity (right brain) or business sense (left brain). Or did I get that backwards? Anyway, this is my take, and its too long, but it is what it is. I feel like the IP is being wasted, and ideology and culture is overshadowing ideas and logic.
Oh, right, you're some kind of ideologue who thinks SJWs are destroying games, I should have seen this one coming. Carry on.
1: "But what about Dominaria," I hear people whining already. What about Dominaria? Dominaria is a jumble and dropping some elements [like slivers] doesn't create an incomplete pattern like dropping some Ravnica guilds would.
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On average, Magic players are worse at new card evaluation than almost every other skill, except perhaps sideboarding.
On the subject of the Bolas story: My own feeling is that the team over at Wizards of the Coast wants to get out of this plot as fast as possible along with the gatewatch. They walked right back into the trap the Weatherlight saga got them in last time and now the piper is coming to get his dues.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
OP is complaints about things WotC *might* do with this release, complaints about poster's assumptions, complaints about WotC retreading old ground and complaints that WotC is losing the opportunity to retread that same old ground again. I haven't been a big WotC fan lately, but those are all pretty weak.
5/6 Ravnica sets have been hits by every metric, with the exception of DGM, which does the two things the announcement explicitly avoids - jamming all 10 guilds into one set and trying to bridge standalone draft formats.
I think the announcment bodes well for the first two sets, if only due to the history of success under this concept. That's not meant as blind praise - there's no reason to think the trends of the past few years won't continue, with the proliferation of midrange grinds, chase staple mythics, over-engineered gimmicks, etc., but Ravnica sets have a history as entry points for powerful gold cards at low rarities, varied mechanics and resultingly interesting limited formats.
The third set has so little information that it would be presumptuous to jump to a conclusion, but it sounds like it's effectively not going to be a Ravnica set. Best case, it gives them an out to kill off the Guildpact storyline and print the set we're all waiting for - Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VIII
On the subject of the Bolas story: My own feeling is that the team over at Wizards of the Coast wants to get out of this plot as fast as possible along with the gatewatch. They walked right back into the trap the Weatherlight saga got them in last time and now the piper is coming to get his dues.
I mean, I'm not sure stretching it out any longer would really work either. I'm personally glad to be getting off from Bolas for a bit. Though I think the Gatewatch is fine.
Ravnica always shares a common theme: two color combos. There is no other mechanical interaction. The result will not be 3 free-standing sets, but two sets hobbled by color imbalance. And Rosewater did mention mixing returns and new planes. I cannot find it because I do not particularly care to Shepherdize Rosewater. And yes, the game design is influenced heavily by the world-view of the few who design it, and not the many who play it. If you have a problem with this view, take it up with Magic's seemingly-dwindling profits, despite a rise in quantity of product released.
People liked RTR-RTR-RTR and GTC-GTC-GTC draft more than DGM-GTC-RTR, and a lot of people like RAV-RAV-RAV. In fact, trying to "cross the streams" in DGM is the widely accepted misstep in RTR's design. The color imbalance complaint just isn't borne out by how draft formats have historically been received.
If you're going to cite someone, cite them. Don't just assert that a specific person said a specific thing and go like "but I don't care to justify my argument."
Also, if you disagree so much with that "worldview" (which I presume means such radical ideas as "trans people are real" or "women should be represented well in fantasy art"), I don't understand why you're still around to complain about it. I certainly don't go out of my way to buy media made by people whose beliefs I find contemptible.
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On average, Magic players are worse at new card evaluation than almost every other skill, except perhaps sideboarding.
The only major issue I'm seeing with doing so many back to back ravnica sets is diminishing returns. Is the plane really special if we hit it three times in a row, even with different or new mechanics across them? That's an entire year dedicated to nothing but one plane, and it sounds like the complete opposite of what they were trying to do with going to single big sets.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Ravnica always shares a common theme: two color combos. There is no other mechanical interaction. The result will not be 3 free-standing sets, but two sets hobbled by color imbalance. And Rosewater did mention mixing returns and new planes. I cannot find it because I do not particularly care to Shepherdize Rosewater. And yes, the game design is influenced heavily by the world-view of the few who design it, and not the many who play it. If you have a problem with this view, take it up with Magic's seemingly-dwindling profits, despite a rise in quantity of product released.
Yes, and when we got Zendikar -> Innistrad, or Kaladesh -> Amonkhet -> Ixalan Mark talked about how the ratio of new planes to returns is an average, not a 1:1 copy. We are swinging hard on return sets, but that doesn't mean they're breaking their word, especially as we just swung almost equally hard on new sets with three new in a row.
And the guilds doesn't mean a color imbalance. It means some of the guilds won't be there, but that isn't the same as a color imbalance. We aren't going to suddenly be going Torment.
The only major issue I'm seeing with doing so many back to back ravnica sets is diminishing returns. Is the plane really special if we hit it three times in a row, even with different or new mechanics across them? That's an entire year dedicated to nothing but one plane, and it sounds like the complete opposite of what they were trying to do with going to single big sets.
I mean, Ravnica requires two sets, the third set is, again, supposedly not really Ravnica. I expect it'll be the same kind of mechanical shift we saw with stuff like Rise of the Eldrazi or Avacyn Restored, in that they didn't really have much in common with the previous sets. It may not be that drastic, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's kind of easy to avoid making Ravnica.
The only major issue I'm seeing with doing so many back to back ravnica sets is diminishing returns. Is the plane really special if we hit it three times in a row, even with different or new mechanics across them? That's an entire year dedicated to nothing but one plane, and it sounds like the complete opposite of what they were trying to do with going to single big sets.
Under the old block model, we would have spent a year in Ravnica too, three sets in a row. I don't worry about diminishing returns in this sense because Ravnica is very broad (there's ten guilds to include which necessitates at least two sets anyway), and they've been explicit that the third set is really about something else even if it happens to take place on Ravnica.
Basically imagine if you got RTR block, except instead of the "pivot set" Dragon's Maze, you have an Avacyn Restored/Rise of the Eldrazi style "breakaway set" in that slot, which is explicitly not about the guilds.
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On average, Magic players are worse at new card evaluation than almost every other skill, except perhaps sideboarding.
People are saying this is like a block of Ravnica but to me it's even worse, because it's 3x large sets of Ravnica. Each will have 300+ cards and will be drafted alone.
My main concern is that the sets could be too similar in terms of visuals , returning characters and mechanics. And this could make Ravnica get old really fast. Like, I was already tired of the Eldrazis by the time SOI / EMN came out, and those were relatively small sets compared to what we're about to experience.
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Today, we had an announcement that everyone was expecting: Ravnica again! On its own, this is fun, because Ravnica is fun. However, the announcement that two (TWO) more large sets will be set in Ravnica as well (meaning that the Fall 18, Winter 19, and Spring 19 are all Ravnica) disturbs me. Here is why:
1. This is yet another flip-flop on the blocks versus single large sets change. Yes, each is a large set, but they are basically 3 sets conjoined by setting, theme (two-color combos) and plot (Bolas, again). In essence, this is a three-large-set block released over a full year.
2. This suggests that they do not have any new ideas. They stated that they want to layer new and old settings like bacon, 1 new, 1 old. This is a breaking of that promise. Ixalan was for children. Dominaria was fun but watered down power-wise. Surely they have a Viking world or Western world or post-apocalyptic world they can use in the next 12 months?
3. Each set will be drafted separately, as they are large sets. This leads to the stupidity of unevenly-colored limited play. This is why I did not enjoy Ixalan draft: the color combos are not balanced. Now, each of the first two large sets will have only have the guilds. Dragon's Maze was the most fun Ravnica to play in limited, and that will not happen this time around.
4. The beauty of Ravnica is that it never needed a top-down plot of theme; the color pie, and the two-color guilds were the plot, and their identity and interrelationship was what made it fun. It was world-view tribal, rather than race type tribal. Now, it will be overshadowed by the serialized cartoon style of Gatewatch v Bolas, and only two years after Amonkhet (less really), which already did this.
However, there is a larger problem. The Battlebond set disclosure released with this makes me wonder what direction WOTC is moving with the game. They are trying to market to a casual audience, but if that is there focus (rather than being like Dota, and building around a popular professional scene with millionaire players), why invest so many resources into pro points, e-celebrity, and perks for Magic's "elite"? There is a lack of focus. They are releasing too much supplemental product, and the main product is suffering, Dominaria aside.
What makes this more disturbing is that Ravnica is a precious resource that should be tended to with care. It's a setting that is always going to be enjoyable, unless its milked to exhaustion. This, combined with the casual-and-pro-at-once shotgun approach, makes me feel almost like WOTC is strip-mining its own IP for short-term gain.
Ironically, where this can be seen is a product quite opposite to MTG and its player base: the UFC. Under Zuffa and the Fertitta brothers, the UFC was built around a theory that the best should fight the best, and that the sport was for warriors. Each weight class was tended to in order to set up compelling challengers to the belt whether the present champion defended or was dethroned. Great matchmaking and fighter development produced stars like Ronda Rousey, Georges Saint Pierre, Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar, and eventually, mega star Conor McGregor.
However, when WME-IMG (a Hollywood management company far removed from the Italian mobster sons that ran Zuffa), the sport began experiencing a similar strip-mining. "Money fights" rather than compelling top-notch fights became soup dejour. Michael Bisping defended his belt against his old rival in #13 ranked, 44 year old Dan Henderson. Ronda Rousey took a title fight immediately upon her year-long absence ending rather than a tune-up (and being soundly smashed by a girl who punches like a dude). McGregor took leave of planet earth and fought Mayweather in boxing, halting the sport's biggest star for 2 years, while holding up 2 weight classes. Brock Lesnar came back for one fight, won, failed a steroid test, and left again. All short-term gain, all long-term loss.
The attitude has landed the UFC, 2 years later, with aging and fading stars, few rising heroes, a roster of fighters using trash talk to sell a possible money fight with an irrelevant opponent, and dropping numbers. UFC 224 was so horrendous they did not market it, and the PPV numbers are looking hideous. They did not develop their product, or use their on-hand resources wisely. They planned around today and tomorrow, not next year. Using Ravnica 3 times, in three separate stand-alone sets, while making the plot Bolas-v-Gatewatch centered, bothers me. It is the same as the UFC since July 2016.
This, combined with the far-left tilt of the virtue signaling in Magic, makes me feel like the current team lacks both creativity (right brain) or business sense (left brain). Or did I get that backwards? Anyway, this is my take, and its too long, but it is what it is. I feel like the IP is being wasted, and ideology and culture is overshadowing ideas and logic.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Also, keep in mind the next couple of sets have the full force of the play design team behind them. There is a very good reason they picked Ravnica as the plane: It offers the greatest flexibility as far as making use of old cards and newly created ones. They could basically make a reprint set of old mechanics if they have to.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I dunno, don't have too much of a problem of Bolas vs Gatewatch, in fact the only complaint would be why not also having a vs Nahiri vs Phyrexians vs Eldrazi... guess I'm a sucker for World of Ham. Like, which is the character people seem to love? Niv-Mizzet, oh yet another UR egotistical dragon full of himself, there hasn't truly been one like him before...
Hell, the first block could have happened in a afternoon as far as the cards went, and given the obvious need for the ten color pairs, it's damn obvious since the beginning that nothing can possibly ever happen to any of the guilds. And given how Ravnica is their poster plane, it's also evident the villains are going to be posed as jobbers unlike Mirrodin. Too bad, a "Ravnica boned" monocolored set after being conqured by Bolas would have been the lulz.
You took the words right out of my mouth. I will be keeping an eye on people's reactions once rotations start, and most of Standard's content is Ravnica, to see if people start going "Ugh this is so stale!!?"
I don't think Ravnica is really an issue though. They aren't going back on their word, and they're swinging the pendulum way hard again, but we just had Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan so it's not like Dominaria and then Ravnica x3 is that different.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The complaint isn't that they are going back to existing planes. It's the fact that Ravnica had already been revisited before and that they cut a Dominaria set to make room for three Ravnica sets.
There's plenty of other planes available that haven't been revisited yet. Kamigawa, Rabiah, Lorwyn, Shandalar, Ulgrotha... two sets of one of them and the two Dominaria sets and there wouldn't be an issue at all.
Dominaria has enough diversity to do multiple sets on. Not to mention there still are planes like Mercadia that have been nearly forgotten by the older players. Plus I wouldn't mind having a set dealing with some of the nations of Dominaria.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I’ll add I’m being hyperbolic given the likely inevitable reply, but for me I want the Bolas nonsense done. That’s worth an extra Ravnica. I don’t think they should try to cram it into one set, so two is inevitable. I just wish the delay was longer.
Literally every statement they had in the last like 2 years they broke, they keep changing whatever at whatever moment they like.
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It was given that Ravnica comes back , its a great setting, naturally has 2 color combinations and its the prime plane to reprint the dual lands, so thats never a bad thing.
To announce that the story has to do with Nicol Bolas is a serious spoiler that is just unnecessary. Bolas worked best if he plotted in shadows and manipulated people and events like a omnipotent being. The moment they act openly it becomes bad and doesnt make Bolas justice.
The fact that the gatewatch isnt DEAD is a joke already, they should not have survived Amonkhet at all and that they are powered up that soon simply doesnt give enough build up time.
Bolas has enough time to plot and make the plan perfect. Theres no need to rush anything and no need to show any form of mercy, Nicol Bolas enemies should be annihilated and not just run away and be ignored.
Its a massive problem of the story that makes Nicol Bolas unbelievable and silly, instead of a powerful threat that you cannot mess around with.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
From the article announcing the current "three-and-one" set model:
MaRo explicitly said they would be doing things like this, and people who were paying attention at the time already had it pegged as basically necessary for coming back to Ravnica - you can't do just one set of Ravnica, there's no room for all ten guilds.¹ I wish people would stop making up "promises" wizards made.
Please link to where someone said they were explicitly alternating between 1 old world and 1 new, because we had three new worlds in a row before Dominaria. As far as I know they want to do 1:1 old and new worlds on average, that doesn't mean strictly alternating.
Reactions to Dragon's Maze draft are mixed at best, and both RAV-RAV-RAV, RTR-RTR-RTR and GTC-GTC-GTC draft have defenders.
Oh, right, you're some kind of ideologue who thinks SJWs are destroying games, I should have seen this one coming. Carry on.
1: "But what about Dominaria," I hear people whining already. What about Dominaria? Dominaria is a jumble and dropping some elements [like slivers] doesn't create an incomplete pattern like dropping some Ravnica guilds would.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
5/6 Ravnica sets have been hits by every metric, with the exception of DGM, which does the two things the announcement explicitly avoids - jamming all 10 guilds into one set and trying to bridge standalone draft formats.
I think the announcment bodes well for the first two sets, if only due to the history of success under this concept. That's not meant as blind praise - there's no reason to think the trends of the past few years won't continue, with the proliferation of midrange grinds, chase staple mythics, over-engineered gimmicks, etc., but Ravnica sets have a history as entry points for powerful gold cards at low rarities, varied mechanics and resultingly interesting limited formats.
The third set has so little information that it would be presumptuous to jump to a conclusion, but it sounds like it's effectively not going to be a Ravnica set. Best case, it gives them an out to kill off the Guildpact storyline and print the set we're all waiting for - Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VIII
I mean, I'm not sure stretching it out any longer would really work either. I'm personally glad to be getting off from Bolas for a bit. Though I think the Gatewatch is fine.
If you're going to cite someone, cite them. Don't just assert that a specific person said a specific thing and go like "but I don't care to justify my argument."
Also, if you disagree so much with that "worldview" (which I presume means such radical ideas as "trans people are real" or "women should be represented well in fantasy art"), I don't understand why you're still around to complain about it. I certainly don't go out of my way to buy media made by people whose beliefs I find contemptible.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Yes, and when we got Zendikar -> Innistrad, or Kaladesh -> Amonkhet -> Ixalan Mark talked about how the ratio of new planes to returns is an average, not a 1:1 copy. We are swinging hard on return sets, but that doesn't mean they're breaking their word, especially as we just swung almost equally hard on new sets with three new in a row.
And the guilds doesn't mean a color imbalance. It means some of the guilds won't be there, but that isn't the same as a color imbalance. We aren't going to suddenly be going Torment.
I mean, Ravnica requires two sets, the third set is, again, supposedly not really Ravnica. I expect it'll be the same kind of mechanical shift we saw with stuff like Rise of the Eldrazi or Avacyn Restored, in that they didn't really have much in common with the previous sets. It may not be that drastic, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's kind of easy to avoid making Ravnica.
Under the old block model, we would have spent a year in Ravnica too, three sets in a row. I don't worry about diminishing returns in this sense because Ravnica is very broad (there's ten guilds to include which necessitates at least two sets anyway), and they've been explicit that the third set is really about something else even if it happens to take place on Ravnica.
Basically imagine if you got RTR block, except instead of the "pivot set" Dragon's Maze, you have an Avacyn Restored/Rise of the Eldrazi style "breakaway set" in that slot, which is explicitly not about the guilds.
My main concern is that the sets could be too similar in terms of visuals , returning characters and mechanics. And this could make Ravnica get old really fast. Like, I was already tired of the Eldrazis by the time SOI / EMN came out, and those were relatively small sets compared to what we're about to experience.