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2 years ago ::
Nov 10, 2011 - 4:14PM
#1
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Making Magic, which goes live Monday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2011 - 10:25PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 17, 2007
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On the Hell's Caretaker balance, I think you might have thought that Recurring Nightmare being unable to sacrifice itself was some kind of balancing factor. The fact that the Caretaker can sacrifice itself to get a creature is kind of a good thing, although not as good as what Recurring does.
"People want balance but can't accept this homogenization that occurs as a result of that balance being implemented. then they complain that the fighter is weaker than the wizard ad nauseam.: - Teitan
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 2:48AM
#3
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Imagine if the same logic were applied to say,... a sorceress queen?
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 3:43AM
#4
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The funny thing about Mark's Relentless Assault flavour text is that it's goddamned horrible.
I wonder if he realizes that now?
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 3:45AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Nov 18, 2003
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In case you were wondering, the rest of the gold atog cycle were: Sarcatog  , Lithatog  and Thaumatog  . And Atogatog  to rule them all.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 3:53AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jul 29, 2010
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lol
"End of the line."
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 6:50AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 15, 2004
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Moral of this story - Thank god for modern R&D's quality developing team, keeping MaRo's broken card ideas from seeing print...
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2 years ago ::
Nov 14, 2011 - 4:25PM
#8
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I rather have MaRo's crazy ideas and questionable thought process to LaPille and others' ideas of what a Magic game is about. I can't recall MaRo stating Magic is all about creature combat. Rather, he often says he tries to design engine cards and free spells more than to make reanimation targets and aggressively-costed Mythics.
Heck, this article even was all about this philosophy: ETB effecs were supposed to be free in MaRo's initial take on it. Flashback the mechanic and Recurring Nightmare were intended as some kind of engine. Squee itself was an engine card that enabled, among other cards and strategies, Forbid and Survival of the Fittest, rather than just being an hard-to-kill creature.
Do you rather have senseless power creep of the likes of (now obsolete) Baneslayer Angel, the Titans, Jitte, Skullclamp, Ravager and most Planeswalkers? I myself like the subtler nuances, the interactions between cards, that Magic has to offer.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 15, 2011 - 4:44AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Mar 16, 2004
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I certainly hate the power level of recent mythics (most notably the Titans). And I certainly like engine cards. But some engine cards, particularly those that bypass mana costs, actually get me very frustrated too. I'm particularly thinking of things like Master Transmuter  , who looked really fun until you realised she would just drop things like Inkwell Leviathan  and Sphinx of the Steel Wind  and then sit there defending them and herself, ready to bounce whatever you target as a cost so you can't even use a second kill spell in response. So I think I'd most like development as of about 4-6 years ago. Lorwyn/Shadowmoor were lots of fun, and Time Spiral's irritating elements weren't development-related (except perhaps Time Spiral  ); and obviously Ravnica was just awesome. The stupidly broken engine cards were reined in, and there was a fun balance of possible strategies. After Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, mythic rares appeared, the quality of commons dropped to make up for it, core sets started bringing stupid things like Baneslayer Angel  , and the development team basically started acting a lot more like cash-grabbers.
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2 years ago ::
Nov 15, 2011 - 7:26AM
#10
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I too think the period from Kamigawa to Eventide was the best for Standard. We had Faeries dominating at the end of those times, but overall the environment was varied enough.
After that, Alara brought the Mythic rarity and we had a case of an 8-year old boy winning a tournament with a Jund deck, so the block failed hard in my book... Zendikar made Caw-Blade the only deck to play, and Scars feels somewhat bland.
But I do like Innistrad. Sometimes I think it is The Darks and Odyssey done right. I hope it will provide the foundatins for some more awesome years down the road.
Anyway, to the point: Master Transmuter may be annoying, but the Titans and some Planeswalkers are plain outrageous. Transmuter and other engine cards need some commitment, some deck-building decisions in order to bring their best to the table, so it feels rewarding when you manage to get that board state (Transmuter + Leviathan + Sphinx, for example). The Titans or the likes of Jace the Mind Sculptor, on the other hand, are just a matter of resolving them and see them stealing the game , all the while forcing the prices of competitive decks upwards and leaving poor JVL unable to provide good, on-Budget, decks.
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