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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 2:03PM
#1
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This thread is for discussion of this week's Latest Developments, which goes live Friday morning on magicthegathering.com.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 9:19PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Jan 20, 2004
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This is very telling: Aggro → Midrange → Ramp/Combo → Control/Disruptive Aggro
Note how there's no arrow pointing back towards aggro. This is very telling when the best deck in the format for the past 4 years have been either Control or Disruptive Aggro decks, with the exception of the one year when there wasn't a single playable card for either of those archetypes. For reference: LOR/ALA: Faeries (Disruptive Aggro, or Control, depending on your definition) ALA/ZEN: Jund ZEN/SOM: Caw-Blade (Control) SOM/ISD: Delver (Disruptive Aggro) So I suppose that's an accurate description of the Standard metagame. It's kind of disappointing that R&D appears to engineer the format to act in that way.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 9:23PM
#3
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What amuses me is how he says they're very happy with how things have worked out since adopting this model...and then in the very next paragraph talks about how Stoneforge Mystic  and Snapcaster  have messed up these plans... Because there have been so many Standard environments without either one of those cards, recently... It's definitely not like as soon as the first mistake rotated out (well, was banned, but whatever), they printed the second.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 9:27PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Apr 12, 2008
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This is very telling:
Aggro → Midrange → Ramp/Combo → Control/Disruptive Aggro
Note how there's no arrow pointing back towards aggro. This is very telling when the best deck in the format for the past 4 years have been either Control or Disruptive Aggro decks, with the exception of the one year when there wasn't a single playable card for either of those archetypes. For reference: LOR/ALA: Faeries (Disruptive Aggro, or Control, depending on your definition) ALA/ZEN: Jund ZEN/SOM: Caw-Blade (Control) SOM/ISD: Delver (Disruptive Aggro) So I suppose that's an accurate description of the Standard metagame. It's kind of disappointing that R&D appears to engineer the format to act in that way.
Reading the article belies that. He specifically says aggro is supposed to be able to exploit control.
That said, I kinda wonder how cards like Snapcaster are supposed to fit this model. I mean, they knew very well the card was tournament viable, but they also knew the card is far too cheap and useful to not be a strong counter to aggro, so why print it like that if they're hoping for controlling decks to be anything less than dominant?
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 9:39PM
#5
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This is very telling:
Aggro → Midrange → Ramp/Combo → Control/Disruptive Aggro
Note how there's no arrow pointing back towards aggro. This is very telling when the best deck in the format for the past 4 years have been either Control or Disruptive Aggro decks, with the exception of the one year when there wasn't a single playable card for either of those archetypes. For reference: LOR/ALA: Faeries (Disruptive Aggro, or Control, depending on your definition) ALA/ZEN: Jund ZEN/SOM: Caw-Blade (Control) SOM/ISD: Delver (Disruptive Aggro) So I suppose that's an accurate description of the Standard metagame. It's kind of disappointing that R&D appears to engineer the format to act in that way.
Reading the article belies that. He specifically says aggro is supposed to be able to exploit control.
That said, I kinda wonder how cards like Snapcaster are supposed to fit this model. I mean, they knew very well the card was tournament viable, but they also knew the card is far too cheap and useful to not be a strong counter to aggro, so why print it like that if they're hoping for controlling decks to be anything less than dominant?
Snapcaster doesn't really counter aggro, Restoration Angel  and Blade Splicer  do. Without them, Zombies has a very good matchup against delver
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 9:54PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2009
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So I suppose that's an accurate description of the Standard metagame. It's kind of disappointing that R&D appears to engineer the format to act in that way.
It's not that they make us a few decks of each category. This division has existed for a long time, and we have known how each category is supposed to act against one another. In fact, it's beneficial that the people that balance the game (among other things) know this, because, as the article says, they can print powerful things in every category, giving every one a chance (theoretically).
EDIT: What's with the messed-up colors in Grim Monolith  's picture, by the way?
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 10:02PM
#7
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When blocking isn't a "thing," each one of your creatures is just a down-payment investment that depreciates your opponent's life total by a rate equal to its power every turn, and deck design is about nothing but figuring out what the most efficient way to do that is without losing all your guys to removal.
If blocking is ever profitable (in a two-player game, and excluding the chump-block sense where the alternative is immediate reduction to 0% Win Probability), then attacking isn't, hence ideal play would dictate that the attack never takes place. The "blocking problem", if indeed it is one, is a direct consequence of that, and nothing more.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 09, 2012 - 10:32PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jun 10, 2009
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Blocking doesn't always mean "blocking profitably". The game is more interesting when chump blocking, gang blocking and trading are possible good moves, too, as Limited as that sounds.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 10, 2012 - 12:25AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2006
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There's also the "aggro gambit": I lose creatures to your blocks but still get enough damage through from others to eventually win the game.
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10 months ago ::
Aug 10, 2012 - 2:37AM
#10
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This article has been long due! I image I'll link to it often in the future.
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