I recently tossed out a thread and it appears many people are not happy with the way the RC approaches the banned list. Now after this whole walking dead fiasco it is clear they are making a lot of people unhappy.
Its a crazy idea, I know it would be extremely hard to manage this but what if the community could come together and make our RC, meaning our own banned list (done via voting through straw pull or something like that). The common idea is this is a community driven format, let’s make it that. We can just rename the format EDH-community format?
Again just spitballing this idea. Not trying to get people fired, just seeing what our opinions are.
I agree with you about focusing on the gameplay and not the planeswalkers. I think when I initially asked my question I was not clear.
I think too many walkers dilute game play and the draft experience. With so many planeswalkers taking the slots of creatures they are naturally becoming more difficult to handle. I have drafted a few powered cubes that use some of the lists on here as a skeleton and I find if I am not drafting a broken archtype the default 'superfriends' deck is almost always superior to the creature decks. I have found the best cube experiences with planeswalkers as a utility and not the focus of deck. I completely understand that this is my bias but the superfriends deck is not fun to play against the creatures decks, combo decks, or the other superfriends deck.
If anyone is familiar with Mark Rosewater's podcast that is the title of the podcast I would be referring to. There was a particular topic that I was not a fan of, that idea of "banning cards because they don't let people play the game" and they use Narset, Parter of Veils as an example. I personally think these regulators are important for the health of the game and that every type of card should have an answer. What does everyone else think?
I am 100% for limiting the number of planeswalkers in cubes. I do not agree with the argument of "Would you limit other card types in your cube". If they were not as swingy or start a 'sub-game' then I would think they are fine. The new card type in combination with swingy and sub-game of 'kill the planeswalker' is just too much. When there are a larger amount of cards that handle planeswalkers I'll reconsider my position but as of right now I stand by it. I know a lot of people do not agree with me.
What they dropped the ball on: Akroma, Angel of Fury, seriously at mythic? They are reprinting Chandra, Torch of Defiance in the challenger decks, why not just give us another printing instead of this crap. I understand red has trouble with mythics but there are still better options.
Doomsday, the art is great but not as a mythic please. This was such a good opportunity to give us a Demonic Tutor, Mind Twist, or Imperial Seal reprint, foil at that. I definitely think this is where they really messed up.
Master of the Wild Hunt, great that they finally gave us a reprint of this guy, but he could have been rare.
Phyrexian Obliterator, same as the previous card, a reprint is nice but not at mythic.
Plague Wind, people would’ve been happier with Damnation or Toxic Deluge. I get they don’t work exactly the same, but if you are looking to put a black wrath this is not the best option.
Summary:
They definitely did not strike the tone that people expected with this set, initially it looked like this set was going to be a slam dunk. As spoilers progressed things also got progressively worse. There are a lot of questionable choices at rare. On the positive side, there are actually a decent amount of good rares and they put a lot of value/playability in the uncommon slot as well. Overall I would not say this set was terrible, but it definitely was not amazing. Part of this might be due to the high expectations that we as the community has for this, as well as the description that wizards put out
I actually had a preliminary list doing exactly this. The first thing I did is go through all five sets and filter out all the cards that were just not picked very often. After that I had to think about what archtypes I wanted to support, obviously the five tribes are the easiest. You want to think, did you want to try and support the burning vengeance deck or the spider spawning deck? It is difficult to support these archtypes in a singleton format, so that is something else to consider. It seems cool to merge the two blocks together, because there is so much overlap, but you also need to think about what made each individual format good and ask yourself if you can incorporate those ideas together.
This is great and reading things like this is always fun. I think the Initial Impression section where you talk about your thoughts on the new mechanics is a fantastic way to start off a set review. Would love to see better formatting so things are easier to read in the future.
What can I do with the format to make it easier to read? Also thank you everyone for the input.
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Its a crazy idea, I know it would be extremely hard to manage this but what if the community could come together and make our RC, meaning our own banned list (done via voting through straw pull or something like that). The common idea is this is a community driven format, let’s make it that. We can just rename the format EDH-community format?
Again just spitballing this idea. Not trying to get people fired, just seeing what our opinions are.
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I think too many walkers dilute game play and the draft experience. With so many planeswalkers taking the slots of creatures they are naturally becoming more difficult to handle. I have drafted a few powered cubes that use some of the lists on here as a skeleton and I find if I am not drafting a broken archtype the default 'superfriends' deck is almost always superior to the creature decks. I have found the best cube experiences with planeswalkers as a utility and not the focus of deck. I completely understand that this is my bias but the superfriends deck is not fun to play against the creatures decks, combo decks, or the other superfriends deck.
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Ancient Stirrings, modern playable
Animar, Soul of Elements, value $29
Blood Moon, modern playable $20
Boros Charm, modern playable
Chalice of the Void, modern playable $60
Cursecatcher, modern playable
Azusa, Lost but Seeking, value $40
Ash Barrens, value $8 common from commander, nice to see another printing
Eladamri’s Call, a nice commander reprint was previously $10
Eidolon of the Great Revel, modern playable
Elvish Piper, commander playable and was previously $8
Ensnaring Bridge, finally a reprint, sucks at mythic but I would rather have this than no reprint at all! Previously $40
Imperial Recruiter, the big reprint of this set
Jace, the Mind Sculptor, after the unbanning it put more value in this set, probably intentional
Lightning Bolt, modern staple, can’t complain if there are more copies
Pact of Negation, modern playable and value
Rishadan Port, so much value, original $90
Simian Spirit Guide, modern playable
Street Wraith, modern playable
Summoner’s Pact, modern playable, $15
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, a much needed reprint for modern
Vendilion Clique, modern playable, $28
REB and BEB, first foil printings for people who want to foil out their legacy decks
Enemy filter lands, value
Cards that I like being reprinted:
Ancient Craving, first foil printing
Arcane Denial, first foil priting
Balduvian Horde, shifted to common for pauper cube
Brainstorm, I'm weird and like that art
Coalition Relic, finally another printing and nice art
Frenzied Goblin, downshifted to common, good for pauper
Hordeling Outburst, downshifted to common, good for pauper
Pillage, new art and downshifted to common
What they dropped the ball on:
Akroma, Angel of Fury, seriously at mythic? They are reprinting Chandra, Torch of Defiance in the challenger decks, why not just give us another printing instead of this crap. I understand red has trouble with mythics but there are still better options.
Akroma, Angel of Wrath, another one of those "seriously at mythic?" cards.
Armageddon, why not Ravages of War?
Doomsday, the art is great but not as a mythic please. This was such a good opportunity to give us a Demonic Tutor, Mind Twist, or Imperial Seal reprint, foil at that. I definitely think this is where they really messed up.
Master of the Wild Hunt, great that they finally gave us a reprint of this guy, but he could have been rare.
Phyrexian Obliterator, same as the previous card, a reprint is nice but not at mythic.
Plague Wind, people would’ve been happier with Damnation or Toxic Deluge. I get they don’t work exactly the same, but if you are looking to put a black wrath this is not the best option.
Triskaidekaphobia, if they were seriously going to give us a card from the SOI block why not Collective Brutality?
Summary:
They definitely did not strike the tone that people expected with this set, initially it looked like this set was going to be a slam dunk. As spoilers progressed things also got progressively worse. There are a lot of questionable choices at rare. On the positive side, there are actually a decent amount of good rares and they put a lot of value/playability in the uncommon slot as well. Overall I would not say this set was terrible, but it definitely was not amazing. Part of this might be due to the high expectations that we as the community has for this, as well as the description that wizards put out
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What can I do with the format to make it easier to read? Also thank you everyone for the input.