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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 1:38AM
#21
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2011
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What a developer means: NO! Hahahaha. Nice. Mark, one of my favorite things about the 'mana system' is that you can have color PHILOSOPHIES. That's pretty cool. I always enjoyed that:-)
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 1:51AM
#22
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Date Joined:
Aug 29, 2008
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This article was... erm never mind. There were ponies in the article. Weaponized Ponies. My opinions on this are invalid.
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 2:17AM
#23
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Date Joined:
May 19, 2009
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I think the article neglected the most important issue, which is: which ponies? Are we talking Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash, or are we stuck with an army of Fluttershies? If it's the latter, do they get to bring their animal friends? Can they go Flutterrage?
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 3:18AM
#24
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Date Joined:
Mar 26, 2004
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I wonder, if they acknowledged that a system where you can play unneeded cards as mana sources would be better, how they could go about implementing that.
Those of us that play MtGO might remember the Dakkon Blackblade avatar. It allowed you to play colored cards in your hand as randomly chosen copies of basic lands in one of the cards' colors. They could put this ability on an enchantment, or on a command-zone emblem.
Online, this is easy to implement technically. In paperland, you could put the card in play, and cover it with a basic land, or some such thing.
So it's possible. I don't like the idea, except maybe on an enchantment. Green one, of course 
50. Doesn't hurt. Yet.
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 4:08AM
#25
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I really hope that the last comic in the article doesn't mean that they are removing the two remaining cards that have been around since Alpha. If they remove one, fine. But I think that they should keep one for the remainder of the game.
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 4:34AM
#26
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Date Joined:
Jan 24, 2002
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I really hope that the last comic in the article doesn't mean that they are removing the two remaining cards that have been around since Alpha. If they remove one, fine. But I think that they should keep one for the remainder of the game.
The last comic is about the supposed tension between the two of which one will be the last one standing
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 5:59AM
#27
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Hhaha the comics were a hoot! I think there can be some muligan rules to help eleivate early screw. The pile sugestion from earlier is just no good. Think about what this does for agro decks. You always get your 2 lands then draw endles gass. Any kinds of rules changes in this way, where you could play much less land and always get the small amout you need would drasticly chnage the game. Im sure every one there has tried all kinds of ideas over the years, at this point I think there just is no answer.
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 6:34AM
#28
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Date Joined:
Mar 23, 2009
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Love the Stratego refference I never meet people who know about that game.
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 6:41AM
#29
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Date Joined:
Aug 11, 2010
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I think one of the things that wasn't brought up is that mana screw (and variance in general) is one of the biggest skill testers because it provides bad players an obvious and catastrophic excuse for why they lost. Many people hate mana screw (and flood) mainly because they are bad players and did not see the proper plays that would have led them to victory. Mana screw is just another barrier for players to overcome and at higher levels it can be very challenging to determine if there was anything you could have done to win the game or if it truly was variance.
Another great thing about mana screw is that it creates tension. I recently lost a game of magic because I was sitting there for several turns not able to draw my seventh land and play my bomb. Everyone of those turns was exciting as I hoped to draw that land. These situations would not be exciting if we didn't have vivid images in our mind about the catastrophe of mana screw. Everyone claims to hate this part of the game but this is what creates the gambling aspects of magic that make it very addictive. When you lose to randomness you get angry and immediately want to play again to get that "fair" match.
Also, magic has less variance than poker due to the fact you can play cards to minimize it. Restrictions breed creativity and the threat of mana screw is just one more thing that enters into the calculus of what priorities a player wants his deck to address. Just look at how interesting it is to debate whether one should play UW cawblade or the UWb variant. This would not be a question if the black version didn't have the tradeoff of a more unstable mana base.
As much as we hate when it happens to us, in the long run we win just as many games from the variance as we lose and mana screw is actually one of the best, and less obvious, mechanics of magic.
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2 years ago ::
May 23, 2011 - 8:50AM
#30
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Date Joined:
Jun 16, 2010
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I really hope that the last comic in the article doesn't mean that they are removing the two remaining cards that have been around since Alpha. If they remove one, fine. But I think that they should keep one for the remainder of the game.
The last comic is about the supposed tension between the two of which one will be the last one standing
Interesting. Between the two, I'd hope for Giant Growth  to be the last one standing. It's probably a better card (probably better in Limited, but that's hard to compare exactly just because they're apples and oranges; definitely better in Constructed), it's more broadly useful (a combat trick that can fit in any creature-heavy deck vs. a primarily defensive, medium-sized creature), and it's the last survivor of a three-of-something-for-one-mana cycle way back once upon a time. And I agree, I certainly hope that at least one card stays around for the life of the game.
I wouldn't have suggested Giant Growth, though. As much as I like green, it doesn't seem like an "iconic" enough card to be the one eternal one. Unsummon  would have been a much better choice if it hadn't missed Ninth Edition, both due to playability and the whole idea of controllish tricks and summoning creatures again and again. But I have to admit that of the cards that made it to Tenth Edition, relatively few look all that good. It took a while, but I finally found this article on it. Air Elemental  and Rod Of Ruin  are underpowered compared to current cards, Howling Mine  has clunky wording and weird interactions due to a rules change, and all the rest are OK but don't really fit the modern color pie quite right. They're decent cards, but they shouldn't be the "standard-bearers" for anything.
So: Giant Growth forever.
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