What kind of effects could they staple graveyard hate onto to make it main deckable? Maybe something like a card that's a Shock that also exiles a card or two from a graveyard, or a modal card with graveyard hate along with effects that people often want main?
I maindeck 2 Rakdos Charm in Hollow One (yeah, I know) backed up by Leyline of the Void in the sideboard. The charm is just useful enough against non-graveyard decks that it is ok, but it isn't widely played and it needs 2 colours. Not sure if something similar could be designed to be more efficient but fair.
Something Maro often comments on is that those who read his blog, or a forum like this are the most enfranchised players. The silent majority just play magic and maybe netdeck occasionally... I voted for the #2, however the wouldn't mind some changes is an acknowledgement of a very simple fact, first War of the Spark, is apparently a different sort of set, so may have a wider impact. Second we all know Modern Horizons is coming, inherently one would hope this set does provide some changes to modern.
Full disclosure I play G Tron and Hollow One, they are fairly different decks but also both fairly linear, in the sense the play patterns repeat and obviously driven by the two apparent boggy men Ancient Stirrings and Faithless Looting. So yes I enjoy it as it stands, but I know that change is likely imminent, which is also fine.
Considering that the format is fine at the moment I would just do a couple of things to make it, in my perspective better:
1. Unban Stoneforge Mystic, Preordain and Green Sun's Zenith
2. Print on Horizons the following cards: Counterspell, Containment Priest, Flametongue Kavu, Shardless Agent, Baleful Strix and probably Hymn to Tourach and Daze.
I'd be fine with everything you suggest, except Hymn to Tourach, that card is way over-powered, even from the guy playing Burning Inquiry. In addition I'd like to see Careful Study and Dack Fayden.
A fixed modern legal Mental Misstep, by fixed I still mean free, but it has to be mechanically tied to blue; reveal an island / blue card or some such as well as the 2 life to cast it.
Well that took all of two hours for me to come back for help. I forgot to ask one probably very important question, does anyone have any good ideas of what packs to buy to get these cards, preferably on amazon?
The short answer is you can't, most players would buy singles, maybe ebay or your card seller of choice... The cards are from diverse sets. What you really want to do is use something like the deck builder on this site to goldfish ideas and then just buy 4x of the cards that work for the plan you want.
Also if I was to make a lockdown and control deck, would I be using more spells than monsters in my decks. Because when I was making Golgari I was putting in too many spells and was wondering if I could run a lot in Azorius
The classic border is never coming back; "We couldn’t do an old frame because we need the bottom part for collation. I was saying we wouldn’t do a top old frame and the bottom new frame which is the only way to do an old frame card (in a collated product)." - Mark Rosewater LINK.
Honestly, Wizards should bite the bullet and print almost fetch lands at uncommon (look at the top 10 cards, to be Arena friendly / avoid shuffling) or the actual fetch lands. The cost to entry for modern is mostly the land. Just let everyone have good mana...
Masterpieces were overplayed, used sparingly they wouldn't have received as much negative feedback. Then again Masters sets were overdone too and won't be coming back for a while.
"Magic is a game of discovery, this is where it differs from Living Card Games, where the entire set is given to you in a box."
I never understand this phrase, how is Magic a more of a "discovery" card game than say NetRunner? just because of packs? You always have all the information about a set before buying packs, so in the sense, it's almost the same, the differences you have to wait for someone to open that specific card to buy it and "explore" with it, I don't see how is that relevant to having a booster or not.
Buying 4 copies of every card would "almost" be the same as having an LCG, you can mix and match all the card the way you want and explore stuff, like every CCG, either they are a TCG like Magic, an Online CCG like Hearthstone or an LCG like NetRunner
Restrictions breed creativity, Magic is played in many ways, packs are only relevant in draft, conveniently most cards found in packs are only relevant in draft too. Part of the discovery is driven by the restrictions around draft, some players look for big stompy creatures, others look for synergy and others still simply want to play certain colours. They all aim to build the best deck they can, from their point of view, that is an inherently creative process. Another factor is that, not all discoveries are good, we learn as much from our failures, sometimes more, as we do from our success.
An non-random way of getting into standard, and having a reasonable chance is a newish product, the challenger decks. Not sure if these will have an equivalent on Arena though.
If you just have viable cards in a set, you get Cube. "A cube is a large stack of mostly powerful cards selected by their owner from throughout Magic's history." This is then used to draft with, essentially adding a random/discovery factor with powerful cards, again this is another way to play.
Limited is much more enjoyable for me than any constructed format, without it 99% of the printed cards would be completely useless since they wouldn't see play in any format at all. I reckon it actually sells more packs than standard since most players just buy singles when they intend on building a constructed deck rather than cracking packs hoping to get lucky.
To build a constructed deck you need 4x of the core cards, if 3 or 4 rares are in particularly high demand then stores crack packs to sell the singles to those wanting to build the standard/modern deck. If you are talking about selling packs to players, then yes, draft sells more packs, but the only place those singles come from is packs, so the singles buyers actually support the opening of more packs than the draft players.
The sad fact is, ditching limited wouldn't mean Wizards prints or reprints more constructed viable cards, there would still be piles of chaff, good for EDH...
If it was easy to make a different product, Hasbro/Wizards would have done it. It isn't. Magic sets are designed 3 years in the future, so right now the teams at Wizards are designing a set we won't play cards from for another 3 years. Magic is a game of discovery, this is where it differs from Living Card Games, where the entire set is given to you in a box. Collectable Card Games have two audiences, players and collectors/speculators, you may not like the latter but they are a part of the audience for Magic.
I don't like the commander precons, they have a nasty habit of warping EDH or introducing busted cards. True-Name Nemesis, Chaos Warp and Song of the Dryads for starters, shouldn't exist nor should most of the commanders in commander precons. The commander precons aren't the only way Wizards mess this up, there is also the planeswalker decks. These have new cards like Tezzeret's Simulacrum, legal in standard but not printed in the sets booster packs. This is a very bad idea, all it takes is one of those cards to slip through and be competitive, then suddenly an introductory precon is being broken to sell singles. Even if they aren't that competitive, they might appeal to players, I choose Tezzeret's Simulacrum as my example because I did buy them, to put in a casual deck with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas.
There is a 4 page thread on the modern forum about the idea of a modern booster, a way to print cards directly into modern, which are too strong for standard, so Baleful Strix, Shardless Agent and Dack Fayden could enter the modern card pool as an example, as could Counterspell or Foil. These cards though are known quantities, we can test them, heck we can play them casually in a modern shell, new cards though, targeted at modern, that could be a risk. Arena Rector printed in Battleborn, costs 4 mana, so looks sort of safe, except the planeswalkers in Battleborn were all awful, put that card in modern and someone will use it to cheat out Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Cards which have to go through Standard simply have better checks and balances than those which don't.
I haven't bought packs in years. I buy a playset of the commons/uncommons from a given set, I've been doing this since Zendikar in 2009, this gives me the basics, sure a lot is chaff, but those that aren't that's it, I have my play set. This costs around £25-£30 the other £40 I could have spent on a booster box is used to get the rares/mythics I want, occasionally I'll spend slightly more than that £40, but the point is I've removed the random experience from my card purchasing.
Unless you enjoy drafting, booster packs are just a gamble that isn't worth it, even with 36 packs you have no guarantee of obtaining a complete common/uncommon playset.
From Oath of the Gatewatch at Mythic; Mirrorpool didn't set standard alight, but it isn't for that. What it is, is a card worth remembering for Modern or Commander. It does something which is an already unusual effect, copies spells or creatures. Looking at the first part Twincast or Increasing Vengeance, can do this effect at CMC 2, but that mana is solid coloured, Mirrorpool does it in colourless. Similarly Clone effects, but again you need coloured mana... One day, something will likely work with Mirrorpool and let it be broken, simply because it isn't tied to blue or red mana. The only way Mirrorpool can enter Modern is via Standard, there is no other route!
I haven't bought packs in years. I buy a playset of the commons/uncommons from a given set, I've been doing this since Zendikar in 2009, this gives me the basics, sure a lot is chaff, but those that aren't that's it, I have my play set. This costs around £25-£30 the other £40 I could have spent on a booster box is used to get the rares/mythics I want, occasionally I'll spend slightly more than that £40, but the point is I've removed the random experience from my card purchasing.
Here is another factor, in paper magic, when mythics are weird/interesting rather than staples, the value of a pack gets more evenly spread across the rares and some uncommons, every set has a certain degree of staples. If mythics are just bombs you need 4x of, everything else suffers value wise.
Tested? Tested? They let Creeping Chill in which put Dredge over the top in Modern testing my ***. Anyone who cannot see how a free uncounterable 6 point life swing could be broken in a format where Faithless Looting is one of the top two cantrips in the format doesn't deserve their job.
Creeping Chill isn't that much stronger (it is stronger though) than Chancellor of the Dross or Providence especially in the context of standard, the later two saw 0 play. Although they printed Stitcher's Supplier for the same standard environment, so clearly wanted some form of graveyard deck or were at least ok with it. Something like Creeping Chill is only as good as the enabler, Chancellor of the Dross is a fine card in a Soulflayer deck, but it's an edge case, much as dredge is an edge case in modern, heck the reprinting of Narcomoeba makes dredge more likely in modern...
I maindeck 2 Rakdos Charm in Hollow One (yeah, I know) backed up by Leyline of the Void in the sideboard. The charm is just useful enough against non-graveyard decks that it is ok, but it isn't widely played and it needs 2 colours. Not sure if something similar could be designed to be more efficient but fair.
Full disclosure I play G Tron and Hollow One, they are fairly different decks but also both fairly linear, in the sense the play patterns repeat and obviously driven by the two apparent boggy men Ancient Stirrings and Faithless Looting. So yes I enjoy it as it stands, but I know that change is likely imminent, which is also fine.
I'd be fine with everything you suggest, except Hymn to Tourach, that card is way over-powered, even from the guy playing Burning Inquiry. In addition I'd like to see Careful Study and Dack Fayden.
The short answer is you can't, most players would buy singles, maybe ebay or your card seller of choice... The cards are from diverse sets. What you really want to do is use something like the deck builder on this site to goldfish ideas and then just buy 4x of the cards that work for the plan you want.
You can make a creature-less control deck, but you then need either Planeswalkers (Teferi, Hero of Dominaria / Gideon of the Trials) or Enchantments (Approach of the Second Sun / Near-Death Experience, this might need Angel's Grace) to act as your win condition.
Lockdown
Ensnaring Bridge, Ghostly Prison, Norn's Annex, Curse of Exhaustion, Rule of Law, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Damping Sphere
Board Wipe
Wrath of God, Supreme Verdict and Terminus
Enablers
Serum Visions, opt and Wall of Omens
Answers / Stalling
Reflector Mage, Path to Exile, Silence, Holy Day, Ethereal Haze, Spell Queller, Boomerang, Vapor Snag, Mana Leak, Cryptic Command and Logic Knot
Win Conditions
Celestial Colonnade and Geist of Saint Traft
Honestly, Wizards should bite the bullet and print almost fetch lands at uncommon (look at the top 10 cards, to be Arena friendly / avoid shuffling) or the actual fetch lands. The cost to entry for modern is mostly the land. Just let everyone have good mana...
Masterpieces were overplayed, used sparingly they wouldn't have received as much negative feedback. Then again Masters sets were overdone too and won't be coming back for a while.
Restrictions breed creativity, Magic is played in many ways, packs are only relevant in draft, conveniently most cards found in packs are only relevant in draft too. Part of the discovery is driven by the restrictions around draft, some players look for big stompy creatures, others look for synergy and others still simply want to play certain colours. They all aim to build the best deck they can, from their point of view, that is an inherently creative process. Another factor is that, not all discoveries are good, we learn as much from our failures, sometimes more, as we do from our success.
An non-random way of getting into standard, and having a reasonable chance is a newish product, the challenger decks. Not sure if these will have an equivalent on Arena though.
If you just have viable cards in a set, you get Cube. "A cube is a large stack of mostly powerful cards selected by their owner from throughout Magic's history." This is then used to draft with, essentially adding a random/discovery factor with powerful cards, again this is another way to play.
To build a constructed deck you need 4x of the core cards, if 3 or 4 rares are in particularly high demand then stores crack packs to sell the singles to those wanting to build the standard/modern deck. If you are talking about selling packs to players, then yes, draft sells more packs, but the only place those singles come from is packs, so the singles buyers actually support the opening of more packs than the draft players.
The sad fact is, ditching limited wouldn't mean Wizards prints or reprints more constructed viable cards, there would still be piles of chaff, good for EDH...
If it was easy to make a different product, Hasbro/Wizards would have done it. It isn't. Magic sets are designed 3 years in the future, so right now the teams at Wizards are designing a set we won't play cards from for another 3 years. Magic is a game of discovery, this is where it differs from Living Card Games, where the entire set is given to you in a box. Collectable Card Games have two audiences, players and collectors/speculators, you may not like the latter but they are a part of the audience for Magic.
I don't like the commander precons, they have a nasty habit of warping EDH or introducing busted cards. True-Name Nemesis, Chaos Warp and Song of the Dryads for starters, shouldn't exist nor should most of the commanders in commander precons. The commander precons aren't the only way Wizards mess this up, there is also the planeswalker decks. These have new cards like Tezzeret's Simulacrum, legal in standard but not printed in the sets booster packs. This is a very bad idea, all it takes is one of those cards to slip through and be competitive, then suddenly an introductory precon is being broken to sell singles. Even if they aren't that competitive, they might appeal to players, I choose Tezzeret's Simulacrum as my example because I did buy them, to put in a casual deck with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas.
There is a 4 page thread on the modern forum about the idea of a modern booster, a way to print cards directly into modern, which are too strong for standard, so Baleful Strix, Shardless Agent and Dack Fayden could enter the modern card pool as an example, as could Counterspell or Foil. These cards though are known quantities, we can test them, heck we can play them casually in a modern shell, new cards though, targeted at modern, that could be a risk. Arena Rector printed in Battleborn, costs 4 mana, so looks sort of safe, except the planeswalkers in Battleborn were all awful, put that card in modern and someone will use it to cheat out Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Cards which have to go through Standard simply have better checks and balances than those which don't.
Unless you enjoy drafting, booster packs are just a gamble that isn't worth it, even with 36 packs you have no guarantee of obtaining a complete common/uncommon playset.
From Oath of the Gatewatch at Mythic; Mirrorpool didn't set standard alight, but it isn't for that. What it is, is a card worth remembering for Modern or Commander. It does something which is an already unusual effect, copies spells or creatures. Looking at the first part Twincast or Increasing Vengeance, can do this effect at CMC 2, but that mana is solid coloured, Mirrorpool does it in colourless. Similarly Clone effects, but again you need coloured mana... One day, something will likely work with Mirrorpool and let it be broken, simply because it isn't tied to blue or red mana. The only way Mirrorpool can enter Modern is via Standard, there is no other route!
I haven't bought packs in years. I buy a playset of the commons/uncommons from a given set, I've been doing this since Zendikar in 2009, this gives me the basics, sure a lot is chaff, but those that aren't that's it, I have my play set. This costs around £25-£30 the other £40 I could have spent on a booster box is used to get the rares/mythics I want, occasionally I'll spend slightly more than that £40, but the point is I've removed the random experience from my card purchasing.
Here is another factor, in paper magic, when mythics are weird/interesting rather than staples, the value of a pack gets more evenly spread across the rares and some uncommons, every set has a certain degree of staples. If mythics are just bombs you need 4x of, everything else suffers value wise.
Creeping Chill isn't that much stronger (it is stronger though) than Chancellor of the Dross or Providence especially in the context of standard, the later two saw 0 play. Although they printed Stitcher's Supplier for the same standard environment, so clearly wanted some form of graveyard deck or were at least ok with it. Something like Creeping Chill is only as good as the enabler, Chancellor of the Dross is a fine card in a Soulflayer deck, but it's an edge case, much as dredge is an edge case in modern, heck the reprinting of Narcomoeba makes dredge more likely in modern...