MTG: Arena

a_skeleton_02 said:

I think planeswalkers are just not a fun card type.

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I just think there's always too many. Also, Oko should have 1 less loyalty. it's dumb that a 3 mana walker can get to 6 loyalty on the turn it's cast.

Announcement is monday not tomorrow.

Jackie Treehorn said:

My coworker who got me playing Arena has been playing since the 90s and said he hates them. I can see how they sorta ruin the "pure" nature of the game.

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Some walkers is good. But what has happened and it's not just walkers, but all the juice in the game is put into midrange permanents and interacting with them. So the game largely revolves around 3-6 mana creatures and walkers. Virtually all decks run a bunch of midrange cards now and have for years. Control decks usually have a bunch of walkers and some amount of midrange creatures. The previous standard format, even mono red revolved around 3 and 4 drops mostly.

They obviously moved up the B&R in order to emergency Unban Hogaak.

Kuro said:

They obviously moved up the B&R in order to emergency Unban Hogaak.

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Should unban Library in Legacy, probably could unrestrict it in Vintage at this point too. I know it'd end up spiking it's price, but the card barely sees play now in Vintage. Would be good in Lands/Miracles probably but I doubt it'd take over the format or anything in Legacy.

a_skeleton_02 said:

They unrestricted Fastbond and unbanned stoneforge. I think they are looking at that stuff more critically

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Right. I just probably enjoy Library more than is reasonable.

Jackie Treehorn said:

My coworker who got me playing Arena has been playing since the 90s and said he hates them. I can see how they sorta ruin the "pure" nature of the game.

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Grandpas complaining about planeswalkers! That's my jam!

I dislike them and have always disliked them because they often incorporate a value engine, board control element and win condition together in to a single card. Jace the Mind Sculptor and Teferi Hero of Dominaria epitomize that form of one stop shop. Thing stayed on the board a couple turns and the game is over. Bleh. Planeswalkers have eaten up some design space that would previously have been occupied by artifacts and enchantments. That's gotten worse now that different static ability walkers have been made. Saheeli Sublime Artificer, Narset Parter of Veils and Teferi Time Raveler are really good examples of that.

Since their addition to the game the planeswalker card time has been the beneficiary of three different global buffs. The legend rule was changed to allow both players to have the same legend in play and thus the same walker. Each player can have multiples of the same named walker provide it is a differently named version. Lastly they changed how planeswalkers are damaged. It used to be that whenever you did noncombat damage to a walker from ANY source you could choose to redirect it to a walker. Now the card must say that it can damage any target or walkers specifically. This resulted in many cards that could previously tag a walker now being of no use against them.

They routinely shit up limited formats. Setting aside power that is due in part to answers to planeswalkers being rare or mythic. Your draft-tier removal spell probably can't do shit. This is tied to something small that really rustles my jimmies - the Murder that hits walkers is a rare and they've made that fucking card again and again. You crack/buy/trade for Heroes Downfall and then that rotates out and you have to get your Ruinous Path than your Vraska's Contempt then Murderous Rider. It's the same fucking card. It's Murder + Set Flavor and the value drops through the floor every rotation.

I don't like how limited to nonexistent punishes to planeswalkers are. Where's my Ravenous Chupacabra that eats walkers. Where's my counterspell/stifle that eats a walker if it counters an activated ability or Cancel + Quash that exiles all walkers of the name from the opposing player's deck and hand. When a walker is played it almost always does a thing for value while forcing the opponent to devote some amount of resources to removing it. I want something that makes playing a walker feel at least a little bad. Getting hit with a Smash to Smithereens or Searing Blood feels bad.

Oko is a fuck because of how much loyalty he has for a three mana walker with two plusses. Walkers are at their weakest when their controller is behind on board but he's so fucking cheap and fat. He's going heavily dictate what kind of aggressive strategies can even exist. Field of the Dead makes traditional control shitty even though counterspells are typically super good versus ramp. The core set should always have some basic meat and potatoes answers to card types so you don't get in to a situation where you have to emergency ban a land that makes a fucking 2/2 on landfall if you have at least seven different land names. Christ that's embarrassing. Between Oko and Field you're looking at a battlecruiser format where both sides are fucking off for most of the game until we see who can do the bigger, dumber thing and win off it.

1. People getting sick of walkers
2. Have answers in your core set to basic shit like nonbasic lands so you don't look like chumps
3. This was one long rambly post

a_skeleton_02 said:

Core set not having field of ruin and fucking pithing needle is a joke.

Needle would really help with format.

Also pillage should be in every core set

Edit: Reprint lightning bolt.

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You're not likely to see a stone rain or pillage type card anytime soon. Field of Ruin is totally reasonable though and should be around. Some non basic hosers like Blood Sun or whatever was good to have around even if hate them since they're usually good against the decks I personally like. Having a Needle or Phyrexian Revoker type card around is probably a good idea to have around in general.

I remember when Emrakul the Promised End had to get ejected from Standard in part due to graveyard interaction being nonexistent. You had no say in whether or not the Delirium decks got and kept Delirium. Smuggler's Copter was probably still too good but when it came out there was no Manglehorn punish yet. You could nuke an artifact for one mana as an instant (and thus not lose tempo versus copter) but that card was no good versus the other vehicles being played. There was a one mana sorcery that hit I think any artifact but it felt awful versus the hastey Fleetwheel Cruiser. Harsh Scrutiny, the Duress type spell of the set, couldn't hit vehicles. You can have answers to the new shit you are introducing. The new mechanics don't need to run wild.

"What do I do about X oh wait there's nothing" feels crappy. At the game's roots you could always go to your collection and find some shit that would fuck up what your buddy was slamming you with. Now you can't even expect a basic suite of answers in the game's core set. Emergency ban Field of the Dead should get some people demoted it's so shameful.

At least Drown in the Loch is probably better than counterspell for modern.

But yea I don't get it either. They seem to be dead set on their plan of just constantly ramping up creature power while spells stagnate/get worse, so here we are.