While reading this thread and all of the other interesting tidbits attached to it I was listening to Ozzy Osbourne - "Mama, I'm Coming Home". It seemed fitting.
So many different ways to deal with marvel and wizards just bans it? Wizards prints a sufficient amount of removal and counterspells to deal with things like this, but, would rather cater to players that cry about it or cry "it's broken", "ban it", etc. Bravo Wizards, bravo.
Direct quote from Maro:
"Several weeks ago, I said that we were taking steps to improve the processes behind the scenes in R&D to ensure that we don’t repeat some of our mistakes of the last year. I’m happy today to talk about one of these changes – the creation of a new group within R&D called Play Design."
It's like the scene from the Lost World Jurassic Park where John HAmmond and Ian Malcom are having a discussion and the following is said. I think it sums up this department creation very well:
(Maro) John Hammond: Don't worry, I'm not making the same mistakes again. (Players) Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, you're making all new ones.
In other words, they didn't know what to play because there were a lot of new decklists to copy online. Players have gotten extraordinarily lazy these past few years when it comes to deckbuilding, which is likely a large part of the reason that Standard has gotten so stale.
That's the same conclusion that I had arrived at myself.
FNM in my area was pretty much cancelled because of the ban. Why? Because a large chunk of the player base told the owners/organizers of FNM that "they felt that the timing of the ban was to short of a notice to replace their cards and/or decks." It was a small price to pay to see wizards euthanizing cat combo.
Now that I look at it it does seem like a star is there. We'll I hoping that they are.
When I see those cat-dragons I think of Dex-Starr, a Red Lantern from DC Comics.
"Several weeks ago, I said that we were taking steps to improve the processes behind the scenes in R&D to ensure that we don’t repeat some of our mistakes of the last year. I’m happy today to talk about one of these changes – the creation of a new group within R&D called Play Design."
It's like the scene from the Lost World Jurassic Park where John HAmmond and Ian Malcom are having a discussion and the following is said. I think it sums up this department creation very well:
(Maro) John Hammond: Don't worry, I'm not making the same mistakes again.
(Players) Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, you're making all new ones.
That's the same conclusion that I had arrived at myself.
Victory!
Celebrate comrades, the beast has fallen!