This Machinus' latest article for SCG and I agree with virtually all of his statements.
The article
But I'm curious about how do we engage Wizards of the Coast? Do people like Aaron Forsythe read emails from players? How can players convey the gravity of the problem that Flash causes for the format?Originally Posted by article
Email them.
Yes; I just got a response to my email from a few days ago. Let's just say things are going to change around here.
This is probably the best article on the post-GP Flash situation I have ever read. Concise, correct, and unflinching, I love it. Of course, there will be people who deny the claims and say that Flash won't kill the format, but I am a stong supporter of what Chris had to say, and it was a great article.
Forsythe has stated before that they were getting a lot of flak for Legacy's B&R list, but they hadn't had the chance to contemplate the changes before the previous B&R announcements, so they decided to do a format overhaul come June 1st.
I wasn't expecting this for my Thursday, but bravo Chris.
Is there a certain time the B&R list will be posted tomorrow or will it just go up randomly at some point in the day?
Wizards is based in Seattle, so expect it to run on West Coast Time (East Coast - 3 hours....or midnight here is 3am there).
Its a perk of living on the West Coast....SCG puts up new articles at 9, and the B&R changes are around 12, instead of 12 and 3.
InfoNinjas
I thought it was a great article, enjoyed it, and agreed with everything you had to say. Aside from all the unfounded flaming in the forums, this was a superb and solid piece of work. Great job!
For the last couple of cycles they've been pretty lax about posting it at Midnight EST, but given the publicity around the 6/1 update, I think they're going to be on top of it this time.
I would say the Flores article is still better, but this was good.
A few things were ungenerous;
"To those who do not play Legacy regularly, the power and degeneracy of Flash is not obvious" is unfair to many, like Sadin and Flores, who recognized broken for what it was. While there were a few pundits in articles and on various forums trying to play off Flash as "fair", they were more vocal than actually numerous.
Early one morning while making the round,
I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down;
I went right home and I went to bed,
I stuck that lovin' .44 beneath my head.
I am aware that some people understood the format before the event. I'm not saying no one did; I'm just saying it wasn't obvious if you haven't played Legacy. Sadin and Flores worked on the problem and arrived at the right answer.
Great article. Terrific, really. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of format we have tomorrow.
Team Info-Ninja: Shhh... We don't exist.
Very good article. I completely agree with Chris.
ROMA EST MAGNA
While I strongly disagree on there being more than three or four cards that deserve unbanning, the rest of this article is sound. The use of timelines was brilliant, as was calling out the misrepresentation of our format.
I think the fundamental point that Chris tapped on all along but never quite seized was that nobody in power to determine the B/R list seems to follow Legacy. I have a strong feeling this is why cards like Dream Halls remain banned while Flash and Empty the Warrens go free.
Debates abound over certain cards, but I think pretty much everyone's in agreement with the B&R list changing as follows:
BAN:
Flash
UNBAN:
Dream Halls
Mind Over Matter
Flash breaks the format. Dream Halls and Mind Over Matter are nearly unplayable due to their prohibitive costs. I certainly haven't heard anyone make any strong disagreement to these three changes.
There are some other propositions that aren't universally agreed upon, but are picking up steam nonetheless. These are:
BAN:
Empty the Warrens
Lion's Eye Diamond
UNBAN:
Replenish
Entomb
Land Tax
Regardless of personal stances (I'm for ETW, Entomb, and Land Tax all being/staying banned for eternity, LED staying legal, and unsure about Replenish), there need to be a couple of level-headed people in the DCI who sit around and try to seriously break all the cards listed in the current metagame. There's far too much nervousness in chaning the B/R list.
However, I think the call will be responded to sooner than later. Don't be surprised if as many as four cards wind up on the banned list and anywhere from four to six cards end up unbanned tomorrow. But don't count on anything happening other than Flash biting the dust, either.
My gut reaction was, "Why the heck do we need yet another Flash article?" Then I realized the timing of this article sucks, with the format completely up in the air until tomorrow, so I guess another Flash article is as good as anything else at the moment.
Hmmm... I guess I'm in the minority in this one. Admittedly without a concrete reason, unbanned Dream Halls seems like a bad idea to me, seeing as how it's, you know, Blue and all. On the other hand, I already own a playset, so, hey, whatever.
I replied to this article on the star city forums, and I wanted to repost it here too:
It sickens me that everyone here is happy with this article. I found it to be extremely condescending to those who are not legacy specialists and to imply that any significant change in the legacy metagame that is not "approved" by the Legacy Community(tm) to be a disaster. This is very off-putting to the rest of us. If you don't want non-specialists to change your format, why the hell are you promoting it at all? Keep it tightly under wraps and you will get the stagnant metagame that you seem to want.Chris, you seem to position yourself in articles like this as a kind of mouthpiece for Legacy. However, your attitude in these articles is one that shows extreme disrespect for anyone who is not part of the "Legacy Community," whatever that is, and you seem to be very afraid of any change. If you want to attract new players to your community, your articles need to be both more respectful to newcomers and more open to the change that will happen in a format when new people start playing it.
I think that you do a disservice to your adopted format with articles written in this tone and with this message. By comparison, Steve Menendian is an excellent representative from the world of vintage to the rest of Magic. His articles convey a sense of wonder and exploration about the format, and he embraces the inevitable changes that occur when new cards are printed and the format is explored by players new to it. This is in very direct contrast to your attitude; you seem to think that players new to legacy need to serve some kind of apprenticeship to learn the format before they should be allowed to innovate, and you really hate it when someone ignores that process and writes about legacy without going through your process. If you want to bring new players to your format, that's great, but you should be more welcoming of their ideas and more receptive to changes that will inevitably occur. If you don't want changes to happen to your format, then stop promoting it and you will get exactly what you desire.
The most important part of your quoted message, and one you should have focused on, is that Chris tends to think he speaks for the format. Neither he, nor any other individual, does so, and Chris you really need to stop imagining that you do. It's extremely detrimental to both you and the format to continue this delusion.
Tom, even if Chris came off too strong (he did), I still want someone speaking out about the huge annoyance this entire thing has been to us. I think that his article was about two different things. Most people don't care about who wrote what, and which big shots said what to whom. We really just want to be sure Flash gets the boot.
@Mr.N, He does do this. So do a few other people, which can be a problem if these people are too obtuse. In this case, I am with him, atleast about how upset I am about Flash.
I think most of his dissatisfaction is directed at Wizards and the poor way they handled Flash's power-level errata.
What part are you unhappy with? Perhaps its the part, "Misrepresenting Legacy"? I think that part was directed at pretty much anyone who was saying that Flash was okay for Legacy. Anyone who has played the format would realize that Flash instantly became the best deck overnight and there is very little debating that considering what happened at GP Columbus. But there were people who were actively giving the impression that it was just fine. Its this type of misrepresentation that simply shouldn't be allowed to go unanswered. People like Mike Flores and Steve Sadin have agreed that Flash is way over the line for something in Legacy. I don't see how that is an insider vs. outsider issue? Perhaps you can explain it to me.
To be fair, Chris is not saying "change is bad," categorically. He is objecting to the fact that the format was very confusingly (to be kind) or viciously (to be less so) turned on its head immediately prior to the largest Legacy event in the last 17 months.
I take the position that we're just arguing about a card game, awesome as it may be, and people need to chill out some, on all sides. Unless you can support yourself on tourney winnings, which very, very, very people can profitably do--this is a hobby, right?
You might be too close to see it. ;)
I believe that Chris failed to make that point becuase he was too busy spewing constant hyperbole and xenophobia. When I was done with the article, I was thinking about how reactionary and childish Chris's attitude was and how depressingly similar it was to the attitude of various other people who would assume the title of Legacy Spokesperson, not that Flash was too good. If you want to get your message about Flash made, you need to find a messenger who is not wildly confrontational and off-putting in tone.
EDIT: I used "childish" twice, which is bad style. Changed second instance of it to "off-putting".
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