MTG Salvation

I have also studied game theory, and as such, Frank Karsten's article was fascinating to me. Reflecting on recent sets and formats, I strongly suspect Wizards of the Coast has never, ever done an analysis of this type.

My experience with Kamigawa-Ravnica Standard was also very similar to Frank's, albeit at a much less competitive level. I have thought about this quite a lot over the years, and I strongly suspect that they haven't replicated what they did then because they don't know what they did then. I don't think they actually have a technical understanding of what Kamigawa-Ravnica was like and what gave it the characteristics that Frank was discussing.

This doesn't really affect me, as I only play with physical cards and mostly older cards. But this has the potential to be hilarious, so I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for news about it.

Quote from Colt47 »

Yeah, I mean wizards is using the high cost modern cards to try and sell draft packs, but Modern is by and large a constructed deck format using cards that are out of print and no longer in standard. Draft pack selling isn't going to resolve the supply issues. They also do not have a strong desire to reprint these high demand cards in standard so it's a good question what the hold up is.

You might have answered your own question with the comment about using the high cost modern cards to sell draft packs. If the most valuable card you can get in a draft is one of the good rares from Aether Revolt, that's good, but not as spectacular as if you hit that one in one thousand (or whatever) chance to get an alternate-art Sol Ring. Magic players have already proved that they'll endure a lot for the chance at "making bank".

Quote from Nevelo »

Somewhere along the way, this sort of activist style of pushing certain colours became pushing certain cards and then pushing certain archetypes. We went from a more passive, make good cards and interesting mechanics and let players be creative, to trying to pigeonhole players into certain "desired" play patterns.

It also reminds me of things like Blue Rose, "the roleplaying game of romantic fantasy". As though somehow Dungeons and Dragons isn't already the most intrinsically inclusive game ever made because the setting and the story are determined by GM and player consensus and agreement. No, because if you let people choose for themselves, they might not take whatever you decided the right position is on whatever issue you are interested in, so you have to build it into the game itself.

It seems like you might want to use cards that care about how many enchantments are in play, along the lines of Sphere of Safety.

Four toughness is not something to laugh at in Old School formats - most damage decks will have to go to an X spell to get it off the table. Who's going to feel good about using a Psionic Blast on a Giant Tortoise?

Was that really Tempest of Light's original flavor text? I have no recollection of ever reading it. I feel like I would have remembered its using the word "planet" rather than "plane".

Despite the "23 years" line, I'm guessing it's going to skew heavily towards modern design, and especially recent modern design, because "we all know that for so long, creatures just didn't measure up".

I'm not sure it's literally thirty decks, but this link gives you an idea of what Ravnica-Time Spiral Standard was like:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/dutch-nationals-2007-2007-09-05

I don't have a comparable article on hand for the previous rotation, with Kamigawa, but I'll see if I can find one.

While it's true that a lot of people immediately dismissed the announcement and attacked Wizards of the Coast head-on, I don't understand why people were surprised by it. Wizards has very little credibility with part of the Magic player base at this point, and frankly, I don't blame people for that one bit. A solid decade of propaganda about how hard they work to ensure balance, even as Standard lurched from Jace the Mind Sculptor to various two-deck formats and nonsense formats and now emergency bannings and falling attendance (how bad must it really be if Wizards deviated from its "BEST YEAR EVER FOR THE NTH YEAR IN A ROW" line?). At least Rosewater's communicating with us, when he's not talking about Buffy and dating advice on his Tumblr.

Did you notice that both Shatter and Floral Spuzzem put the card at the center of the action, not its controller? Foreshadowing the way we refer to Gideon and Liliana as "he" or "she" on some of their cards?

Perhaps not, but it's still cool.

Quote from JohnnyDegenerate »

Quote from Arborea »

Counterspell's original art just screams old-school Dungeons and Dragons to me. It's very much the style of illustrations you see in the old Mystara campaign setting manuals.

Yeah, I agree. I miss the old styling of MTG cards. It's not that I dislike the digital photorealistic style that has been dominating MTG since Alara, but there's been a lack of that high fantasy feeling.

Especially when they had D&D artists working on the card arts, like DiTerlizzi and Ron Spencer.

I agree on everything you said. I especially like that older sets had a large range of art styles - it helped make each card feel like a unique person, place, or thing.

Counterspell's original art just screams old-school Dungeons and Dragons to me. It's very much the style of illustrations you see in the old Mystara campaign setting manuals.

Quote from Lord Seth »

What are the "antics" on social media? If anything I'm happy about his social media presence, because he's like the one guy in the company that seems willing to answer questions from the playerbase. I might not like the answers, but at least he gives them. Meanwhile, everyone else does little more than make cryptic statements in articles that leave everyone confused.

I assume people follow Blogatog on Tumblr for content about game design and Magic specifically. In such a context, I do not find it appealing when he hands out dating advice or talks about parenting practices, especially since he has a very self-aggrandizing aura. I know people have a personal life, and many facets of a person can contribute to their successes in the public arena, but surely we're not interested in his family or his dating history. And if we are . . . then why? Don't we have people in our own lives to look to for things like that?

But that's a perfect example of how mileage may vary. Judging by the number of people who follow him on Tumblr and Twitter - and repost his dating advice - not everyone agrees with me. If you're (not necessarily you personally, but the non-specific general "you") someone who gets something out of following him, that's great. But to me, the whole thing comes across as arrogant and excessively self-promoting - sharing his wondrous experience and wisdom with an audience who came for the game design and had their life changed by his personal comments. And in my experience, it's way too easy to get shouted down when you say things like that because "at least Rosewater is talking with us".

I'm not sure there is anything left to add about the Autumn Willow. Mysterious, magnificent, tragic, and beloved.

(Shroud isn't a bad ability to have either.)

Quote from The Decepticon »

Its time for Maro to go

I've been saying this for quite a while! But it's so hard nowadays to find a corner of the Magic internet that isn't ridiculously hagiographical about him. I mean, 1d4chan claims to be gaming seen through the cynical lens of 4chan, and they came down on me for calling him arrogant. (And why am I not supposed to point out that he's the only survivor of the design team from Urza's Saga?)

Look, I understand not everybody dislikes him like I do; I don't like the design of recent sets and I find his social media antics to be a huge turn-off and displaying of an attitude we shouldn't like in someone in his position. Another person's mileage may vary, and judging by Magic's relative success, quite a number of people's does. But you have to be allowed to express it both ways. If people are allowed to call him "the Guru", I can call him a jackass.