Community

The thing is, free spells have gotten less and less free. Cascade was broken when it was on cheaper creatures like bloodbraid elf, but then we got phyrexian mana, which, IMO, is the worst way to get a free spell. Think about it. Is one damage really worth two life? Remember pro tour dka when kibler  let was playing in the quarterfinal, heown one game becaus his opponent killed himself with two many gitaxian probes (four on one turn). Also, they were meant to break the color pie. That was the flavor purpose, to show phyrexians as the hive culture they were. And on rancor: I'm gonna call that the knewmost feared opening in standard will be t1 accelerant, t2 strangleroot Geist and a Rancor, swing.Gruul aggro, smash!!!!
 

I don't see much hope for Rewind seeing constructed play unless WOTC manages sufficiently to slow down the game. Traditional controlling blue/x decks aren't exactly rocking and with the removal of Mana Leak, DoJ they'll have even more trouble living beyond turn 4. And the lack of instant card draw always makes more expensive counters weak. Hopefully Ravnica brings back Remand or adds a decent instant draw spell.

Jul 2, 2012 -- 12:47AM, MaxFAn wrote:

Jul 1, 2012 -- 11:10PM, Ertai87 wrote:

When mana can't solve power issues, your mechanic has a huge problem.

I have 1 word for you: Cascade .

Do you guys ever actually *learn* your lessons, or just pretend to so that we think you're actually being productive?

No, it seems like every few years they go,
"Not paying mana for spells with the Moxes was really broken."
"Know what's a great idea, FREE SPELLS !"
"Hmm, ok, maybe that was broken too."
"I know, we'll make tons of copies of the spell ."
"Well, Storm turned out to be about the most broken mechanic ever."
"Hey, know what might work?  Giving people a free spell that costs less mana ."
"Hmm, this still seems broken."
"I know, we'll make them pay life instead ."
"Hmm, broken and now everyone gets to play removal!"
"[Next iteration of free spells goes here]"
"Wait, still broken."

The thing is, all of those "free" mechanics play out very differently.

Moxes were broken because they were effectively non-land lands, and let you jump ahead in mana on every spell thereafter. Barring Shatterstorm , they were always better than basic lands at the time. Time/stage of game is the axis along which these broke everything else.

Cantrips (whcih you didn't mention) weren't broken at all. They actually upgraded them (from drawing you a card on your upkeep to just drawing you a card right away). They could have been broken, but the effects are generally so small that they aren't. Most are things that you would be flat ashamed to spend a whole card on ( Jump ) or that could be the (rather useless) activated ability of a permanent. Clearly, not all forms of "free" break something.

The "free" mechanic managed to keep you on curve through the time it was cast, but had an unstable interaction with non-basic lands to produce a High Tide effect. They learned to avoided breaking the game in terms of time up until the spell was cast, but broke in a new, different way. This underscores how important it is not to take tap/untap mechanics for granted.

Storm is broken mainly because it uses copies created by a casting trigger. There is no way to counter the "combo" centerpiece, and everything else that affects storm happens on the stack. There's no need for on-board objects that can be targeted. The lesson here is, if you're going to make something free by trading one resource for another -- in this case setup time/cards/mana for size of effect -- don't also make it more difficult for traditional answers to answer.

Cascade is not so much a rider as the main effect. The "effect" is the icing on the cake. "Next spell free" is the real effect. The way to build a cascade card is to start with a CMC, maybe even a full casting cost (colors and all) since you want gold cards for Alara block), and then ask "what can I give them for free to offset the fact that they have no idea what they're getting? There's only a narrow range of starting CMCs that work, but that's no different than having a narrow range on creature power that's acceptable with deathtouch. Cards with cascade are similar to cards with cantrip in that they replace themselves, but give you a small effect for the mana. The main issue was that "3/2 haste elf" is the part that's "too good to be free". The effect is not small enough. A 2/2 would have still been good, and 2/1 would still have been played. Heck, 3/1 would have probably been fair and color-appropriate as well.

The complaint against phyrexian mana are mainly on how it bled the color pie... which was its goal. There are some issues in how and where they bleed the color pie. For example, R&D seems to have forgotten that giving every color "Force of Will" means that blue also gets another one. but that's not so much a flaw with the Phyrexian mana system as it is with the fact they ultimately decided it would be good to have another cheap blue counter.

There are also a number of other "free" effects that appear in the game all the time. Some like Sol Ring are obvious, but others like Mogg Fanatic and Sakura-Tribe Elder (under damage uses-the-stack rules) that are less obvious because they're just so fair that we don't think of them that way.

Jul 2, 2012 -- 10:26AM, av.313 wrote:

Jul 2, 2012 -- 7:39AM, TobyornotToby wrote:

Remand is seen today as way above the curve by Wizards.

I'm aware of that, but after several years of boosting creatures and nerfing spells I think Wizards should rethink that view soon. Maybe not right *now* because blue has Delver, Snag, Ponder and Snappy, all which are also great aggro cards, but once those are starting to rotate out blue needs something. Heck, creatuers have become insanely better since the good old Counterspell was standard legal, even reprinting that shouldn't be unthinkable, along with some decent card draw like Compulsive/Thirst.

The way Wizards sees it, spells and creatures used to be in an unhealthy balance, with spells being far more powerful. By nerfing spells and boosting creatures they have now arrived at a fair balance where they feel both are equally powerful and represented. Why would they want to go back into unbalanced territory? This is bad news for spell-lovers, but the current status quo is simply beloved by way more players. 

Jul 2, 2012 -- 3:11AM, TobyornotToby wrote:

Murder - Destroy target creature.
Craterize - Destroy target land.
Smelt - Destroy target artifact.
Demystify -Destroy target echantment.
Erase - Exile target enchantment. 

Why not go for that most elegant of cycles? 

Because R&D has forgotten how to do cycles properly, lately.

First, there was no legendary werewolf. Now, Nefarox costs six while the other four cost four. They're really dropping the ball on cycles here.