We got Marky R.'s storm scale article for Kaladesh through Hour of Devastation today, and in it he outright states that although afflict was meant to return in WAR, it got removed during design, and implies no eternalize as well by describing it as unfavorable.
I am actually shocked that Exert did so well, I really hate that mechanic. Afflict is kind of meh, but I would not have minded it. And Eternaize is just Embalm without the cool flavor.
So overall no loss.
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A lack of eternalize isn't surprising, since it requires baggage in the form of punch-outs and lots of different tokens. Afflict seems to have gone the same way as skulk, as an entry in the oversaturated field of evasion mechanics that wasn't good enough to justify its expansion.
Does Maro have any credibility? I dont play very often anymore so I dont hear a lot of other opinions but every.single.thing he says is "Ooh, look, we did awesome". Nevermind the fact that what he says we like/dislike does not match anything I've heard, and nevermind that his ratings do not make any sense in context with the criteria he says adds up to them. example: Colored artifacts- these are good, there are no problems, theyre flexible, they can go anywhere and not dominate the meta: storm scale 2. Compared to: vehicles- these are problematic, if theyre good enough to use they dominate the meta. we had to ban some of these. they only work well part of the time, and story wise, theyre kinda pigeonholed. : storm scale 2. (wtf?)
TL:DR, does everyone else treat Maro like russian news tv? what he actually says is all BS but it gives hints as to the direction the government is moving whether we like it or not?
I mean Maro is the only regular communication we get it depends on the issue, actual mechanics related stuff sure I trust him...if you are asking about Lore or Card Quality though no. He doesn't follow Lore at all really. And Card Quality plays into politics.
Does Maro have any credibility? I dont play very often anymore so I dont hear a lot of other opinions but every.single.thing he says is "Ooh, look, we did awesome". Nevermind the fact that what he says we like/dislike does not match anything I've heard, and nevermind that his ratings do not make any sense in context with the criteria he says adds up to them. example: Colored artifacts- these are good, there are no problems, theyre flexible, they can go anywhere and not dominate the meta: storm scale 2. Compared to: vehicles- these are problematic, if theyre good enough to use they dominate the meta. we had to ban some of these. they only work well part of the time, and story wise, theyre kinda pigeonholed. : storm scale 2. (wtf?)
TL:DR, does everyone else treat Maro like russian news tv? what he actually says is all BS but it gives hints as to the direction the government is moving whether we like it or not?
I am actually shocked that Exert did so well, I really hate that mechanic. Afflict is kind of meh, but I would not have minded it. And Eternaize is just Embalm without the cool flavor.
So overall no loss.
I'm the opposite. Eternalize had flavor if you followed the story. They were brought back from the dead as much more powerful zombies. Exert I think was a solid mechanic. I'm always happy to see more mechanics that test a player's choices. Glorybringer was one of my favorite cards in the set and I don't really like red all that much. Knowing when to every it could decide the game, and I like skillful opportunities like that.
Vehicles are well liked just like artifacts in general. Which is why many people like Mirrodin despite Standard completely breaking down due to affinity. To problem with artifacts is the completely generic cost which breaks the game in many ways.
Colored artifacts fix a lot of issues artifacts have, which is why they are a good solution for the crowd who wants to see more artifacts.
By the way, both mechanics are not mutually exclusive. You can do colored Vehicles.
That being said Maro is of course a spokesperson for Wizards and is highly interested in us buying that stuff, so that he can keep his job. To expect a completely honest answer from a person with an obvious conflict of interest is a bit much. And he is one of the more honest voices at Wizards.
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I liked both Embalm and Eternalize, and would like to see both mechanics again some day (although, not necessarily in the same set or on the same plane. There were other civilizations that embalmed their dead, although not in the way the Egyptians did.)
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It's about time for the reserved list to die, for the sake of Vintage and Legacy (And Commander).
It also doesn't serve him to say that something that wasn't popular was, or vice versa. There are people who like every mechanic, but if a mechanic (like Eternalize) doesn't go over well with a large percentage of the player base there is not a compelling reason for them to bring it back, nor is there a good reason to pretend it was so they can bring it back.
He did make the point in the article, though, that they weren't positive if people dis-liked Eternalize on its own, or just really liked Embalm and thought Eternalize was not a good riff on it.
I think we will see a form of afflict that lets you deal damage to a player or planeswalker, which would provide a way to deal with the planeswalkers matters aspect of WAR. Likely wording would be 'When this creature is blocked it deals one damage to defending player or a planeswalker they control.' This would be a little easier to balance and would allow for the mechanic to be stackable.
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
I think we will see a form of afflict that lets you deal damage to a player or planeswalker, which would provide a way to deal with the planeswalkers matters aspect of WAR. Likely wording would be 'When this creature is blocked it deals one damage to defending player or a planeswalker they control.' This would be a little easier to balance and would allow for the mechanic to be stackable.
He did make the point in the article, though, that they weren't positive if people dis-liked Eternalize on its own, or just really liked Embalm and thought Eternalize was not a good riff on it.
I thought it was an okay way to show a pumped-up Embalm, but honestly, I'm very much in favor of Magic streamlining lots of things. Subtypes and keywords in particular. I mean, maybe they could have given these creatures something like a trigger that puts +1/+1 counters on them when they're Embalmed? No need for two very similar yet distinct keywords for it. That's how you end up with flashback, jump-start, and retrace. Or Stampeding Serow and, say, anything with the Elk subtype. Is there anything that is going to care much about an Elk subtype? "Beast" covers a lot of nonspecific stuff. "Dinosaur" is good on its own, and maybe things like "Snake" and whatnot should stay, but do we need Elk? Rhino? Hippo? There's a lot of cruft. I think the list could stand to have some streamlining.
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She was made of November rain
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
Does Maro have any credibility? I dont play very often anymore so I dont hear a lot of other opinions but every.single.thing he says is "Ooh, look, we did awesome". Nevermind the fact that what he says we like/dislike does not match anything I've heard, and nevermind that his ratings do not make any sense in context with the criteria he says adds up to them. example: Colored artifacts- these are good, there are no problems, theyre flexible, they can go anywhere and not dominate the meta: storm scale 2. Compared to: vehicles- these are problematic, if theyre good enough to use they dominate the meta. we had to ban some of these. they only work well part of the time, and story wise, theyre kinda pigeonholed. : storm scale 2. (wtf?)
Look at it this way. We get a Giant Growth variant and a Time Warp variant almost yearly. Just because the Time Warp variant has more development / power level constraints doesn't mean it's not something they're going to stop doing. Vehicles have a lot of flavor going for them, so even a weak vehicle could be used as a way to do a bit of worldbuilding where it makes sense.
I am actually shocked that Exert did so well, I really hate that mechanic. Afflict is kind of meh, but I would not have minded it. And Eternaize is just Embalm without the cool flavor.
So overall no loss.
It did well because it had two relevant cards in the FOTM deck of the Standard, The reason most mechanics fail as bad as they do is they have few powerful pay off cards, Energy took over standard because it had like 4. Exert "succeeded" because it had 2 cards with real effects on it.
Afflict had zero cards, and Eteranlize wasn't really that good..Scarab God was.
It's a shame, I like a lot of keywords on the list, they all ended up with 5~8 level even when they very well could be used in other planes. I hope those keywords would show up in non-standard formats now that Modern Horizon is a thing.
I do not get the reasoning behind vehicles. This Ravnica block would have been an excellent opportunity to showcase vehicles for each guild, akin to how the guilds got a guild artifact in the original block (Moratorium Stone, Crown of Convergence etc).
THAT would have been such a great flavour win had they gone that route with vehicles.
buster
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'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset. Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
In retrospect, Afflict makes perfect sense for a limited format where planeswalkers are running around all over the place. Planeswalkers make games slower so Afflict punishes you for blocking creatures that attack them and also forces finishing damage through blockers when attacking the face. If that's how it was intended when it was designed, that's super interesting.
Also given that, I still expect some common homage to it at common or some similar minor theme of punishing blocking.
I didn't expect Eternalize anyway, but the lack of Afflict surprises me, it seems like a perfect enabler for Spectacle.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
He did make the point in the article, though, that they weren't positive if people dis-liked Eternalize on its own, or just really liked Embalm and thought Eternalize was not a good riff on it.
Eternalize really was embalm's megamorph, wasn't it? Ithink considering that connection it did well. But it also has very limited design space compared to embalm, so even if both of them were exactly equally liked, eternalize would be less likely to return.
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Planar Chaos was not a mistake neither was it random. You might want to look at it again.
[thread=239793][Game] Level Up - Creature[/thread]
We got Marky R.'s storm scale article for Kaladesh through Hour of Devastation today, and in it he outright states that although afflict was meant to return in WAR, it got removed during design, and implies no eternalize as well by describing it as unfavorable.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
So overall no loss.
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
But no Afflict?
#tableflip
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
TL:DR, does everyone else treat Maro like russian news tv? what he actually says is all BS but it gives hints as to the direction the government is moving whether we like it or not?
Maybe
I'm the opposite. Eternalize had flavor if you followed the story. They were brought back from the dead as much more powerful zombies. Exert I think was a solid mechanic. I'm always happy to see more mechanics that test a player's choices. Glorybringer was one of my favorite cards in the set and I don't really like red all that much. Knowing when to every it could decide the game, and I like skillful opportunities like that.
Colored artifacts fix a lot of issues artifacts have, which is why they are a good solution for the crowd who wants to see more artifacts.
By the way, both mechanics are not mutually exclusive. You can do colored Vehicles.
That being said Maro is of course a spokesperson for Wizards and is highly interested in us buying that stuff, so that he can keep his job. To expect a completely honest answer from a person with an obvious conflict of interest is a bit much. And he is one of the more honest voices at Wizards.
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
---
Numquam evolutioni obstes. Solum conculceris.
Pascite draconem, evolvite aut morimini.
He did make the point in the article, though, that they weren't positive if people dis-liked Eternalize on its own, or just really liked Embalm and thought Eternalize was not a good riff on it.
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
I thought it was an okay way to show a pumped-up Embalm, but honestly, I'm very much in favor of Magic streamlining lots of things. Subtypes and keywords in particular. I mean, maybe they could have given these creatures something like a trigger that puts +1/+1 counters on them when they're Embalmed? No need for two very similar yet distinct keywords for it. That's how you end up with flashback, jump-start, and retrace. Or Stampeding Serow and, say, anything with the Elk subtype. Is there anything that is going to care much about an Elk subtype? "Beast" covers a lot of nonspecific stuff. "Dinosaur" is good on its own, and maybe things like "Snake" and whatnot should stay, but do we need Elk? Rhino? Hippo? There's a lot of cruft. I think the list could stand to have some streamlining.
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
It did well because it had two relevant cards in the FOTM deck of the Standard, The reason most mechanics fail as bad as they do is they have few powerful pay off cards, Energy took over standard because it had like 4. Exert "succeeded" because it had 2 cards with real effects on it.
Afflict had zero cards, and Eteranlize wasn't really that good..Scarab God was.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
THAT would have been such a great flavour win had they gone that route with vehicles.
buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
(My preferences aren’t wrong, everyone else is wrong!)
Ammit Eternal
Spellweaver Eternal
Both saw competitive play. They would have seen play even without afflict which is one of the reasons I dislike the mechanic.
Also given that, I still expect some common homage to it at common or some similar minor theme of punishing blocking.
Older Magic as a Board Game: Panglacial Wurm , Mill
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Eternalize really was embalm's megamorph, wasn't it? Ithink considering that connection it did well. But it also has very limited design space compared to embalm, so even if both of them were exactly equally liked, eternalize would be less likely to return.
Finally a good white villain quote: "So, do I ever re-evaluate my life choices? Never, because I know what I'm doing is a righteous cause."
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Remnants: Valheim
Legendary Journey: Heroes & Planeswalkers
Saga: Shards of Rabiah
Legends: The Elder Dragons
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