Nightmare
06-29-2007, 07:48 AM
Before we began the discussion on it in this forum, I intended to write this article for mtgSalvation. I decided I hated it as an article, and I don't want to publish it, but I want people to see it anyway. It's a bit of a history lesson, at the very least. Enjoy, I hope.
Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.
~ King Whitney Jr.
Prehistoric 1.5 - The Numbers Before the Names
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the history of the Legacy format - pre "Legacy" - here's a bit of a recap, and a little bit of autobiography to boot. I began playing Magic with the release of Fourth Edition, and continued through my high school years as a casual player, finally shelving the game near graduation. This was somewhere around Exodus. Through this first period of play, I began a growing interest in tournament play at a local shop in Syracuse, NY, where they held weekly Type 1.5 events. This was between 1998-2000, far before any relevant metagame or development picked up in the old 1.5 format. Most people were playing RG aggro or mono black control, and there was little in terms of high level competition. During the few years in college between quitting the game, and picking it back up in 2003, the friends I had left behind in Syracuse continued to work on the format. These players along with groups from Albany NY, Northern Virginia, and Massachusetts had, in my absence, laid the foundations for both the 1.5 metagame and the community associated with it. Many of the Syracuse regulars were active members of TheManaDrain.com's 1.5 discussion forum, until a few disagreements led to the exodus of the 1.5 players from the site, and the deletion of that part of TMD. www.mtgthesource.com was a created by former TheManaDrain.com moderators Mike Glow and Colin Chilbert, and The Source was born as the only site on the internet for the development of Type 1.5. For over a year, the format was developed on The Source by a small and dedicated group of players, turning it from a cesspool of casuality into an advanced metagame, completely autonomous from any support from Wizards of the Coast. I was unfortunate enough to miss this era of development, but I can say this with absolute certainty: If it weren't for those early developers on TMD and The Source, Type 1.5 would have died out, and Legacy as it is known today would not exist. WotC would most likely have considered 1.5 a dead format, and done away with it, rather than giving it the support and focus they do today.
In September of 2004, Wizards decided to act in what they believed was the best interest for them and for the format, when they separated the banned and restricted lists of Vintage and what would soon be known as Legacy. Prior to this date, the banned list of 1.5 was every card banned in Vintage, as well as every restricted card. With the separation, Wizards felt they could create a home for those players soon to be displaced by the Extended rotation. In his article on the issue, Aaron Forsythe said,
"...with the impending rotation of the Extended format next year, we felt the need to make sure there was a reasonable format available where players could use their old cards (everything from dual lands to Ice Age cards to Rebels) that was not just a toned-down version of Vintage. We tried to strike the fine balance between accessibility and, well, balance of play." (link (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/af30))
This announcement had a number of impacts. Positively, it gave Vintage players confirmation that Wizards supported them, as it was largely at the request of those players the action took place. Vintage players were outspoken advocates of list separation, largely because they tired of seeing harmless cards added to the Vintage Restricted list, in order to ban them in 1.5. It also, as Forsythe said, gave the Extended players of that era a somewhat familiar format to continue playing in once their decks rotated out. Unfortunately, there was a previously ignored community of players who were put out in a big way by this announcement. The Type 1.5 players were outraged.
Wizards had effectively taken away the entire format. The upper tier of 1.5 decks at that time were comprised of decks like Worldgorger Dragon Combo (Worldgorger Dragon, Bazaar of Bagdhad), Welder MUD (Mishra's Workshop, Metalworker), Oath (Oath of Druids), Enchantress (Replenish), Food Chain Goblins (Goblin Recruiter), and Masknaught (Illusionary Mask). Every one of those decks was invalidated by the banned list. The only upper tier decks unaffected by the change were Tradewind Survival, which instantly became the best deck, along with Landstill, which lost Mana Drain, but was otherwise unaffected. The players were understandably upset, many were extremely vocal in their disdain. This was effectively the first attention they recieved from anyone, ever, and they gave a terrible first impression. As they say, it's difficult to make up for a bad first impression, and since 2004, the Legacy community has strived to do just that.
So Who's Format Was It?
Regarding the question posed in this article's title, 1.5 was "our" format. It was the epitome of Do It Yourself Magic. The players held events, because Wizards wasn't doing it. The players defined the metagame, because the pros didn't care. The players were the community, and ran it themselves, because there was no one else to do it for them, and they cared enough to make it happen on their own. With the new attention to Legacy, and the end of 1.5, much of that changed. Discussion boards popped up on sites like StarCityGames, mtgSalvation, and TheManaDrain. More players were dipping into the format, and bringing with them their own experiences, which were quite different from those of the established community. This was a cause for a lot of friction between the old and new. The format was no longer what the 1.5 players remembered it as, and they lost a lot of the control they worked so hard to maintain. The support from Wizards was a double-edged sword - while the Grand Prix events and attention were exactly what the community had asked for, it caused a drop off in the DIY feeling the format once had, and made it much more impersonal. This was a significant part of the allure of 1.5, and losing it was something the 1.5 community was not prepared for.
Most of the people responsible for the 1.5 format's development are no longer playing Magic, or at least no longer playing Legacy. There are a few of the old guard hanging on, but for the most part, the community is comprised of people who caught the Legacy bug closely before the restructuring, or sometime after. This is a point that is often overlooked when discussing the community and its reputation, and it's an extremely important factor to the discussion. People still point to the negative image received due to the separation of the Legacy and Vintage lists, and yet the people responsible for creating that image aren't even part of the community anymore.
Fast forward three years. Legacy is a healthy, well developed format once more, with a growing community made up of many experienced and dedicated players. There have been two Grand Prix events, and a third was rapidly approaching. Aside from those events, there are a rising number of large tournaments held across the country, and even more in Europe. Legacy is blossoming into exactly what Wizards hoped it would, the everyman’s format; the deckbuilder’s dream. Suddenly, everything changed when the power level errata was removed from Flash.
Aside – I know at this point, everyone is sick of hearing about this card. It’s banned, get over it, I understand. However, the period of Legacy’s history surrounding this event is an important one, and it redefined a lot of preconceived notions both we as Legacy players, and those outside looking in, had about Legacy and the people who play the format. Don’t expect to hear the end of the discussion and analysis anytime soon. Although the card itself is gone, the effects it had on the format are lasting.
To those of us playing 1.5 when the separation of lists occurred, this felt eerily familiar. Once again, the majority of the upper tier decks were invalidated. This time, it wasn’t due to pivotal cards being banned, but rather obsoleted by a combo so powerful that it immediately dominated the format. Just like the first time, the community spoke out. Just like the first time, people unfamiliar with Legacy, tuning in due to the broken combo and the upcoming GP, were left with a bad taste in their mouths about Legacy players.
Why We Care
Legacy and Vintage are different than Standard, Limited, and Extended. This seems obvious, but the reasons I’m referring to aren’t the obvious ones. Certainly, the formats are faster. The card pools are much deeper. But the people that play these two formats are the real difference.
By far, most serious tournament players gravitate to Standard, Limited, and Extended. They should, because these formats are the most likely to have large events where you can make money and compete with the best players around. The people who play in those events don’t care what format they’re playing (for the most part), they find something they’re comfortable playing (or the best deck, if there is one), and play. There are standard seasons, extended seasons, block seasons, and it makes no difference to them. This isn’t the way it works in the eternal formats.
With few exceptions, people playing Legacy actively seek it out as their format of choice. It must be that way, because there is no such thing as “Legacy Season.” There will never be a PT where the format is Legacy. It’s relatively easy to be an active competitor in the rotating formats, because events are easy to come by. It’s much more difficult to actively participate in a format where you might only get to play a real tournament once or twice a year. Why would someone do that to themselves? Why would you go out of your way to dedicate yourself to learning a format you can’t even play in? That’s a question for each person who chooses to be active in eternal formats to answer for themselves. I can only speak for myself when I say that for me, playing Legacy has always been about playing with my cards, for as long as I want. I never have to worry about impending rotations, or grabbing the hottest rares in the new set. Combine that with the feeling of camaraderie and community I get from playing this game with like-minded players from across the globe, and I have a real reason to stay dedicated to Eternal Magic. Legacy is an extremely laid-back format, and as competitive as it can be, it’s also extremely low stress. These are all important factors for me, and I’m sure for you, and they’re why I keep testing decks with Brainstorm, and leave my Temple Gardens in the trade binder.
Because of all this, I’ve dedicated myself to the betterment of the format, and I take responsibility for its health and prosperity. And yet, there’s a lot I can’t control. Things outside my sphere of influence can disrupt what I’ve worked so hard to achieve, and there’s nothing I can do about it. No one enjoys losing control. Of course anyone would be upset. It’s the equivalent of spending a summer gardening, and a tornado comes through, destroying your garden. Sure, you still have your house, but it sucks nonetheless.
Two Roads Diverged in a Wood
You, the Legacy player, have a choice to make. You can embrace the new visage of Legacy, or you can choose, like many have before you, to allow the changes to drive you away from the format into which you've invested your time, money, effort, and self. The more Legacy becomes like the rotating formats, the more change we can expect. This is a hard pill to swallow. From a completely DIY format, to one in which we have an ever decreasing amount of control, the Legacy format will never be what it once was. It's not our format anymore, and no matter what we think of that, the earlier we come to accept it - and play in "the" format, instead of "our" format - the better off the format and community will be.
Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.
~ King Whitney Jr.
Prehistoric 1.5 - The Numbers Before the Names
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the history of the Legacy format - pre "Legacy" - here's a bit of a recap, and a little bit of autobiography to boot. I began playing Magic with the release of Fourth Edition, and continued through my high school years as a casual player, finally shelving the game near graduation. This was somewhere around Exodus. Through this first period of play, I began a growing interest in tournament play at a local shop in Syracuse, NY, where they held weekly Type 1.5 events. This was between 1998-2000, far before any relevant metagame or development picked up in the old 1.5 format. Most people were playing RG aggro or mono black control, and there was little in terms of high level competition. During the few years in college between quitting the game, and picking it back up in 2003, the friends I had left behind in Syracuse continued to work on the format. These players along with groups from Albany NY, Northern Virginia, and Massachusetts had, in my absence, laid the foundations for both the 1.5 metagame and the community associated with it. Many of the Syracuse regulars were active members of TheManaDrain.com's 1.5 discussion forum, until a few disagreements led to the exodus of the 1.5 players from the site, and the deletion of that part of TMD. www.mtgthesource.com was a created by former TheManaDrain.com moderators Mike Glow and Colin Chilbert, and The Source was born as the only site on the internet for the development of Type 1.5. For over a year, the format was developed on The Source by a small and dedicated group of players, turning it from a cesspool of casuality into an advanced metagame, completely autonomous from any support from Wizards of the Coast. I was unfortunate enough to miss this era of development, but I can say this with absolute certainty: If it weren't for those early developers on TMD and The Source, Type 1.5 would have died out, and Legacy as it is known today would not exist. WotC would most likely have considered 1.5 a dead format, and done away with it, rather than giving it the support and focus they do today.
In September of 2004, Wizards decided to act in what they believed was the best interest for them and for the format, when they separated the banned and restricted lists of Vintage and what would soon be known as Legacy. Prior to this date, the banned list of 1.5 was every card banned in Vintage, as well as every restricted card. With the separation, Wizards felt they could create a home for those players soon to be displaced by the Extended rotation. In his article on the issue, Aaron Forsythe said,
"...with the impending rotation of the Extended format next year, we felt the need to make sure there was a reasonable format available where players could use their old cards (everything from dual lands to Ice Age cards to Rebels) that was not just a toned-down version of Vintage. We tried to strike the fine balance between accessibility and, well, balance of play." (link (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/af30))
This announcement had a number of impacts. Positively, it gave Vintage players confirmation that Wizards supported them, as it was largely at the request of those players the action took place. Vintage players were outspoken advocates of list separation, largely because they tired of seeing harmless cards added to the Vintage Restricted list, in order to ban them in 1.5. It also, as Forsythe said, gave the Extended players of that era a somewhat familiar format to continue playing in once their decks rotated out. Unfortunately, there was a previously ignored community of players who were put out in a big way by this announcement. The Type 1.5 players were outraged.
Wizards had effectively taken away the entire format. The upper tier of 1.5 decks at that time were comprised of decks like Worldgorger Dragon Combo (Worldgorger Dragon, Bazaar of Bagdhad), Welder MUD (Mishra's Workshop, Metalworker), Oath (Oath of Druids), Enchantress (Replenish), Food Chain Goblins (Goblin Recruiter), and Masknaught (Illusionary Mask). Every one of those decks was invalidated by the banned list. The only upper tier decks unaffected by the change were Tradewind Survival, which instantly became the best deck, along with Landstill, which lost Mana Drain, but was otherwise unaffected. The players were understandably upset, many were extremely vocal in their disdain. This was effectively the first attention they recieved from anyone, ever, and they gave a terrible first impression. As they say, it's difficult to make up for a bad first impression, and since 2004, the Legacy community has strived to do just that.
So Who's Format Was It?
Regarding the question posed in this article's title, 1.5 was "our" format. It was the epitome of Do It Yourself Magic. The players held events, because Wizards wasn't doing it. The players defined the metagame, because the pros didn't care. The players were the community, and ran it themselves, because there was no one else to do it for them, and they cared enough to make it happen on their own. With the new attention to Legacy, and the end of 1.5, much of that changed. Discussion boards popped up on sites like StarCityGames, mtgSalvation, and TheManaDrain. More players were dipping into the format, and bringing with them their own experiences, which were quite different from those of the established community. This was a cause for a lot of friction between the old and new. The format was no longer what the 1.5 players remembered it as, and they lost a lot of the control they worked so hard to maintain. The support from Wizards was a double-edged sword - while the Grand Prix events and attention were exactly what the community had asked for, it caused a drop off in the DIY feeling the format once had, and made it much more impersonal. This was a significant part of the allure of 1.5, and losing it was something the 1.5 community was not prepared for.
Most of the people responsible for the 1.5 format's development are no longer playing Magic, or at least no longer playing Legacy. There are a few of the old guard hanging on, but for the most part, the community is comprised of people who caught the Legacy bug closely before the restructuring, or sometime after. This is a point that is often overlooked when discussing the community and its reputation, and it's an extremely important factor to the discussion. People still point to the negative image received due to the separation of the Legacy and Vintage lists, and yet the people responsible for creating that image aren't even part of the community anymore.
Fast forward three years. Legacy is a healthy, well developed format once more, with a growing community made up of many experienced and dedicated players. There have been two Grand Prix events, and a third was rapidly approaching. Aside from those events, there are a rising number of large tournaments held across the country, and even more in Europe. Legacy is blossoming into exactly what Wizards hoped it would, the everyman’s format; the deckbuilder’s dream. Suddenly, everything changed when the power level errata was removed from Flash.
Aside – I know at this point, everyone is sick of hearing about this card. It’s banned, get over it, I understand. However, the period of Legacy’s history surrounding this event is an important one, and it redefined a lot of preconceived notions both we as Legacy players, and those outside looking in, had about Legacy and the people who play the format. Don’t expect to hear the end of the discussion and analysis anytime soon. Although the card itself is gone, the effects it had on the format are lasting.
To those of us playing 1.5 when the separation of lists occurred, this felt eerily familiar. Once again, the majority of the upper tier decks were invalidated. This time, it wasn’t due to pivotal cards being banned, but rather obsoleted by a combo so powerful that it immediately dominated the format. Just like the first time, the community spoke out. Just like the first time, people unfamiliar with Legacy, tuning in due to the broken combo and the upcoming GP, were left with a bad taste in their mouths about Legacy players.
Why We Care
Legacy and Vintage are different than Standard, Limited, and Extended. This seems obvious, but the reasons I’m referring to aren’t the obvious ones. Certainly, the formats are faster. The card pools are much deeper. But the people that play these two formats are the real difference.
By far, most serious tournament players gravitate to Standard, Limited, and Extended. They should, because these formats are the most likely to have large events where you can make money and compete with the best players around. The people who play in those events don’t care what format they’re playing (for the most part), they find something they’re comfortable playing (or the best deck, if there is one), and play. There are standard seasons, extended seasons, block seasons, and it makes no difference to them. This isn’t the way it works in the eternal formats.
With few exceptions, people playing Legacy actively seek it out as their format of choice. It must be that way, because there is no such thing as “Legacy Season.” There will never be a PT where the format is Legacy. It’s relatively easy to be an active competitor in the rotating formats, because events are easy to come by. It’s much more difficult to actively participate in a format where you might only get to play a real tournament once or twice a year. Why would someone do that to themselves? Why would you go out of your way to dedicate yourself to learning a format you can’t even play in? That’s a question for each person who chooses to be active in eternal formats to answer for themselves. I can only speak for myself when I say that for me, playing Legacy has always been about playing with my cards, for as long as I want. I never have to worry about impending rotations, or grabbing the hottest rares in the new set. Combine that with the feeling of camaraderie and community I get from playing this game with like-minded players from across the globe, and I have a real reason to stay dedicated to Eternal Magic. Legacy is an extremely laid-back format, and as competitive as it can be, it’s also extremely low stress. These are all important factors for me, and I’m sure for you, and they’re why I keep testing decks with Brainstorm, and leave my Temple Gardens in the trade binder.
Because of all this, I’ve dedicated myself to the betterment of the format, and I take responsibility for its health and prosperity. And yet, there’s a lot I can’t control. Things outside my sphere of influence can disrupt what I’ve worked so hard to achieve, and there’s nothing I can do about it. No one enjoys losing control. Of course anyone would be upset. It’s the equivalent of spending a summer gardening, and a tornado comes through, destroying your garden. Sure, you still have your house, but it sucks nonetheless.
Two Roads Diverged in a Wood
You, the Legacy player, have a choice to make. You can embrace the new visage of Legacy, or you can choose, like many have before you, to allow the changes to drive you away from the format into which you've invested your time, money, effort, and self. The more Legacy becomes like the rotating formats, the more change we can expect. This is a hard pill to swallow. From a completely DIY format, to one in which we have an ever decreasing amount of control, the Legacy format will never be what it once was. It's not our format anymore, and no matter what we think of that, the earlier we come to accept it - and play in "the" format, instead of "our" format - the better off the format and community will be.