The trouble is that nothing can save any format from moderns fate except for wizards themselves.
Rotating extended certainly helps. Something along the timeframe of 6-7 years and to most casual players who don't stay in the hobby that long will basically experience an eternal format. Isn't allowing new and casual players a format that doesn't force them to rebuy every rotation the goal? By the time Timmy stops playing the Kaladesh and Amonkhet cards he got for Christmas would still be in the extended rotation. The downside is that people cringe and recoil at any mention of a rotation without seeing that to the players most clamoring for a cheaper eternal format that 6 or 7 years is virtually eternal in the market it would be intended for.
Additionally, when core sets kept most of their cards the same it provided an eternal stream of legal reprnts for the rotating formats anyway. Why not an eternal core set then? (ahem, money)
I may not post much but I have been a Magic player for a very, very long time. In the early days of Type 1, Type 2, and Type 1.5 the serious players played Type 2 (standard), the serious players with money to burn played Type 1, and casual magic from beginners to serious playgroups found a happy home in 1.5 using their Revised/4th/5th Edition cards with a mix of expansions blended in.
One of the purposes of these decks is to showcase mechanics of the set meaning you get a lot of variety and not much focus. The problem is that all the 1s and 2s instead of playsets make them really inconsistent. The quickest way to improve one might be to buy a duplicate and roll them together making the better cards into 3s and 4s and ditching the over-costed commons.
T prevent Frontier from becoming near-modern as time goes on I agree that it should rotate like the old extended format. The mistake with the creation of Modern was thinking it would save people money by never forcing them to sell off and replace cards. Given that the cardpool has grown so huge we can see the format being much closer to Legacy than was ever intended.
If Frontier survives for ten years it will be where Modern is now.
I'm very surprised that many 8Rack decks now do not use Ensnaring Bridge in the deck. What do people run instead of that card? I consider Ensnaring Bridge to always be in the deck because that card is a game winner if an opponent does not have an answer for it.
Discard or removal. No need for the Bridge when the field is empty.
i've never had a problem with Drowned Catacomb, if it's in my hand and I keep I also have a Swamp and my deck is 8 of black 1 drops that I can play Swamp turn 1 and the Catacombs turn 2 and later with no problem. Same with the Choked Estuary. Always plenty of swamps or islands in hand early on. I would assume taking swamps and islands out for 4 WAtery Graves would not effect that as those have the correct land type listed to work with the Catacombs and Graves. The deck skews black and goblin rogues outnumber the faerie rogues,
I'm running a tempo-ish version and it is pretty fast as is. I have 21 lands: 4x Drowned Catacomb, 4x Choked Estuary, 8 Swamp and 5 Island. So far I have invested the most money into the non-lands but will soon be adding in Watery Grave.
My question is two-fold:
Is Watery Grave an automatic 4-of or do folks run 3 shocklands at times?
Also as I currently skew Swamp over Island, would it be better/worse/no change to include 3-4 Tainted Isle?
As I said the deck is already running pretty fast. The only card in there requiring more than a single U or B to cast is Earwig Squad but I typically Prowl them out anyhow and that reduces the color-specific need to B. I had been playing with 2 Countersquall but so rarely used them I have side-boarded both.
I've even played with 20 lands successfully, perhaps when Watery Grave gets included I'll drop back to that number.
On a general note, I love this tribe and the Prowl mechanic. I only started with a $60 version of this deck and quickly outgrew the meta of my playgroup with it, even against some really strong decks (Ezurri Elves, Bogles, Prowess RDW, Eldrazi).
Back in my high school days, and the days of Revised and such, we did no have access to the number of singles folks did online and in-store these days. There were a couple kids who bought cards mail-order but most of us were stuck trading amongst our small group.
To combat the lack of most of us getting play sets of the best cards we had different rules.
We had a card limit of 2 except for basic lands and a limit of 1 for no basic lands in addition to using the restricted list. Later when we could tell what was common/uncommon/rare we only limited rares and uncommons to 2 and no basic lands to 1.
It was sort of our version of pauper. If cards were harder to get the were more restricted.
Has there been a variant wherein card quantities are restricted by rarity to make it easier to compete on a budget without eliminating rares or mythical altogether?
I have noticed so many more creatures with abilities compared to the early days of magic.
When I played we valued a creature mostly by its cost to power or if it did have some special effect they were usually simple ones like protection or regeneration. Lol.
You needed spells or enchantments to make your critters special for the most part.
Now in the pile of new cards I have it seems the creatures without an ability are the minority.
I've stayed away from the preconstructed regular decks, they seem watered down for the price with a lot of ones and twos of things. The preconstructed 3-color Commander decks seemed like their generals were forcing the format's special rules more than enhancing them. I can see where a monocolor preconstructed EDH deck might seem less forced as well as avoiding feeling watered down because of the one copy each restriction.
I think I sold them when Homelands came out because I thought it looked crummy and I didn't want to keep buying cards that were crap compared to Revised so I could play Standard.
IIRC back the one's format choices meant one of two things: buying every new set or chasing every Mox. If you did neither you could not compete. Now that I care less about competing and more about fun I may just pick a block and go for it for my own enjoyment, whether it beats anyone or not.
I'm going to try some commander, then try to relearn everything I knew about colors and their interactions.
Is there such a thing as a casual player these days? Someone in it for some fun and fantasy and not just perfect mana use and having the 60 correct cards?
Rotating extended certainly helps. Something along the timeframe of 6-7 years and to most casual players who don't stay in the hobby that long will basically experience an eternal format. Isn't allowing new and casual players a format that doesn't force them to rebuy every rotation the goal? By the time Timmy stops playing the Kaladesh and Amonkhet cards he got for Christmas would still be in the extended rotation. The downside is that people cringe and recoil at any mention of a rotation without seeing that to the players most clamoring for a cheaper eternal format that 6 or 7 years is virtually eternal in the market it would be intended for.
Additionally, when core sets kept most of their cards the same it provided an eternal stream of legal reprnts for the rotating formats anyway. Why not an eternal core set then? (ahem, money)
I may not post much but I have been a Magic player for a very, very long time. In the early days of Type 1, Type 2, and Type 1.5 the serious players played Type 2 (standard), the serious players with money to burn played Type 1, and casual magic from beginners to serious playgroups found a happy home in 1.5 using their Revised/4th/5th Edition cards with a mix of expansions blended in.
If Frontier survives for ten years it will be where Modern is now.
Discard or removal. No need for the Bridge when the field is empty.
My question is two-fold:
Is Watery Grave an automatic 4-of or do folks run 3 shocklands at times?
Also as I currently skew Swamp over Island, would it be better/worse/no change to include 3-4 Tainted Isle?
As I said the deck is already running pretty fast. The only card in there requiring more than a single U or B to cast is Earwig Squad but I typically Prowl them out anyhow and that reduces the color-specific need to B. I had been playing with 2 Countersquall but so rarely used them I have side-boarded both.
I've even played with 20 lands successfully, perhaps when Watery Grave gets included I'll drop back to that number.
On a general note, I love this tribe and the Prowl mechanic. I only started with a $60 version of this deck and quickly outgrew the meta of my playgroup with it, even against some really strong decks (Ezurri Elves, Bogles, Prowess RDW, Eldrazi).
To combat the lack of most of us getting play sets of the best cards we had different rules.
We had a card limit of 2 except for basic lands and a limit of 1 for no basic lands in addition to using the restricted list. Later when we could tell what was common/uncommon/rare we only limited rares and uncommons to 2 and no basic lands to 1.
It was sort of our version of pauper. If cards were harder to get the were more restricted.
Has there been a variant wherein card quantities are restricted by rarity to make it easier to compete on a budget without eliminating rares or mythical altogether?
I have noticed so many more creatures with abilities compared to the early days of magic.
When I played we valued a creature mostly by its cost to power or if it did have some special effect they were usually simple ones like protection or regeneration. Lol.
You needed spells or enchantments to make your critters special for the most part.
Now in the pile of new cards I have it seems the creatures without an ability are the minority.
I think I sold them when Homelands came out because I thought it looked crummy and I didn't want to keep buying cards that were crap compared to Revised so I could play Standard.
IIRC back the one's format choices meant one of two things: buying every new set or chasing every Mox. If you did neither you could not compete. Now that I care less about competing and more about fun I may just pick a block and go for it for my own enjoyment, whether it beats anyone or not.
I have some good cards to makes a Daxos deck but won't be chasing all the exotic lands on most lists.
I might end up with a mono deck that is less competitive on the spells and creature front but less handicapped by lands.
The way the cards are worded I was thinking "if it's not a creature what is it?" But that makes sense now.
Thanks.
Holy crap things are different now.
I'm going to try some commander, then try to relearn everything I knew about colors and their interactions.
Is there such a thing as a casual player these days? Someone in it for some fun and fantasy and not just perfect mana use and having the 60 correct cards?
What does and does not apply when it says 'if your devotion is below X this is not a creature' ?
Static abilities still work?
Can't be targeted by 'target creature' spells?
I must be stupid.