After the full Unstable set spoiler, I began wondering if Wizards has been playing it too safe with designing cards and mechanics in recent years. While Unstable is considered "Un-Magic", baring a silver border and being defined as too weird for normal magic, it seems that the card designs aren't that far off the mark for what magic could actually be.
While some individual Unstable card requiring high fives and other weird effects aren't necessarily what I am talking about, things like contraptions and even some of the more unique designs seem to provoke a lot of interesting design space that Wizards could use in black bordered normal magic.
My thoughts are that standard sets seem to be designed far too narrow mindedly and safe as opposed to other sets. My personal opinion is that standard sets often seem to have the same cut and copy design following the last. While Commander and other supplemental sets seem to hit the mark as far as creativity seem to go, standard just tends to fall apart as far as diversity and gameplay go.
A lot of it has to do with preference and perspective. I don't mean that in a "you vs. me" but more of "know your audience". Standard is where all the serious competition occurs. Cards like Mind's Dilation or Eternal Dominion are cards that Standard never used. They aren't bad cards, they are just "not enough win" for what they do. That being said, there are a handful of cards that I could see being played in standard (Spike is the pinnacle of these, for good reason). Commander is a good place to try out new things, but keep in mind a $35/$40 price tag is going to scare away many first time players, considering a phone app is $1, a $3DS game is $30 (and why I recommend that new players get deckbuilder's toolkits).
As for the main sets themselves, wasn't Shards of Alara that was all multicolored cards (it was one of the sets in the same block)? Eldrazi were nonartifact colorless creatures WITH a new keyword ability. Phyrexian mana in New Phyreixa. Innistrad had transforming cards that we see returning in Ixalan. Kaladesh had energy, and Oath of the Gatewatch created the much needed Wastes.
I digressed, I admit, but I still do agree with you when I say that my favorite sets since 2013 have been both Conspiracy sets.
I hope for WotC's sake that Iconic Masters sells just enough for them to continue Master's sets at a little less steep of a price tag and still have all the love this holiday season go to Unstable, rewarding the creative and more "fun" aspects. Let it be known right here and right now: if I do not get a box of Unstable this holiday season as a gift, I will go out and buy a box myself.
I've thought the same thing. Earl of Squirrel seems to be playable without being too outside of 'normal' magic convention. I mean Suirrellink is odd but not really off the mark of what a constructed effect could be. I may be getting a box just for some cards that my EDH playgroup would be fine with, and not just for the lands in the set.
In some ways, Yes I totally agree with you. But I think the elimination of Core Sets and Starter Products has caused the Expert Level Expansions to be too simplified.
But new design space is consistently being explored. And you want to introduce and teach a new design space before exploring it fully.
I think part of it is that we've become too accustomed to the weirdness. People no longer bat an eye at split cards and dual-faced cards. We've got cards that pull stuff from outside the game, and cards that let you control other players. Wacky card designs from Unglued are just regular cards now: The Cheese Stands Alone got reprinted in black border almost verbatim, meld cards are just the B.F.M., and the new black dino from Rivals of Ixalan is not too far off from Infernal Spawn of Evil. Auras that enchant a player was originally something that only silver-bordered cards did, but now, it's commonplace; we have an entire subtype (curses) about putting auras on your opponents. The weird stuff just doesn't register as much as it used to, especially for us enfranchised players.
the impression i got with unstable was that they made a conscious decision to make the set more mechanically playable and synergistic, and not just rely on the gimmicky "make yourself or the opponent do something silly" LOL factor of the previous UN-sets. kinda like they have all these cool ideas they prototype for real magic, but they're just a bit too weird to put into standard sets. so yeah, this gives unstable the feeling like its closer to real magic than the previous unsets.
however i think if regular standard sets were more like the more grounded designs in unstable, magic would be a more interesting game. i think kaladesh was very neat but amonkhet, ixalan, and innistrad 2.0 have been by and large very bland in my opinion (and zendikar 2.0 was definitively the worst magic set of all time imho)
the impression i got with unstable was that they made a conscious decision to make the set more mechanically playable and synergistic, and not just rely on the gimmicky "make yourself or the opponent do something silly" LOL factor of the previous UN-sets. kinda like they have all these cool ideas they prototype for real magic, but they're just a bit too weird to put into standard sets. so yeah, this gives unstable the feeling like its closer to real magic than the previous unsets.
however i think if regular standard sets were more like the more grounded designs in unstable, magic would be a more interesting game. i think kaladesh was very neat but amonkhet, ixalan, and innistrad 2.0 have been by and large very bland in my opinion (and zendikar 2.0 was definitively the worst magic set of all time imho)
I like the flip cards in Ixalan at least. It's nice to see them exploring more of the noncreature flip card design space.
The Un-sets are like the Future Sight cards that showcase possibilities and lost ideas that we don't normally get to see that float around in the developer backrooms. Form of the Squirrel is basically the start of all curse cards, actually. I do think the new set is a lot more down to earth than prior sets, though, and I'm not sure if that's because they think if they went any farther it would alienate players or if the new set developers are a bit more "I'm doing this to get paid".
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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!
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.
Personally I think they have fine-tuned standard a bit too much. They trimmed down removal, ramp, discard, grave recursion... things that have been occasionally problematic in the past, sure, but realistically these strategies helped diversify the meta as long as they weren't completely overpowered.
As many of us have said, standard has become a format of midrange decks fighting midrange decks.
Is WotC playing it safe? Perhaps. Given its resources and its ability to consistently remain #1 of paper CCGs (at least), perhaps that is a good thing?
After all, there is only so much shark you can jump before your game dies. I mean, everyone compares it to Hearthstone, and sure, that makes a sensible comparison these days. But consider the pedigrees. You're judging a game that is about to hit 25 years to a game--in a format that allows wildly different concepts--that is about to be 4 years old. Will Hearthstone be around 20 years from now, and if so, will it be playing safe then?
A classic example of WotC 'playing it safe' was original Kamigawa. Even though I loved it, it was objectively a great deal weaker than Mirrodin and 'didn't play well' with either Mirrodin or Ravnica. But what if a block like Kamigawa was necessary to have the game today? Imagine if they doubled down on Mirrodin and pushed harder on equipment and affinity.. would the game still be here today? I'm not making the case that the above is a certainty, but it offers at least a contrasting view.
And regarding Unstable, it may not be quite as zany as previous Un-sets, but it certainly has more zaniness than normal Magic sets and it plays a great deal better. Host/Augment is perhaps the single best mechanic they have made in years. I certainly would argue it is the best parasitic mechanic made in years. I feel, sometimes, that with alternatives like Hearthstone out there, the Magic playerbase misses a key difference between them. Magic takes itself seriously. Hearthstone does not. Hearthstone was specifically created to spoof WoW concepts and be the Un-game in the WoW IP. So... yes, I am not surprised that Hearthstone is 'zanier' than Magic, perhaps even silver-bordered Magic.
At the end of the day, if Magic R&D plays it too safe, their game will die. So far, though, I don't see that happening.
I'm also not a fan of it flavour-wise, with the cheap "B-movie" settings it has gone into lately.
Then what kind of settings would you prefer? Also give me examples of blocks in the past set outside of Dominaria that had that.
I'm curious about this, too. What blocks qualify as B-movie settings? Homelands? Arabian Nights? I mean, sure there have been plenty of B-movies with dinosaurs and some with pirates and some set in Egypt, but there have also been A-movies with those elements. The difference between an A-movie and a B-movie is rarely the setting - it's usually the execution.
Well, it's easy to dislike a company when they have story writing that leads to Induced Amnesia to completely cut off any kind of character growth they might have, create artwork that is ugly as sin with cards like Aggressive Urge and crazy CGI monsters like Wasteland Strangler, and constantly do cash grab products that are over-priced and sit on store shelves forever. Then they underprint what people want just to make even more money off minimal effort via the masters 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!
I also feel they're playing it safe. How awesome would it have been for Zacam, Primal Calamity to have had triple strike instead of vigilance? If anything else than for flavor? 'Cause I get the trample and reach but vigilance? Triple strike would've been much better.
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I'm also not a fan of it flavour-wise, with the cheap "B-movie" settings it has gone into lately.
Then what kind of settings would you prefer? Also give me examples of blocks in the past set outside of Dominaria that had that.
You know, juicy stuff. Creamy stuff. It's pretty vague, but I like the sets that still feel somewhat like "traditional" high fantasy, whatever that really means. Setting-wise, I like Theros, Innistrad, Shadows over Innistrad, Return to Ravnica, the core sets, Lorwyn-Shadowmoor.
Kaladesh and Ixalan feels very cheap to me. Amonkhet too, sort of.
What about Tarkir, Alara, Mirrodin, Kamigawa and Zendikar, out of curiosity?
Well, it's easy to dislike a company when they have story writing that leads to Induced Amnesia to completely cut off any kind of character growth they might have, create artwork that is ugly as sin with cards like Aggressive Urge and crazy CGI monsters like Wasteland Strangler, and constantly do cash grab products that are over-priced and sit on store shelves forever. Then they underprint what people want just to make even more money off minimal effort via the masters sets.
Again, why are we assuming Induced Amnesia is permanent? If anything, the card's effect implies the opposite.
Beyond that, I do agree that the art has had some less than stellar instances in recent times, but there have been art pieces that I truly liked. Of course, being a biased Raymond Swanland fan, I'm glad to see any of his works on a card, despite usually having a lot going on in them. I'm also inclined to agree about the underprinting problem, but that's a separate issue.
To be frank I don't have a favorite block, just favorite cards. I also like it when cards are thematically consistent in a constructed deck, which is why I'm always happy to see something like a tribal theme since it throws a bunch of thematically geared cards all together in one place. I just dislike the draft focused set design as it is totally possible to have it go both ways and not have to have a separation between constructed and limited. There was an interview with Melissa DelTora run by LRR recently found here where she talks about the Rivals set and some of their visions for how things were supposed to work. I guess I'm just not very impressed with her presentation.
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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!
What about you? What's your favorite block(s) and what do you look for in a setting?
I don't look for anything in particular. If it interests me in terms of its gameplay, setting and story, I'm fine with it.
Ixalan is a bit meh overall in all three aspects for me except with Jace, Vraska and Azor in terms of story, and the flip cards in terms of gameplay. The Ravnica setup and Bolas involvement interest me more than anything else in the story, even with Vraska's memory wipe. I like the Elder Dinos too, funnily enough.
If you want a definite answer though, Shards of Alara. I love the plane (especially the Esper shard, if my avi didn't give it away), the story behind it and the mechanics (Exalted and Unearth in particular are mechanics I wouldn't mind seeing again).
Khans, Alara and original Ravnica had the best flavor for me. I don't its coincidence that the multicolour focused blocks with high emphasis on player choice for group loyalties sit well with me. Groups like the Sultai Brood, Azorius Senate and Esper as a shard just have so much raw character to them compared to "its pirates vs dinosaurs" or the "its Egypt/Greece/Japan" set. You could argue Khans is "the Asia set", but the diversity between the groups and their portrayal was broad enough of different regions/cultures of Asia to not feel samey.
Abzan - Western Asia
Jeskai - Tibet/China
Sultai - India
Mardu - Mongolia
Temur - Northern Asia
You compare that to "everything is Japan here" Kamigawa and you can see why that plane felt like a home run for me.
I too would like to see Exalted again. Persist/Undying and Evoke would also be nice. What I don't want to see is double-faced cards. Taking cards out of sleeves to flip them just annoys me.
Heavily agree. I'm okay with us leaving flip cards behind for a few years. I would say the same for +1/+1 counters but I do want to see Undying return and I also don't think it'll be gone for longer than a year at a time, if that, and they're not as annoying. It's more of the fact I want to see another mechanic replace the basic "do something with a 1/1 counter" in standard.
I think they can get away with creativity in supplemental products is because they don't have to worry about making synergy that a bunch of people are going to complain about. I think it's narrow because they go too wide with interesting mechanics and then something is too dominant in standard and has to get retroactive-ly banned which looks bad on them. Standard also sells from what my LGS buds tell me, which would provoke the old adage of, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it". Why break a system that seems to be profitable or "safe"? Other than player demand or interest they don't really need to; I'm an EDH and occasional limited player so for me, I generally don't see the big standard picture and patterns.
I think "Leaves the Battlefield" triggers be more of a thing, kinda like you're saying about evoke/echo style effects, without it being too far off the beater path for WotC. I'm also an big fan of cascade (although it's far too strong in a standard cycle) and proliferate (but not in a standard with energy counters lol) but I doubt that we'd ever see those for a super long time.
I went back and compared the latest block to RTR block and am going to say right off the bat that while they did make some improvements (fewer "on your upkeep" type cards that force you to make a dead play on your turn in an aggressive build like boros), RtR block was stronger by far. point for point the power of creatures was better in Return to Ravnica, the mana base was stronger and matched the strategies being put forward, better answers, and mythics were about on par with what we see now. Planeswalkers are about on equal footing between the two blocks, the top ends of both sets look similar, though RtR block has some better options for big stompy monsters. What I find interesting is that they basically redid the primordials again. The new Primal dinosaurs are just like the next set of these things and outside of the current standard will probably be worth pennies.
The reason Return to Ravnica was so great is because shock lands are good for aggro, mid-range, and control strategies, where as fast lands are strictly good for aggro and maybe midrange. That combined with a more on curve power / toughness set design made the set far more flexible than the current standard block. They flipped too far the other way with Theros and the slow scry land manabase, though. WotC needs to just stick with a good set of lands and stop it with the reinventing the wheel.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
Khans, Alara and original Ravnica had the best flavor for me. I don't its coincidence that the multicolour focused blocks with high emphasis on player choice for group loyalties sit well with me. Groups like the Sultai Brood, Azorius Senate and Esper as a shard just have so much raw character to them compared to "its pirates vs dinosaurs" or the "its Egypt/Greece/Japan" set. You could argue Khans is "the Asia set", but the diversity between the groups and their portrayal was broad enough of different regions/cultures of Asia to not feel samey.
Abzan - Western Asia
Jeskai - Tibet/China
Sultai - India
Mardu - Mongolia
Temur - Northern Asia
You compare that to "everything is Japan here" Kamigawa and you can see why that plane felt like a home run for me.
Was Alara block popular/well done? I didnt play it.
I have this idea floating around, when I look at Khans and RTR, that Multi-Colour Matters blocks are the best for depth of play, and I'm wondering if Alara could be added as a data point to that.
But what if a block like Kamigawa was necessary to have the game today? Imagine if they doubled down on Mirrodin and pushed harder on equipment and affinity.. would the game still be here today?
I too dream about the possibilities had Wizards kept their foot on the gas instead of the force-feeding us dumbed-down cards and strategies the last 5 years. My prediction is we wouldn't be stuck with 4 mana, $15 Doom Blade's and the cards/archetypes could compete for play in Modern once they rotated (you know, like Scars, Zendikar, Innistrad, etc. have) . I'd much rather spend my time contemplating which flavor of Titan to play than complaining about the power level of Attune with Aether.
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While some individual Unstable card requiring high fives and other weird effects aren't necessarily what I am talking about, things like contraptions and even some of the more unique designs seem to provoke a lot of interesting design space that Wizards could use in black bordered normal magic.
My thoughts are that standard sets seem to be designed far too narrow mindedly and safe as opposed to other sets. My personal opinion is that standard sets often seem to have the same cut and copy design following the last. While Commander and other supplemental sets seem to hit the mark as far as creativity seem to go, standard just tends to fall apart as far as diversity and gameplay go.
Does anyone else feel this way?
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As for the main sets themselves, wasn't Shards of Alara that was all multicolored cards (it was one of the sets in the same block)? Eldrazi were nonartifact colorless creatures WITH a new keyword ability. Phyrexian mana in New Phyreixa. Innistrad had transforming cards that we see returning in Ixalan. Kaladesh had energy, and Oath of the Gatewatch created the much needed Wastes.
I digressed, I admit, but I still do agree with you when I say that my favorite sets since 2013 have been both Conspiracy sets.
I hope for WotC's sake that Iconic Masters sells just enough for them to continue Master's sets at a little less steep of a price tag and still have all the love this holiday season go to Unstable, rewarding the creative and more "fun" aspects. Let it be known right here and right now: if I do not get a box of Unstable this holiday season as a gift, I will go out and buy a box myself.
To fun and creativity!
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But new design space is consistently being explored. And you want to introduce and teach a new design space before exploring it fully.
however i think if regular standard sets were more like the more grounded designs in unstable, magic would be a more interesting game. i think kaladesh was very neat but amonkhet, ixalan, and innistrad 2.0 have been by and large very bland in my opinion (and zendikar 2.0 was definitively the worst magic set of all time imho)
I like the flip cards in Ixalan at least. It's nice to see them exploring more of the noncreature flip card design space.
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 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.
As many of us have said, standard has become a format of midrange decks fighting midrange decks.
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Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
After all, there is only so much shark you can jump before your game dies. I mean, everyone compares it to Hearthstone, and sure, that makes a sensible comparison these days. But consider the pedigrees. You're judging a game that is about to hit 25 years to a game--in a format that allows wildly different concepts--that is about to be 4 years old. Will Hearthstone be around 20 years from now, and if so, will it be playing safe then?
A classic example of WotC 'playing it safe' was original Kamigawa. Even though I loved it, it was objectively a great deal weaker than Mirrodin and 'didn't play well' with either Mirrodin or Ravnica. But what if a block like Kamigawa was necessary to have the game today? Imagine if they doubled down on Mirrodin and pushed harder on equipment and affinity.. would the game still be here today? I'm not making the case that the above is a certainty, but it offers at least a contrasting view.
And regarding Unstable, it may not be quite as zany as previous Un-sets, but it certainly has more zaniness than normal Magic sets and it plays a great deal better. Host/Augment is perhaps the single best mechanic they have made in years. I certainly would argue it is the best parasitic mechanic made in years. I feel, sometimes, that with alternatives like Hearthstone out there, the Magic playerbase misses a key difference between them. Magic takes itself seriously. Hearthstone does not. Hearthstone was specifically created to spoof WoW concepts and be the Un-game in the WoW IP. So... yes, I am not surprised that Hearthstone is 'zanier' than Magic, perhaps even silver-bordered Magic.
At the end of the day, if Magic R&D plays it too safe, their game will die. So far, though, I don't see that happening.
Then what kind of settings would you prefer? Also give me examples of blocks in the past set outside of Dominaria that had that.
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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!
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What about Tarkir, Alara, Mirrodin, Kamigawa and Zendikar, out of curiosity?
Again, why are we assuming Induced Amnesia is permanent? If anything, the card's effect implies the opposite.
Beyond that, I do agree that the art has had some less than stellar instances in recent times, but there have been art pieces that I truly liked. Of course, being a biased Raymond Swanland fan, I'm glad to see any of his works on a card, despite usually having a lot going on in them. I'm also inclined to agree about the underprinting problem, but that's a separate issue.
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!
Spirits
I don't look for anything in particular. If it interests me in terms of its gameplay, setting and story, I'm fine with it.
Ixalan is a bit meh overall in all three aspects for me except with Jace, Vraska and Azor in terms of story, and the flip cards in terms of gameplay. The Ravnica setup and Bolas involvement interest me more than anything else in the story, even with Vraska's memory wipe. I like the Elder Dinos too, funnily enough.
If you want a definite answer though, Shards of Alara. I love the plane (especially the Esper shard, if my avi didn't give it away), the story behind it and the mechanics (Exalted and Unearth in particular are mechanics I wouldn't mind seeing again).
Abzan - Western Asia
Jeskai - Tibet/China
Sultai - India
Mardu - Mongolia
Temur - Northern Asia
You compare that to "everything is Japan here" Kamigawa and you can see why that plane felt like a home run for me.
Heavily agree. I'm okay with us leaving flip cards behind for a few years. I would say the same for +1/+1 counters but I do want to see Undying return and I also don't think it'll be gone for longer than a year at a time, if that, and they're not as annoying. It's more of the fact I want to see another mechanic replace the basic "do something with a 1/1 counter" in standard.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
I think "Leaves the Battlefield" triggers be more of a thing, kinda like you're saying about evoke/echo style effects, without it being too far off the beater path for WotC. I'm also an big fan of cascade (although it's far too strong in a standard cycle) and proliferate (but not in a standard with energy counters lol) but I doubt that we'd ever see those for a super long time.
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
The reason Return to Ravnica was so great is because shock lands are good for aggro, mid-range, and control strategies, where as fast lands are strictly good for aggro and maybe midrange. That combined with a more on curve power / toughness set design made the set far more flexible than the current standard block. They flipped too far the other way with Theros and the slow scry land manabase, though. WotC needs to just stick with a good set of lands and stop it with the reinventing the wheel.
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!
Was Alara block popular/well done? I didnt play it.
I have this idea floating around, when I look at Khans and RTR, that Multi-Colour Matters blocks are the best for depth of play, and I'm wondering if Alara could be added as a data point to that.
Spirits