Magic The Gathering

[Retink]

Planeswalkers killed Magic, everything else was just icing on a shit cake.

The very first printing with the original 5 wasn't too bad, but like anything else they over did it and made the card act like shit. Then again the only reason they kept doing planeswalkers was because the original 5 and the couple sets after were tame, unlike Companion which they fucked up so badly they probably won't touch it again.

 

[Polyboros2]

Planeswalkers killed Magic, everything else was just icing on a shit cake.

I think they are a symptom of what killed Magic.

What really fucked over Magic, especially the Vorthos side, was Hasbro chasing that Hollywood dragon. After the Transformers movies, Hasbro for desperate to license any and everything they had out. That's how we got outlandish exceptional premises like Stretch Armstrong movie or The Monopoly movie that had Ridley Scott attached IIRC.

Maro has heavily implied if not it right stated, nerfing the Planeswalkers was to sell Magic to Hollywood. He puts it in typical Maro fashion of "Corporate does nothing wrong" by saying you can't tell stories when your characters are as powerful as premending Walkers. Of course you can, but when you're making a mass marketed venture, your gotta account for the lowest common denominator.

I believe it was also stated that's why they were made into cards, to make players have a closer attachment to them by actually getting to play with them.

As far as I know, it hasn't been stated, but I can infer that this mindset was the driving force of the Gatewatch arc. That was the movie cast and there big budget trilogy arc. Introduce them vs the Eldrazi, refer to Bolas. Amonkhet as the Empire Strikes Back with Bolas beating them. War of the Spark finishes it off. Probably the hope of some spin off movies in-between as cinematic universes were the best way you could get a big budget movie at that time.

That's why Gigachad Garruk was shelved for a chick, and Nissa's edge was filed off from Elf Hitler to literal tree hugger. Probably same with Ajani and Gideon, as the big cat man probably is expensive for a Main Character and not Sidekick like Chewie.

However, what really is killing the game is their new CEO from 2018(?). Hasbro put him there for one purpose, to wring every bit of cash out of Magic as he could. And it's worked, 75% of Hasbro's profits last year came from Wizards of the Coast. However, I think that's going to be a short term gain that'll drive the franchise into the ground.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Planeswalkers killed Magic, everything else was just icing on a shit cake.

Gameplay wise this is dumb bullshit, Planeswalkers are typically not even that good, and typically are not even the best card in the deck they are played in, Like even in Cawblade where "Jace is OP" happened, people forget that Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull existed in that deck. There are only really only 3 planeswalkers in the game that Live up to their Hype.

Wrenn and 6, The 3 Mana Teferi, and Oko, and Oko is the only one that really wins on it's own, and was a "mistake card" and there have been more Mistake Creatures out of Fire Design than Mistake Planeswalkers.

Lorewise, yes powering down planeswalkers was so that they could print cards for them, and make them the face of the lore, and try to build the IP and having characters that typically break the story be your Face characters is kind of bad, like the best books in the lore were the ones that didn't have planeswalkers as a major aspect.

And as for the Gatewatch, again they wanted a stronger focus. It wasn't a terrible idea in and of itself..but Nissa and Liliana should have been brand new characters, given their backstories (Sorry, Garruk is a non-starter because at the time he was kind of being a Serial Killer and enjoying it his de-cursing was an accident.)

What fucked it all up was the horrible, rushed writing that happened from BFZ to War.

 

[Maratus volans]

Inhales...

...MTG was a fun and large part of my littlekidhood but I feel has been unrepentently faggotted since around the time they changed the card face in the early 2000s. Nothing beats old school magic for card game art, creativity, fun and cool deck design (remember 5 color black from when visions/mirage was in Type 2? Knights, critters with enter play effects, contagion? I always will...or how about Negator decks? Suicide black in type 2? So cool. Sligh, LD, Replenish, Necropotence decks?..freaking WILDFIRE?! There was so much beauty in the game back then....remember the first netdeck to come after the card face change: affinity. Unfortunately I remember that too. How about the first popular Planeswalker deck (I would say decks but it was just cawblade with jace's homosexual ass everywhere) boo. now it is all awful CGI art where all the women are in burkhas or motherfucking fat or trannies and the company absolutely reeks of politics. Even if you pull back a little, modern is full to the brim with ugly concepts and ugly tier 1 ideas. Sometimes I wish I had held onto my old stuff so I could play paper vintage but you know what? It just depresses me thinking about MTG past a certain point in history. And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold E.T. said so.

Vintage these days is driven largely by new releases, especially the power level mistakes of the new Horizons sets.

Have you heard of Premodern? It's a bit Memberberries: the Gathering, but it's lots of fun and people play over webcam or on MTGO a lot. If you're not building something with Mox Diamond, Survival of the Fittest, or Gaea's Cradle, it can also be fairly cheap.

 

[cuddle striker]

Vintage these days is driven largely by new releases, especially the power level mistakes of the new Horizons sets.

Have you heard of Premodern? It's a bit Memberberries: the Gathering, but it's lots of fun and people play over webcam or on MTGO a lot. If you're not building something with Mox Diamond, Survival of the Fittest, or Gaea's Cradle, it can also be fairly cheap.

spelltable is a better place for it. proxies in person too, it's a good format

 

[Oddjob OTP]

If you want to play MtG for free I recommend Cockatrice which is how I play commander with my internet friends.

 

[cuddle striker]

If you want to play MtG for free I recommend Cockatrice which is how I play commander with my internet friends.

agreed, play vintage on there with friends

 

[Polyboros2]

If you want to play MtG for free I recommend Cockatrice which is how I play commander with my internet friends.

Tabletop Simulator isn't free(though I think there is a cracked old version that has online play) but frogtown.me makes deck building and importing super easy and I like TTS's UI better.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

The metagame for standard now is pretty much just mono-white, mono green, Naya humans, selesnaya enchantments and like five varieties of black/orzov "midrange" decks that drop small creatures and kill all of your creatures at instant speed on the end of your turn.

So my prognostication that all removing Alrunds would do is make black/orzov control the new izzet control turned out correct. It's maybe a little better than a lateral move though and Neon opened up way more decks then the Alrunds ban shut down. Probably the set that has most seemed to get the power level right since I started playing again after Kaldheim last year.

Oh, next guess, bard class decks will actually be really good in standard if they make like one or two good haste/atb legendaries in red/green. As they are they are explosive out of nowhere in a way that's hard for control decks to deal with.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Best art in the set and they put it on a common.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Personally I'm really fond of the alternate art for Farewell

 

[Bonesjones]

New secret lair is Street Fighter, lmao who plays this shit any more?

 

[Flexo]

Latest history lesson is up.

Oh I am saying that the way spoilers worked (until now apparently) made reading the story largely irrelevant. "Spoiler Season" used to basically completely spoil the story because they would reveal all of the major plot points before the short stories even began, like If I recall properly the Short Stories for Ixalan started after the set released.

View attachment 2969654

So this uncommon, that was plastered on the website's card list basically revealed that Jace gets his memories back before it was remotely possible to read the actual story, thus many people didn't even care because they already knew what was going to happen, and that this was a recent problem because back in the day Spoiler Season wasn't even a thing and it has taken WOTC years to apparently adjust to the fact they made Spoiler Season a big ass hype train.

Oh you meant release issues and audience reactions. Yeah I'm not going to defend WotC on that shit. That's on them. I was talking about production, that increasingly it feels like the writing staff are being forced into crunch - or maybe they're just not caring any more.

No it wasn't, The ending of book 3 had Ghost Argus Kos agreeing to keep Ghost Szadek under control in the Ghost Quarter, becuase Szadek was a ghost so they really couldn't do anything to him.

That's what the wiki says but I think the book says something different which was later retconned. As you can see in the above video, this is common with magic as Chuck puts up two identical cards which had the flavor text changed between reprints to go with a new lore name. Though I've given away my books so I can no longer check, I'll grant you this round.

Kaladesh is India no...really it is supposed to be India Inspired which is a giant fucking retcon given Chandra is a fucking Ginger, and Ikoria would have been interesting if they had leaned into "The Mutating Kaiju vs Humans" thing..except that Vivien was there and they had to simp for Vivien so the monsters just had to be "Empathized with" because Viven is an insufferable PETA cunt that they somehow write as a "GOOD GUY" tm.

I know Kaladesh is Indian flavor (though apparently not enough to please people) but my point is that there's also this big component that isn't Indian inspired. Unless I missed the news where the country is now running on a light blue magical gas and all the metal and stuff is shaped in swirly patterns.

And Ikoria was literally half baked because it was moved up in production schedule way ahead of when they planned on it. You can tell how half finished it is by comparing the novel story to the "story on cards." Hell, looking at the set, did you ever realize unpredictable cyclone was a story spotlight? Ikoria didn't have story, it was just a vague outline the kid turned into the teacher at the last minute to try and pass off as a report.

Nah, I am good, I don't need to know the details about how The Lannisters found out the Arthur PenNigger wasn't their real father then went to Hogwarts and fought Voldemort with the help of a Necromancer who made a deal with an Elder Dragon and 4 Demons, reneged on her end of the deal..and had no real comeuppance because a Gideon is a Simp.

Yeah that... that was the joke.

 

[Str8Bustah]

Personally I've got mixed feelings about Neon Dynasty. On the one hand, there's a lot of mechs and support for vehicle play, some really cool gimmick cards and one of the most retardedly broken commanders I have ever seen as well as a bunch of other fun stuff that makes the new block much better from a gameplay standpoint than its original run, even if there's no more one with nothing.

On the other hand, the story doesn't make use of the setting at all and feels very by-the-beats with no real depth to it.

I don't mind planeswalkers in concept but something about them just doesn't feel right and half the time I forget they even exist when building a deck, even when I have two of them staring me right in the face. I dunno, I feel like the game would be better if they weren't viewed as an auto-include and more of a completely alternative playstyle.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Limited format has been pretty fun. I haven't really intended to, but wound up going infinite and getting up to around plat 1 at the moment. Vow's limited format was virtually unplayable for me, as even though I really adored the blood vial mechanic and that added a lot of thinking, it was pointless with how many absolutely absurd and totally unbeatable bombs were in that format. Dragons and others are still pretty fucking insane, but you can totally get through them rather than just immediately losing every time (avabruck caretaker, hullbreaker, etc).

Scrap Welder or whatever, the 3 mana 3/3 with a "fixed" goblin welder activated ability, is also totally busted on MTGA. Straight up just doesn't work. Made the deck I drafted around it significantly worse.

As for the standard environment, it really feels like there's a super wide pool for you to experiment with and do reasonably well, but you just can't escape cards that keep feeling like no-one really playtested them. Even so, it does feel like there's at least more variety on the ladder. More proper aggro than just the monowhite deck, some actual tempo decks, more midrange than the green decks, and control remains strong enough even if Go Blank tends to hose it. I have a feeling the upper-crust of the meta will again rotate between like three decks in total, though.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

the writing staff are being forced into crunch - or maybe they're just not caring any more.

I imagine both of those combined with the writers being handed down edicts about "Muh Diversity" and being micromanaged about every little event.

That's what the wiki says but I think the book says something different which was later retconned. As you can see in the above video, this is common with magic as Chuck puts up two identical cards which had the flavor text changed between reprints to go with a new lore name. Though I've given away my books so I can no longer check, I'll grant you this round.

I don't have access to my Copy but I think the end of the Book has Feather telling Argus Kos's ghost (he died in book 2 and came back as a ghost in book 3 because he signed up to be an Azorious Guard when he was 20 for an extra bonus which was a top kek) that "No you aren't to old for this shit you dumb Nigger, now go be Ghost Batman and have Szydak be your Ghost Joker while The New Guild Paruns, myself included redo the guildpact to be lest Autistic, we got Tesya to write out a new Magical one for everyone to sign because SHE IS A LAWMAGE"

and then when we went back to Ravnica 2 "Oh the Guildpact failed despite everyone involved wanting it to work, and the Ghost Quarter vanished...because (((THE MENDING))) so the ghosts are irrelevant, oh and 90% of the Plane is Guildless despite the books saying the opposite and Guildless folks are the real boonies that not even the Gruul Clan care to harass because they are so fucking poor and irrelevant."

Because god forbid they actually show the effects of their storylines instead of just doing some stupid fucking Maze which made Azor look like a complete god damn retard (which he turned out to be, but I imagine that is a complete fucking accident)

but my point is that there's also this big component that isn't Indian inspired.

Well Egypt doesn't have giant Bolas Horns..but Amonkhet was still "Egypt" I will say Kaladesh probably gets some saving by the fact that they showed off the Plane before having to go back for it so Chandra could find out her Mom isn't dead, despite..not really developing as a character in that storyline.

Yeah that... that was the joke.

Yeah..and that is the entire game isn't it.

Hence why I said to say "Fuck it all, I embrace Universes Beyond because the actual Lore and Flavor is so god damn lame."

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Scrap Welder or whatever, the 3 mana 3/3 with a "fixed" goblin welder activated ability, is also totally busted on MTGA. Straight up just doesn't work. Made the deck I drafted around it significantly worse.

According to Reddit at least MTGA support is really easy about refunding admissions where you got fucked by known bugs, even if you end up going 7-0 anyway (assuming you haven't already bullied them in a ticket for their small indie studio lack of QA)

Side note, Chun Li's card made me kek and is also looks somewhere between good and great as a commander.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Honestly so far Kamigawa has been a fun set and honestly I love the setting and been deck planning a Shirokai Mech Deck.

Now I just need giant robits to fill it.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Current mid-week event in MTGA is fun, all cards from all standards (meaning no jumpstart or other cards injected into historic outside sets). I think also no Alchemy cards either. I'm just happy because I get another chance to play Naya Fury which was a really fun deck to pilot where you could threaten a fuckton of frequently unbockable damage using Goldspan as a kamakazi Voltron inside of the Naya adventures shell.

Ran into a person playing a t2 current standard deck which seems like a bad idea to me but hey, shitty cosmetics make people do wild things

 

[BlackDragoons]

Current mid-week event in MTGA is fun, all cards from all standards (meaning no jumpstart or other cards injected into historic outside sets). I think also no Alchemy cards either. I'm just happy because I get another chance to play Naya Fury which was a really fun deck to pilot where you could threaten a fuckton of frequently unbockable damage using Goldspan as a kamakazi Voltron inside of the Naya adventures shell.

Ran into a person playing a t2 current standard deck which seems like a bad idea to me but hey, shitty cosmetics make people do wild things

Ran my Historic B/W vampire straight outta the box, won my three games without breaking a sweat.