Re: The current state of Magic
It's not contradictory, just poorly worded. These decks are based around a core of cards supported by other cards from external sets. The only way a deck like Goblin Bidding was as stable as it turned out to be is because 7th had City of Brass in it. An external card supporting an otherwise single block deck.
The suggestion is that even if a deck needs a set of highly specific cards to work (read Energy) it should still require some other support network, like lands or spells found in other blocks.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Barook
Looks like an Energy ban for Standard is coming
While that isn't interesting for Legacy in particular, the design insight behind parasitic mechanics is rather disturbing:
Since when are parasitic mechanics healthy? Because I can't think of good examples. Even the name "parasitic" implies the exact opposite of that. And here I thought R&D finally learned that parasitic mechanics are cancerous. Guess we'll see more garbage in the future.
Having read through the whole article, it seems like they have to bend over backwards to try and plan out these "parasitic" mechanics, with a failure consequence of a ruined standard and a success consequence of a... standard standard? What is even the point then? Are mechanics like energy really that novel to standard players, or is this just a scheme to have cards that are powerful in context of standard that won't make too many waves in Modern/Legacy? I get that if you push the envelope and just make more and more "directly" powerful/high utility cards, it can create some odd externalities for eternal formats (see Innistrad with SCM/Liliana), but this seems like a far way to go just to not have to test for eternal formats.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Barook
... Since when are parasitic mechanics healthy? ....
When they're weak or otherwise constrained. For example, having fetchlands (basic land types matter) in a set where the only lands with basic land types are basics is "parasitic" but likely to be healthy, and even in a fetch+nonbasic format, the ability to create mana bases supports a variety of decks.
It's a little disconcerting to see these design articles contain poor math.
Re: The current state of Magic
My main problem with that article is the table at the end. What exactly does "Percent of Power" mean? Does that mean, "Percent of deck that can be created using (mostly/only) cards with a specific mechanic"? Percent of power sounds like they're trying to allocate the "total power" of the mechanic among two separate blocks, so the distribution should add up to 100%, which it does for the latter 2 categories.
I do think their view on "Parasitic" mechanics is wrong; it's totally fine to have a fully powered energy counter deck in Standard as long as it isn't the only strategy of powered cards. If they printed Lightning Bolt, you bet the energy decks would be running it. Same goes for their tribal/affinity references here, if you print something good enough those decks will run it (anyone else remember the first months of Tarmogoyf's domination? Goblins splashed green for it...). If they printed efficient or competitively costed board wipes merfolk would also never be that dominating. There are just heaps of bad cards and then the specific set mechanic that is being pushed for most of these cycles, which leads to format homogeneity.
The problem lies when they have such variance in how good the cards are in a set, such that no answer can be made to "barf out energy counters/siege rhinos/standard of the month," since not only did they never intend on energy counters being that good, they never intended on anything to be good enough to stop it.
Re: The current state of Magic
I don't know if this is the place for this gripe, but they have commons in Rivals that were previously printed in... Ixalan. Did they just run out of ideas for those last few slots and say screw it, just reprint these? Hopefully there is an error on the wizards site but I doubt that from a spoiler standpoint.
Colossal dreadmaw
legion conquistador
raptor companion
sailor of means
They didn't even update the art!
Re: The current state of Magic
Man I'm glad I sold out of MTGO last month. I feel for whatever poor bastards get stuck with the bag when that all collapses.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Barook
Not sure about that. Admitting they messed up with something in Standard is different from banning it; they've admitted plenty of mess ups before without banning. I think they're probably going to just ride out energy until rotation; it's really only slightly more dominant than Monoblack Devotion was, really.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ronco
I don't know if this is the place for this gripe, but they have commons in Rivals that were previously printed in... Ixalan. Did they just run out of ideas for those last few slots and say screw it, just reprint these? Hopefully there is an error on the wizards site but I doubt that from a spoiler standpoint.
Colossal dreadmaw
legion conquistador
raptor companion
sailor of means
They didn't even update the art!
It's probably a Limited thing, they want those cards to be as available in Ixalan/Rivals Limited as just Ixalan, as they're mostly the generic picks that sets generally have (the big beefy creature, the small aggro creature, the 3-mana 1/4 that has some random ability). Legion Conquistador is the only one that's particularly special, but it gets way worse if only 2/3 of your booster packs are from Ixalan.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lord Seth
...
It's probably a Limited thing, they want those cards to be as available in Ixalan/Rivals Limited as just Ixalan, as they're mostly the generic picks that sets generally have (the big beefy creature, the small aggro creature, the 3-mana 1/4 that has some random ability). Legion Conquistador is the only one that's particularly special, but it gets way worse if only 2/3 of your booster packs are from Ixalan.
It does speak to how their focus is increasingly on limited and draft.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Phoenix Ignition
My main problem with that article is the table at the end. What exactly does "Percent of Power" mean? Does that mean, "Percent of deck that can be created using (mostly/only) cards with a specific mechanic"? Percent of power sounds like they're trying to allocate the "total power" of the mechanic among two separate blocks, so the distribution should add up to 100%, which it does for the latter 2 categories.
I do think their view on "Parasitic" mechanics is wrong; it's totally fine to have a fully powered energy counter deck in Standard as long as it isn't the only strategy of powered cards. If they printed Lightning Bolt, you bet the energy decks would be running it. Same goes for their tribal/affinity references here, if you print something good enough those decks will run it (anyone else remember the first months of Tarmogoyf's domination? Goblins splashed green for it...). If they printed efficient or competitively costed board wipes merfolk would also never be that dominating. There are just heaps of bad cards and then the specific set mechanic that is being pushed for most of these cycles, which leads to format homogeneity.
The problem lies when they have such variance in how good the cards are in a set, such that no answer can be made to "barf out energy counters/siege rhinos/standard of the month," since not only did they never intend on energy counters being that good, they never intended on anything to be good enough to stop it.
While I pretty much agree on everything you said - including the fact that the "%" thing is quite clumsy and that yes, the main issue is not that they gave everything to the first set, but that they failed to correctly evaluate the mechanics' power in the first place (so the last part of the article does indeed seem completely ridiculous and wide off the mark) - there is still at least an advantage of better spreading new/risky mechanic over several sets : if it ever turns out to be dominant, at least it'll be so for a shorter period of time.
Re: The current state of Magic
Re: The current state of Magic
The good news is that energy counters won't ever be a thing again, like snow mana, Tribal: the Card Type, Dredge, Storm, Allies (wait...), Dinosaurs, Goblins, Elves, The Monarch, artifact lands, free spells (WAIT...), or—
They're definitely taking "learning on the job" seriously. +1/+1 counters, Prowess, and hatebears don't offend anybody, right?
[EDIT: Also Bushido/Ninjutsu. And Wither. And playable mana rocks. And playable auras. And good tutors.]
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
twndomn
That's a healthy paper meta. Good to see!
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ronald Deuce
The good news is that energy counters won't ever be a thing again, like snow mana, Tribal: the Card Type, Dredge, Storm, Allies (wait...), Dinosaurs, Goblins, Elves, The Monarch, artifact lands, free spells (WAIT...), or—
They're definitely taking "learning on the job" seriously. +1/+1 counters, Prowess, and hatebears don't offend anybody, right?
[EDIT: Also Bushido/Ninjutsu. And Wither. And playable mana rocks. And playable auras. And good tutors.]
Learning on the job 25 years into it, it feels like they learned that they dont know how to balance, so they have been reducing the scope of balancing over time to the point where they only balance now for limited and draft.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ronald Deuce
The good news is that energy counters won't ever be a thing again, like snow mana, Tribal: the Card Type, Dredge, Storm, Allies (wait...), Dinosaurs, Goblins, Elves, The Monarch, artifact lands, free spells (WAIT...), or—
They're definitely taking "learning on the job" seriously. +1/+1 counters, Prowess, and hatebears don't offend anybody, right?
[EDIT: Also Bushido/Ninjutsu. And Wither. And playable mana rocks. And playable auras. And good tutors.]
I like the salt in this post and also share the sentiment. As I recently said in a chat: I think I have been too long around to be excited for all the different kicker variants, combat step focus, inbreed design of sets, generic artwork and Jacetice League Superhero bullshit.
When MaRo announced that DOMINARIA will also be about the Gatewatch and prolly will follow the boring non-plot of Jace & Friends, something died within me
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lemnear
I like the salt in this post and also share the sentiment. As I recently said in a chat: I think I have been too long around to be excited for all the different kicker variants, combat step focus, inbreed design of sets, generic artwork and Jacetice League Superhero bullshit.
When MaRo announced that DOMINARIA will also be about the Gatewatch and prolly will follow the boring non-plot of Jace & Friends, something died within me
Do cards have artwork..?
It's all just a blur to me. I run foils so I get to look at something shiny.
Re: The current state of Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lemnear
When MaRo announced that DOMINARIA will also be about the Gatewatch and prolly will follow the boring non-plot of Jace & Friends, something died within me
It is? Probably Liliana fled there after her battle with Bolas, given that it's her home plane. Hopefully they keep the Gatewatch bullshit at minimum.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DR53LLWWAAAFAGy.jpg:large
Karn, Jhoira and Teferi are coming back - although I have to question why Teferi looks like Eddie Murphy now. :really:
Re: The current state of Magic
I preferred it when he looked like Sam Jackson.
Re: The current state of Magic
I remember hearing something about Ajani being on Dominaria right now, putting together a team of planeswalkers with attitude to help back the Jacetice League up against Bolas. I think this set might be a sidebar to the main plot, to be honest. There's not really much for Lili on Dominaria, aside from her zombie brother - if she's going to go anywhere, it's Innistrad, since that's kind of her dedicated hideout.
Re: The current state of Magic
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...ore-2018-01-11
A good chunk of those playmats look like total garbage. It's actually shocking how garbage the art/art direction has become.
Re: The current state of Magic
I think the art's gone to crap because it's so scripted now.
Veteran Bodyguard and Benalish Hero had the description: "Hero and Super-Hero, make one a girl." Like, that was it. So Schuler created two pieces of amazing art.
Now it's like a ten page description and includes reference pictures of the art/style guide. Nothing good will ever come out of that.
