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3 months ago ::
Feb 19, 2013 - 9:39AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2012
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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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3 months ago ::
Feb 21, 2013 - 10:21PM
#2
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Very illuminating article! I did notice the high amount of three-toughness critters at the Prerelease (where Oculus and Incursion Specialist on turn 2 helped my Dimir deck out quite a bit). It's really clear that R&D considers the checks and balances of these formats, and especially that they've learned from AVR.  It's still fast for my tastes, but I look forward to trying a real ramp/control deck sometime in GTC Limited!
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 2:26AM
#3
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Tower Defense, notable as being the only card in the set I gave a playtest name to that stuck
Ah it's you I've got to thank! Not so much for the reference, but because I have a Doran, the Siege Tower  deck that consists of nothing but cards you could construct a castle with (mainly Walls and Towers) and this card is a PERFECT fit both in flavor and mechanics =)
Although I also love references like this you put in Magic these days.
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 2:29AM
#4
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 5:28AM
#5
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This article makes me somewhat sad, because so few of these cards that are supposed to make my favorite guild viable are cards that are actually attractive to play. Yeah, you're going to get far blocking with Incursion Specialists and casting cards like Predator's Rapport or Tower Defense. That's exactly what I want to be doing.
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 6:31AM
#6
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This article makes me somewhat sad, because so few of these cards that are supposed to make my favorite guild viable are cards that are actually attractive to play. Yeah, you're going to get far blocking with Incursion Specialists and casting cards like Predator's Rapport or Tower Defense. That's exactly what I want to be doing.
Agreed. I'm sad to learn how easily subpar cards like Hindervines get put into the set  It looks like the development brainstorms the cards too hastily. And on the other side I was equally sad to learn how easily totally broken card like Obdezat got put into the set as was told in Gavin Verhey's ReConstructed article "Evil Never Dies".
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 7:03AM
#7
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This article makes me somewhat sad, because so few of these cards that are supposed to make my favorite guild viable are cards that are actually attractive to play. Yeah, you're going to get far blocking with Incursion Specialists and casting cards like Predator's Rapport or Tower Defense. That's exactly what I want to be doing.
Agreed. I'm sad to learn how easily subpar cards like Hindervines get put into the set It looks like the development brainstorms the cards too hastily.
And on the other side I was equally sad to learn how easily totally broken card like Obdezat got put into the set as was told in Gavin Verhey's ReConstructed article "Evil Never Dies".
On the other hand, I heard someone saying how broken Simic was in draft- he managed to pull a good combo. Unfortunately, I've been so busy lately, I haven't even had time to play any draft since pre-release weekend. 
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 7:23AM
#8
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According to Matthew Watkins' data-based analysis, Simic is currently the weakest guild. puremtgo.com/articles/ars-arcanum-gatecr...
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 10:43AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2007
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Thanks for writing this, it was very interesting to read.  I do think things didn't quite work out for Gatecrash in terms of balance. In talking about speed of sets it's tempting to talk about faster/slower as a matter of taste and something to adjust as a way to add variety. It is both to some extent, but unfortunately Magic breaks as a game quite readily as speed in increased. I wouldn't go so far as to describe Gatecrash as broken (as Zendikar was) but it's definitely ended up outside the range of speeds that Magic's gameplay supports. Mark Rosewater has written endlessly about how great Magic's mana system is, but an essential part of limiting its downsides is to make sure normal gameplay gives players a bit of time to sort their mana out. Not necessarily without disadvanatge, but without reaching a point where their situation is probably hopeless. Gatecrash doesn't do this. If you keep a 2-lander and don't draw your third land by turn three you're often as good as dead. As an aside, of the three spells you talk about adding (Aetherise, Furious Resistance, Smite) only the last is actually good enough to have any perceptible impact on the format's speed. And indeed in the case of Aetherise pretty much all the good players I know predicted it wouldn't be good before the set was even out. What are you going to do, hold four mana open every turn?
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3 months ago ::
Feb 22, 2013 - 12:58PM
#10
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I wouldn't go so far as to describe Gatecrash as broken (as Zendikar was) but it's definitely ended up outside the range of speeds that Magic's gameplay supports.
I disagree. Control decks centered around blocking are very viable in Gatecrash. It's cool.
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