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Dec 28, 2012 -- 12:18PM, bay_falconer wrote:

Dec 23, 2012 -- 5:14PM, Dragon_Nut wrote:

In fact, it was the last time cards in standard would be banned until Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were banned over five years later.

And Stoneforge Mystic must have been deliberately busted. (I can think of no other reason a tutor would also cheat things into play.)

To be fair stonehewer giant was a "giant" success. So they had some positive experience with "tutors which also cheat things into play".

Dec 27, 2012 -- 10:08PM, zammm wrote:

Dec 26, 2012 -- 9:57AM, Cyklown wrote:

Heartbeat, man. Heartbeat.

Heartbeat combo didn't really take off until after Affinity's reign. Drift of Phantasms and Early Harvest were both key cards for the deck and neither showed up until after the bannings.

He was mentioning, casually about how some other deck became insanely prevalent/dominant afterwards. I was replying to that passing mention.

Dec 28, 2012 -- 8:55PM, Kratos1810 wrote:

Wow, I learned a lot about Magic's past in just these few posts, I started up around the Rise of The Eldrazi, isn't that when matches slowed down? Or was it Kamagawa that slowed gameplay down?

Masques and Kamigawa both came on the heels of some very broken blocks.

First, you have Urza's Saga: Academy Rector , Tolarian Academy , Yawgmoth's Bargain , Yawgmoth's Will , Gaea's Cradle , Serra's Sanctum , Time Spiral , Palinchron , Goblin Welder , Memory Jar , Masticore , Sneak Attack , Opalescence , Replenish ...

Masques was dialing back the power. The only cards from the Masques block I remember as particularly powerful were the rebels and anti- rebels .

The same thng happened with Mirrodin. Ancient Den and friends were used a lot with the "affinity" mechanic, which made a spell cost less for each artifact you controlled. (And yes, I know that's exactly the same thing Tolarian Academy does.) Then you had the Arcbound Ravager / Disciple of the Vault combo, which kills you slowly. Mycosynth Lattice provides insane land destruction if you have ways of removing artifacts. And Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow showed just how easy it was to break this new "equipment" type, to say nothing of Fireshrieker when combined with those two. Memnarch steals everything.

Kamigawa dialed the power down after Mirrodin, though Mirrodin was not nearly as busted as Urza's Saga. (Mark Rosewater has mentioned that the development team got a talking-to from the president of WotC at the time for Urza's Saga.)

From Shards of Alara to Rise of the Eldrazi, they were slowing the game down, by encouraging multiplayer in Alara and focusing on lands and "Magikarp power" (cards that are weak at first, but become really powerful when you jump through the right hoops) in Zendikar and Worldwake. (Not that power creep doesn't exist in those sets: Zendikar's vamps were fast weenies, and Worldwake gave us the only cards banned in Standard since Mirrodin.) And by making Rise of the Eldrazi a large set, they could slow down limited even farther (by making it ROE-ROE-ROE instead of ZEN-ZEN-ROE or ZEN-WWK-ROE). All so we could play the eponymous creatures, the cheapest of which is an 8/8 for (though Hand of Emrakul has an alt cost of if they come from Eldrazi spawn). Also, levelers . This is called "battlecruiser Magic".

Scars of Mirrodin went in the opposite direction fairly rapidly; infect could be considered "destroyer Magic", if you will.

Dec 29, 2012 -- 11:13AM, Shadowchu wrote:

Falcon, Rishadan port is pretty damn strong.

In context, it is, yes. But it's nothing compared to Wasteland or Strip Mine .