Magic this Weekend

[House Turtle]

I kinda feel the same way although I haven't played in a long time. Well more about the unbalanced new cards. Although its the people you play not so much the cards that are bad. now have a goblin deck but its not a 3rd turn kill that costed like 200 bucks to build.

[Maraxus of Keld]

"Unbalanced" really depends on your point of view. I know that Wizards of the Coast does expensive playtesting for all their Magic sets (unlike they did with, say, D&D). For the most part, self-contained three-set blocks seem to be well balanced against themselves. There are exceptions of course (Mirrodin with Affinity, for example), but more often than not they're getting balance there.

It's only when you put the new cards and the old cards together that things get really insane. And honestly, from a tournament perspective it's not really possible for it to get worse. First-turn kills have been possible in Type 1 or Vintage or whatever it's called for years now.

Granted, we don't play tournaments so it's not the same thing. There is definitely power creep from one block to the next though, and so when you have a deck made of cards that's primarily 5 or more years old up against something that's mostly from this year, it's an uphill battle.

At the same time though, some of the old classic cards are still the best at what they do, even after all these years. You'll never see a more efficient damage-dealing instant than Lightning Bolt. Dark Ritual will probably always be the best mana-accelerating instant. Apparently somewhere along the line they decided Counterspell was too good, so new counters generally aren't as good as that anymore.

Seems to me that the most power creep comes from creatures. They seem to be getting higher power and toughness for the mana cost, and with all kinds of crazy abilities. And the idea of making some kind of drawback on creatures with powerful abilities seems to have mostly vanished by the wayside. I bet if Phage the Untouchable was made today, it wouldn't have that bit about losing the game if you didn't play her from your hand.

I personally am not fond of planeswalkers either, but I'll be the first to admit that's mostly because I don't like the idea of new card types, regardless of what they are. It took me awhile to warm up to equipment, but I at least understood why they felt that was necessary. I just don't see what planeswalkers add to the game. Some of them are pretty powerful, but (at least so far) they can't use their best abilities right away, so you have a chance to take them out before they get strong enough (and believe me, I do!). But when those abilities DO get used, they're definitely game-changing from what I've seen.

Not really sure what I'm saying anymore at this point. Maybe I'm just rambling. It's pretty late, after all. Anyhow, I remember that when I looked into things a few years ago, it was clear that Wizards really does think about these things before they put them out there, and that it's possible to follow their design philosophy to understand the reasoning behind their decisions, even if I often do not agree with them. I assume that's still the case, though my experience with newer cards is only what gets played against me anymore. There's definitely no denying that new sets are on average stronger than old sets, but there are certain specific cards from back in the day (even outside the crazy expensive stuff) that remain better than their more modern counterparts.

I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say is that the idea that "new cards are stupidly powerful, and make old cards obsolete" is often, but not always true.

[House Turtle]

I think Basilisk Collar is highly unfair no matter what but combined with Nemesis Mask its worse. Then toss in a Dingus Staff. Now mind you I said 1 Dingus Staff my assassin deck has 4. I also say Whispersilk Cloak is crap too. Unblockable or untargetable I can deal with but both and so cheaply too really sucks. Of course this is just my opinion on the cards.

[Baron Sengir]

I understand where everyone is coming from, but before everyone gets on the bash the new card thing, though I guess its too late, I just want to point out that Alex won 3 out of the 7 games we played last time, the same as me, and he doesn't use a ton of new stuff either. I'm not saying that in an offensive way or trying to ruffle feathers, just pointing it out.

[Maraxus of Keld]

I've never heard of Basilisk Collar, so I looked it up. I definitely think it should cost a lot more to play and to equip. But even so, equipment can usually be dealt with by a simple Disenchant, Naturalize, or Shatter. Green in particular has a million and one ways to destroy artifacts. Black is really the only color that can't do anything about them.

Obviously there's a limit to how much space you can spare in a deck for artifact destruction. And no matter how much you put in, sometimes it won't be enough. Throwing four Naturalizes into a deck is plenty to deal with your average deck, but if you're facing off against something made with primarily Mirrodin or the newer Mirrodin sets, it won't be enough. Still though, my deck building philosophy is to try and have at least some ability to remove your opponent's problem cards.

I have been very careful not to say something like "I hate all new cards" or "all the new cards are too powerful." There's definitely some that I absolutely despise. The only cards I will absolutely refuse to play against are the ones that allow someone else to play my deck for me (I still think whoever thought that should be allowed in Magic should have lost their job immediately), but there are definitely things I hate running into, and depending on the deck I am playing I might just drop out of the game. I hate playing that way, and usually try to keep an optimistic approach (you never know, even if I can't do anything at the moment, someone else might be able to take out the card that's locking me down), but sometimes I just get frustrated.

[House Turtle]

I was bad about the generalization of new cards being evil. I didn't like the Kamigawa block and I am still not familar or fond of it but I use a few cards. Probably would be more if I familarized myself with the set. So I'm willing to give things a fair look now. As for complaints with new cards I've so far just come to really dislike basilisk collar. Although as pointed out its not hard to take out. Not sure offhand with black how to do it but with the other colors counterspell, shatter, disenchant and naturalize do it.

[Maraxus of Keld]

Yeah, black doesn't really have artifact destruction. The best way I can think of for a black deck to deal with a problem artifact is to also have another color in the deck, which is not always possible. Simply put, every deck cannot be prepared for every possibility.

Although, with not one but two full blocks of artifact-central stuff (I really can't believe they went and did that AGAIN after Mirrodin), choosing not to include a way to deal with problem artifacts is probably a bad idea. Of course, by the same token with the number of decks some of us have, you just don't have enough copies of cards to include them in every deck. And speaking from experience, moving cards back and forth from one deck to another is a pain in the butt.

Anyway, in case it got missed in my rather lengthy posts in this topic, I am still up for hanging out tomorrow if anybody wants to. I just will not be bringing my cards. I can do stuff on my laptop or play a board game or watch a DVD or something.

[Baron Sengir]

So is anyone up for Magic this weekend? I'm assuming there isn't going to be a D&D game, but if so that's fine. I figured at least Andy may want to play some Magic.

[Maraxus of Keld]

Dunno my exact availability yet, but I can probably play at some point I suppose.

[Baron Sengir]

Ok. I guess I don't have a preference at the moment as to what day.

[House Turtle]

Yeah I'm free I could do with the party like atmosphere. I just bought myself a ton of cards for myself as a birthday gift.

[Baron Sengir]

Excellent.

[Baron Sengir]

Saturday work for everyone?

[Baron Sengir]

Ok looks like Sam is working Sunday so she wants to do stuff with me and her family Saturday which would make sense to hang out Sunday then if everyone is free.

[House Turtle]

I"m free.