First of all, if you don't want to see whining, don't read, don't post, and gtfo of this thread. You've been warned.
Update: In succinct, I am complaining about how pathetic the dev team is. Yes, this card is perfectly balanced in standard, but I'm not talking about standard. I'm talking about how cards affect the entire game, including Vintage and Legacy. This card could have been red and it would've been fine. It would've added a new element to red decks in eternal formats, giving red an actually decent mechanic instead of increasing the already excessive number of playable blue cards. The reason they didn't make it red? Probably because they don't care about Vintage/Legacy, and would love for it to die and have all players flock to a format where they can reprint cards (Modern).
Seriously, all I ever see are good blue cards. It's ridiculous that blue is considered to be "thought-provoking, wise, and strategic." This is a STRATEGY game, for heaven's sake. If the point of the game is to win, you can't make "win" the flavor of a color. It's ridiculous. Red, on the other hand, has underpowered random effects, which is the exact opposite of anything anyone wants to do in any strategy game.
I'm especially pissed because the newest spoiled card is better than everything else that's been spoiled, and I think it'll turn out to be like that for the rest of the set.
Snapcaster Mage - 1U
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Flash
When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/1
Illus. Volkan Baga
According to this article, blue is supposed to be slow. Then why does blue specialize in FLASH?! Red should be flash.
My god, I'm just so sick of it. Artifacts, counterspells, card draw, etc. Blue is the best color in magic, and they keep making it better. You would think that they would know how to balance a game after almost 20 years.
First of all, if you don't want to see whining, don't read, don't post, and gtfo of this thread. You've been warned.
Seriously, all I ever see are good blue cards. It's ridiculous that blue is considered to be "thought-provoking, wise, and strategic." This is a STRATEGY game, for heaven's sake. If the point of the game is to win, you can't make "win" the flavor of a color. It's ridiculous. Red, on the other hand, has underpowered random effects, which is the exact opposite of anything anyone wants to do in any strategy game.
I'm especially pissed because the newest spoiled card is better than everything else that's been spoiled, and I think it'll turn out to be like that for the rest of the set.
Snapcaster Mage
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Flash
When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/1
Illus. Volkan Baga
According to this article, blue is supposed to be slow. Then why does blue specialize in FLASH?! Red should be flash.
My god, I'm just so sick of it. Artifacts, counterspells, card draw, etc. Blue is the best color in magic, and they keep making it better. You would think that they would know how to balance a game after almost 20 years.
That card was designed by Tiago Chan, winner of the Invitational a few years ago. The prize was getting to design your own card, so blame that on him.
Also, how can you complain about blue when it just got the **** banned out of it in modern?
What do artifacts have to do with blue?
Flash is a very blue mechanic. Blue is about trickery and being crafty, which is what flash creatures are.
Finally, Red has Goblin Guide, which is one of the best creatures EVER available in standard. Not to mention Lightning bolt in a coreset for two years. Koth of the Hammer is one of the best planewalkers ever printed. Oh, and grim lavamancer just got reprinted. Quit *****ing
Island is overpowered.
Nerf pl0x.
To some extent I agree. But this is the way it's been for years. Blue has always been the most powerful color in the pie, because card draw and countering are two of the strongest things in the game. If they shifted the pie, it would lead to mass player QQ.
Also, this blue card may be good, but you'll have a hard time finding enough other blue cards to make a competent deck.
Blue specializes in Flash because it enables some of the mechanics such as counters and card draw.
Also, I think that the Mage is acceptable because it's been a card in the works for years now, and you can't bash Wizards over it too much because it's an invitational card.
Let's talk again after the next Standard season -- I think the other colors are going to catch up to blue.
If every color was as equally powerful as blue, the game would ascend to an even higher level, making it so strategical that the game is determined by the first minor misplay. Blue is a difficult color to control, while the others are very straightforward. Blue is a stronger color because it is so much more skill intensive. Why do you think blue decks dominate Top 8's? Because the people making those Top 8's are professionals. To play blue, you have to know when to counter, when to tap out, what to let by, etc. With red, it's burn, BURN, BURN. If red cards were as powerful, red would be the most played color, but also the hardest color to use, because if it was like blue, you would need to know when can I Bolt that, not just, "damn, here's a threat to me, DIE!" Blue mages have to be skilled in knowing what order to play their spells, and have to be able to think turns ahead to know what to play. The skill required to play blue gives it more powerful cards, but it is balanced because of how hard it is to use. I can't walk to an FNM with no experience playing Caw and go 4-0. I've done that with Tempered Steel, because the gameplan is, swarm, drop Steel, win. Blue decks are more complicated to use, you need to think "Tap out for bomb, or save my Mana Leak for his bomb?" Where others colors say "I have a bomb, I'll play it." They have the advantage about not worrying how to play counters, but also the disadvantage of waiting for counters.
Basically, blue cards are better, but it's fair, because blue cards are so skill intensive.
First of all, if you don't want to see whining, don't read, don't post, and gtfo of this thread. You've been warned.
Seriously, all I ever see are good blue cards. It's ridiculous that blue is considered to be "thought-provoking, wise, and strategic." This is a STRATEGY game, for heaven's sake. If the point of the game is to win, you can't make "win" the flavor of a color. It's ridiculous. Red, on the other hand, has underpowered random effects, which is the exact opposite of anything anyone wants to do in any strategy game.
I'm especially pissed because the newest spoiled card is better than everything else that's been spoiled, and I think it'll turn out to be like that for the rest of the set.
Snapcaster Mage
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Flash
When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/1
Illus. Volkan Baga
According to this article, blue is supposed to be slow. Then why does blue specialize in FLASH?! Red should be flash.
My god, I'm just so sick of it. Artifacts, counterspells, card draw, etc. Blue is the best color in magic, and they keep making it better. You would think that they would know how to balance a game after almost 20 years.
The "best" color in the game? Not really. It's probably tied with black for most powerful color. But then again "best" depends on the format. Blue has some of the most powerful effects yes, that doesn't make it the most powerful color. If I recall correctly it wasn't to long ago Jund was dominating things without a splash of blue to be seen, and then Valakut.dec Before that we had Black/Blue Faeries. Then we had Jace, who got ban hammered. And caw-blade, primarily white got ban hammered as well with the loss of stoneforge mystic. I've seen a couple good blue cards spoiled so far. Don't jump to "OMG BLUE IS SO OP HAX" just cause blue got a powerful card. If they reprinted dark ritual would you jumpship to saying black is op? And speaking of powerful cards, Lightning Bolt, Goblin Guide, Kuldotha Red, Valakut (as menitoned), Arc Trail, RDW, Black Red Vampire.dec, ect.
As for spoiled cards relook at the list. That one you mentioned is indeed a bomb of a card in the right deck,
so a couple of the transform cards like the Mayor of Townsville, Boneyard Wurm, Stormkirk Noble, Bloodcrazed Neonate, Devil's Play, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Divine Reckoning, and Mentor of the Meek.
So while yes blue does get power, so do other colors. As for it being slow, it is. Blue loves to win via long drawn out battles of Attrition. For every threat other colors play blue finds an answer. Capsize, Counterspell, Brainstorm, and yes giving cards Flash is very blue. Oh you thought you had something I couldn't answer? Wrong, please try again while I dig for my win. I'm not the biggest fan of blue, it's highly annoying, but it fits it's flavor. The new card you mentioned is VERY blue. It fits there far better than it would any other color.
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Blue=Skill Intensive? Sorry, I was too busy realizing you can literally have a deck full of counterspells and one Emrakul, and you're probably set for the game. Because, eventually, they have to play something. Which you will make sure they don't do. Blue is the most powerful because they gave the three most powerful things in a card game to blue: Deck manipulation(on both sides), Draw, and Countering.
Now, note, I'm not trying to say that Blue mages aren't skilled, I'm saying you CAN play blue and win, with little to no actual skill in the game, just from my experience. This is a personal opinion on the color, not on the mages, and purely subjective at that.
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Snapcaster Mage will have a far greater impact on Modern, Legacy, and EDH than it will in Standard. If you're disappointed with how powerful blue is, then draft more...play a format where everyone is on an even-ish playing field. Luck matters more, but then you'd be grasping at straws. It's just Magic.
Sometimes I wonder if it is solely because of the cards given to blue or if it is because it is the style preference of a segment of the top players to play more controlling style decks.
Since most people netdeck, players will follow whatever the majority of pros are playing.
I just think a lot of the blue hate comes from new players complaining that they can't play their craw wurms and turn them sideways.
Also like others have said, they have recently banned the hell out of a lot of blue cards. Hell if any color gets all the love, it's white. White can literally do anything.
You're complaining about something that has been going on since Alpha. Control tends to be the best strategy overall and blue is the control color. Until they move Control into other colors (which they have to some extent in White), blue will always have the most tournament viable cards.
Sometimes I wonder if it is solely because of the cards given to blue or if it is because it is the style preference of a segment of the top players to play more controlling style decks.
Since most people netdeck, players will follow whatever the majority of pros are playing.
Good cards get played more than bad ones. That's just how it goes. Knowing how to play your cards is equally as important as choosing what cards to play, so the "netdecking" argument makes very little sense. Most of the time, if someone is just copying the 75 without even considering why certain cards were played/not played, they aren't going to do well. Playing last weeks deck only means you're a week behind in technology, and the meta has probably shifted a fair amount (look what happened when Splinter Twin/Valakut faded a bit, people started skimping on hate, and they won events the last few weeks)
Do people wonder why decklists are different every event? It's sure as hell not by coincidence. There are a lot of simple-minded people that think changing 4 cards doesnt make a difference. Those are the people who complain every time their Phyrexian Obliterator get's Mana Leaked or Dismembered. Take 2 cawblade decks, one running 4 Mirran Crusader and the other plays 2 Day of Judgment, an extra Gideon Jura, and a Consecrated Sphinx. Those are completely different decks all of the sudden. There IS skill in choosing what deck/cards to play. If you don't see that then you really need to reevaluate your general knowledge of this game.
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Standard:
Bident Layers B Devotion RG Devotion UW Control Modern:
Jund
UW Control
Combo Pod Legacy: DeathBlade RUG Delver BUG Control
While archetypes are absolutely no problem for me, what annoys me are about peole whining. As if it's perfectly fine for other colors to get nerfed, only a portion of people whine. But when Blue gets nerfed, whiners come en masse.
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You know, maybe they should try and have an experiment some day- Have the highest tier players, the most renowned, all build green decks, and all build Boros, and see if they compete with blue? I mean, honestly. My Green decks DO stand a chance against blue. Has anyone met Terra Stomper?
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There IS skill in choosing what deck/cards to play. If you don't see that then you really need to reevaluate your general knowledge of this game.
Calm down dude, I didn't say there wasn't any skill. Don't try to spin a personal attack from it.
There are cases where cards are clearly better, but I still feel that players will gravitate to colors that suit their play style. And for professional players they seem to gravitate more to the blue play style.
Blue took a nice long break from being good for a few years. It's back strong now...but seriously...when until recently your options for counter started with Cancel (because Mana Leak and Counterspell were NPE's at two).
It goes in cycles. Green usually gets the least amount of love for the longest periods of time.
Blue also gets the best mechanics in draw, bounce, counter, and copying.
What are you going to do though? It's not like the game is diversified anymore (not like ten years ago). Each block is simply which color got the best cards this time and every mechanic of every color bleeds into the others these days.
Distinct color differences is something I do miss.
Same. I miss when my being a Green mage felt unique. Terra Stomper? One of the single best cards I've seen in such a long time. Also, I hate that Green got Harmonize. That's just not us, let blue keep Concentrate, it earned it.
Red needs moar playable wizards and dragons.
Green needs moar playable Beasts.
White is doin ok.
Blue is doing fantastic right now. IT can go now.
And Black...is sitting in the corner doing it's thing, like always o.o
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In Zendikar standard, before Jace got printed, blue was almost completely unplayable, and even after that, Jace was just the most powerful card - blue was still the weakest color.
Sometimes the power of Magic's colors fluctuates. I remember a time when all of the complaint threads were "Why can't blue get any good cards?"
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Although always playing a deck I think is fun, I'm also always trying to win the tournament.
Currently playing: M13 Draft GGGGG Dungrove................(STANDARD) GWGWG Maverick..................(LEGACY)
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Blue=Skill Intensive? Sorry, I was too busy realizing you can literally have a deck full of counterspells and one Emrakul, and you're probably set for the game. Because, eventually, they have to play something. Which you will make sure they don't do
Now, note, I'm not trying to say that Blue mages aren't skilled, I'm saying you CAN play blue and win, with little to no actual skill in the game, just from my experience. This is a personal opinion on the color, not on the mages, and purely subjective at that.
Magic is a strategy game, and the color blue does deck manipulation and prepares for the long game while being more flexible due to draw and countermagic.
In essence, by preparing for a long game and reaching it, it's way better than a random color like red whose opening 7 is more opponent than their next 47.
Update: In succinct, I am complaining about how pathetic the dev team is. Yes, this card is perfectly balanced in standard, but I'm not talking about standard. I'm talking about how cards affect the entire game, including Vintage and Legacy. This card could have been red and it would've been fine. It would've added a new element to red decks in eternal formats, giving red an actually decent mechanic instead of increasing the already excessive number of playable blue cards. The reason they didn't make it red? Probably because they don't care about Vintage/Legacy, and would love for it to die and have all players flock to a format where they can reprint cards (Modern).
Seriously, all I ever see are good blue cards. It's ridiculous that blue is considered to be "thought-provoking, wise, and strategic." This is a STRATEGY game, for heaven's sake. If the point of the game is to win, you can't make "win" the flavor of a color. It's ridiculous. Red, on the other hand, has underpowered random effects, which is the exact opposite of anything anyone wants to do in any strategy game.
I'm especially pissed because the newest spoiled card is better than everything else that's been spoiled, and I think it'll turn out to be like that for the rest of the set.
Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Flash
When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/1
Illus. Volkan Baga
According to this article, blue is supposed to be slow. Then why does blue specialize in FLASH?! Red should be flash.
My god, I'm just so sick of it. Artifacts, counterspells, card draw, etc. Blue is the best color in magic, and they keep making it better. You would think that they would know how to balance a game after almost 20 years.
That card was designed by Tiago Chan, winner of the Invitational a few years ago. The prize was getting to design your own card, so blame that on him.
Also, how can you complain about blue when it just got the **** banned out of it in modern?
What do artifacts have to do with blue?
Flash is a very blue mechanic. Blue is about trickery and being crafty, which is what flash creatures are.
Finally, Red has Goblin Guide, which is one of the best creatures EVER available in standard. Not to mention Lightning bolt in a coreset for two years. Koth of the Hammer is one of the best planewalkers ever printed. Oh, and grim lavamancer just got reprinted. Quit *****ing
Nerf pl0x.
To some extent I agree. But this is the way it's been for years. Blue has always been the most powerful color in the pie, because card draw and countering are two of the strongest things in the game. If they shifted the pie, it would lead to mass player QQ.
Also, this blue card may be good, but you'll have a hard time finding enough other blue cards to make a competent deck.
Blue specializes in Flash because it enables some of the mechanics such as counters and card draw.
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Also, I think that the Mage is acceptable because it's been a card in the works for years now, and you can't bash Wizards over it too much because it's an invitational card.
Let's talk again after the next Standard season -- I think the other colors are going to catch up to blue.
Basically, blue cards are better, but it's fair, because blue cards are so skill intensive.
The "best" color in the game? Not really. It's probably tied with black for most powerful color. But then again "best" depends on the format. Blue has some of the most powerful effects yes, that doesn't make it the most powerful color. If I recall correctly it wasn't to long ago Jund was dominating things without a splash of blue to be seen, and then Valakut.dec Before that we had Black/Blue Faeries. Then we had Jace, who got ban hammered. And caw-blade, primarily white got ban hammered as well with the loss of stoneforge mystic. I've seen a couple good blue cards spoiled so far. Don't jump to "OMG BLUE IS SO OP HAX" just cause blue got a powerful card. If they reprinted dark ritual would you jumpship to saying black is op? And speaking of powerful cards, Lightning Bolt, Goblin Guide, Kuldotha Red, Valakut (as menitoned), Arc Trail, RDW, Black Red Vampire.dec, ect.
As for spoiled cards relook at the list. That one you mentioned is indeed a bomb of a card in the right deck,
So while yes blue does get power, so do other colors. As for it being slow, it is. Blue loves to win via long drawn out battles of Attrition. For every threat other colors play blue finds an answer. Capsize, Counterspell, Brainstorm, and yes giving cards Flash is very blue. Oh you thought you had something I couldn't answer? Wrong, please try again while I dig for my win. I'm not the biggest fan of blue, it's highly annoying, but it fits it's flavor. The new card you mentioned is VERY blue. It fits there far better than it would any other color.
Now, note, I'm not trying to say that Blue mages aren't skilled, I'm saying you CAN play blue and win, with little to no actual skill in the game, just from my experience. This is a personal opinion on the color, not on the mages, and purely subjective at that.
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Since most people netdeck, players will follow whatever the majority of pros are playing.
The following cards are banned in modern:
Mental Misstep
Ancestral Vision
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
every now and then there happens to be a good blue card and that translates into "all the love"? I don't see the logic at all.
Bident Layers
B Devotion
RG Devotion
UW Control
Modern:
Jund
UW Control
Combo Pod
Legacy:
DeathBlade
RUG Delver
BUG Control
Also like others have said, they have recently banned the hell out of a lot of blue cards. Hell if any color gets all the love, it's white. White can literally do anything.
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Good cards get played more than bad ones. That's just how it goes. Knowing how to play your cards is equally as important as choosing what cards to play, so the "netdecking" argument makes very little sense. Most of the time, if someone is just copying the 75 without even considering why certain cards were played/not played, they aren't going to do well. Playing last weeks deck only means you're a week behind in technology, and the meta has probably shifted a fair amount (look what happened when Splinter Twin/Valakut faded a bit, people started skimping on hate, and they won events the last few weeks)
Do people wonder why decklists are different every event? It's sure as hell not by coincidence. There are a lot of simple-minded people that think changing 4 cards doesnt make a difference. Those are the people who complain every time their Phyrexian Obliterator get's Mana Leaked or Dismembered. Take 2 cawblade decks, one running 4 Mirran Crusader and the other plays 2 Day of Judgment, an extra Gideon Jura, and a Consecrated Sphinx. Those are completely different decks all of the sudden. There IS skill in choosing what deck/cards to play. If you don't see that then you really need to reevaluate your general knowledge of this game.
Bident Layers
B Devotion
RG Devotion
UW Control
Modern:
Jund
UW Control
Combo Pod
Legacy:
DeathBlade
RUG Delver
BUG Control
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Calm down dude, I didn't say there wasn't any skill. Don't try to spin a personal attack from it.
There are cases where cards are clearly better, but I still feel that players will gravitate to colors that suit their play style. And for professional players they seem to gravitate more to the blue play style.
It goes in cycles. Green usually gets the least amount of love for the longest periods of time.
Blue also gets the best mechanics in draw, bounce, counter, and copying.
What are you going to do though? It's not like the game is diversified anymore (not like ten years ago). Each block is simply which color got the best cards this time and every mechanic of every color bleeds into the others these days.
Distinct color differences is something I do miss.
Red needs moar playable wizards and dragons.
Green needs moar playable Beasts.
White is doin ok.
Blue is doing fantastic right now. IT can go now.
And Black...is sitting in the corner doing it's thing, like always o.o
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Sometimes the power of Magic's colors fluctuates. I remember a time when all of the complaint threads were "Why can't blue get any good cards?"
Currently playing:
M13 Draft
GGGGG Dungrove................(STANDARD)
GWGWG Maverick..................(LEGACY)
Jon Finkel on the PWP System:
Oh, I get it; you're trolling us
In essence, by preparing for a long game and reaching it, it's way better than a random color like red whose opening 7 is more opponent than their next 47.
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