Is Anyone Else Concerned with the Blatant Power Creep in Recent Sets?
General forum
Posted on Aug. 12, 2025, 9:11 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Magic: the Gathering has now been around for over thirty years, so it is inevitable that it would experience power creep in some way, but I feel that the power creep has been particularly blatant in recent sets, with cards such as Jumbo Cactuar, Overkill, The Eternity Elevator, and Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought being some of the best examples of this trend. I understand that this is purely my own opinion, but I imagine that at least some other players shall agree, with me, about this.
What does everyone else say, about this? Are you concerned with the extreme power creep of recent sets? I certainly am interested to hear your thoughts, on this matter.
My first reaction here was the Modern Horizons sets. They were made to shake of the format, and they did that a little too well. Ocelot Pride, Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury, Glaring Fleshraker, and Psychic Frog are some of the newest examples, and they pretty much immediately jumped to to the top of a bunch of different power formats. All of the 60-card eternal formats have key cards that got their first print with the last two years, and bans are happening more often than ever.
The bar is definitely being pushed. I just wish supplemental sets wouldn't push it quite so hard. Orcish Bowmasters and The One Ring also need a mention here.
August 13, 2025 1:50 a.m.
Crow_Umbra says... #4
To build off of legendofa's examples, I think power creep is more manifest in efficiency of action and resource utilization, rather than making damage output absurdly large like on some of the original examples. Regardless of format, more competitive metas trend towards efficiency in regards to assembling or disrupting wincons (in a nutshell).
August 13, 2025 2:18 a.m.
wallisface says... #5
Two points here.
Firstly, and what has already been addressed, the cards you’ve mentioned are not remotely power crept. They’re not even remotely powerful. “Big-number” does not equate to a card being good or powerful.
But, to your point, there are still actual powerful cards being printed and being made relevant in all formats. This has to be the case for a set to sell. If no cards were strong enough to see play, then the set has no value for constructed formats. And, if a card is powerful enough to see constructed play, by its very nature it will be because its stronger than an existing option, and so almost-always pushing another card put if that format (whether by directly being better, or taking away some % of meta relevancy somewhere else).
^ this is the general case for any tcg with non-rotating formats, and something wotc manage. The only real decision-point is the pacing at which sets introduce new cards for formats (i.e. do they try adding 2 cards to modern each set, or 4? etc). Power does feel like it has been increasing over time compared to the years-of-old, although old sets still had a bunch of power creep. I think it’s more the case now of there just being more products through the year, and more straight-to-eternal products (horizons sets, edh decks).
But if you’re playing with a group where your example cards are considered “too strong”, then I really don’t know what to say… because I feel like these cards wouldn’t even make waves in Pauper. It might be time to discuss deckbuilding thoughts with your pod?
August 13, 2025 4:53 a.m. Edited.
I had a giggle when I saw the cards that were bothering you, none of them seem particularly problematic, but your feelings are valid anyways! I have more issues with bad design choices that I am very confident are deliberate. Nobody at WotC was even slightly surprised that Nadu needed to be banned, or that it had to be done quickly, they are printing cards to be banned. It's the same with Vivi, they knew what they were doing as they did it. They are doing it so often because they know that whenever they print cards that need to be banned they make extra money; every 'must ban' thing more or less rotates their given format. Each time you need to adapt to the new meta or you'll just lose, no matter how dominant your deck used to be. Then, to top it all off, when they finally DO ban the thing, that format rotates AGAIN. It's a nightmare and anyone still serious about 1v1 should look a new hobby, or play with a restricted card pool that excludes new trash. I think we're going back to the days of signs at LGS (haha remember when LGSs existed?) saying 'No Necropotence, No Ivory Tower', and I'm not thrilled.
Crow_Umbra says... #2
I agree to an extent that power creep exists and is an unavoidable facet of this game; boundaries in design space will be pushed and broken interactions with various mechanics from the game's 30+ year history may not always be evident at first glance. I think that the various cards you listed in your example are more gimmicky than examples of being broken or power crept.
Overkill - This is a flavorful uncommon, but it still costs 3 mana. Since 3 toughness is considered a benchmark by many players due to Lightning Bolt, then something like Nightmarish End, Ob Nixilis's Cruelty, or Sudden Death achieve a similar effect for a similar cmc. Here's a more extensive list of Black instants that give some -x/-x effect as removal for comparison.
Jumbo Cactuar - Again, this is a flavor gimmick given the Jumbo Cactuar's infamous attack. While 10k damage is a lot, the Cactuar costs 7 mana, needs to be cast, and lacks Haste or Trample. Yes, you could Fling or Self-Destruct the Cactuar, but that's now 9 total mana across 2 colors to send 10k damage directly at someone's face.
The Station Artifacts you mentioned are both 5 cmc and each require 20+ Stationing power from other creatures on your board to achieve their fullest potential. Some strategies will have an easier time accomplishing this, but that's still a very steep investment of resources towards a single artifact/creature. I'd recommend checking out any gameplay videos of any of the Station commanders to see direct examples of the resource commitment needed, especially once they get into mid-late game where boards suffer more removal, and Stationing is harder to do.
In regards to more blatant power creep, I think cards that start seeing a lot of saturation in tournament top 8s should be examined. Take all of the cards recently banned from Standard as examples of power creep that have more direct effects on tournament metas. Vivi Ornitier is now getting similar complaints from different outlets.
August 12, 2025 9:40 p.m.