Honestly I think you guys are just not happy unless you have something to complain about... this set is well designed and yeah, maybe standard is too filled with overly powerful stuff for this to affect it in anyway right now doesn't make it bad, its flavor is amazing, though the flavor text on noggle bridgebreaker is awful... the art is some of the best we've seen in a long time, and they went a long with a design space that we really haven't seen that much of... its been noted many times that this set will affect other formats, so I think that just for once, we could take the slow down in power as a good sign that they're trying to control the power creep, I personally look forward to a day, when there just isn't a way I can win by turn five
I think you're missing the point. The problem is that a decreased power level in this set means there isn't anything here to greatly impact or shake up what is already there. When you set the bar of decks to beat as high as Lorwyn and Shadowmoor have, to have a set trying something completely different in the back end of the block with a decreased power level just means that whatever cool innovations do come out of the set will likely end up being absorbed into the arsenals of the decklists already there. Example: Red Deck Wins running Figure of Destiny is, from my playtesting, really quite nice. Run an RW deck, and all of a sudden you're not as fast as RDW. Time will tell whether any new deck types pop up, but I see most of the existing decks just swiping the best Eventide has to offer, cementing their positions until Shards is out. Besides, Eventide picked up the remaining enemy color pairs and jammed them into a set almost half the size of Shadowmoor. They could've given at least a little more bang for the buck, in my opinion.
I don't really like to agree with naysayers often, but Shadowmoor and Eventide really did come with a fair share of annoying problems. I mean, I run a Reveillark deck, and I have to say, I think the sheer number of combos that cropped up with Persist is ridiculous. I don't really think T2 should have quite so many infinite damage combos. And it's not just Reveillark decks, Project X can go that route, and I've seen a few rogue decks pull it off, too.
Eventide got everyone excited about enemy color fun, and then the complete list showed a significant power decrease over Shadowmoor, almost completely stifling the creativity of designers that wish to be competitive. I mean, are there enough cards there to say 'It's finally time for Black/White to bear its teeth'? I mean, I wasn't expecting the second coming of Ghost Dad or something, but at least enough to maybe slide into Tier 1 under the radar.
The bottom line is, the entire Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block seemed, from a design standpoint, to be spelling out your decks for you. If by Morningtide you couldn't tell Wizards overpowered faeries to the point of dwarfing all other decks types, then their apologies in the form of Guttural Response, Raking Canopy, and Vexing Shusher should have been enough to convince you. I'm glad to see Merfolk, QuickToast, and Reveillark are taking hold, but I don't see a single thing in Eventide that will blow out a new deck type that unseats any of the top 4-5 decklists. Kinda sad, but, hey, maybe Shards will spice it up.
I can't really speak to MTGO, but as far as 'randomization' goes in deck shuffling, let's be completely honest here. If you Thoughtseize your opponent and saw 3 Rune Snags, 2 Delay, and 2 Underground River on Turn 1, would you not feel compelled to call a judge? IRL, that would look very suspicious and unlikely a hand, either caused by improper shuffling or outright stacking the deck. In MWS, clumps like those happen CONSTANTLY. I have no complaints, most of my decks can push through a bad position well enough for me to not be affected greatly, but to say 'true randomization' will consistently (and yes, i actually have sat and tested over 100 solitaire games analyzing a deck to see how often the same cards are placed together, and land aside, random shufflers do it far more than real life) leave those clumps of similar cards makes it very difficult to 'test' a deck you plan on building, at times.
That said, mana screw and mana flood happen, that's just a fact of life. But if I pile shuffle 5 times between matches, with no weaving, and get different draws than I do online, I'm not cheating, and it's about the dumbest argument I continually hear over and over whenever these ridiculous shuffler debates come up. Mana flood and screw aside, just a glance at your deck in MWS out of 10 games, and you can clearly see completely improbable clumps that persist. 3 Shivan Reef in the deck and they all sit next to each other, same creatures on top of each other, 20 land decks where 14 of them sit in the bottom 25 cards of the library. It's not that this doesn't happen in real life, it can and does. Just not with the same frequency. Any argument to the contrary that I see says IRL you're cheating, which basically accuses anyone shuffling a deck without the aid of a computer cheating, it's plain dumb.
1) Does Epochrasite return to the game before we shuffle permanents into our libraries, thus making him be shuffled, too? Or does he come back in at the resolution of Warp World, joining his newly warped friends?
2) The Warp World put 3 lands into play on her side, along with a Vinelasher Kudzu. Does it get the counters for those lands?
My favorite card is Merieke Ri Berit. She's my favorite general in Commander, with a simple, elegant ability that can be strong or used with shenanigans.
I think you're missing the point. The problem is that a decreased power level in this set means there isn't anything here to greatly impact or shake up what is already there. When you set the bar of decks to beat as high as Lorwyn and Shadowmoor have, to have a set trying something completely different in the back end of the block with a decreased power level just means that whatever cool innovations do come out of the set will likely end up being absorbed into the arsenals of the decklists already there. Example: Red Deck Wins running Figure of Destiny is, from my playtesting, really quite nice. Run an RW deck, and all of a sudden you're not as fast as RDW. Time will tell whether any new deck types pop up, but I see most of the existing decks just swiping the best Eventide has to offer, cementing their positions until Shards is out. Besides, Eventide picked up the remaining enemy color pairs and jammed them into a set almost half the size of Shadowmoor. They could've given at least a little more bang for the buck, in my opinion.
Eventide got everyone excited about enemy color fun, and then the complete list showed a significant power decrease over Shadowmoor, almost completely stifling the creativity of designers that wish to be competitive. I mean, are there enough cards there to say 'It's finally time for Black/White to bear its teeth'? I mean, I wasn't expecting the second coming of Ghost Dad or something, but at least enough to maybe slide into Tier 1 under the radar.
The bottom line is, the entire Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block seemed, from a design standpoint, to be spelling out your decks for you. If by Morningtide you couldn't tell Wizards overpowered faeries to the point of dwarfing all other decks types, then their apologies in the form of Guttural Response, Raking Canopy, and Vexing Shusher should have been enough to convince you. I'm glad to see Merfolk, QuickToast, and Reveillark are taking hold, but I don't see a single thing in Eventide that will blow out a new deck type that unseats any of the top 4-5 decklists. Kinda sad, but, hey, maybe Shards will spice it up.
That said, mana screw and mana flood happen, that's just a fact of life. But if I pile shuffle 5 times between matches, with no weaving, and get different draws than I do online, I'm not cheating, and it's about the dumbest argument I continually hear over and over whenever these ridiculous shuffler debates come up. Mana flood and screw aside, just a glance at your deck in MWS out of 10 games, and you can clearly see completely improbable clumps that persist. 3 Shivan Reef in the deck and they all sit next to each other, same creatures on top of each other, 20 land decks where 14 of them sit in the bottom 25 cards of the library. It's not that this doesn't happen in real life, it can and does. Just not with the same frequency. Any argument to the contrary that I see says IRL you're cheating, which basically accuses anyone shuffling a deck without the aid of a computer cheating, it's plain dumb.
1) Does Epochrasite return to the game before we shuffle permanents into our libraries, thus making him be shuffled, too? Or does he come back in at the resolution of Warp World, joining his newly warped friends?
2) The Warp World put 3 lands into play on her side, along with a Vinelasher Kudzu. Does it get the counters for those lands?
3) The Warp World gave me a Riftwing Cloudskate. Do I get to bounce her Vinelasher Kudzu?