I could go into long detail explaining my thoughts but it's not worth the effort all i cant do is say my piece and most of you will disagree and the thing is I don't care what you think a product with potential quality never realized is the same as a product with no quality at all. and while many of you on this forum will not pause from fellating WOTC as they groan with profligate abandon, Your devotion will never change the face that you are not and never will be a secondary market card retailer. therefore wizards doesnt give one wet fart about you. but addiction has been shown to overwhelm logic in the past in even the strongest of individuals, so i don't expect any of the thralls here to do anything but spout their usual mantra, jumping zealously to defend Wizards of the coast a subsidiary of the giant conglomerate hasbro the same way unlucky bastards around the world jump to fight for their next meal.
I started playing this game shortly before the release of Return to Ravnica and saw an entire year in which this supposedly strategic game was dominated by the os-so cerebral "strategy" of picking green plus two other colors, and selecting the mythics and rares of those colors and don;t forget the $250 of land cards! yeah sure usable dual lands could be printed at uncommon and slash deck prices in half, put it is far more profitable to sell them for 15-20 dollars each. Every deck during that era was the same: Thragtusk/farseek/planeswalkers/mythics in three colors. that was what won.
And now we have khans of cash grab yet another joke played on anyone foolish enough to think that this is a game. games are designed with the players in mind this set is not it is designed for starcity.com and tcplayer.com. Three color goodstuff is good for single sales so that is what we have and will always have.
For years i wondered if anything other than the nice kitchen table games that are long dead and gone now were anything but that some old "goodstuff". I got my answer.
There is no strategy. There is no creativity. and there is no fun. There is only the promise of some visceral thrill, the feeling of surperiority if you're willing to pay the admission fee.
From now on i'll think of giving my money to literal whores, as opposed to figurative whores like wotc at least with real whores you are able to derive some pleasure from the experience.
Enjoy you game of strategy with no strategy in it. Im sure you'll feel great when your three color goodstuff deck trumps another's. I'm sure WOTC approves as they count your money. but for the sake of sanity itself stop pretending it took anything more than having enough money to get the WOTC hooker to unzip you.
Mark rosewater visits petting zoos after hours and molests the ducks. i have proof.
Stop trying to make a cheap deck. just quit standard unless you are an idiot who thinks spending 800+ on a deck of cards is anything but stupid. trust me you'll look back on this and thank me.
Khans of Tarkir has been designed with only the secondary market in mind.
Nothing that isn't 3 color Goodstuff(tm) will win anything in this format. Just be smart like me and quit standard. you're wasting your time.
This is unnecessary and off-topic. Infraction issued for spam.
-rujasu
Arguing about this is pointless. The abilities of each character are so different that no meaningful discussion can ue that kiora destroying a city with a tidal wave is more powerful than Chandra burning it down, koth destroying it with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, or Elspeth raising an aRmy to overtake it, to have jace manipulating its leaders through political intrigue, liliana swarming it with zombies, or garruk swarming it with wild beasts.
Each character has unique abilities that are useful in different situations. If the test were hand to hand combat garruk Gideon aelspeth and ajani have the advantage. If the test is in political intrigue and information gathering and espionage, then characters like jace tamiyo dack fayden and tezzeret have the advantage.
Nicol bolas is more powerful than others because he is one of the big bad villains of magic and he needs to be threatening.
Karn is seen as such because he's unique as an artificial being with planeswalker abilities being literally constructed of ridiculously powerful artifacts
I think you're being sarcastic but I would agree with that statement. Although I think mana leak would be more appropriate.
And team dfl your analogy using power nine as an example is weak at best. There is a huge difference between wanting honor of the pure over spear of heliod and wanting black lotus back so don't be so bloody dramatic.
I'm not talking about an aplha card that facilitates turn one victories by giving three mana atvno cost at instant speed, I'm talking about an easy to remove 2 cmc enchantment that only gives creatures 1/1.
What I want most is a more diverse metagame in standard, and that can easily accomplished by printing more good cardsthat are usable and enrich gameplay. And less crap that is obviously inferior but at the same rarity level. Lookat dragons maze voice of rresurgence and reap intellect are both mythics but whoever thinks the two are equal in gameplay tterms must be suffering from a massive brain injury.
Here's an example, I would have loved to play an izzet counter burn control deck in standard but I can't because almost all the counter spells band burn spells available are inefficient to a laughable degree and even if they were not, it wouldn't matter because there are not nearly enough card drawing spells that actually provide you with card advantage you need to play the deck. That's the point I'm trying to drive home here I would be far more willing to spend more money if I could have more choice in my deckbuilding. Being able to play and win or lose with a deck that suits my personal preference Without being at a huge disadvantage just because I prefer a different strategy or color combination.
What I would like most is too have more playable cards. Why can't we have honor of the pure which is good as opposed to spear of Helios which sucks glutius to the maximus. My beef is that every standard there are a handful of good cards and the restare either mediocre or just plain suck. Which leads to so many decks that have 75% of their cards in common.
And the mechanics! Such cool ideas that are ruined by wotc because they either ridiculously overcoat them (cipher) or make the too weak. (Heroic)
Here I'll fix heroic and make it decent.
Heroic whenever a player casts a spell that targets X , Y happens.
There that would actually functional and interesting instead because wizards is afraid of being awesome we instead get underpowered garbage.
No offense but changing jund monsters to naya is a mere cosmetic change. What your deck does, its inherent function is no different. You still use courser and sylvan caryatid to block aggro and increase you mana then drop high costed threats early. What's the differenc if you use banishing light/selesnya charm over abrupt decay/heroes downfall? Its still doing that same thing removing something from the board.
I've been playing tournaments for almost a year now and I have noticed some similaritiesbetween the pre rotation decks of now in the pre rotation decks of a year ago. And I have to wonder if it is going to be this way every time. Last year at rotation all I saw was thragtusk/farseek decks band now all I see is courser/sylvan caryatid decks.
The question I want a real answer to is: is magic a game of strategy and skill or is it simply a type of pyramid scheme where only those who pay the most win?
Also if one strategy is always dominant be it gxx midrange in standard or combo in modern how can magic be a game of strategy and skill?
If all the decks that win with any sort of consistency are basically the same if not in card choice then certainly in function, how can magic be a game of strategy and skill?
GW aggo isnt even remotely budget. It has a playset of $25 two cost creatures and playsets of $15 and $10 lands. Budget my fanny.
Red aggro decks are not even remotely consistent. If you draw a bad seven, its scoop time. Mull to 6 gives you 1 lessturn of gas which is death to rdw as there are no good draw spells in standard for red. Not even a looting spell. Wild guess eats dongs for breakfast.
Boris burn is good at beating uwx control but nothing else. I rarely see it beat anything else aside from u/b devo and uw control.
It obvious you never actually triednplaying those decks you just like a lot people like to talk out of their ass.
I don't know where you play but here in buffalo NY also known as hell with worse sports teams, all that is being played is courser/sylvan caryatid plus two other colors good stuff decks and aggro loses to that hard. A 2/4 and 0/3 blocker one which gains 1 life per turn and another which is hexproof and generates mana for early fat creatures.
Personally i would like to see a standard where aggressive decks are more common as opposed to the "spend your way to victory" midrange and the grindy "let's run out of round time game 1" control decks we have had for the last 2 years. Change is always good.
I started playing this game shortly before the release of Return to Ravnica and saw an entire year in which this supposedly strategic game was dominated by the os-so cerebral "strategy" of picking green plus two other colors, and selecting the mythics and rares of those colors and don;t forget the $250 of land cards! yeah sure usable dual lands could be printed at uncommon and slash deck prices in half, put it is far more profitable to sell them for 15-20 dollars each. Every deck during that era was the same: Thragtusk/farseek/planeswalkers/mythics in three colors. that was what won.
And now we have khans of cash grab yet another joke played on anyone foolish enough to think that this is a game. games are designed with the players in mind this set is not it is designed for starcity.com and tcplayer.com. Three color goodstuff is good for single sales so that is what we have and will always have.
For years i wondered if anything other than the nice kitchen table games that are long dead and gone now were anything but that some old "goodstuff". I got my answer.
There is no strategy. There is no creativity. and there is no fun. There is only the promise of some visceral thrill, the feeling of surperiority if you're willing to pay the admission fee.
From now on i'll think of giving my money to literal whores, as opposed to figurative whores like wotc at least with real whores you are able to derive some pleasure from the experience.
Enjoy you game of strategy with no strategy in it. Im sure you'll feel great when your three color goodstuff deck trumps another's. I'm sure WOTC approves as they count your money. but for the sake of sanity itself stop pretending it took anything more than having enough money to get the WOTC hooker to unzip you.
Mark rosewater visits petting zoos after hours and molests the ducks. i have proof.
Offtopic spam, infraction issued.
-rujasu
Khans of Tarkir has been designed with only the secondary market in mind.
Nothing that isn't 3 color Goodstuff(tm) will win anything in this format. Just be smart like me and quit standard. you're wasting your time.
This is unnecessary and off-topic. Infraction issued for spam.
-rujasu
Each character has unique abilities that are useful in different situations. If the test were hand to hand combat garruk Gideon aelspeth and ajani have the advantage. If the test is in political intrigue and information gathering and espionage, then characters like jace tamiyo dack fayden and tezzeret have the advantage.
Nicol bolas is more powerful than others because he is one of the big bad villains of magic and he needs to be threatening.
Karn is seen as such because he's unique as an artificial being with planeswalker abilities being literally constructed of ridiculously powerful artifacts
And team dfl your analogy using power nine as an example is weak at best. There is a huge difference between wanting honor of the pure over spear of heliod and wanting black lotus back so don't be so bloody dramatic.
I'm not talking about an aplha card that facilitates turn one victories by giving three mana atvno cost at instant speed, I'm talking about an easy to remove 2 cmc enchantment that only gives creatures 1/1.
What I want most is a more diverse metagame in standard, and that can easily accomplished by printing more good cardsthat are usable and enrich gameplay. And less crap that is obviously inferior but at the same rarity level. Lookat dragons maze voice of rresurgence and reap intellect are both mythics but whoever thinks the two are equal in gameplay tterms must be suffering from a massive brain injury.
Here's an example, I would have loved to play an izzet counter burn control deck in standard but I can't because almost all the counter spells band burn spells available are inefficient to a laughable degree and even if they were not, it wouldn't matter because there are not nearly enough card drawing spells that actually provide you with card advantage you need to play the deck. That's the point I'm trying to drive home here I would be far more willing to spend more money if I could have more choice in my deckbuilding. Being able to play and win or lose with a deck that suits my personal preference Without being at a huge disadvantage just because I prefer a different strategy or color combination.
And the mechanics! Such cool ideas that are ruined by wotc because they either ridiculously overcoat them (cipher) or make the too weak. (Heroic)
Here I'll fix heroic and make it decent.
Heroic whenever a player casts a spell that targets X , Y happens.
There that would actually functional and interesting instead because wizards is afraid of being awesome we instead get underpowered garbage.
The question I want a real answer to is: is magic a game of strategy and skill or is it simply a type of pyramid scheme where only those who pay the most win?
Also if one strategy is always dominant be it gxx midrange in standard or combo in modern how can magic be a game of strategy and skill?
If all the decks that win with any sort of consistency are basically the same if not in card choice then certainly in function, how can magic be a game of strategy and skill?
I would like a real answer to this.
Red aggro decks are not even remotely consistent. If you draw a bad seven, its scoop time. Mull to 6 gives you 1 lessturn of gas which is death to rdw as there are no good draw spells in standard for red. Not even a looting spell. Wild guess eats dongs for breakfast.
Boris burn is good at beating uwx control but nothing else. I rarely see it beat anything else aside from u/b devo and uw control.
It obvious you never actually triednplaying those decks you just like a lot people like to talk out of their ass.
I don't know where you play but here in buffalo NY also known as hell with worse sports teams, all that is being played is courser/sylvan caryatid plus two other colors good stuff decks and aggro loses to that hard. A 2/4 and 0/3 blocker one which gains 1 life per turn and another which is hexproof and generates mana for early fat creatures.
1-point warning for flaming
-DarkRitual
I cast fated infatuation targeting the darksteel citadel does it makeba 5/5 indestructible artifact creature land token?