With Theros now essentially fully explored, I thought it might be interesting to look back over the past couple of years of draft formats to see where it sits in the scheme of things and also just to see how WoTC has been going as far as creating interesting draft environments. Here's a rough summary, based partially on my personal experience (which is far more limited than most), but mostly on the "general consensus" view in various podcasts and articles and forum commentary.
The letter grades are very rough, happy to hear alternate views - I'm trying to go for the consensus view here.
Theros
Pros: Bestow and heroic both well implemented mechanics, most colour pairs viable, no overwhelming balance issues, reasonable (if conditional) removal.
Cons: Somewhat shallow (no real niche strategies), voltron dudes + conditional removal can be frustrating, gary maybe slightly overpowered at common.
Rating: B+. Solid if unexciting.
M14
Pros: Slower format, excellent removal, some interesting combos, strong focus on card advantage and draft fundamentals.
Cons: Removal maybe too good leading to some excessively long/boring games, white too weak, blue too strong.
Rating: C+. Good core set experience.
DGM-GTC-RTR
Pros: Full set experience, high degree of skill/complexity.
Cons: Structure of the guilds/packs meant signalling was a mess and drafting could feel excessively random, optimal DGM pack strategy was to take the boring monocoloured cards instead of the more powerful gold cards, the best fixing was in the first pack before you knew what colours you would be in, cross-pack synergies too difficult to take advantage off due to mana/colour drafting difficulties.
Rating: C-. Overall a pretty big letdown, the ambitious goal of a 10-guild draft environment across three sets wasn't well executed in practice.
3x GTC
Pros: Fast/agressive format, relatively easy to read guild signals.
Cons: Bears/2-drops far too dominant in the format, dimir excessively weak, overly fast and overall fairly simplistic format.
Rating: C-. Not too many people enjoyed this format, I don't think - fighting over 2/2s just isn't particularly exciting.
3x RTR
Pros: Guilds well implemented, mostly good colour pair balance, relatively skill-rewarding.
Cons: Golgari somewhat weak, pack rat, draft a little too on-rails with only five guilds.
Rating: B+. I think most people were happy with the set, but not overwhelmed by it.
M13
Pros: Surprisingly deep core-set experience, good mix of obvious linear and sideways/niche strategies (primadox, tokens etc.), good colour pair balance, chronomaton, off-colour land uncommons.
Cons: Still a core set, BW exalted just "keyword bingo".
Rating: A-. Best core set ever? The bar might not be too high, but I think this qualifies.
Avacyn restored
Pros: Soulbond interesting in theory, some very interesting individual cards (blood artist, repeatable flickerers).
Cons: Been covered many times - poor removal, overwhelmingly powerful green/blue, some solbond pairs simply unstoppable.
Rating: F. Many would rank one of the worst draft sets ever.
DKA-ISD-ISD
Pros: Still building off the solid ISD base.
Cons: Probably didn't add much positive to that base.
Rating: B+. I think most people preferred triple ISD to this, but it was still good because of good fundamentals.
ISD-ISD-ISD
Pros: Very skill rewarding, many viable strategies, double-sided cards add interesting tension to games.
Cons: The number of times people reference "spider spawning" when describing how awesome the set was.
Rating: A+. Widely regarded as one of the best draft formats ever.
So, am I right in thinking that there's only been two genuinely good (A- or better) draft formats in the past two years? And one of them was a core set? Am I being too harsh on theros, does the solid fundamentals of it mean that it's a good set even if it is lacking another dimension that would come from having some niche interesting strategies? And when was the last time WoTC managed to design a multi-set draft format that was better than the sum of its parts?
This seems pretty spot on. I can't comment in m14 bc I haven't drafted it but everything else seems right. Maybe 3x RTR is a B+ But AVR was definitely horrendous.
M14 was not a B, maybe a C or lower in my experience. Very niche drafting.
DGR was bad. I would say D. I love drafting and this drafting environment pushed me into Standard play on Friday nights.
3XGTC, same as above. Just an awkward draft environment. A couple people would get nuts decks and the rest were just pacers for them to the finals.
3XRTR could go as high as A-. I feel they hit it pretty spot on. Always different. Granted late in the game people were trying to force the GW decks.
M13, I was not as fond of it as you were. I would say B or a B-. Still pretty good, just not as good as you felt it was.
3XAVR - simply terrible. The Bonfire/Griselbrand lottery.
DDI - Disliked this format a lot. Not sure why. I just felt DKA didnt bring enough to the table to make ISD a better format. Personally I would say C-
3XISD was good, but it had its flaws too. I personally am not a fan of mill. It is way over powered dealing with 40 card deck. I would say solid B though.
I think Theros is pretty poor... way too many games come down to "well, he cast an ordeal on turn 2. I have a griptide and a voyage's end in my deck. If I have one in my hand I'm going to blow him out and gain a huge tempo advantage. If I don't, I'll lose and nothing else either of us do this game will matter".
I'd say 3x Theros and 3x Innistrad are definitely the standouts of the past few years. Every other format between them has been average or worse, although I'm really not as down on Avacyn Restored as most people. I also hated M14 with a passion, and I don't see why so many people liked it.
I agree with these grades, but not of your definition of "generally good." By definition, a C+ is slightly above average.. therefore, according to these grades, we've had a pretty good few years, with a couple flops.
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I got really bored with M14, play blue or lose, white completely useless.
People didn't seem to like GTC and full block as a format it would be fair to say they were colour imbalanced and bombs were really strong and the fixing not good enough.
however, I found that they were deep and every draft was different and I actually enjoyed myself.
Theros is good, well balanced (red is weak but other than that) and the mechanics all work and are impactful. I would say it is fairly linear as a format, not particularly deep. Draft is straight forward but the game play is interesting, I like the tension with using your conditional removal before your opponent gets to bestow.
I am actually not impressed at all with Theros. The voltron aspect in light of very expensive hard removal is a little bit much. The other day I had a freaking Favored Hoplite up to a 9/11 lifelinker. If you're not in blue, there's really no way to stop that because Sip of Hemlock is too damn slow. I ended at 38 life or something stupid. He was R/G, so no hope whatsoever for him.
It's also not a terribly interactive set with a dearth of decently-costed removal, which gives more power to the voltrons. I hate the matches that come down to out-voltroning the opponent's voltron because neither of you can remove the behemoths otherwise.
Now, heroic is a pretty sweet mechanic. However, I think that so many of the heroic cards are too underwhelming. Wingsteed Rider is obviously a beast, Phalanx Leader is straight up busted, and black and white both of their three mana troll hero. After that, most heroes are pretty bad really. Green has its two decent ones.
Another aspect that's sucky is the god awful equipment. Does anybody ever play any of these things? Why even bother throwing utter garbage like that in? Pure poop. That also goes for artifacts in general with one good one out of the whole set and a limited few other acceptable ones.
But, yen again, I'm a Gatecrash/Zendikar kind of guy where the vast majority of players aren't, so there's my bias coming out. I understand that you're never going to love every set every printed, and I think that I hit the first one that I really actively do not like. I've been kind of indifferent to some sets in the past, but Theros hits a wrong chord with me. I was really pumped for this set, but it has underperformed for my expectations. I'm hoping that Born of the Gods and the Journey give us some better stuff. Looking forward to drafting just one pack of Theros.
At any rate, I agree with the general consensus that triple Innistrad is an awesome format. It has a lot of depth with good removal in every color. Cool creatures and a fun mechanic in Morbid.
THS: I would almost rather play M14 than Theros these days. Not quite, but the excessive amounts of swingy games do not make for an exciting limited environment. The randomness is already there in the form of mana screw/flood, why add any additional weight to it. C-
M14: a little bit shallow but overall alright core set. C-
MMA: Extremely deep and fun. Cards have abilities, the board is relevant, there is a lot of interaction during the games, and the drafting itself is fun. A+
DGR: The amazing limited evironment of RGD was not replicated. However, I still enjoyed it, as the format allowed for both 2 color linear aggro decks and 5c control to exist and be viable. B+
GTC: I really dislike sets which don't promote interaction. Aiming to kill your opponent on T4 is not interactive. Learning to draft Dimir/Orzhov did boost the overall impression of the set. B-
RTR: Pretty good. Oh wait. Yes, pretty good if not for the little rat that could. The memory is tainted by the fact that at PT:RtR I faced the obnoxious little vermin 4 times in 4 games, and my first pro tour experience was over. B+
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There are basically two aspects to talk about: (1), the descriptions of the draft formats (i.e., did the OP accurately characterize each format with its strengths and weaknesses, and if not, what would you change), and (2), the letter grades/overall assessments, which are necessarily going to vary wildly from person to person due to individual likes and dislikes.
On the descriptions, I think the OP mostly nailed it. Those are some solid descriptions. I'd quibble a little on Dragon's Maze... I think it actually did work surprisingly well as a 10-guild draft format. The trouble is that wasn't actually the goal of the set; it was supposed to be a "mix and match different guilds" experience, and instead it was "pick any 1 of the 10 guilds in pack 1 and stick with it." Once I accepted that and adapted, I actually liked it a lot.
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I'd shift the grades more than the descriptions, but again, those were always going to be highly subjective and individualized. Here's what I'd change from Psychobabble's:
Dark Ascension - A-. I think Dark Ascension was a victim of very high expectations and doesn't get quite enough credit. As great as Innistrad was, its color balance was really only "good enough", and DKA helped a lot. And though we lost Burning Vengeance and Spider Spawning due to dilution of the key uncommons, the BW Human Sacrifice deck stepped up to the Gimmick Deck plate, and it was pretty fun. This was still a very good format.
Avacyn Restored - D or D-. Yes, it was bad and deserves a failing grade (less than C-), but I wouldn't give an outright F to a format unless I actually abandoned it completely early in the season. AVR still got me to FNM >50% of the time, so that's something. There were some cool card synergies at least.
M13 - B. Probably is the best Core Set ever, but that still only makes it decent IMO.
M14 - C-. It just got old really, really fast. Honestly, M12 held my interest longer, though I don't expect that to be a common opinion. If more of the synergy decks had actually worked, the way BR Sacrifice did, it could have been really good.
Dragon's Maze - B/B+. I was pretty disappointed at the beginning when I was still trying to draft the solidly 3-color, "inter-guild synergy" decks that it seems clear R&D wanted people to draft. Once I recalibrated and started approaching it as "Draft any 1 of the 10 guilds, maybe with a splash if you're not too aggressive" I had way more fun. I ended up enjoying it a little more than 3xRTR overall (though I acknowledge that my love of Simic colors that opinion). This format certainly had flaws, but I think it's underrated, and is way better than a C-. Certainly it was much better than M14.
Theros: C
It's full of great ideas, but not balanced properly.
M14: C+
Very shallow strategy. Big step backwards from M13 in design terms.
DGM-GTC-RTR: B
Could have been great, but dragged down by the stupidity of Guildpact.
3x GTC: D-
Disastrous pacing. Almost undraftable.
3x RTR: A-
Really great set. Just very, very slightly off on the guild balance.
M13: B
Best Core Set ever. Can a Core Set ever be as good as an expert set? I don't know, but this is still a bit too shallow to qualify.
Avacyn Restored: C-
This is certainly not a great set, but is consistently underrated by players who hated the lack of removal. A couple of Soulbond cards needed to be at higher rarities and the set needed one or two better defensive cards at Common, but it wasn't a total trainwreck. Certainly nothing like as bad as Guildpact.
DKA-ISD-ISD: B
Unexpectedly weak given what a great starting point ISD was. The main problem was a poorly balanced power curve at Common, with a few powerful cards followed by an awful lot of stuff you didn't want to play.
ISD-ISD-ISD: A
I don't agree that this was the best draft format ever - some of the fast tribal draws were just a bit too unstoppable - but it certainly comes close. Also, much better online than with real cards, because double-faced cards really did cross the line a bit.
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I'm just not a fan of the huge emphasis it puts on the voltron strategies and the fact that pretty much all the removal is either overcosted/clunky or limited/conditional just exasperates this problem. The format also isn't particularly deep in terms of strategies.
M14: C+
It was more enjoyable of a format than I expected it to be. Using Slivers as the returning mechanic was pretty lame, but the rest of the format was solid if not particularly exciting. Blue was perhaps a bit too strong, but the other colors were pretty well balanced.
DGR - undetermined
Didn't play this enough to really grade it fairly. Of the few drafts I did, it was okay but nothing exciting. Certainly didn't grab me like RGD. Also kind of awkward drafting a fast set like GTC in the middle of a multicolor block
GTC: C
I didn't hate this set as much as some, but the hyper-aggressive nature definitely grows tiring pretty quickly. Still though Orzhov existed and it could play more of a long game at times. Dimir being the weakest guild by a wide margin also hurt the format.
RTR: B+
Had a lot of fun with this format. The guilds were much more balanced unlike in GTC and there were enough different strategies to keep things interesting.
M13: B
One of the better coresets in recent memory. I think this in part shows how good of a mechanic exalted is, but the set was also really well balanced and fun to play.
AVR: D
And this is one of the worst formats in recent memory. This set has so many problems I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll start with soulbond though, since I think this had the most negative effect on the format. Not because the mechanic itself was bad, I actually think it's a good mechanic, however the designers were clearly too tunnel-visioned when building the set around it as they tried to make it as difficult to interact as possible. The removal in this format is for the most part terrible and it's because they didn't want someone's soulbond guy getting killed and them getting blown out as a result. Next there's miracles. The uncommon ones weren't too bad, but the rares pretty much always lead to silly blowouts. The other big problem with the set is that black is pretty close to unplayable (Jon Finkel even famously said that he "doesn't see black cards" when drafting AVR).
DII: B
Still a fun format, but Dark Ascension didn't really add a lot.
Innistrad: A+
One of the best draft formats ever. The shear number of strategies available kept the format fresh for a long time, and not only that but many of the strategies even made good use of cards that would be unplayable in many other formats (see a card like Gnaw to the Bone) which really is a great testament to the work of the design/development teams. Not only that but the colors were all well-balanced and they really hit the sweet spot for removal I felt.
I think the strengths and flaws of each format have been accurately described; the ratings are more a reflection of how much you personally value those strengths / dislike the flaws. I do think DGR is underrated because of its complexity; although the fact that (as the OP said) 2-color decks were the norm, hence you had to ignore most of the powerful gold cards, was a big detriment. I also think DII is underrated; imo triple Innistrad was great (as most people agree) and DKA did not change much. Yes, it made Spider Spawning harder to draft, but by then that was probably a good thing (the cat was out of the bag anyway). I just don't think the format got much better or worse (I personally enjoyed it a bit more than III, in fact), which is fine if you're talking about an A-level set.
For reference, I'd rank the something like
3x THS: D+
3x M14: B-
DGR: B+
3x GTC: D-
3x RTR: B
3x M13: B
3x AVR: F
DII: A+
3x INN: A
And of course, 3x MM was A+++ or however that silly letter system works. ^^
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Pretty much agree with whatever's being said here, although I like Theros a bit more than what you guys seem to think (maybe because I've never found RW to be that overpowered), and AVR is definitely worse than GTC.
Interesting to see the wide variety of thinking for each set(s) drafting score. I would wonder how much some draft and if its in paper or online. I personally dont draft online, but have heard both its easier then paper and harder.
Well, glad to have sparked a good discussion :). Clearly there's some agreement on the general concepts, less on the individual scores which probably isn't surprising. I think the huge spectrum of opinions on theros is really interesting, I personally can't quite put my finger on it but I feel like the set has failed overall but simultaneously done a whole lot right. I think bestow is absolute genius in concept, but somehow flawed in execution, idk why. Maybe it just needed more non-blue, unconditional, removal.
and I totally overlooked MMA because I play constructed mostly so forget that set exists lol.
Interesting to see the wide variety of thinking for each set(s) drafting score. I would wonder how much some draft and if its in paper or online. I personally dont draft online, but have heard both its easier then paper and harder.
I wanted to comment on the relative skill gap between paper Magic and online Magic, but it kept sounding like this elitist rant with almost zero tangible evidence to back it up. So let me just say this: If your local game store tends to attract a lot of more casual players who draft infrequently, I can't help but expect those drafts will be a mess of color sniping and signals that are all over the place. When overall pools get diluted like that, it can't possibly contribute to a solid representation of how the format is supposed to play. I would expect someone in that position to have a lower opinion of a set than of one where the mechanics and synergies were allowed to come together more readily.
That being said, if your LGS attracts strong players, then the opposite would likely be true.
MTGO can be a real mixed bag; sometimes you're in a draft with players who clearly know what they're doing, and sometimes you watch dumbfounded as players repeatedly disconnect and reconnect, and the most absurd cards keep getting passed left and right.
I guess I liked DGR better than most, but I definitely agree that having all the mana fixing piled up into the first pack made for a mediocre drafting experience. It made basically all of packs 2 and 3 kind of rote. Gameplay was largely pretty good, though. B+
I loathed AVR. I seriously didn't have one single good experience with that set. Every draft was shallow and boring and every game was a coin flip to see who could dump the most unfair, noninteractive thing onto the board. What grade can you give that means the gradee explodes into little bits, and then everyone who hated it gets to take turns stomping on them? X-?
THS isn't bad. I don't think the turn 2 Ordeal thing is really that bad. Madcap Skillz was way more irritating and noninteractive. THS doesn't have a huge issue with incoming damage being unblockable (Wingsteed Rider, Purphoros' Emissary and Aqueous Form notwithstanding), which was a big part of what made GTC so unpleasant for me. The removal is also a little frustrating, I guess. I actually kinda wish that since they took a page from the Yugioh-style "the biggest monster on the field is all that matters" theme, that they had also used the trap card style of removal somehow. It'd make for a nice option somewhere between instants and sorceries that Voltron decks could play around. Lastly, there is a same-y feel to most drafts because so many color pairs play similarly, and there's no lateral strategies to speak of. B-
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
I think the strengths and flaws of each format have been accurately described; the ratings are more a reflection of how much you personally value those strengths / dislike the flaws.your win percentage.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Theros: I'm enjoying it reasonably well, but I'm pretty easy to please. I do feel there's only like 3 real decks though. The R/W aggro deck, which tends to dominate in my experience (R/B aggro is so much worse). Some kind of Green fatty deck that tries to stall (with Blue bounce or Black/Red removal) then run them over. And then the Black control decks that kill you with Grey Merchants, usually paired with Blue. There's some variance, and some room to get creative still with other color pairings. G/W Heroic wants to be a thing, but it's really hard to get the cards to make that work right, and then you still lose a lot to the other decks. Red/Blue is best not spoken of. Call it a B for me.
M14: Meh. I find that core sets wear out their welcomes fairly quickly and this one went more quickly than usual. Slivers sucked. Blue was hugely overpowered (and I'm not a Blue mage so that's going to ding you right there). C-
DGR:Loved this. Very sad I can't find a queue firing anymore. It's the only set where I have no idea what's going to happen at the beginning and feel like I can literally end up with anything and still have it be a playable deck. Multi-Color 4 life. A-
GTC: Sad that this wasn't better. The aggro decks were just too dominant and the hyper-agressiveness of games just tended to make things unfun. You could get an interesting deck and a good match occasionally, but not often enough. C
RTR: Sweet. The Guilds blended here much better than in GTC (even if Izzet trailed a bit behind the others). Only 1 guild trying to be Hyper-aggressive and sufficient tools to deal with that. A-
M13: meh. Better than M14? C+
AVR: Did not hate this as much as everyone else. It felt a lot like Theros feels to me now. There were like 3 real decks, with the occasional kooky combo. B-
DII: Liked it. To me it was a lot like III, but with more cards. A-
III: Agreeing this was the best of recent memory. A
I didn't draft Modern Masters online because of the higher costs. The one time I did it in real life was...fine? I cracked an Arcbound Ravager and a Foil Vedalkin Shackles?
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Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I only play on mtgo now, so my values are based on that level of play. I will say this as far as MTGO vs paper: after I first started drafting heavily on mtgo during AVR/M13/RTR, the handful of times I did draft at a LGS after that, I usually won the draft. And I mean, like 8 wins out of 11 drafts entered or some ridiculous number like that. So either the LGS's I played at have horrible drafters, I got really lucky, or the skill level on MTGO is just that much better that it makes you a better drafter. I would guess the latter.
Anyway:
3x THS - B. I like this format quite a bit. Different strategies available, hard decisions in game, timing is everything as far as instant speed removal/tricks go. G/U seems more overpowered to me than W/x heroic though, especially if you bring sealed into the equation.
M14 - C. Meh. I'm not as high on this as some other people. Its ok, but too many long games and board stalls. Not much in the way of trickery except for maybe celestial flare, very vanilla. When a 6 mana draw spell is one of the best cards in the format, something is off.
DGM/GTC/RTR - C+. I really was stoked when this came out, and liked it at first, but way too many drafts ended in trainwrecks or were just crapshoots. My general strategy was try to cut Orzhov early and luck into Orzhov p2 or shift to rakdos or golgari pack 3. Signals were a mess, all the fixing was in pack 1 which is just silly. Sweet gold cards in DGM though. This had a ton of potential, but fell short.
3x GTC - C. When you purposefully don't put 6cmc bombs in your deck (or even sometimes 5 cmc), because you'll never get to cast them, something is wrong. To be fair though, extort is probably one of my favorite mechanics ever printed. Average format, but as far as speedy formats go Zendikar was so so so much better.
3x RTR - A. I loved this format. Absolutely frigging loved it. I guess the only legitimate complaint (aside from T2 Pack Rat) is that you had 5 decks to pick from, but even then, there were different strategies within those color pairs. I feel that this set has a ton of just straight up awesome cards in it, not just for limited either. Golgari all day, every day. I guess, toward the end of the format Selesnya.combattricks.dec got somewhat annoying to play against.
M13 - A-. Kind of similar feelings toward this format, I really never ever got bored of drafting this set. Almost every color pair was very viable (except U/B, or was that just me?), the color friends cycle had awesome creatures (aven, flinthoof etc), and a lot of decks were just crazy fun to play. I drafted Primadox.dec I don't know how many times.
3x AVR - D. I don't hate this format quite as much as others, largely because I did very well with it, but my main complaint is that there are so many just straight up unplayable cards in here. Cards are either crazy good, or just garbage. As others said, removal was non-existent as well. The Homicidal seclusion deck was sweet. I won the finals of a paper draft at a shop by casting a SBed Outwit on a miracled Bonfire, and the dude threw his deck across the room, so that was neat. Good memories.
Innistrad/Dark Ascension formats - I'm really not as qualified to judge these because I came back to Magic during M12 after a 15 year hiatus, and just started drafting during 3x INN. The format was fun, but as a new drafter that just came back to the game, the format was crazy intimidating because it was so heavily played, and the experienced drafters would just run you over. I lost a lot of tickets on MTGO during this period. I did love me some Travel Preparations though.
The letter grades are very rough, happy to hear alternate views - I'm trying to go for the consensus view here.
Theros
Pros: Bestow and heroic both well implemented mechanics, most colour pairs viable, no overwhelming balance issues, reasonable (if conditional) removal.
Cons: Somewhat shallow (no real niche strategies), voltron dudes + conditional removal can be frustrating, gary maybe slightly overpowered at common.
Rating: B+. Solid if unexciting.
M14
Pros: Slower format, excellent removal, some interesting combos, strong focus on card advantage and draft fundamentals.
Cons: Removal maybe too good leading to some excessively long/boring games, white too weak, blue too strong.
Rating: C+. Good core set experience.
DGM-GTC-RTR
Pros: Full set experience, high degree of skill/complexity.
Cons: Structure of the guilds/packs meant signalling was a mess and drafting could feel excessively random, optimal DGM pack strategy was to take the boring monocoloured cards instead of the more powerful gold cards, the best fixing was in the first pack before you knew what colours you would be in, cross-pack synergies too difficult to take advantage off due to mana/colour drafting difficulties.
Rating: C-. Overall a pretty big letdown, the ambitious goal of a 10-guild draft environment across three sets wasn't well executed in practice.
3x GTC
Pros: Fast/agressive format, relatively easy to read guild signals.
Cons: Bears/2-drops far too dominant in the format, dimir excessively weak, overly fast and overall fairly simplistic format.
Rating: C-. Not too many people enjoyed this format, I don't think - fighting over 2/2s just isn't particularly exciting.
3x RTR
Pros: Guilds well implemented, mostly good colour pair balance, relatively skill-rewarding.
Cons: Golgari somewhat weak, pack rat, draft a little too on-rails with only five guilds.
Rating: B+. I think most people were happy with the set, but not overwhelmed by it.
M13
Pros: Surprisingly deep core-set experience, good mix of obvious linear and sideways/niche strategies (primadox, tokens etc.), good colour pair balance, chronomaton, off-colour land uncommons.
Cons: Still a core set, BW exalted just "keyword bingo".
Rating: A-. Best core set ever? The bar might not be too high, but I think this qualifies.
Avacyn restored
Pros: Soulbond interesting in theory, some very interesting individual cards (blood artist, repeatable flickerers).
Cons: Been covered many times - poor removal, overwhelmingly powerful green/blue, some solbond pairs simply unstoppable.
Rating: F. Many would rank one of the worst draft sets ever.
DKA-ISD-ISD
Pros: Still building off the solid ISD base.
Cons: Probably didn't add much positive to that base.
Rating: B+. I think most people preferred triple ISD to this, but it was still good because of good fundamentals.
ISD-ISD-ISD
Pros: Very skill rewarding, many viable strategies, double-sided cards add interesting tension to games.
Cons: The number of times people reference "spider spawning" when describing how awesome the set was.
Rating: A+. Widely regarded as one of the best draft formats ever.
So, am I right in thinking that there's only been two genuinely good (A- or better) draft formats in the past two years? And one of them was a core set? Am I being too harsh on theros, does the solid fundamentals of it mean that it's a good set even if it is lacking another dimension that would come from having some niche interesting strategies? And when was the last time WoTC managed to design a multi-set draft format that was better than the sum of its parts?
DGR was bad. I would say D. I love drafting and this drafting environment pushed me into Standard play on Friday nights.
3XGTC, same as above. Just an awkward draft environment. A couple people would get nuts decks and the rest were just pacers for them to the finals.
3XRTR could go as high as A-. I feel they hit it pretty spot on. Always different. Granted late in the game people were trying to force the GW decks.
M13, I was not as fond of it as you were. I would say B or a B-. Still pretty good, just not as good as you felt it was.
3XAVR - simply terrible. The Bonfire/Griselbrand lottery.
DDI - Disliked this format a lot. Not sure why. I just felt DKA didnt bring enough to the table to make ISD a better format. Personally I would say C-
3XISD was good, but it had its flaws too. I personally am not a fan of mill. It is way over powered dealing with 40 card deck. I would say solid B though.
My Decks:
EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn
Modern: Polytokes
IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
Just a friendly reminder that I will drive this car off a bridge
I prefered GTC and DGM GTD RTR to M14.
I got really bored with M14, play blue or lose, white completely useless.
People didn't seem to like GTC and full block as a format it would be fair to say they were colour imbalanced and bombs were really strong and the fixing not good enough.
however, I found that they were deep and every draft was different and I actually enjoyed myself.
Theros is good, well balanced (red is weak but other than that) and the mechanics all work and are impactful. I would say it is fairly linear as a format, not particularly deep. Draft is straight forward but the game play is interesting, I like the tension with using your conditional removal before your opponent gets to bestow.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
It's also not a terribly interactive set with a dearth of decently-costed removal, which gives more power to the voltrons. I hate the matches that come down to out-voltroning the opponent's voltron because neither of you can remove the behemoths otherwise.
Now, heroic is a pretty sweet mechanic. However, I think that so many of the heroic cards are too underwhelming. Wingsteed Rider is obviously a beast, Phalanx Leader is straight up busted, and black and white both of their three mana troll hero. After that, most heroes are pretty bad really. Green has its two decent ones.
Another aspect that's sucky is the god awful equipment. Does anybody ever play any of these things? Why even bother throwing utter garbage like that in? Pure poop. That also goes for artifacts in general with one good one out of the whole set and a limited few other acceptable ones.
But, yen again, I'm a Gatecrash/Zendikar kind of guy where the vast majority of players aren't, so there's my bias coming out. I understand that you're never going to love every set every printed, and I think that I hit the first one that I really actively do not like. I've been kind of indifferent to some sets in the past, but Theros hits a wrong chord with me. I was really pumped for this set, but it has underperformed for my expectations. I'm hoping that Born of the Gods and the Journey give us some better stuff. Looking forward to drafting just one pack of Theros.
At any rate, I agree with the general consensus that triple Innistrad is an awesome format. It has a lot of depth with good removal in every color. Cool creatures and a fun mechanic in Morbid.
M14: a little bit shallow but overall alright core set. C-
MMA: Extremely deep and fun. Cards have abilities, the board is relevant, there is a lot of interaction during the games, and the drafting itself is fun. A+
DGR: The amazing limited evironment of RGD was not replicated. However, I still enjoyed it, as the format allowed for both 2 color linear aggro decks and 5c control to exist and be viable. B+
GTC: I really dislike sets which don't promote interaction. Aiming to kill your opponent on T4 is not interactive. Learning to draft Dimir/Orzhov did boost the overall impression of the set. B-
RTR: Pretty good. Oh wait. Yes, pretty good if not for the little rat that could. The memory is tainted by the fact that at PT:RtR I faced the obnoxious little vermin 4 times in 4 games, and my first pro tour experience was over. B+
DCI L2 Judge
GP:Madrid 2010 45th
GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th
GP:London 2013 67th
Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
There are basically two aspects to talk about: (1), the descriptions of the draft formats (i.e., did the OP accurately characterize each format with its strengths and weaknesses, and if not, what would you change), and (2), the letter grades/overall assessments, which are necessarily going to vary wildly from person to person due to individual likes and dislikes.
On the descriptions, I think the OP mostly nailed it. Those are some solid descriptions. I'd quibble a little on Dragon's Maze... I think it actually did work surprisingly well as a 10-guild draft format. The trouble is that wasn't actually the goal of the set; it was supposed to be a "mix and match different guilds" experience, and instead it was "pick any 1 of the 10 guilds in pack 1 and stick with it." Once I accepted that and adapted, I actually liked it a lot.
---
I'd shift the grades more than the descriptions, but again, those were always going to be highly subjective and individualized. Here's what I'd change from Psychobabble's:
Dark Ascension - A-. I think Dark Ascension was a victim of very high expectations and doesn't get quite enough credit. As great as Innistrad was, its color balance was really only "good enough", and DKA helped a lot. And though we lost Burning Vengeance and Spider Spawning due to dilution of the key uncommons, the BW Human Sacrifice deck stepped up to the Gimmick Deck plate, and it was pretty fun. This was still a very good format.
Avacyn Restored - D or D-. Yes, it was bad and deserves a failing grade (less than C-), but I wouldn't give an outright F to a format unless I actually abandoned it completely early in the season. AVR still got me to FNM >50% of the time, so that's something. There were some cool card synergies at least.
M13 - B. Probably is the best Core Set ever, but that still only makes it decent IMO.
M14 - C-. It just got old really, really fast. Honestly, M12 held my interest longer, though I don't expect that to be a common opinion. If more of the synergy decks had actually worked, the way BR Sacrifice did, it could have been really good.
Dragon's Maze - B/B+. I was pretty disappointed at the beginning when I was still trying to draft the solidly 3-color, "inter-guild synergy" decks that it seems clear R&D wanted people to draft. Once I recalibrated and started approaching it as "Draft any 1 of the 10 guilds, maybe with a splash if you're not too aggressive" I had way more fun. I ended up enjoying it a little more than 3xRTR overall (though I acknowledge that my love of Simic colors that opinion). This format certainly had flaws, but I think it's underrated, and is way better than a C-. Certainly it was much better than M14.
It's full of great ideas, but not balanced properly.
M14: C+
Very shallow strategy. Big step backwards from M13 in design terms.
DGM-GTC-RTR: B
Could have been great, but dragged down by the stupidity of Guildpact.
3x GTC: D-
Disastrous pacing. Almost undraftable.
3x RTR: A-
Really great set. Just very, very slightly off on the guild balance.
M13: B
Best Core Set ever. Can a Core Set ever be as good as an expert set? I don't know, but this is still a bit too shallow to qualify.
Avacyn Restored: C-
This is certainly not a great set, but is consistently underrated by players who hated the lack of removal. A couple of Soulbond cards needed to be at higher rarities and the set needed one or two better defensive cards at Common, but it wasn't a total trainwreck. Certainly nothing like as bad as Guildpact.
DKA-ISD-ISD: B
Unexpectedly weak given what a great starting point ISD was. The main problem was a poorly balanced power curve at Common, with a few powerful cards followed by an awful lot of stuff you didn't want to play.
ISD-ISD-ISD: A
I don't agree that this was the best draft format ever - some of the fast tribal draws were just a bit too unstoppable - but it certainly comes close. Also, much better online than with real cards, because double-faced cards really did cross the line a bit.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I'm just not a fan of the huge emphasis it puts on the voltron strategies and the fact that pretty much all the removal is either overcosted/clunky or limited/conditional just exasperates this problem. The format also isn't particularly deep in terms of strategies.
M14: C+
It was more enjoyable of a format than I expected it to be. Using Slivers as the returning mechanic was pretty lame, but the rest of the format was solid if not particularly exciting. Blue was perhaps a bit too strong, but the other colors were pretty well balanced.
DGR - undetermined
Didn't play this enough to really grade it fairly. Of the few drafts I did, it was okay but nothing exciting. Certainly didn't grab me like RGD. Also kind of awkward drafting a fast set like GTC in the middle of a multicolor block
GTC: C
I didn't hate this set as much as some, but the hyper-aggressive nature definitely grows tiring pretty quickly. Still though Orzhov existed and it could play more of a long game at times. Dimir being the weakest guild by a wide margin also hurt the format.
RTR: B+
Had a lot of fun with this format. The guilds were much more balanced unlike in GTC and there were enough different strategies to keep things interesting.
M13: B
One of the better coresets in recent memory. I think this in part shows how good of a mechanic exalted is, but the set was also really well balanced and fun to play.
AVR: D
And this is one of the worst formats in recent memory. This set has so many problems I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll start with soulbond though, since I think this had the most negative effect on the format. Not because the mechanic itself was bad, I actually think it's a good mechanic, however the designers were clearly too tunnel-visioned when building the set around it as they tried to make it as difficult to interact as possible. The removal in this format is for the most part terrible and it's because they didn't want someone's soulbond guy getting killed and them getting blown out as a result. Next there's miracles. The uncommon ones weren't too bad, but the rares pretty much always lead to silly blowouts. The other big problem with the set is that black is pretty close to unplayable (Jon Finkel even famously said that he "doesn't see black cards" when drafting AVR).
DII: B
Still a fun format, but Dark Ascension didn't really add a lot.
Innistrad: A+
One of the best draft formats ever. The shear number of strategies available kept the format fresh for a long time, and not only that but many of the strategies even made good use of cards that would be unplayable in many other formats (see a card like Gnaw to the Bone) which really is a great testament to the work of the design/development teams. Not only that but the colors were all well-balanced and they really hit the sweet spot for removal I felt.
For reference, I'd rank the something like
3x THS: D+
3x M14: B-
DGR: B+
3x GTC: D-
3x RTR: B
3x M13: B
3x AVR: F
DII: A+
3x INN: A
And of course, 3x MM was A+++ or however that silly letter system works. ^^
For reference, ISD or ROE?
and I totally overlooked MMA because I play constructed mostly so forget that set exists lol.
I wanted to comment on the relative skill gap between paper Magic and online Magic, but it kept sounding like this elitist rant with almost zero tangible evidence to back it up. So let me just say this: If your local game store tends to attract a lot of more casual players who draft infrequently, I can't help but expect those drafts will be a mess of color sniping and signals that are all over the place. When overall pools get diluted like that, it can't possibly contribute to a solid representation of how the format is supposed to play. I would expect someone in that position to have a lower opinion of a set than of one where the mechanics and synergies were allowed to come together more readily.
That being said, if your LGS attracts strong players, then the opposite would likely be true.
MTGO can be a real mixed bag; sometimes you're in a draft with players who clearly know what they're doing, and sometimes you watch dumbfounded as players repeatedly disconnect and reconnect, and the most absurd cards keep getting passed left and right.
YMMV, I guess is what I'm saying.
I loathed AVR. I seriously didn't have one single good experience with that set. Every draft was shallow and boring and every game was a coin flip to see who could dump the most unfair, noninteractive thing onto the board. What grade can you give that means the gradee explodes into little bits, and then everyone who hated it gets to take turns stomping on them? X-?
THS isn't bad. I don't think the turn 2 Ordeal thing is really that bad. Madcap Skillz was way more irritating and noninteractive. THS doesn't have a huge issue with incoming damage being unblockable (Wingsteed Rider, Purphoros' Emissary and Aqueous Form notwithstanding), which was a big part of what made GTC so unpleasant for me. The removal is also a little frustrating, I guess. I actually kinda wish that since they took a page from the Yugioh-style "the biggest monster on the field is all that matters" theme, that they had also used the trap card style of removal somehow. It'd make for a nice option somewhere between instants and sorceries that Voltron decks could play around. Lastly, there is a same-y feel to most drafts because so many color pairs play similarly, and there's no lateral strategies to speak of. B-
Fixed.
M14: Meh. I find that core sets wear out their welcomes fairly quickly and this one went more quickly than usual. Slivers sucked. Blue was hugely overpowered (and I'm not a Blue mage so that's going to ding you right there). C-
DGR: Loved this. Very sad I can't find a queue firing anymore. It's the only set where I have no idea what's going to happen at the beginning and feel like I can literally end up with anything and still have it be a playable deck. Multi-Color 4 life. A-
GTC: Sad that this wasn't better. The aggro decks were just too dominant and the hyper-agressiveness of games just tended to make things unfun. You could get an interesting deck and a good match occasionally, but not often enough. C
RTR: Sweet. The Guilds blended here much better than in GTC (even if Izzet trailed a bit behind the others). Only 1 guild trying to be Hyper-aggressive and sufficient tools to deal with that. A-
M13: meh. Better than M14? C+
AVR: Did not hate this as much as everyone else. It felt a lot like Theros feels to me now. There were like 3 real decks, with the occasional kooky combo. B-
DII: Liked it. To me it was a lot like III, but with more cards. A-
III: Agreeing this was the best of recent memory. A
I didn't draft Modern Masters online because of the higher costs. The one time I did it in real life was...fine? I cracked an Arcbound Ravager and a Foil Vedalkin Shackles?
Anyway:
3x THS - B. I like this format quite a bit. Different strategies available, hard decisions in game, timing is everything as far as instant speed removal/tricks go. G/U seems more overpowered to me than W/x heroic though, especially if you bring sealed into the equation.
M14 - C. Meh. I'm not as high on this as some other people. Its ok, but too many long games and board stalls. Not much in the way of trickery except for maybe celestial flare, very vanilla. When a 6 mana draw spell is one of the best cards in the format, something is off.
DGM/GTC/RTR - C+. I really was stoked when this came out, and liked it at first, but way too many drafts ended in trainwrecks or were just crapshoots. My general strategy was try to cut Orzhov early and luck into Orzhov p2 or shift to rakdos or golgari pack 3. Signals were a mess, all the fixing was in pack 1 which is just silly. Sweet gold cards in DGM though. This had a ton of potential, but fell short.
3x GTC - C. When you purposefully don't put 6cmc bombs in your deck (or even sometimes 5 cmc), because you'll never get to cast them, something is wrong. To be fair though, extort is probably one of my favorite mechanics ever printed. Average format, but as far as speedy formats go Zendikar was so so so much better.
3x RTR - A. I loved this format. Absolutely frigging loved it. I guess the only legitimate complaint (aside from T2 Pack Rat) is that you had 5 decks to pick from, but even then, there were different strategies within those color pairs. I feel that this set has a ton of just straight up awesome cards in it, not just for limited either. Golgari all day, every day. I guess, toward the end of the format Selesnya.combattricks.dec got somewhat annoying to play against.
M13 - A-. Kind of similar feelings toward this format, I really never ever got bored of drafting this set. Almost every color pair was very viable (except U/B, or was that just me?), the color friends cycle had awesome creatures (aven, flinthoof etc), and a lot of decks were just crazy fun to play. I drafted Primadox.dec I don't know how many times.
3x AVR - D. I don't hate this format quite as much as others, largely because I did very well with it, but my main complaint is that there are so many just straight up unplayable cards in here. Cards are either crazy good, or just garbage. As others said, removal was non-existent as well. The Homicidal seclusion deck was sweet. I won the finals of a paper draft at a shop by casting a SBed Outwit on a miracled Bonfire, and the dude threw his deck across the room, so that was neat. Good memories.
Innistrad/Dark Ascension formats - I'm really not as qualified to judge these because I came back to Magic during M12 after a 15 year hiatus, and just started drafting during 3x INN. The format was fun, but as a new drafter that just came back to the game, the format was crazy intimidating because it was so heavily played, and the experienced drafters would just run you over. I lost a lot of tickets on MTGO during this period. I did love me some Travel Preparations though.
Standard:
RW Boros devotion/Purphoros combo
RGB Jund Midrange
Modern:
WB Martyr.proc
M14 - C. Meh. Too much durdling.
DGM/GTC/RTR - A-. DGM was quite crappy but it meant we got to draft all ten guilds, although Dimir was an embarrassment.
3x GTC - C+. Did not seem like it was meant to be drafted for a long period of time. Average
3x RTR - A-. Fun and well balanced format, all 5 guilds were playable.
3x AVR - D-. Overpowered cards with little removal, how about I spend the draft entry fee on the lottery instead?
ISD/ISD/DKA - B+. A small crappy set did not improve upon the awesome foundation.
3x ISD/ISD/ISD - A. Awesome draft, given the interesting playable archetypes that existed.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=217169
300+ MOTL Refs:
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