Topics

1

General Magic / Historic: Did WotC sabotage it on purpose?

« on: December 05, 2019, 03:44:16 pm »

I'm not a conspiracy kinda guy, but something stinks here. Have any of you tried playing Historic yet on Arena? My advice, don't! If you like playing against Oko, Nissa, and/or Field of the Dead on repeat then fill your boots. That is the meta. Horrible games. Not a single card banning. The format is dead out of the gate. So you might say "why would WotC want that"? Here are the reasons:

1) WotC wants people buying product on there all the time. It is the cash cow, the golden goose (honk). Historic requires a few wildcards here or there, but you can really just sit on your collection and play with older decks. If Historic is weak then people play standard and if you play standard you need to be building your collection at all times.

2) But they created the Historic Anthology to "Rollout" the format. They did and this is why it is so stupid for them to let the format die. Once a quarter this would have been a major influx of cash. Through in a few crazy reprints and grab some quick cash. Profits baby. If the format stinks then I'm not going to buy cards I can't play in standard. 1+1=0?

3) Then why do Historic at all? Because the player base would have lost their flippin minds if it didn't get developed. So you make the format, but you just allow it to be bad. Later you can say "well the player base just wasn't into it". Nope, you never banned the same cards you banned in standard (or even in Pioneer) therefore making it unplayable.

4) How do you fix it? Ban the cards that were banned in standard. That is all. hard work, right?

5) Maybe they have their focus on other things, lots of products on the go. Well, they can make time to research and ban cards in Pioneer every Monday. I'm sure they can get one person to pull up some numbers on the percentages for Historic and see they need to ban Field of the Dead, Oko, Veil of Summer, and Once Upon a Time. There, I just did your research.

6) Why introduce Historic and Pioneer in the same quarter? Just stupid. Really stupid. So many Arena players migrated back to MTGO to play Pioneer. I'm Arena only, but I have to admit I'm longing for some Pioneer online. Historic could be that. Pioneer completely destroyed any push that Historic could have had. Historic had to come when it did, the player base needed an answer for what was going to happen to their rotating cards. Pioneer could have waited until after Christmas or close to summer in that standard low point that comes every year. I doubt WotC did Pioneer so close to Historic just to crush it, but it doesn't look like much thought went into it either. Let's announce two non-rotating formats on each of our platforms at the same time. We will put every effort into ensuring one thrives, so much so we do weekly bannings. For the other, no bannings and may we never talk about it again until next quarter when we sell another Historic Anthology. Might be dead by then. 

Arena has one playable format, standard. Saying you can play bo1 or bo3 does not make it two individual formats. Brawl is not a real secondary format, you can't even play it all the time. You get my cash anyway, give me a second format for when standard is dull as turds. Rant over.

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General Magic / Historic format issues day 1.

« on: November 20, 2019, 04:30:44 pm »

Historic is rolling out tomorrow, and I guess we Arena players are suppose to be excited. I even tried to start deckbuilding for the format, but I pumped the brakes quick. The format has one major issue: nothing is banned.

Historic is going to be an ugly format starting out. We are going to see Field of the Dead, Oko, and Nexus of Fate dominate early on. Maybe a touch of mono-red at the top as well. Ugly format that I want no part of. The format needs to ban Oko, Nexus, Field, Veil of Summer, and Once Upon a Time and then it might be worth looking at.

Thoughts?

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General Magic / The problem I'm facing with Arena

« on: March 04, 2019, 02:18:34 pm »

The platform is awesome. I just love playing games of MTG on Arena. Everything about it: the speed of gameplay, the visuals, ease of use,... Just so good. It makes MTGO near unplayable now. It's like you only ever playing basketball in your driveway and now you are playing at Madison Square Gardens.

The design of card accumulation is my major issue with Arena. I get tired of playing decks over time. A pretty common comment for a certain segment of the community. A thing I loved about MTGO was I would purchase a deck, play it for a few weeks, then flip the cards when I was done. You would of course take a loss, but it was minimal in the grand scheme of things. About 6 months ago I discovered manatraders (if you don't know it is a website that lets you rent decks for MTGO). The price use to be pretty steep, but with the crash of card prices on MTGO it became very affordable. Unfortunately, you have to play on MTGO.

I thought drafting might help build up a collection, so that switching up decks is easier. It does help build up a card base, but then I have to play games of MTG with awful draft decks. I'm constructed all the way (unless it's cube). Playing with crap cards is just not my thing. It takes so long to build up enough wildcards to change decks. Oh my lord how long. Even straight buying packs has proven to be way to long a process. I just wish Arena had any way to trade cards. Of course this is against WotC's bottom line, so I'm not foolish and understand why it is that way.

Does anyone have a solution that they have found to getting cards at a faster rate on Arena? Getting 5/6 free packs a week and buying a few more is just not cutting it. Arena is actually costing me way more money than MTGO ever did and that is sad.

4

General Magic / A new non-rotating format derived from Arena

« on: December 13, 2018, 06:54:27 pm »

Arena is going to need changes moving forward regarding its formats. My question pertains to if arena will cause the creation of a new format to include cards that are on the platform (once existing sets begin to rotate out of standard). Currently there is no way to exchange your cards, not for a reasonable value at least. I'm just thinking ahead to what happens when all those x4 Mythics players own are no longer standard playable. That is a lot of time and in some cases money invested into earning cards no longer playable outside of casual MTG.

Everyone is on an Arena high right now, but I think there is a crash to come unlike anything we've ever seen at standard rotation in the past. A rotation where your cards have no other format to be played in outside of casual and cannot be sold is going to be a monumental fail. I really assume WotC has planned ahead on this one. This might not hit the gamer section of the Arena player base hard, but entrenched MTG players are going to backlash against this if there is not a proper plan in place (either a new format or the expansion into past sets opening up existing formats.

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General Magic / Potential New Format

« on: November 13, 2018, 04:30:22 pm »

Ok, so this was an interesting statement I came across randomly today. In an article on tcgplayer Jon Corpora states that players have been speculating heavily lately on Dig Through Time and Heart of Kiran. He says his research into this has uncovered that players believe that a new format that is designed much like Frontier is coming down the pipeline soon. These players are basing this partly off of artwork for Ultimate Masters.

I'm not sure if this is something WotC has planned, but I hope it is. I played a fair amount of frontier for a while and had fun doing so. Not a bad thing to have another supported format to play on MTGO.

One note on those players making those speculations: if that format breaks Dig Through Time would likely be banned pretty quickly and wouldn't Smuggler's Copter be more likely to hit than Heart of Kiran? Not that they both couldn't hit, but don't they remember how broken Copter was? The card would be everywhere.

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General Magic / Where does Golgari go from here in standard?

« on: November 02, 2018, 01:15:49 pm »

Mike Sigrist had an article on channelfireball today stating that he felt that the Golgari deck is being planned for to the point that the deck is "buried alive". The current deck, as it is, is not poised to do well in the meta, however he feels it is still a good deck.

It is undeniable that the deck is packed with powerful cards, I guess my question is where does the deck go from here? What changes do you feel need to be made to the deck? At the start of the format I thought there was a couple of different ways the deck could go. I'm wondering if the deck needs to lose the explore package in favor of a more aristocrats style package. I'm not saying go all in aristocrats, but Mike mentioned in the article, people playing Midnight Reaper did better as of late at major tournaments. I guess one problem with this strategy is that the format has gone towards exile removal which makes not just Midnight Reaper but also Find and Golgari Findbroker weaker options.

I've considered that maybe abzan is the proper direction to take, opening you up to: History of Benalia, Knight of Autumn, Settle the Wreckage, Shalai, maybe Lyra Dawnbringer. Going this route might move you into black being a splash color, and thus making you have to consider cutting your 4cmc cards due to casting issues. I'm not sure if that is the correct plan either.

The Golgari deck is also weak to flying and there is enough of that in the format right now. Myself, I have been on a boros flyers plan since the start of the format and have found it does very well. Since the popularization of the drake deck I have gone more towards an exile removal package and it has strengthened my matchup against golgari even more. I just wonder if the meta just makes Golgari unplayable since it feels that most of the other top decks in the format do well against it.

As Sigrist says in the article, it feels like the golgari deck has to plan for playing against 3 or 4 very different matchups while also planning heavily for the mirror, therefore making it weak against everything. Maybe a change they need to make is to stop game planning as much for the mirror. It seems that last set of main board changes to the deck all revolved around beating the mirror, after a few weeks in a row of poor showings at top end events there may not be as many mirror matches. I have noticed myself (on MTGO) that there is a strong decrease in the amount of Golgari pairings I have had lately, it seems Izzet is everywhere on there right now.

What are your thoughts on the direction of the deck?

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General Magic / Which card is better: Lyra Dawnbringer vs Doom Whisperer

« on: November 01, 2018, 06:23:03 pm »

I'm going to be doing a series of posts where people simply pick which card is the better MTG card and then give reasoning to back it up. You choose your own reasoning for why the card is better (better means different things to different people).


#1 Lyra Dawnbringer vs Doom Whisperer

I feel these two match up very well in power level and both are powerhouses of the standard environment. The 5cmc creature slot is very weak right now in standard, and these two are clearly the two most powerful options on their own. So, which is better and why?

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General Magic / Most underrated current evergreen keyword on creatures?

« on: October 20, 2018, 01:48:46 am »

What do you feel is the most underrated evergreen keyword on creatures?

My choice is first strike.

First strike gets overlooked so often when people evaluate creatures.

Look at the current standard meta. Goblin Chainwhirler is busted, but I believe the most unnecessary part is giving it first strike. It wins in combat against so many other creatures at around the same cmc. Knight of Grace is another example. If it hits 3 power it wins combat versus a crap ton of stuff, but even at 2 power it can still cause a lot of issues for an opponent blocking.

The other part that makes first strike so amazing is that it has so many tricks that people overlook:
1) The fact that it applies damage first allows for all kinds of shenanigans. Use a Knight of Grace to block a Golgari Findbroker and then Shock it while the first strike damage is being applied. Your Knight survives and kills the Findbroker.
2) Use the fight mechanic with first strike and see what happens. Super fun. Lyra Dawnbringer is awesome with this. Watch an opponent mistakenly try to use a Kraul Harpooner to kill Lyra. Ok, your Harpooner dies, Lyra survives, and I gain life from the lifelink. Funny.

I feel some people may argue for deathtouch. Well deathtouch can trade up, but it is going to die to every creature that it would die to in combat against anyway. First strike allows your creature to survive where a creature with the same stats would not. And let's not forget that in combat first strike trumps deathtouch as it deals damage first.

That's my thoughts. Anyone else have a choice they'd like to make a case for?

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General Magic / Anyone else worried about the cost of competitive Standard for Guilds block?

« on: September 11, 2018, 06:20:42 pm »

I just looked up the pre-sale price of Assassin's Trophy and almost fell over. I get pre-sale is no where near the normal price once things level off, but lets say $15-18 is the price of this thing for the next while. That means any deck that runs this is paying out that x3/x4 while also playing Vraska's Contempt. Your removal suite is running you $100.

Now lets look at the influence of Shock Lands. I'm estimating that most tier 1 decks will be tri-colored (at least by the time Guilds Allegiance comes out). Lets average them out at $8 each for the next while and multiply that by 8. Another $60-70 for 8 lands. A Sultai, Abzan deck, or other alternative after GA, will have a starting point of $170 for 7-8 removal spells and 8 lands. Now you just have to add Pw's and creatures... sure to be super budget.

Lets go another way and look at pure control decks. You want Teferi so that is ~$200, plus 8 shock lands... gets ugly quick.

Other midrange strategies won't be a lot better, as Grixis has you buying into Bolas, Phoenix/Karn and well again 8 shock lands.

Another worry I have is that these prices will push people towards the mono-colored stategies. A Chainwhirler deck would likely be fairly inexpensive or a mono-green stompy as well (if you do not splash black to play x4 Assassin's Trophy). Haven't we all had enough of playing against these decks by now?

I guess there is a bright side... some of us already own playsets of all the shock lands and have coughed up the cash for the majority of these pricey standard linchpins. I just pity any newer player who wants to buy into competitive standard right now.

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General Magic / What will control look like after rotation? Thoughts?

« on: September 08, 2018, 02:12:33 pm »

I personally thought control looked like the leader right now to be the best deck after rotation. It keeps the best pieces and has replacements for those it loses. But is the mana base going to hold it back?

Control's mana base looks like it is going to be awful. It will have Glacial Fortress, Field of Ruin, and a whole lot of basics available to it (in Azorius). So it would be running somewhere in the range of 20 basic lands, not going to happen.

So my next thought was "well, it will just be a three color control deck". Problem there is the only three color combination with both white and blue would be Jeskai and the common color to each shock land available is red. As of today, you would not want red as your dominant color in control. White needs to be dominant, you want to play some combination of Settle the Wreckage and Cleansing Nova. If you don't play blue as a dominant color you lose Sinister Sabotage (a lose, but manageable).

I have seen it suggested on the web that maybe control will not have white and blue, that you go a different direction. In my opinion, and it seems like many others as well, the whole point of playing control is to play Teferi. It is the most powerful card control has to offer by a large margain.

I am just wondering if control gets put on the shelf as a top tier deck until Ravnica Allegiance fixes the mana base? Or am I being crazy and it will be a Jeskai build that goes a little lighter on the blue?

Thoughts?

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General Magic / The potential of brawl being great.

« on: May 14, 2018, 04:25:53 pm »

I was looking at posts on forums about brawl today and noticed the same sentiment over and over. It was the same harsh MTG community speak you hear about anything that lies outside the norm. The format is being slammed before it was given a chance.

Here is a short list of the arguments against it:
1) Tiny leaders failed, so will this.
2) It is just a watered down version of EDH.
3) It's just another rotating format that players will quit after rotation.
4) And perhaps the biggest of all "WOTC cash grab".

I would like to briefly offer arguments against these points, simply in terms of playing devil's advocate, as I both agree and disagree with their validity.

1) This is not Tiny Leaders. This has the full support of WotC. This is another means of selling singles from current sets, therefore creating an expanded marketplace for new product. This means increased sales of packs of new sets.

2) A watered-down version of EDH is exactly what it is, and what may potentially make it great. When EDH first gained popularity is was a great format. Then it moved forward and gained mass attention and with it came the need for "competitive" EDH decks. These decks are fine, but the amount of tutoring and amazingly long turns went up dramatically. Watching someone try to combo off for 20 minutes is not my idea of fun gameplay. Brawl will never have a strong enough card pool to allow for decks that work in this manor.

3) Rotation does suck for new players. It really does. The difference for brawl is it is singelton. No need for x4 of any card that costs $40. I've taken a look at the prices and for the price of one tier-1 competitive standard deck I can buy one of every staple in the brawl format for MTGO. That might be pushing it slightly, but I'm not far off. You are looking at maybe $300-$350 to own one copy of every staple. (More in paper of course but the logic still remains consistent) And for lower budget players you can build very competitive decks for $100 or less. That takes a great amount of the sting out of rotation.

4) The biggest attack on brawl I've seen is that it is a cash grab. Well, WotC should be looking at ways to make a continuing source of revenue. That only makes the company stronger, therefore making the game stronger. I'm sure they will milk this for all it is worth. They may even use it as a platform to push MTG Arena (as many have suggested). I say good on them.

I believe any format that thrives is good for MTG. WotC has clearly decided it has put too many eggs in the standard basket for too long now. When the format is at its best it is by far my favorite format to play. But how often is it really good. 3 months out of every 3 years, maybe even 5 years. Lets be real here, standard is rarely healthy. Bannings, under-powered blocks, over-powered blocks, over-powered cards, solved two deck formats, and decks that remain tier-1 for way too long without much opposition. Brawl will face many of the same potential problems, but now you have two horses in the race instead of one.

The other amazing development with brawl is the 1v1 community. This is where my interest peaked. Being able to build decks that are for multiplayer, but then with a few changes can be played in a competitive 1v1 environment is a major factor to consider for the longevity of the format. What if your standard deck could morph into an EDH deck? Impossible (well to be competitive anyway.) Brawl holds these possibilities. New players could have a deck to play against their buddies at the kitchen table, but also bring it to an FNM, after a few substitutions.

I get the skepticism and understand the hate. My first reaction to the format was: cash grab, watered down EDH, rotating mess...tiny leaders does not register as being worth a comparison in my opinion. I really believe if you feel this format is going to fail then you would be wrong. I think this format is going to take off in a wild way. Just think of it this way... It can be competitive or casual, 1v1 or multiplayer, the card pool is affordable, it will never be stale for too long (hopefully), and WotC has every reason to support it to the fullest.

My only true concern is that the gameplay will be poor. Rosewater has the table set, the candles are lit, Barry White is playing in the background, he is wearing his sharpest cardigan, Gavin (in his waiters tuxedo) enters with a bottle of cabernet, but where the lobster should be there is instead a bowl of Mr. Noodle.

From my viewpoint the mana bases are going to be weak. At any given time you will only have a couple of dual colored lands available to you in a two colored deck. So lets say you need to run 25 lands in your deck and I have 3 dual lands available to me in those colors. Maybe I have two more lands that serve a purpose (Aether Hub, Field of Ruin,...), this leaves the deck playing 20 basic lands. That allows for a giant problem with mana screw. I fear that if this issue is left unchecked the format will fall accustomed to having a lot of mono-colored decks. And you can forget about three colored decks being reliable. 

Sorry, very long-winded. Interested to see other's thoughts. Does anyone have a different take or see another potential pitfall for the format?

12

General Magic / New eternal format possibilities.

« on: March 15, 2018, 05:09:24 pm »

I myself expect a new eternal format to be sanctioned by WotC within the next five years. I see it as an alternate revenue stream for them to tap into at some point. I'm interested if others think the same way.

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General Magic / Frontier: what cards could greatly improve the format?

« on: March 08, 2018, 02:43:13 pm »

I am a frontier junky. I build decks on a daily basis. Building so many decks has allowed me to identify some places where cards are lacking for the format. I figure the best way to identify cards that could really bolster the format is to do so on a color by color basis. Some colors need more than one thing, but I have chosen what that color needs most.

I realize WotC does not print cards with frontier in mind, obviously, this is a list of what cards would greatly benefit the format.

***Before we start I have created a list of format staples in case anyone wants to take a peek or may find it useful. The cards on there are cards that pop up on a regular basis, some very narrow cards may be left off.***
http://www.cubetutor.com/viewcube/78900

White.

Instant speed catch-all exile spell for 2cmc, with slight drawback.
*Declaration in Stone is decent, however it is not instant speed and comes with a drawback.
*Stasis Snare is 3cmc and double white, making it hard to splash.
*Cast Out is 4cmc. While it is effective as a catch all, white needs something lower costed.
*1cmc is too low and 3cmc is too high for white to be viable.

Answers: It needs Declaration in Stone at instant speed, but to nerf it have it only capable of hitting one target.

Blue.

A quality planeswalker.
*Lets stop being afraid to print quality blue planeswalkers.
*Not asking for Mind Sculptor here, just something playable.
*3/4cmc preferred.

Answer: a comparable card to Jace, Architect of Thought.

Black.

Improved creatures.
*In truth, due to the lackluster black creatures, black tends to be a splash color for its strong removal suite.
*Black tends to have creatures that fit in very specific decks (Zombies, sac,...)
*Cards like Ravenous Chupacabra and Gonti serve purposes, but are not world beaters.
*Kalitas and The Scarab God are great, but do not work well together.
*Delve creatures are strong in the right decks, but again Tasigur needs either blue or green to reach its full potential.

Answer: There needs to be a staple black creature printed in the midrange. Something you can play along side of Kalitas or Scarab God so that black can be the primary color in a deck. The 4cmc slot would be ideal as 3cmc is occupied by utility spells in black. This would make Liliana, the Last Hope that much more powerful as well.

Red.

Better removal for recurring/indestructible creatures.
*Red cannot effectively kill its own best 4cmc creatures.
*Rekindling Phoenix requires two spells to be permanently removed.
*Hazoret cannot be killed by any red card for a reasonable cost.
*The Scarab God cannot be permanently removed in any way.

Answer: We need a card that does at least 4 damage, strips indestructibility, and then if creature dies exile it. It can be 4cmc at instant speed or 3cmc at sorcery speed, but the color has to have at least one answer for these cards.


Green.

Better midrange creatures.
*Green is the color of creatures, is it not.
*Green has all the ramp pieces, but I find I'm never ramping into a mono green creature.
*When I build midrange decks, I hardly ever play 4cmc or 5cmc mono green creatures.
*The plan seems to be to just give green creatures crazy P/T, but not much else.
*The best three green midrange creatures are very deck specific. Verdurous Gearhulk is counters driven, Bristling Hydra needs energy, and Ishkanah needs delirium. There are no green midrange creatures that could just go in any build, the way Avacyn, Rekindling Phoenix, and Glorybringer can.

Answer: The color needs a blow the doors open 4cmc creature. The best ramp is at 2cmc, so you are skipping to 4cmc. You need a really strong green creature to drop on turn 3 to make the commitment worth it.


Colorless

Better colorless mana sources.
*I want to play Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher in more decks, without destroying my mana base.
*Two of the best cards in the format are nearly unplayable in quality deck lists.
*Unclaimed Territory and Spire of Industry require very specific deck builds, which narrows down where you can use the Eldrazi.

Answer: Another card that taps for colorless mana, but also mana of any color for something specific, yet useful. It would be great if it didn't cost you 1 life, as many of the best lands for Eldrazi cost 1 life to produce a color.


Land

Shock lands (full cycle) or Battle lands (enemy cycle)
*I'd be happy enough if there were no fetches in the format, or if they were banned. Since they exist, we need enemy colored lands to fetch.
*mana bases for shards are way better to build than wedges right now.
*enemy colors are lacking quality dual lands: pain lands are painful on the life total, Kaladesh lands are better in aggressive decks, and man lands are better in slower decks.

Answer: It feels like we are soon returning to Ravnica, so we are likely to see Shocks, which will make wedge mana bases much easier to build.

***Those are my hopes for printings moving forward. If you have any other suggestions for cards to better the format, please post. And lets remember they have to go through standard, so be reasonable lol.***