I think MM2016 is a absolute fantasy. No way it happens this year. That will mean that for the part two years they have released the exact same non-standard products, and I just don't see them doing that. My suspicion is we will see some other kind of draftable product like Conspiracy this year.
Except they released a core set every year for like 15 years. It would be perfectly logical to make MM the yearly reprint product instead - not that wizards ever does whats logical.
That's not true at all...before M10 the core sets were every two years. We've seen plenty of strange releases during the summer like Unhinged or Coldsnap (an actual expansion, mind you).
I can't help but noticing: All the commander deckboxes follow their main middle color except for grixis and esper, which are switched (grixis is in blue box, esper in black)
Also, the 'Tempt' cycle is mixed: grixis has the blue temptation, esper the black one.
That aside, would any flavor / balance problems arise if i switch the temptation cards between those 2 decks?
The reason for this is that the Esper deck has been assigned as the "black deck" in terms of playstyle and the Grixis deck has been assigned as the "blue deck" in terms of playstyle, despite that not being their typical "main" colors. Mind Seize plays "bluer", with lots of spells and card draw, whereas Eternal Bargain plays "blacker", with lots of drain effects and incremental advantage that becomes overpowering if left unchecked.
I mean, your "Authoritarian King villain vs Assassin hero" is basically Konda vs Toshiro in Kamigawa. Did you miss that?
Or for the vampire hero (but no white villain), what about Sorin in Zendikar?
For "White good vs Black evil" blocks I'd count only about half of them, at most. Far from "almost every" one, specially the ones after Mirrodin (which was blue vs green, by the way). I mean, which recent blocks were like that? Innistrad, Scars and Alara only, maybe original Ravnica; that's all for Modern blocks.
Just an addition to this here, after we started plane-jumping (so since the first Mirrodin), we've had pretty hefty variety of heroes and villains color-wise. Consider the following:
Mirrodin: Glissa (green), Slobad (red), and Bosh (robot) vs Memnarch (blue)
Kamigawa: Toshiro (black) vs Konda (white)
Ravnica: Agrus Kos (red/white) vs Augustin IV (white/blue)
Time Spiral: Teferi (blue and some white), Jhoira (red/blue), Radha (red/green), and Venser (white/blue) vs Bolas (grixis) and Leshrac (black)
Lorwyn: Ashling (red) and Rhys (green) vs Oona (blue/black)
Alara: Everything vs Bolas
Zendikar: Everything vs Bolas
Scars: Venser/Koth/Elspeth vs New Phyrexia (everything)
Innistrad: White vs the world
RTR: Everyone vs Everyone
I mean, but for a good while, there were more blue villains than black ones.
A token-making sorcery which makes more creature tokens than any previous token-making spell (not counting X spells or spells that make a variable number)
An enchantment that could let you play all your creatures for free
A spell that can deal 13 damage to multiple creatures for one mana (and yes, I mean 13 damage multiple times)
Many—and I'm talking more than a few—cards inspired by famous horror stories
A card that turns a Loss into a win
A two-mana creature that lets you make a 2/2 creature each Turn for two mana
A card that lets you exchange your Life total with something you've never been able to exchange it with before
Flashback has no set color.
The only other card that gives instants or sorceries flashback is blue and from oddyse.
Except that Recoup is red, and R&D has stated on more than once occasion that Snapcaster would have been red were it not bound by being an invitational card.
Speaking of names that don't fit anymore, anyone got a thought about what to call Affinity? Only four cards in my list have that mechanic while 3 times that have metalcraft. Sadly I think metalcraft as a deck name feels kind of dull.
Speaking of Affinity, and speaking of the topic at hand, that's something that seriously bothers me. The commentators for modern events never refer to the deck as Affinity, always as "robots" or "artifact aggro" or something. We all know what Affinity is. It's a name that resonates with many players. What's with the head games?
The first pack I opened were also my first cards ever. It was a stray pack of Prophecy in summer 2001. The rare was an Avatar of Will that I still have today.
Rishadan Port
Cabal Therapy
Ichorid
Innocent Blood
Enlightened Tutor
Not in the set:
Liliana of the Veil
Snapcaster Mage
Scalding Tarn
Thoughtseize
Phyrexian Revoker
That's not true at all...before M10 the core sets were every two years. We've seen plenty of strange releases during the summer like Unhinged or Coldsnap (an actual expansion, mind you).
The reason for this is that the Esper deck has been assigned as the "black deck" in terms of playstyle and the Grixis deck has been assigned as the "blue deck" in terms of playstyle, despite that not being their typical "main" colors. Mind Seize plays "bluer", with lots of spells and card draw, whereas Eternal Bargain plays "blacker", with lots of drain effects and incremental advantage that becomes overpowering if left unchecked.
Just an addition to this here, after we started plane-jumping (so since the first Mirrodin), we've had pretty hefty variety of heroes and villains color-wise. Consider the following:
Mirrodin: Glissa (green), Slobad (red), and Bosh (robot) vs Memnarch (blue)
Kamigawa: Toshiro (black) vs Konda (white)
Ravnica: Agrus Kos (red/white) vs Augustin IV (white/blue)
Time Spiral: Teferi (blue and some white), Jhoira (red/blue), Radha (red/green), and Venser (white/blue) vs Bolas (grixis) and Leshrac (black)
Lorwyn: Ashling (red) and Rhys (green) vs Oona (blue/black)
Alara: Everything vs Bolas
Zendikar: Everything vs Bolas
Scars: Venser/Koth/Elspeth vs New Phyrexia (everything)
Innistrad: White vs the world
RTR: Everyone vs Everyone
I mean, but for a good while, there were more blue villains than black ones.
I can't quite place the first one, but the others are clearly
Army of the Damned
Rooftop Storm
Blasphemous Act
(most of ISD)
Laboratory Maniac
Mayor of Avabruck
Tree of Redemption
and Garruk Relentless respectively.
So entirely rares/mythics - those are the cards that'll have the "weird" and "exciting" effects for the most part.
Except that Recoup is red, and R&D has stated on more than once occasion that Snapcaster would have been red were it not bound by being an invitational card.
Speaking of Affinity, and speaking of the topic at hand, that's something that seriously bothers me. The commentators for modern events never refer to the deck as Affinity, always as "robots" or "artifact aggro" or something. We all know what Affinity is. It's a name that resonates with many players. What's with the head games?