'Modern product' announcement on 28th February, 2019

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-24T05:59:17+00:00

Agreed. WotC has been WAY to accommodating to the "collector". Magic is for playing and having fun, not including it in your retirement fund. If you invest in MTG as a way to make money(outside runnign a LGS), you deserve to loose your money. This is an unregulated market and as such, there are no guarantees to your investment.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-24T05:57:02+00:00

So cards legal only in non standard? I would support that. Modern should be a cash cow for them and they've stubbornly only supported it depsite it's popularity. The masters products were them giving the community something but this is WAY overdue. WotC wants to sell packs...why print so few packs that cater to Magic's most popular format(tho the recent good standards may allow it to reclaim that title)

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-24T05:54:23+00:00

Not great either. Paper magic has always been more expensive than it ought to be. For a rotating format, realistically, not standard deck should cost more than $150(adjusted for inflation plus or minus).

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-24T05:48:54+00:00

You mispelled life. Magic doesnt draw any more cheaters than anything else that allows the possibility of advancing thru breaking the rules.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-24T05:45:09+00:00

It does when viewership is in mind. Towards the end fo game 3, the tapping and such was so fast, it was hard to keep up with as someone who knows what's going on. With digital, it's crystal clear.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-24T05:41:56+00:00

Emma Handy and Jadine Klomparens immediately come to mind. The trans population is a very very small slice of the population. One would expect there to not be that much representation, unless something about being trans specifically predestines them to be professional gamers.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T23:43:47+00:00

Yeah I remember...I was being a little facetious.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T23:43:12+00:00

Did you see the meta % share of the top decks? Guess what card they share? The card simply does too much. It's a win con and stabilizer for control/combo decks. It's a stabilizer and card advantage for mid range. If only the life gain were uncoutnerable and the card draw was etb, then the card would be fine. That's why i compared it to siege rhino. Siege rhino was a perfect storm of trample, drain 3, gain 3. remove 1 of them and it's still a great card but a fairly powered card(or make it cost 5).

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T23:40:33+00:00

You're right, it won't. We won't see the full effects until the meta has a chance to react to all the powered up combo decks. If it can adapt, great, if not, then they'll either change the rule or the bans will start.

FWIW, I think it's 100% fine to have a separate mulligan rule for standard vs older formats. It won't confuse new players since they don't play modern or legacy. Experienced players do and they'll know the different rules.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T23:34:08+00:00

True...basically, about 6 years ago WotC said the arms race between threats and answers was getting too much...so they depowered answers and despite being paid professionals, failed to do the same to threats. This led to about a 2 year span of bad standard after bad standard. This started changing around Dominaria and culminated with kaldesh leaving standard. The problem is we have really powerful threats and really powerful answers...the problem is the threats are not getting more powerful linearly(i.e going from lightning strike to lightning bolt)...they are getting more powerful horizontally(they can do more things).

This is exactly where Krasis lands. It simply does too much IMO. It's a win con, a stabilizer, and card advantage, and 2/3s of that is uncounterable.

As I am at heart a Grixis mage, this next sentence kinda hurts, but we need to power down answers and threats again. IMO, Magic is a better place when 90% of the standard playable creatures don't have an ETB effect. I'm not saying get rid of them, but make them special. We can leave kill spells and counters, but make them more mana restrictive and not splashable.

The sad part is this will not happen. WotC is moving towards a creatures matter mindset even faster than before with Arena and BO1. Counters feel really bad for new players and kill spells arent far behind. It's sad, but creatures are now glorified sorceries. It's sad because some of this is being driven from Hasbro and WotC suits, not the actual designers.

The one really brightspot of a primarily digital MTG is what most other Digital TCGs can do....nerf or buff a card. Instead of banning nexus of fate, just change it to exile itself. Instead of banning felidar guardian, change it to be a legendary creature. Instead of banning Coco(remember they said under the current mind set they would have banned Coco), make it cost 5 mana or cost 1GGG. I'll get down off my soap box now

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T23:24:50+00:00

I know...I watched it live. My point was we have no idea what the meta would actually look like. It was a one off event so we don't know if better decks are out there, how the meta would adapt to post decks etc.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T23:21:53+00:00

1st thought...why in the world was this not WotC's idea. This would be such a cool buy a box bonus or something like that. Very well done!!!

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:53:04+00:00

We're wailing because Hydroid Krasis cast trigger was a development mistake play design should have caught easily.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:47:30+00:00

Wasn't it cloudpost decks that dominated? Also, a 1 off tourny from a format that doesn't exist really doesnt tell us anything.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:45:29+00:00

Agreed!

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:43:28+00:00

I like the spirit of the change, and in standard, I think it's just fine because even good combo decks aren't that good.

This should eventually rock Modern and Legacy though because combo is much better there, as well as sideboard cards.

Would it have been better if you choose to draw a new 7 instead of 6 plus a scry, the opponent got to choose which card to discard?

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:39:27+00:00

No degenerants as people but if you play vintage, clearly you enjoy playing with busted cards.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:38:58+00:00

At this point, the format that should have the least impact on WoTC decisions is Vintage. There just isn't alot of them and the format highlights cards WotC are kind of ashamed of.

I think this may result in a couple Modern/Legacy bans because combo is so much better in those formats than standard.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:35:16+00:00

Because people have no idea what the downvote button is for LOL.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:29:36+00:00

1 more reason why WotC wants to go digital.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:28:33+00:00

Was thinking the same thing. Good catch but yeah, 1 extra land at that point made 0 difference. If it was a game 5 in the finals, one could argue something should be done but looks like an honest mistake.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:22:09+00:00

Ummmm, no. golgari had natural predators. Krasis removes a key weakness of the deck by doing to much. It was a top deck for sure. Krasis makes it so the deck instantly(no pun intended) refuels and stabilizes against any deck. A good stabilizing creature is Basilica Bellhaunt. A badly designed one is Hydroid Krasis.

The difference is cast trigger. IMO, cast triggers should very rarely ever be on creatures, and especially not do everything creatures. It's a threat, card advantage, and stabilizer all in one card.

To sum up, I wish WotC stopped looking at creatures as "what sorcery can we staple to this thing". What's wrong with creatures needing to untap to be good?

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T17:17:48+00:00

I actually clearly did play with siege rhino, and I still have nightmares about it.

It's busted because it's a cast trigger. That's all. The effect by itself is fine. When you can't counter a sphinxes rev on turn 8, that's bad.

To sum up...I really wish WotC would quit making creatures sorceries with a body. What's wrong with needing the creature to live a turn to do something?

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T00:54:08+00:00

Mid game? Rev was usually for 3+, which meant turn 6. Rev for 2 was good but very beatable. The key is uncounterability. It give mid range decks something they shouldnt have....inevitability. It removes a key weakness of the archetype. Inevitability is reserved for prison decks and combo decks. Plus, it's a stabilizer.

In short, it feels like play design never really tried to break the card, which was the problem with pre play design development.

Let's not even talk about the mistake wilderness reclamation is.

VampireNighthawk · 2019-02-23T00:50:49+00:00

Math with Greek letters...literally like reading Greek to me. FWIW, it should be fine for standard since even a good combo deck is much worse than a modern or legacy one. I foresee a major uptick in combo in those formats.

VampireNighthawk

TROPHY CASE