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- Dontrike
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Member for 13 years, 1 month, and 2 days
Last active Thu, Apr, 25 2024 05:05:46
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Apr 21, 20172
Zephyr Scarlet posted a message on Iconic Masters November 2017Hooo boy, I hope you're excited for some 10$ Shivan Dragons and Serra Sphinxes.Posted in: The Rumor Mill -
Apr 20, 2017
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Fiveod posted a message on Iconic Masters November 2017So now when they leak the set list to CFB and SCG in advance they get even more time to manipulate the market before chase cards become public knowledge!Posted in: The Rumor Mill -
Apr 17, 201717
Infermofperpus posted a message on What's Wrong With Today's Magic?My take on this is that there are a multitude of fundamental issues with the design of the game.Posted in: Magic General
The Midrange Conundrum: The current design philosophy is very skewed toward midrange effects. Increasingly pushed creatures and an oversaturation of Planeswalkers combined with the severe downgrade of so called 'unfun' effects such as land destruction, counters, discard and wraths have essentially made the game all about creatures turning sideways and that's it. The addition of 'spell creatures' has further reinforced this, as what is the point of playing a three-mana counter when you can play spell queller? There is just no variety in standard anymore.
The Pro Effect: So ALL Pro Tours, PPT, PPTQ's and the majority of GP's are now Standard. With standard being the 'Pro' format, and the very limited way sets are designed, the format is quickly broken into the best 2-3 decks, which relegated every card not in these decks to chaff... then everyone is hoping that the next set will somehow change this constant cycle. Well it's just going to continue due to the state of design. Standard becomes boring very very fast. Coverage is also not very interesting now either. Who wants to just watch 2-3 decks turn creature’s sideways ad nauseum?
I have even noticed standard content has dropped a lot on places like CFB.
Design: My opinion is that the entire design team of Magic needs to be let go and new people with fresh perspectives brought in. A lot of these guys have been there a long time and are far too comfortable in their positions. There has been a slew of massive design errors recently: Vehicles, Spell Creatures, Eldrazi, and I don't know why they continue with the "free cast/play" things. It's just asking for trouble, especially since they won't print decent answers. Missing obvious combos like Saheeli and a couple of others make me question the competence of those in testing? They can't have a very good understanding of the game if they miss things that are obvious to most people. Creatures have also grown disproportionally strong as opposed to the rest of the game. Strong creatures are fine, but we need equally strong methods to balance them out. What they should be doing is having different types of strategies if not balanced, then at least focused on per set. For example, one set adds tools for control strategies, then next aggro to counter that, then midrange to counter that and so on. But the best way forward will be to have a valid control, midrange, aggro and occasionally combo equally viable in each set. This is easier said than done, but they really need to eliminate the 'not fun to new players' mentality. As what happens now is the 'new' players become experienced players and then they start looking for a more variable format which is why Modern is so popular. For the last 3 years of so, no LGS I go to ever plays standard. The events just don't fire, but Modern is packed all the time.
Loss of the Core Set: This has been one of the biggest factors with the poor state of standard. Core Sets were fantastic in plugging holes in the format and anchoring Magic in its fantasy roots. The constant parade through theme park after theme park is frankly tiring. We get to one plane, get used to it, and then bang off to some other theme park. Too much of good thing and all that. Core sets gave us a break from the world tour and allowed wizards to print cards that could not be included in plane sets due to thematic restrictions.
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Apr 16, 201711
Cainsson posted a message on What's Wrong With Today's Magic?Posted in: Magic GeneralQuote from bocephus »The telling sign the game is doing well is the number of new LGS that are popping up.
A lot of LGS are dropping Magic events and singles. Social board-gaming is a thing now and accessible miniatures games like X-Wing, Malifaux and Infinity have brought people to the tables. Meanwhile Standard doesn't fire reliably since at least PTEMA.
I'm also pretty sure we had a thread about Magic sales trending downwards Q1-Q3 2016.
Finally, if Legacy, Modern and Commander didn't exist. Close to 60% of the people even talking about Magic not only on this forum, but social media in general, wouldn't be there. And blockbuster products like Commander decks, Eternal Masters and Modern Masters wouldn't sell or maybe even exist.
You aren't arguing from an invulnerable position, as your tone may imply, Hasbro themselves think Magic is floundering and hope to revitalize it soon with Magic Digital Next and whatever new direction they pushed on R&D for HOD onwards.
Quote from Nick Kaioken »So... What do you want then? I see all this complaining from everyone, and points are valid, but I don't see anyone giving any examples of what to do?
From what I gather everyone just wants to reprint old OP blue cards for all the blue mages who are butthurt? Or even new, even more op counters with added draw or something? O guess people aren't as excited about as fortold or censor even.
Look, it's easy to push creatures without breaking EVERYTHING. Sure you end up headed toward midrange land, but it's better than warping every format to require you to rub blue (cough treasure cruise and dig through time)
Were you playing Standard while Treasure Cruise was legal? because if you did you'd know why it was the only sanctioned format it didn't get banned or restricted from, it didn't do much of anything. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar has been the lord of Standard since it showed up and it looks like he'll continue to dominate till he's forced away by rotation.
That is what people are tired of, threats that are impossible to defeat unless you're playing them yourself or the one single other deck in standard that's strong enough to compete. What most people who are dissatisfied with contemporary Magic want, from the comments in this thread, is for Aggro, Control and Combo to be viable in some form, and for there to be decks that fill the gap between limited bulk and PT Top8. If you think that means we want to take away your critters and all play draw-go forever and ever, that's on all you
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Apr 15, 20172
nawillih posted a message on What's Wrong With Today's Magic?Coming in to agree with most of this thread, after a long time of trying hard not to...Posted in: Magic General
A few things to clear up first: I adore Magic. In every way, every format, almost every set (looking at BFZ for an exception here...). I'm also a keen Midrange player, and have been since I started playing again (oddly enough, the week before BFZ dropped).
However, I don't like playing against 4 other midrange decks every FNM. I don't like crushing the control players because my Sylvan Advocates go under his counters or because my Selfless Spirit means she can't remove my Gearhulks. I don't like not having to make blocking decisions because Aggro's 1-drops can't get through my wall of 2/3s anyway. I don't like it when I decide to play control myself, and find that I can't beat Saheeli because every time I counter the combo I miss another turn of dealing with 13 Thopters that my lone Eldrazi can't hope to block (though that's more of a metagame issue there).
What I really want is to see these promised "answers" come through - because right now it's pretty much just Fatal Push that does what needs doing. Every Sylvan Advocate needs to be balanced by a Searing Spear, or even a Lightning Helix!
What I want is to sit down with my pile of bug dumb X/4s and actually have to think before I swing all out, because my opponent might have a Doom Blade or might be able to burn me out after the swing back. So while I still want to see big dumb X/4s, plz wizards, give my friends some toys too
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Apr 15, 201719
Firevine posted a message on What's Wrong With Today's Magic?Posted in: Magic GeneralQuote from greymon90210 »Words.
I'm going to agree and disagree with you a bit. Mostly agree, because I too have been playing a long time, since Fallen Empires in fact. I was 14 at the time, and now I'm almost 37.
One HUGE thing about playing back then was playing around counters. It taught you a ton about the game. Losing is a fantastic teaching tool. Should be anyway. Does having your board Wrathed suck? Sure, a couple times, then you learn to prepare for it and play around it, and wow holy *****, now you're better at Magic. To this day, I play like the opponent has a hand full of counters and removal. I bluff like I have a hand full of counters and removal.
The main part where I disagree with you, is losing being unfun. I went to a Legacy tournament, and totally scrubbed out. It was pathetic how bad I did. But I had a blast. Learning new decks was fun. Meeting new people was fun. I played against a dude who had some crazy Delver build, and it was the most fun match of the tournament even though I lost. Back in ancient times, I had a deck built around Desolation, and my friend had Turbo Stasis. It was a crazy battle of wits. He ended up winning, but that game has stuck in my mind since 1997.
Even as someone who has traditionally built Sligh/Ponza style decks throughout the years, I think it's easy to see that these non-stop bat***** insane creatures are damaging to the game. Pokemon is a great card game, but if I want to play Pokemon, I'd play Pokemon.
Consider also, Wizards choosing a younger, participation prize raised player base over an established, long term one who are older and likely have better paying jobs and more expendable income. I played Prosperous Bloom against a younger dude some time back, and all he did was piss and moan "Is it my turn yet?" like a broken record. I beat a guy at the Aether Revolt prerelease who got salty as **** that he lost. Get over it dude. I've lost hundreds of games of Magic in my life.
It feels like we're at a point where WotC just checks off cells on a spreadsheet to make sets now. There's no heart and soul anymore. It's cold, sterile, and corporate.
If you attempt to make a product for everyone, you end up making a product for no one. -
Apr 14, 2017
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Firevine posted a message on What's Wrong With Today's Magic?This is too strong for Standard. Now this is too strong for Standard. Now this is too strong for Standard. Now Standard sucks ass because there's little to no way to deal with the ridiculous creatures that somehow aren't too strong for Standard, yet manage to make an impact on Legacy sometimes.Posted in: Magic General
In the name of keeping things from being "unfun" they're making the game dull and mundane and unfun. -
Apr 14, 201723
Tvtyrant posted a message on What's Wrong With Today's Magic?Personally I think those are mixed in with an even more fundamental issue with magic: The death of the color pie. Magic is a complicated and interesting game because it disassociates roles from each other, and mixing those roles required effort.Posted in: Magic General
Blue got counterspells, draw cards and weak creatures that were hard to block. It could not deal with aggro well but murdered midrange and combo decks. Counterspells and draw cards have been dramatically weakened while its creatures have gotten much better.
White had good one drops and anthems to win quickly, but was also the answer color. Exile effects, destroy none land permanents, and wipe the board were all glued to white but it couldn't interact with the hand or manipulate its draws. Wipes, anthems, and removal have all gotten worse while its 2+ critters have gotten better.
Black has pretty much always done everything everyone else does, but hurts itself. Black has been the strongest color since delver left standard and that isn't going to change.
Red was good card draw in the form of wheel effects, cheap land destruction, fast 1 drops, and good burn. The first two have been removed from the game, and the latter two have been nerfed by the increased potency of midrange creatures and the weakening of spot removal. Like white and blue it has gotten better creatures as a result.
Green was mana ramp, fatties and pump spells. It took over land destruction from red and black, but only attached to expensive creatures and spells. Green is better then it used to be but is still overshadowed by colorless and black.
Colorless: Used to be the realm of really crappy artifacts, now with vehicles and eldrazi is the best color in several formats. It is basically the color of giant creatures that for one reason or another ignore what removal there is (TKS is a Vendillion Clique with a great body, Reality Smasher has its counter the first spell effect, vehicles are only creatures on your turn).
Pushing back on color balance will do a lot to restore the diversity of the game and end the "fatties slapping at each other" nightmare.
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Apr 14, 20173
Greyimp posted a message on Full set is upPosted in: The Rumor MillQuote from MinaHarcourt »You will never be happy, will you? Not until you get Cryptic Command for U. It's telling that you are the same people who commented on Censor. If you don't like it, you could always pick up a new game. That's some friendly advice people shared with me a few weeks ago. Or you could try to join the development team and make a good case. Right now, it doesn't seem like you have much of an argument beyond "Muh bluez!". I understand you don't like it, but come up with an argument that goes beyond "I don't like it." Show me why things are wrong. Show me what is broken. Because right now all you come across as is entitled kids who are suddenly finding the real world doesn't listen to the same rules their parents said it would listen to.
None of this is trolling. I'm just really sad that you don't like the game anymore because you don't get spells that simply don't and won't exist in Magic as it is now, and that you feel the game needs to change that fundamentally to make you happy.
Back on topic.
I love Faith of the Devoted. That card is a beast in EDH. Cycle one simple card, add 1 to the cycling cost, and gain 6 life (generally for me.) I'd buy that for a dollar to be sure. Too bad Fluctuator is so expensive now.
You make an assumption that people complaining about the direction of MTG are 'blue' players. I play anything and everything that I can brew. Currently the state of Standard is brewing is pointless. Goto TCG and click follow the links to standard decks. Mardu, mardu, copycat, copycat, copycat, mardu, token Temur deck, copycat, mardu, mardu... <vomit>
Prior to this we had CoCo domination for an entire year. CoCo was so broken it was stupid and THEY MADE IT BETTER with 2 successive set releases. I was so oppressive that standard FNM at my store went from 30 per night to barely firing. And after CoCo FINALLY rotated they gave us absurd spaghetti monster and Smugglywuggles. Both incredibly broke, so much so they admitted it (also admitted they should have banned CoCo) and BANSTICKED them both.
Maro has admitted repeatedly (and others in design) that they've pushed to MTG: the Creaturing 'because it's what players want to buy'.
Notice the word buy.
In all their statements of guild and the ban statements they used the word 'fun' and 'not fun' as reasons why they were attacking the problem.
Also falling Standard attendance at tournaments was another reason. If it's not fun people quit.
Standard is their flagship. It sells packs, it's the gateway drug if you will to all the other variations. It keeps stores and WotC making money. They are killing standard by giving complainers what they THINK they want.
I personally want them to go back to designing balanced sets. Don't push story, don't push mechanics you're so proud of (a cat with a dead mouse is proud too), give us the game with valid control, aggro, and midrange. Don't believe me that it's broken? Go look at all the pro articles both sarcastic and serious about how broken standard is and how we're left with battlecruiser midrange bash mtg which results in 2 deck formats.
Hell right now we'd only be a one deck format if they hadn't screwed up and missed the dirtykitty combo. Vehicles were way too pushed and dirtykitty should never have been. Just like this set enchantments are pushed (only 2 white ways to deal with enchantments, green is only artifacts now), counters/sweepers are still a continuous tempo loss, and creatures are PUSHED (see Samut keyword salsd and wholy monkey poo which zombies do you cut????). Look at all the previous set hate to make the current set much stronger!!! This set was in the can when they realized they were burying standard.
Why do we complain? We love MTG. I love MTG and I want to keep playing it. Makes me totally sad to quit standard but until I see them apply the 'lessons learned' as Maro has said, the game is going to continue to be bad. -
Apr 14, 2017
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BallisticQuill posted a message on Full set is upPosted in: The Rumor MillQuote from MinaHarcourt »You will never be happy, will you? Not until you get Cryptic Command for U. It's telling that you are the same people who commented on Censor. If you don't like it, you could always pick up a new game. That's some friendly advice people shared with me a few weeks ago. Or you could try to join the development team and make a good case. Right now, it doesn't seem like you have much of an argument beyond "Muh bluez!". I understand you don't like it, but come up with an argument that goes beyond "I don't like it." Show me why things are wrong. Show me what is broken. Because right now all you come across as is entitled kids who are suddenly finding the real world doesn't listen to the same rules their parents said it would listen to.
None of this is trolling. I'm just really sad that you don't like the game anymore because you don't get spells that simply don't and won't exist in Magic as it is now, and that you feel the game needs to change that fundamentally to make you happy.
Admittedly, cryptic command for U would be too much. However, there are a number of older players who simply see that new sets are pushing the game in a direction that just does not engage us anymore. WOTC decided around 5-6 years ago that a large number of players simply don't like playing against control. Makes sense. They also decided people like playing with creatures. Also fine. So they stopped printing powerful reactive instants and started printing incredibly powerful creatures with spells stapled on. Unfortunately, this also forced them to kill off combo because control has always traditionally kept that archetype in check. This has left standard formats as mostly (and admittedly, subjectively), a wasteland of just midrange and aggro for the past number of years. And even aggro isn't usually incredibly viable because midrange naturally preys on that archetype and WOTC has refused for the past few years to print viable burn to give those decks reach. When they try to give standard variety, like the recent energy combo deck, or copycat, it winds up incredibly broken without control to reign it in. Look at the recent bannings for evidence of this.
Some people love the midrange mirror match. These people love standard right now. But people like me will likely not participate in standard until we see better format diversity again, the kind of diversity I don't believe we've seen since RTR standard (perhaps not coincidentally, the last time a draw-go deck existed in standard).
Somewhat on topic, I'm curious whether censor and the new X-cost draw spell will give us another one of those control decks. Censor neatly bridges the gap between turn 2/3 and 3/4. After that, more powerful counter magic like cancel variants can take over and censor can be treated as a very efficient cycler. My only worry is that WOTC still seems hesitant to print strong instant-speed removal, something I don't see in these spoilers. Unfortunate, but if people keep enjoying standard as it exists, I'll keep enjoying Modern and EDH, and be happy for them. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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With a triome and a proper shockland it's quite possible get this out by turn 2, though for Modern that's likely not to do much. Seems like this is a 5C lord to use for commander rather than for Modern.
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That taste started within the last two years thanks to the inclusion of two new boosters, Secret Lairs, and products never not coming out. WotC is selling this game like its a modern video game with limited time DLC (SLs), multiple "premium" products, cross overs, and now they are thinking of their own "season pass" with that SL subscription "service". It reeks of the live service abomination that the video game industry has.
Clarification: Secret Lairs would be closer to limited time skins and therefore be a micro transaction and not DLC. Either way still not great.
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To be fair Counterspell has no reason to go up in price if it's getting reprinted. It will go back down when copies start to circulate from MH2.
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Timeless Dragon's flavor confuses me. Is that on Amonkhet? The art on the token doesn't look like it so I'm wondering why a random other plane has a blue (dabah dee dabah die) armored zombie. It's really just the token that gets me here.
If PWs are ever allowed to be commanders Dakkon is a powerhouse. For modern? I'm sure he's strong and might see some sort of play.
Is Grief strong? Doesn't seem all that great to 2-for-1 yourself. I guess it could be used to fight against the faster combo decks, but it just seems okay. If you can flicker it nonstop then it seems far better, but this seems like a card that will be $30 at preorder and end up being $3. Also, why is this an incarnation? It doesn't have a graveyard effect.
Thrasta is interesting. Wish they would have come up with something better than "trample over planeswalker" for the ability name, but it does the job. Thanks to Manamorphose and other mana shenanigans (Black Lotus, Mox, Phyrexian mana) you could see this come into play fairly early, but more often than not don't expect this earlier than turn five. Will this show up in a new R/G prowess build that will shake Modern? Iono, I'm an idiot and want to say something random.
Yearling should be in Standard and it's a perfect call back and a fun little card.
Yusri loves cards like The Wanderer and Blessed Sanctuary.
A promo in a *checks TCGplayer and Amazon prices* $43-$46 collectors booster is definitely not much.
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The first box is the storage box that comes with the fat pack/bundle.
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I'm wondering why Halfling is needed. I get it's a D&D race and it's a D&D set, but why not just make it Kithkin? This is going to be the same problem with the LOTR cards with most likely created Hobbit creature type.
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Anyone else a little tired of the constant stream of major releases? Strixhaven hasn't even been out for two weeks and we're already into looking at the next big set.
I miss when it was set, product, set, product, product, set. Now it's set, set, set, product, 5 products, set, set.
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Even if Counterspell is in it decisions like these are becoming more frequent and I'm liking them less and less as time goes on.
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The best deal is definitely the shock bundle. 15 of them that will likely be $30+ before long for $120 is enticing, even for someone like me that absolutely loathes Secret Lairs. It's hard to pass up $8 a shock.
Strixhaven is fine with basically All is Dust holding practically all of the value.
The art on Friday Show is nice, Wrath of God's title is a bit hard to read, but I really wish that was $20.
Why? That happened back when Return to Ravnica came out.