Community

Don't complain that expensive staples aren't mythic(and thefefore 2-3 times more expensive). If you want $80 snapcasters you must be mad.

Yes, the current direction is bad, Wizards seem to think that it's better to reduce the option rather than expand them.

Some trading post decks win without wurmcoils, but its hard to to go that route when playing mono-black or playing against Delver.
Also, they tend to avoid printing utility cards as mythic (IE Snapcaster, SFM, Resto Angel) on basic principle. If they ever print a card in a normal set that does nothing other than tap for mana at the mythic rarity, I'm selling all of my magic cards.

The issue is, Wizards doesn't have the ability to gague how strong blue creatures should be. While Thragtusk is a good creature, you -should- be able to go over the top of it (why I don't like that its a 5/3 instead of a 4/3), same with Resto angel. The problem is that you have Delver (which has been admitted to be stronger than expected on Mothership) and Snapcaster (same as delver) mucking up the format, and the fact that the WotC crew seems to think that Tempo decks should make up a significant portion of the metagame. That means they will continue printer powerful tempo creatures and spells. THAT is what concerns me.

As for red, Wizards seems to think that "damage to creatures" and "damage to players" are individual things on the color pie, and use that as an excuse to say that Red still has tons of color pie abilities. That, and "destroy lands" and "destroy artifacts" are done by green in ways that are generally better (Beast Within, Bramblecrush, Naturalize). Red is also the most flavorful color (think Fling, about 60% of all goblins) and a lot of the things red has in its color pie are things that wizards avoids doing on a regular basis (Warp World, Scrambleverse, Chance Encounter) and if they do it, then it is in such a way that its useless (Craterize, Scrambleverse). 

S1AL, I would hazard to guess you're failing to account for the deck being roguey as balls.  If it were an entity, then the fact that it happens to be redonculously easy to hate out would catch up to it pretty quickly, I imagine.  Not denying it's potentially strong, just that it's not like we're seeing it put to the competitive grinder on a scale large enough to analyze actual numbers past the odd anecdote.

@Thread, I guess we've discussed this problem a lot.  I would think the ubiquity of these topics from most of the experienced folks at this point would turn some heads after a while.  I'm really not sure what to say about it at this point other than reiterating that design has a vision for the game that most of us frankly don't like. 

If R&D doods happen to read this, my complaints would be roughly summarized as an overbearing focus on new player acquisition.  They're trying to make the game more fun for people who don't know how to play.  They're designing a reduction in gameplay options to emphasize simplicity of gameplay, which is LESS fun.  Certainly something needs to be done to attract new players, but this isn't it.

Combine that with guys like Hill, who apparently think the fringiest and most powerful archetype, aggro-control/tempo, should be a staple, and yeah, we're gonna have a hellaciously unplayable standard format.

And not to stomp my own argument here, but why listen to us?  ..After all, standard's apparently more popular than ever before.  Cheers Mr. Hill, drink up, haha.

I stopped playing magic a few months ago and came back because I head there were a lot of different deck floating around.  Then I go to two tournaments that were both won by U/W Delver and played against Thragtusk, Restoration Angels and Geist of St. Traft all day.  Pretty fun.  Same thing over and over and over. Tap out, play amazing creature. DO I have the super specific spell that can remove that creature from play?  Sometimes... oh boy what skill it takes to play magic!!!

Is it fun to just plop cards onto the board and turn them sideways?  OK, for some it is... but why is my style of play frowned upon?  Cavern of Souls?  Really?  As if Control wasn't hard enough to play already you have to completely hurt counterspells?  What makes R&D think they have the right to just tell us how to play Magic? I enjoy playing the way I play. I dont want to spill my cards all over the board and say "gee, i hope this is a winning hand!".

NEW FLASH:  Delver is NOT the problem with standard.  Its cards like Thragtusk, Geralf's Messenger, Geist of St. Traft.  Cards that cost little mana for MASSIVE effect.  Delver is removed by ANYTHING... its blocked by lingering souls and is only good IF you flip it (which can be manipulated by cantrips, but that is a commitment you have to make)... look at the winning Modern deck in the WCM2012... Resto Angel, Geist of Taffy, Snapcaster.  Funny thing... U/W delver is ragingly overpowered, lets be complete retards and make a WHITE FLYER with BLINK effect!  Brilliant job guys. 

Wizards R&D is just digging themselves a bigger and bigger hole.  They HAVE to STOP printing overpowered creatures and start reducing the specificness of spells.   These creatures are just out of control.  It is NOT fun to win by drawing seven cards.  The game is purely luck based now and takes absolutely no skill.  It doesn't even take skill to play control anymore... ZOMG I pulled my super specific killspell that I needed for this exact creature I was ancticipating... I WIN! 

STOP Wizards... you are ruining magic.  STOP making creatures overpowered.  STOP making creatures untouchable with idiot mechanics like hexproff (was shroud not good enough? really?)  STOP determining our "meta game".  Print cards that fit the color they are printed in.  Flash for blue, haste for red, vigilance for white, etc.  Stop creating all these ridiculous game mechanics that are just plain stupid.  JUST MAKE MAGIC CARDS.  As an individual in R&D you need to take yourself out of the process.  Take a step back and look at the horrendous state of standard in magic and look at how these new cards and completely flooding and destroying the Modern and Legacy formats.  Years and Years of magic cards and the creatures from the current standard are more common than any other block in history.  That ISNT cool and if you dont stop now it will only get worse.

Magic should be flexible... brewers should have options.  Combo, Control, Burn, Tricks, Tempo, Aggro, Power, Midrange, should all have a place in the metagame.

Aug 26, 2012 -- 1:09PM, tehbeast wrote:

And when a large part of your post gets removed, tonykart34, you'll see it as incontrovertible evidence of WotC suppressing dissenting opinion because they're fascist.

Basically, standard is pretty enjoyable right now; I can beat card advantage through tricks and skill about half the time, which is an acceptable percentage for me. What I'm disappointed in is precipitous drop in red's overall quality while two mythics of the same colour exceed or have previously $25. WotC doesn't control the secondary market but they are conscious of it and a one-sided wrath of god is pretty good, and I see that now. Come to think of it, they even distracted everyone with Temporal Mastery to give us a chance to preorder Bonfire at below 10. Man, I dropped the ball there. Sure wish they'd print a playable red planeswalker that's good in any red strategy. :<

inb4 tibalt become 25 dollar PW with Rakdos mechanic.