Does WotC Care About Keeping Formats Distinct, Anymore?
General forum
Posted on May 9, 2021, 1:18 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
In Modern Horizons, WotC reprinted Eladamri's Call and Fact or Fiction , two cards that I believe should have been kept only in eternal formats, and, in Modern Horizons 2, WotC will reprint the original Counterspell , and there is even a rumor that they shall be bringing Stifle to modern, as well, which I dislike, since I feel that both of those cards should have been kept in eternal formats, also.
Modern was created specifically to be a non-rotating format that did not contain the overpowered and expensive (in terms of money) cards that legacy and vintage have, but, at this rate, it feels as if WotC is dissolving the differences between those formats and turning Modern in a lighter version of Legacy, which I dislike, since I feel that the formats should feel distinct from each other.
What does everyone else say about this? Does WotC care about keeping each format distinct, anymore?
The bottom line, if it makes WotC money then they will most likely print whatever they want. With that said, I agree with smackjack, I don't think Counterspell and Stifle will be a game changer in modern.
May 9, 2021 5:33 p.m.
TriusMalarky says... #4
Those cards are fun, powerful cards that really didn't see play in Legacy. Eladamri's Call was really just a reprint for commander players -- it's better than Demonic if you only want creatures, so it'd be banned in Legacy if it was good, and obviously it hasn't done anything to modern.
FoF is good, and I believe it sees occasional play in modern now, but it didn't see much legacy play. There's just a ton of better 4 mana plays, most of which win the game on the spot in Legacy. And in modern, most 4 mana plays run away with the game on their own.
Counterspell isn't even played in cEDH anymore, and modern barely has room for a 2 mana permission spell when it has Remand already -- it'll only replace the handful of copies of Leak and Logic Knot that see play. It almost definitely hasn't been good in Legacy for a long time.
Stifle is probably not going to do anything and I don't think it sees much play in Legacy anyways, or at least not anymore.
They're printing cards that don't have a home despite their power into modern, where they'll see some play. Modern does not resemble Legacy at all, and it's not getting anywhere close. There are some similar strategies, but the core of legacy is the zero mana countermagic that modern won't ever see because we already have FoNe and the cantrips that got banned out of modern.
May 9, 2021 10:04 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #5
I don’t play these formats, so please skip this comment and read those posted by people more knowledgeable. Now, having said that, I think that all magic formats will always trend towards the legacy-type level of competitiveness because of its basic nature. New cards will produce new combos/interactions and through that, old cards will rise and fall in importance. I think that’s why standard will probably always remain a thing; it’s a re-bottling of the “Magic is a new game in a bottle” feeling. I totally sympathize with your notion, DemonDragonJ, but I think modern (and any other upcoming/replacement between-vintage-and-standard formats they invent) will suffer that fate.
May 10, 2021 11:21 a.m.
I've always been a huge advocate of keeping modern the "not all-blue-everything" eternal format,
But I've been wanting counterspell in modern for a while now. I think force of negation was the mistake. They should have found a different way to get it into legacy.
But I'm really hoping for baleful strix. It'll probably be broken and I'll regret it,
But for MH1 my #1 hope was eladamris call and it barely sees play!
May 10, 2021 3:40 p.m.
Just PLEASE no daze. Blue by its nature is gonna powercreep so please Wotc don't supercharge it
smackjack says... #2
I was playing both modern and legacy for about 10 years before stepping down to only play EDH. If i was still playing modern i would have welcomed Counterspell to the format. It was one of those cards i really missed when playing. Sure, i preferred Legacy, i do like high power level, but i don't think Counterspell will warp the format in any way. Stifle is not that good of a card, the best thing Stifle can do is countering a fetchland. So putting that into modern will punish greedy high budget decks which is a good thing for the format?
May 9, 2021 2:32 p.m.