I was wondering in what ways may I protect myself from mass removal in a mono white deck?
Teferi's Protection comes to mind but I cannot think of anything else, as I wont have access to counterspells. Or, if there is a UW commander that would have a similar purpose/effect as Sram, that could work.
I do not remember the names...but there are a couple black cards from recent sets that makes your opponent draw cards (Target player, you can target whoever) and they lose 2 life. I think one is even in standard right now.
ok so I was not too far off, but the decision to ban Ramunap Ruins rather than Hazoret is puzzling. Well, maybe RR would survive without Hazoret, but it's not clear it's that crippled without Ramunap Ruins. I guess they want to make RR still viable.
RR is still viable, but losing Ruins was quite a hit, losing Ferocidon is going to suck against Vamps and tokens, but the deck definitely has a chance.
Ruins gives it extra reach. If the deck doesnt kill in the early turns of the game, it runs into trouble because the opposing deck has time to build up. Ruins gives that extra bit of reach you sometimes need. Ruins definitely has won me some games, but nowhere near a majority. I have not played RR since Ixalan though, so I havent tried it with Ferocidon.
I have been making janky home brews and getting schwacked by energy lately
Hrm, after a fairly lengthy period of them not happening, my LGS was just starting to actually fire Standard events again on FNM. I wonder if this will help or hinder it (probably hinder).
I do find it interesting that, once again, cards are banned from Standard that are a virtual nonentity in the larger formats. I know I've pointed this out before, but seriously, consider it: Prior to the Kaladesh bans, every ban that ever happened in the history of Standard was of a card/deck that was, at least at the time, a major player in the larger formats (except for maybe Fluctuator). Stoneforge and Jace are still Legacy all-stars and got themselves banned in Extended (although that was just the shortened, 4-year Extended--though even if it was still the old 7-year Extended and they weren't banned, they would've been good). Affinity (post-Skullclamp ban) was a real force in Legacy and Extended (even if it only received a powerful deck that was a real force in Legacy and was judged to be powerful enough in Extended to be worth weakening. Skullclamp was Skullclamp. I'm not going to go through the Tempest/Urza's Saga block bannings individually but note how all of them were banned in larger formats or were, at the time, very relevant cards.
Sure, some of them have lost their luster. You barely see cards like Time Spiral or Fork played anywhere nowadays. But at least back then they were considered to be forces in the larger formats. Not these cards they just banned. Really speaks to how messed up Standard is if they're having to ban cards that are nonentities in formats like Modern.
I predict standard numbers will stay consistent at most LGS'.
The ban will:
-Bring back players who were tired of getting roflstomped by energy game after game after game, and people who want to brew their own cool decks and have a decent chance of winning
-Some energy players will be upset so they will probably stop coming for a bit
My problem with the attendance angle of this is that people are asking them to fix and bring the game back to the glory days of mass competitive play.
Well, in the beginning there were a lot of casual players on competetive events. Just because a tournament was a good way to meet people and see what decks they came up with.
But since netdecking, that isn´t a reason anymore to go to competetive events, because you end up playing against the same decks time and again, whatever format you are playing.
So, it leaves the players that are competetive anyway, and they are just a small percentage. i doubt it is enough for a "mass"
People were netdecking in 1997. It is not new. What is different now is that casual players who don’t netdeck are playing Commander instead of 60 card constructed.
Don't kid yourselves, there are plenty of "net deckers" in commander.
The problem is how WoTC treats the market they created. The way the company built the game up to the staggering numbers it has is by pushing competitive play and this explosion threw off the balance between non-competitive and FNM play. Online deck listings became valuable assets to assess the usefulness and value of cards, driving prices up quickly on staples and dropping the value on anything not efficient enough, which suppressed the ability for non-competitive "throw stuff together" collector players to expand and explore the game. This suppression of one crowd and rapid expansion of the other caused a massive movement in the market towards spike card favoritism. Modern also contributed to this trend and probably was the bigger culprit on the abandonment of the game by a lot of casual folks, which is why they adopted commander to try and balance things out and grow the non-competitive scene.
Let me put it this way: I know of no other game where a card with no availability problems and has the promise of being reprinted has exceeded the cost of a booster box other than Magic the Gathering. It's created a toxic environment on multiple levels and often a sense of being cornered because of financial pay walls, especially for isolated returning players who only have so much money to spend and their only option to find players is FNM. No one wants to walk in with their inexperienced janky hell of draft cards and get obliterated by a finely tuned affinity list or whatever flavor of standard deck is dominating the standard tournament scene.
The same thing is happening to EDH. Decklists and try-hards are doing the same thing to that format. Your Meta may be different...
When WOTC designs a set, I guess they have a few things in mind. For example, in Ixalan, it seems like they tried to get the set to do 4 different things:
-Draft
-EDH
-Standard
-Tribal
Its hard to make a set that is exciting for Standard when you are trying to make it good at 4 different things, it seems like they put more effort into making a set for EDH/Tribal, and so the draft and standard focus ended up being underwhelming. I guess its hard to be good at 4 things, so they ended up being mediocre at 4 things.
That (and some of the other reprints to some degree) are to give continuity. It gives a second chance for actually using the Conquistador for what they intended which was tutor up your handful of this guy and throw them out.
Problem is it's not a great card (even in multiples), the anthem is a rare, and the anthem Vampire is an uncommon. A few people will get vampire xmas land but not many.
Some of the other reprints have a purpose too but do strike me as pretty lazy. Remember small sets are on the way out so this is the last hurrah, I'm sure shortcuts were enabled.
Marketing need to beg people to play FNM. I honestly don't think they have a clue how badly off they are with LGS events not firing. Sending feedback to WotC feels like talking into an empty box.
Now that the Holidays are over I will probably start going to FNM again, but mostly just to draft the new set.
I would be more likely to go if they gave out more promo type stuff. Even if it was just a cool die, or some trinket. I love trinkets.
Purchased almost nothing from recent sets.
The Greeks set was ugly and the 'enchantment creature' cards somehow continue to confuse me 'til this day.
The Egyptian set was better, but it continued to bother me that they didn't use the actual gods of Egypt (e.g. Seth, Osiris).
The Steampunk set had nice art and nice story. It felt original and the abilities were interesting. But the vehicles aren't my thing either.
Ixalan, I was enthousiastic about 'til they revealed it was a creature tribal set. Which are very boring to draft, since they push you into one of four tribes.
Generally speaking, however, the gameplay quality of cards is so bad and boring it makes purchasing boosters absurd. You get a crap rare and boring commons, so why buy anything!?
For the record: If a card is bad, I might still like it if it has something which makes it interesting, like an amusing ability. But WOTC keeps printing chaff and seems to print more than before (I know this is an illusion because I've played the game for such a long time). Why do they keep printing creatures with an empty text box? This is absurd. It's a waste of paper, really. Why not put some ability in the text box?
"R: This gets flying and you lose 2 life" is a lot more interesting to draft than an empty textbox. I want choices. Even if those choices force me to choose between a rock and a hard place.
Why print a 3/4 flying for 5 mana like Shining Aerosaur? Why print more bears!? Queen's Bay Soldier is both boring and trash! Gilded Sentinel is an insult to anyone who purchases a booster!
The fun thing about EDH is seeing strange interactions on the board. Maybe they should find some inspiration in that.
Conclusion: WOTC is lazy. You can feel it in the railroading towards certain deck archetypes, in their bland chaff, and even the way the art looks.
I think they have always done the whole printing boring cards thing.
I was wondering in what ways may I protect myself from mass removal in a mono white deck?
Teferi's Protection comes to mind but I cannot think of anything else, as I wont have access to counterspells. Or, if there is a UW commander that would have a similar purpose/effect as Sram, that could work.
Not sure if this is the right board...
RR is still viable, but losing Ruins was quite a hit, losing Ferocidon is going to suck against Vamps and tokens, but the deck definitely has a chance.
Ruins gives it extra reach. If the deck doesnt kill in the early turns of the game, it runs into trouble because the opposing deck has time to build up. Ruins gives that extra bit of reach you sometimes need. Ruins definitely has won me some games, but nowhere near a majority. I have not played RR since Ixalan though, so I havent tried it with Ferocidon.
I have been making janky home brews and getting schwacked by energy lately
I predict standard numbers will stay consistent at most LGS'.
The ban will:
-Bring back players who were tired of getting roflstomped by energy game after game after game, and people who want to brew their own cool decks and have a decent chance of winning
-Some energy players will be upset so they will probably stop coming for a bit
It was nice to be back in the saddle and I was able to prize out each prerelease I did despite cards.
I will probably start to play standard again too, mostly to see what impact these bans had on the game.
By nerfing energy they almost had to nerf RR too or we would be in the same boat, but with RR taking the place of energy...
Don't kid yourselves, there are plenty of "net deckers" in commander.
The same thing is happening to EDH. Decklists and try-hards are doing the same thing to that format. Your Meta may be different...
-Draft
-EDH
-Standard
-Tribal
Its hard to make a set that is exciting for Standard when you are trying to make it good at 4 different things, it seems like they put more effort into making a set for EDH/Tribal, and so the draft and standard focus ended up being underwhelming. I guess its hard to be good at 4 things, so they ended up being mediocre at 4 things.
Now that the Holidays are over I will probably start going to FNM again, but mostly just to draft the new set.
I would be more likely to go if they gave out more promo type stuff. Even if it was just a cool die, or some trinket. I love trinkets.
For example, why are they reprinting legion conquistador in Rivals?
It exists in the set prior? Do they usually do this? Print a card twice in back to back sets that is not a shock, or something like that?
I guess they need cards to fill slots, but that seems odd, unless I never noticed it before...
Edit: And fish people may be better, too.
I think they have always done the whole printing boring cards thing.