IS MTG being Dumbed down too much?
General forum
Posted on June 9, 2015, 2:22 p.m. by VampireArmy
A debate thread so we can have our spoiler thread back
SimicPower: "It doesn't have a great impact on eternal formats."
My only concern here is that if they're printing less and less cards relevant to the eternal formats, it makes the ones in circulation that much harder to get. This then limits the player base for each format if players are wanting to get into higher levels of play.
Its like in most vintage decks to play competitively you need a Mana Crypt anda Black Lotus. They're staples. It doesn't make them any eaiser to get for the fact that they're staples. Same goes for commander. Sensei's Divining Top is basically a staple for the format. Sure, there are cards kind of like it if I squint and hold the card just right, but the fact that all the new cards are dumbed down means it'll be much rarer to see stuff of the same power level get printed. Which in turn just drives prices up further. Not to mention with the release of "Mythic Rare" status a few years ago, it gives an excuse to just drive the price of the new printings through the roof.
June 10, 2015 1:12 a.m.
SimicPower says... #3
While I believe this is true at times, the majority of staples aren't reprinted for power level reasons, not complexity reasons.
June 10, 2015 2:10 a.m.
Magic is being dumbed down all the time in many ways. Using protection less is not one of them.
You might as well read "protection from X color" as "White, Blue, Black may ignore this rule, Red and Green are hosed".
It makes no sense to give something protection from white. If you have board advantage just swing game, if you don't, you were probably going to board wipe at some point anyway. Nothing of value was lost.
It makes no sense to give something protection from blue. LOL counterspells, and as a worst case scenario "send all objects back to their owner's hands". Done. Send it back, counter it if they tried to play again. Nothing of value was lost, because that's how blue seems to want to play ANYWAY.
It makes no sense to give something protection from black. Not only does it have board wipes like white does, it has -x, -x mechanics so, unlike white, it doesn't even have to worry about indestructible if it uses the right cards.
Red and Green have... what exactly? Red does X damage to all creatures (stupid that "destroy" works and that doesn't, how exactly do things die in this game again?). Green does that sometimes, usually to creatures with flying.
So pro red, pro green and pro mono color are basically just excuses for a card to say, "Hope red/green likes playing aggro this standard rotation, because you're not interracting with my deck at all otherwise". Dumb. If anything dumbs down magic, it's aggro decks. "Gee, wonder what my opponent is going to do this turn? Oh, they're going to put a creature down and swing. Shocking!"
So at best what protection does is limit the number of viable ways that the colors that deal with them can build their decks (or not if the cards otherwise are just not threatening), at worst they force colors into specific archetypes since they have no mechanics to interact with those cards, and the mechanics in question are usually boring as hell to play against anyway.
Then people feel forced into building multi colored decks both as a measure against protection if it's too widely used, and as a way to mitigate the disadvantage if the deck runs colors that get shut down by it. Seems like all protection does is restrict, and I can't in any way see how restricting its use "dumbs down" deck building when all it does is widen the amount of mechanics available to you for interracting with an opponent.
Then there's the flavor argument as I alluded above. It makes no sense to have X damage spells that cannot do their job while "destroy" can. You have to pump more mana into X damage spells often, to get the same benefit, in response to X damage spells an opponent can buff their creatures making the spell worthless, or an opponent can "prevent damage" being dealt to creatures, and then LOL protection on top of it.
I get that some colors on the wheel should be "better" at some things than others but board wiping just seems to have too much of a disparity between colors already, even discounting protection, that it becomes laughable with protection.
How I wish they'd STOP dumbing down the game, is to print interesting cards again. I want Chains of Mephistopheles back, I love Humility, I abhor the tuck change in Commander with every fibre in my being, and chaos decks are my favorite archetype because of all the crazy crap they do to the stack.
My hatred of protection (especially in standard) stems from the fact that protection is a mechanic that tells you how to build your deck (you must include boardwipes or counterspells, or play aggro). In eternal formats, protection is just the tip of the iceberg and we have access to all sorts of interesting ways of dealing with protection creatures in lots of colors, but standard is so... sterile and boring that there really only are a couple of correct plays in instances where protection is a thing.
/end rant
June 22, 2015 2:02 p.m.
"There's no point giving creatures pro white/black"
Pls define format...
Because in modern, pro white stops Path to Exile and pro black stops Murderous Cut and Dismember. And while these are only 3 cards they represent a huge percentage of removal in modern decks.
Also, the reason people run multi coloured decks is not because they want go get around protection, but more because they want extra value that the colour provides. Its why we see burn decks splashing green or black or white, not to get around protection but to get access to more value cards. That's why grixis twin is being played, because people want to run Thoughtseize and Kolaghan's Command, not because they're concerned about protection spells.
June 22, 2015 5:21 p.m.
Yeah the above comment totally ignored any format besides standard.
June 22, 2015 5:23 p.m.
Femme_Fatale says... #7
Pro-black stops Abrupt Decay*
There, I did an edit for you enpc.
June 22, 2015 5:24 p.m.
Pro in modern is super important for a variety of reasons.
June 22, 2015 5:29 p.m.
Thanks Femme_Fatale, I originally thought to list it but I wanted to show mono coloured kill spells. But yeah, that Abrupt Decay is so hot right now.
SimicPower says... #1
Now that I am subscribed, I might as well voice my opinion. I am basically in agreement with xzzane. I do believe the game is being dumbed down to an extent, and I don't like it, but I understand why Wizards is doing it and why it is a good business decision. As I usually play EDH and Modern, (I don't play standard and I only occasionally draft), I really don't care very much about this issue at all. It doesn't have a great impact on eternal formats.
June 10, 2015 12:55 a.m.