Clearly, the answer is Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. He's the only monoblack dragon that exists outside a cycle of some kind (although Ebon Dragon was part of an "incomplete" cycle since apparently there's no green Portal dragon—red gets two dragons instead).
It's not really the "lol Jace was a mistake" answer so much as it is the kind of design and thematics answer I think they'd actually be looking for.
Vendetta, but then again I always play black so I'd have to say Oust, the 3 life sucks but sometimes it's worth it.
I'd play the hell out of Vendetta if it was Devour In Shadow, but two black mana isn't really very splashy. Vendetta's main problem is instead of paying 1 more mana for Doom Blade you pay a bunch of life for basically the exact same effect (as opposed to being able to hit black creatures too).
I definitely wouldn't. 150 might be hellishly unaffordable to one person while it may very well be "budget" to another. Better to let people specify their own budgets.
Even if there are rules against holding random sanctioned drafts of whatever format you want (I'm not talking release events, I'm not talking FNM, I'm talking just random sanctioned drafts), there's probably nothing stopping them from just saying "meh, it's unsanctioned, enjoy your two shots at Jace."
The fact that it's a mythic is still only one part of its price, though. Again, comparatively little Worldwake was opened, which means a low supply for massive demand.
And legendary creatures had to be big, flashy things with a groovy effect, not vanilla 2/2s.
That's actually something they added later. The line of thinking originally was that any human strong enough to count as a 5/5 or something had to be legendary just because that's as strong as a dragon. This is why Jasmine Boreal and Jerrard of the Closed Fist are legendary. Although they definitely had big, flashy things with groovy effects (Nicol Bolas was one hell of a sleeper hit), the overall criteria for being legendary was more a question of how much story you could imply someone had behind them. Read the two versions of JeditOjanen and you can tell they tried to put as much as they could into as little space as cards have.
But they even experimented with the basic "legendary" formula during Kamigawa. This resulted in a massive amount of legendary creatures of varying power levels, legendary enchantments, and even "legendary" sorceries.
Nighthawk, Duress, and Persecutor (along with Gatekeeper of Malakir, actually) all come together in Legacy in The Gate, amusingly enough. Makes you wonder if a Gate-ish deck could work in Standard.
some colors really having trouble competing without splashing other things.
Are you really arguing that mono-colour should be the default for competitive decks? Because, historically, all 5 colours get represented pretty well in tournaments when you look at the game over time.
What's the point of phasing it in and out? To make red more and then less powerful? What's the point of that? The 5 colors should be in a state of consistent power against each other.
If that happened, the game would get stagnant and die.
Red had top-tier decks back when its main burn spell was Shock (apparently it's the best invention since the rock). Aaron Forsythe even mentioned Lightning Bolt isn't going to be a permanent fixture in the core set, so it could be gone as early as M12.
Black still gets selective discard, just the more recent ones since Thoughtseize have not been very good.
Eh. Wizards shouldn't even attempt to top Legacy-calibre cards just to appease Standard players. People got used to Thoughtseize, to Path, to whatever, then expect Wizards to keep that high power level for all time. I think reprinting Distress or even Wrench Mind would be neat, but black already has Duress, Inquisition, Mind Sludge, and a number of efficient removal spells.
It's like comparing Counterspell to Mana Drain. Sure, by comparison one seems strictly worse, but that's only because the other is so much more powerful.
Quit Crying. Getting old. If you want to play competativly throw down the cash or play casual.
Pricing people out of the game is bad for the long term. If the only decks that are truly competitive cost about the same as a Legacy deck, what's the better card to buy? Primeval Titan or Force of Will? One is a defining card in a format that's defined by rotation, and thus it will leave that format and lose a tremendous amount of its value. The other is the defining card of a format that's defined by it not rotating, and thus will keep its value as long as people are playing Magic. This isn't even getting into Jace beingasormoreexpensivethanalltheduallands (though Underground Sea depends on what kind of deal you get—Starcity wants the same price for each).
I don't think you'll find anyone saying a $20 deck should be tier one, but prices for the most expensive cards should not look like Legacy. If a tier one deck is in the $100-150 range, then fine, that's about the price of a few new video games and you'll get the same mileage out of it. If it's in the $300-400 range, that's about the price of a new console, and it's unreasonable to ask people to drop that kind of money or go home—and I don't know about your area, but even FNMs in mine are top-tier competitive if you want to win even a few packs.
It's not really the "lol Jace was a mistake" answer so much as it is the kind of design and thematics answer I think they'd actually be looking for.
I'd play the hell out of Vendetta if it was Devour In Shadow, but two black mana isn't really very splashy. Vendetta's main problem is instead of paying 1 more mana for Doom Blade you pay a bunch of life for basically the exact same effect (as opposed to being able to hit black creatures too).
So I guess the real problem with ZWW is that the guy complaining about it doesn't have the skills as a drafter to adapt to a different format.
I definitely wouldn't. 150 might be hellishly unaffordable to one person while it may very well be "budget" to another. Better to let people specify their own budgets.
The fact that it's a mythic is still only one part of its price, though. Again, comparatively little Worldwake was opened, which means a low supply for massive demand.
That's actually something they added later. The line of thinking originally was that any human strong enough to count as a 5/5 or something had to be legendary just because that's as strong as a dragon. This is why Jasmine Boreal and Jerrard of the Closed Fist are legendary. Although they definitely had big, flashy things with groovy effects (Nicol Bolas was one hell of a sleeper hit), the overall criteria for being legendary was more a question of how much story you could imply someone had behind them. Read the two versions of Jedit Ojanen and you can tell they tried to put as much as they could into as little space as cards have.
But they even experimented with the basic "legendary" formula during Kamigawa. This resulted in a massive amount of legendary creatures of varying power levels, legendary enchantments, and even "legendary" sorceries.
Are you really arguing that mono-colour should be the default for competitive decks? Because, historically, all 5 colours get represented pretty well in tournaments when you look at the game over time.
This is the same reason Shattering Spree gets around Chalice of the Void on 1.
Edit: And assuming Sudden Death:
Either drop a Oathsworn Giant off the Root Elemental, or a Silver Seraph with threshold.
Alternatively, simply unmorph a Defender of the Order.
If that happened, the game would get stagnant and die.
Eh. Wizards shouldn't even attempt to top Legacy-calibre cards just to appease Standard players. People got used to Thoughtseize, to Path, to whatever, then expect Wizards to keep that high power level for all time. I think reprinting Distress or even Wrench Mind would be neat, but black already has Duress, Inquisition, Mind Sludge, and a number of efficient removal spells.
It's like comparing Counterspell to Mana Drain. Sure, by comparison one seems strictly worse, but that's only because the other is so much more powerful.
Pricing people out of the game is bad for the long term. If the only decks that are truly competitive cost about the same as a Legacy deck, what's the better card to buy? Primeval Titan or Force of Will? One is a defining card in a format that's defined by rotation, and thus it will leave that format and lose a tremendous amount of its value. The other is the defining card of a format that's defined by it not rotating, and thus will keep its value as long as people are playing Magic. This isn't even getting into Jace being as or more expensive than all the dual lands (though Underground Sea depends on what kind of deal you get—Starcity wants the same price for each).
I don't think you'll find anyone saying a $20 deck should be tier one, but prices for the most expensive cards should not look like Legacy. If a tier one deck is in the $100-150 range, then fine, that's about the price of a few new video games and you'll get the same mileage out of it. If it's in the $300-400 range, that's about the price of a new console, and it's unreasonable to ask people to drop that kind of money or go home—and I don't know about your area, but even FNMs in mine are top-tier competitive if you want to win even a few packs.