Quote:
Aaron Forsythe and Mark L. Gottlieb,
Regarding your article "Magic 2010 Rules Changes":
Mana burn is something I've embraced since 6th grade (back when I thought Llanowar Elves let you search your library for a Forest and put it into play). I'm now 22 and for the life of me I cannot understand why you would want it gone. I was upset when I first heard about it, but as I grew in the game I found it was useful. Why should we not be allowed to use our resources to best suit us? Why should we not be able to end games when we are tired of being locked down by an opponent? If you try catering to the newer players, I assure you that some of the older ones will be lost. I'm not saying I will quit, and I'm not sure you would mind if I did. What I'm saying is that you are taking from the heritage of the game. I just went to a garage sale the other day and found an old Mirage Tournament pack. It had a rulebook in it and it stated that "mana burn" was being reinstated. I thought it very ironic that I found that rulebook when I did. People who play without mana-burn at home will now get to play in tournaments the same way. However, you are making those of us who like mana burn within the game play at home rather than in tournaments. A lack of foresight has been seen before, I think we all remember Urza's Block, and even before that when Interrupts were turned into Instants. People got mad. People quit. There have been dark days in magic, and I'm sending you the message that this is bound to be one of them.
Anyway, back to mana burn. You say it won't have an effect on 99% of games played. I play storm combo in legacy. LED (Lion's Eye Diamond) is a staple. I often play Land, petal, LED, LED, say go, end of opponent's turn Mystical Tutor into Ad Nauseam, pop my LED's, draw Ad Nauseam and play it. You have taken that from me. I feel as a combo player that I am one of the few risk-takers left in this game. I have to go up against Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, CounterTop, Force of Will, Daze, Spell Snare, Meddling Mage, Gaddock Teeg, True Believer, Stifle, Aethersworn Cannonist, etc. and I feel that in doing so I take a big risk in discarding my hand (hey, at least now I wouldn't burn for one off of 2x LED's...Even if you left mana burn in the game) to play a card that drops me over 10 points of life on average that doesn't promise me the win. I think you have really taken something from me and I'm disappointed in that. You could make an addendum that would allow mana abilities to be played in response to drawing a card for your turn, that way we could allow our card draw to "go on the stack", and respond to it by popping LED's, discard our hand, add the mana to our mana pool and then play the spell. I'm sure you have either thought of this and don't care if you piss a few combo players off (I dropped 400 dollars for a set of Japanese ones), but as a combo player I care, and I think Storm is an extremely flavorful portion of magic. I actually believe it to be way more flavorful than any creature-based list. It takes a very high level of skill to win with and an intricate depth of knowledge about the stack to maneuver it to a top-8. Please reconsider how some of these interactions work. It would seem more important to keep the people who play playing than to get new ones while shoving the older players to the side just because you think they will deal with it. This is a bad time for any company to drastically change something that doesn't need fixing. The economy, etc. It could indeed start looking like 1993 for the folks at WotC again. Rebuilding a customer base could prove difficult in a lousy economy.
I'm upset, obvious I know. I do believe I have made some valid points and I go to websites (The Source, MtG Salvation, MOTL) and I have to say that I'm hearing the same things over and over again, and the fact that you are changing things that feel fundamental to most seasoned players is not being received well at all. You say these are rigorously tested changes, but I think you've made a few mistakes in the past (Arcbound Ravager and Disciple of the Vault and Skullclamp all come to mind, as does the Storm mechanic, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Flash, there are more obviously, but I'll spare you the metaphoric public beating and end by asking. Nay, begging. Please leave the fundamentals alone. Either that or at least eratta Swords to Plowshares to only be able to target your opponent's creatures. According to new rules it would clearly be wrong to use your own spell to off one of your own creatures to gain life to stay alive. Resources should clearly not be able to do that.
Thank you for your time, I love the game of magic and that is why I wrote this atrociously long message WHILE at work. I worry that someday, someone will obliviously ruin the game I grew up playing because of something as silly as a little bit more money. New players = more players = more new money. Easy. Maybe instead of doing something like this you should just bring back Arena. Or make something like arena, but for new players to learn the fundementals of the game in a controlled environment with a judge. I would like to see other venues of change before you go pissing on everyone else's black kettle (a TOOL reference). This is our game too, and I think you should put it to a vote. I am going to copy this letter that I've wrote and post it on all the boards I go to so people in the magic community can see what I've brought up. I'm calling for a vote. You do it all the time on your website for players making a card in a set, etc., I see no reason why something this big should be left to only you guys to decide. We are the ones who have to put up with your decisions, and as such should be a part of the decision-making process.
Thank you for cooperating with the magic community, we will all be anxious to see the tally.
--Mike
I think we deserve to give our vote. They do it with all the piddly little shit like "you make the card" or "what's your favorite color so we can make sets heavy in that color" etc. etc., so I thought we should all call for a vote. Some wording changes would be fine, hell, I'm even okay with the Wishes being shut down a little bit, but when someone starts telling me that I'm not to mana burn myself so I can get a pulse (white/red obv.) of whatever back, I think that's crappy.