Community

Aug 20, 2012 -- 2:55AM, Flopfoot wrote:

The smaller set size means less possibilities. And when R&D wants a card played these days they make it really obvious (Geist of Saint Traft) whereas back then they were much subtler and we sometimes missed the cards they thought would be good - most of the best cards were accidents (Tarmogoyf). Plus in terms of budget, it helped that there were no mythics back in Ravnica and that the most expensive cards were the lands, which drove down the price of other rares - budget players don't mind using a slightly worse mana base than the competitive decks, so they are more willing to be experimental, whereas these days they don't feel so happy because they can see that the other person has geist of saint traft and they have wind drake. Another thing I'm not sure if it has affected the diversity of the meta is R&D's increased hatred/caution of combo decks. Of course you don't want to risk another Academy these days with such a big player base it could have worse consequences than the real Academy did. But having no combo decks cuts out an entire archetype and gives people a lot more confidence about what they are going to face.

All of this, and more.

There's also their push for focusing more on Limited design, which leaves fewer cards per set Constructed playable. They've hinted (or outright stated) quite a few times that cards have been costed higher, or had their effect weakened, for the sake of Limited. They also include cards (like Bountiful Harvest ) that are terrible in both formats, to make Draft less mind-blowing (instead of 14 choices, each Bountiful Harvest or similar reduces the options to consider by one).

And then there's New World Order. By taking a lot of the complexity out of Common, there are a lot fewer playable cards in Common. After all, Complexity usually means options. Why run a Common card that can do only one thing in your deck, when you can grab a Rare or Mythic Rare that fulfills a lot more roles at once? Why run Vorstclaw when you could instead run Primeval Titan or Soul of the Harvest ? The only Commons that get played any more tend to be those with no analogue in higher rarities: Counterspells, Pinpoint Removal, Bounce, and the like.

Additionally, there's the advent of Planeswalkers. Or, more accurately, their push to make Planeswalkers the "face of the game", which tends to translate into them pushing the power level of their Planeswalkers to guarantee that they see play. By pushing this handful of cards to be Constructed playable, they decrease options for deckbuilders.

Finally, on a related note, is their policy regarding Mythic Rares in general. They've outright stated that they are nicer to their Mythics, that they like to give them "square stats" (which is to say power and toughness equal to converted mana cost). So, while Uncommon has to pay six for a 4/4 haste flyer, Mythic Rare is allowed to get a 5/5 haste flyer with more upside for just five mana .

All of these policies lend towards a smaller pool of Constructed playable cards, and worse, an increased gap in the power level between the playables and the non-playables. It's no wonder the metagame tends to be much less diverse these days.