In General: The Metamorphosis Update

Hello and welcome back to In General. I am Grandpa Growth and this week the Magic community was rocked by a huge announcement from Wizards of the Coast. I would like to delve deep into some of the changes and share my thoughts on what is to come.

On Monday, Magic's lead designer Mark Rosewater dropped a big old truth bomb on us. You can read the official announcement article HERE. And I absolutely demand that you do because this dramatically alters the way that the game is produced, consumed, and played. That article is a long one, and my response will be as well, but rest assured: your patience will be rewarded. Probably with candy.

Discontinuing Core Sets

A little over a month ago I penned an article that posted many of the same complaints about core set. You can read it HERE. For the TLDR crowd the short version goes: core set didn't achieve its goals. It was too complex for use in teaching the game to newcomers, but it wasn't interesting enough to entice experienced tournament players to buy it. The core set was always trading on nostalgia and tradition. For the last five years, the only relevant cards featured in the core sets were recycled dual lands and power curve busting rares that were planted specifically to sell the set. Remember these guys:



In my article, A New Paradigm for Core Set, I outlined all the the same problems that Maro addressed and essentially presented the same solution that the design team came up with. This isn't a fanfare for my clarevoyance, but rather an acknowledgment that the wind was blowing a certain direction and we couldn't ignore it forever.

So the gist of the deal is that the core set is going away. A new product will be coming in the future that will be more directly marketed to new players and won't try to feature prominently in tournament play.

I think that this a fantastic idea and I can't wait to see this new product. If you spent as much time as I do trying to teach the game to new friends, you would understand my longing for a better set of tools.

More Smaller Blocks

So if the Core set dies, what will take its place in the hearts of experienced players? Well, there will still be four major set releases every year. Instead of (generally) releasing a core set, a large set, and two smaller sets. We will now get two large sets and two small sets. These will replace the current block structure with more compact two set blocks.

I agree completely with the logic behind these changes as well. Draft environments are meticulously designed. Adding pieces to a perfect machine is difficult and unnecessary. Intentionally leaving working parts out of a machine with the idea of adding them later is kind of a waste of the current product; you should strive to make it as good as it can be.

This problem led to many awkward decisions by the design team. For the most part, they handled what Maro calls "the third set problem" very elegantly. Rise of the Eldrazi was awesome. Return to Ravnica block's innovative draft structure was very intriguing. Scars block draft was completely scrambled every time a new set was added. Theros block was by far the worst full-block limited experience thus far under New World Order, but it was still very good. The mechanics were tight and flavorful. The power level was high; games were exciting, and the more skilled player usually won.

There are only so many ways to skin a cat, though. Wizards had been dancing around the idea of a change for a long time. Experimenting with different block structures was just practice for the things to come. Eventually, it seems that they decided to go with the formula from Lorwyn block and I think that is a good decision.

So What Happens To Standard?

Well, quite a bit actually. Standard is the most popular and most played tournament format. It is also the ONLY one affected by this change, so Wizards had to be careful. Khans of Tarkir is still a 'normal' block and it will be played the same way. However, it and all future blocks will stay in Standard for eighteen months instead of two years.

Standard will now consist of the three most recent blocks and every time a new large set is released, the oldest block in Standard will rotate out. That means that standard will undergo multiple rotations ever year, keeping the format fresh as a daisy. It is important to note that all three sets of Khans block will rotate out as one unit.

The Good Shepherd

Maro stressed in the announcement article that they wanted to get this message out before Khans dropped. That way people would understand the impact of this change before they invested heavily into Khans, since it will have a shorter impact on Standard than any previous three-set block.

I agree with the timing of this statement and I think it was wise and thoughtful. I don't expect this to cut into the sales figures of Khans. In fact, I expect Khans to be among the top 10 best sellers, simply because the 'wedge block' has been highly anticipated for years. It also occurs to me, based on the timing of this announcement, that Wizards has been planning this move for some time.

Blocks are conceived several years in advance and are designed at least a full two years ahead of their release. Changes are still made after that of course, but development signs off on the set well before it gets printed. Based on that, we can reconstruct the timeline and safely assume that the genesis of this change can be traced back to sometime during 2012. Many in the Magic community have been expecting this change for some time, but I wasn't standing in Redmond with a pickett sign during the Dark Ascension prerelease weekend, that is for sure.

What does this mean to players? The admins have made a positive change. Moreover, they are collecting feedback and responding to it. It means that we are in good hands. I have always been a critic of the design team and things like this just warm my heart. I look ahead with renewed faith knowing that the game is in a good place, but on its way to an even better one. Wizards righted the ship BEFORE the storm hit. It makes an old sailor proud.

What do you think of the big changes? I am excited. If you haven't already, take to the comments, facebooks, tweeters, and blogospheres to share your comments and support for this brave new direction. Till next week Zoners.

-GG

In General: A New Paradigm for Core Sets

As you might have noticed, I am a fan of Magic 2015. It has juice, it has story lines, it has nostalgia, it has the 'new', and it has sparked more conversation than any core set I can remember...which is all of them. I love it. Plain and simple. But that doesn't mean I think it is perfect...

In the modern game, core sets behave more like expert expansions than the core sets of yore. It is strange to me that core sets now seem to contain more new cards than reprints. When I picture core set limited, I picture a very low power cube. It has basically everything you would expect and only a few new things. The mechanics would be restricted to the most basic, most common elements in order to keep the experience easily digestible. This is the version of your game that anyone can play, right when they pick it up. If a person has played Cube, but never played YOUR Cube they wouldn't need to much training to get into the swing of things. That is the goal for core set.

Somewhere along the line that all changed. Core sets are now just slightly more nostalgic expert sets. They can't produce a completely new mechanic, but they can freely print previous expert-level mechanics. Side note: does anyone still use the beginner, intermediate, expert terminology when referring to Magic sets?

I am thinking of a different model for core sets; for what an introductory product would look like. Instead of using core set as an avenue to produce new things that you want to see get made, or instead of using a rotating card pool to control what gets played in Standard;  make periodic updates to the SAME SET trying to hone it until it is perfect for the game of Magic. At least as far as an introductory product goes. Obviously that changes slightly, but consistently over time, so you will have to make up-dates and release a new version of the product every so often to hit those moving targets.

You know, that sounds kind of familiar. That is what core set USED TO BE. Here is THE GAME. There are other parts of it, but those are just modules that you fit onto this basic set.

I have some unsubstantiated thoughts of my own. Here is a completely unsorted, unregulated, unrestrained stream of hypothetical questions I have that could help re-imagine the core set as a product for beginners.

• Perhaps it should be on an as-needed basis instead of on the yearly model. Smaller, less frequent updates would help build consistency. This could help all players establish the same foundation for understanding the rules and basic strategies.
• What if you had set releases specifically designed for constructed and limited separately? Limited adds a new layer of complexity to an already difficult-to-understand game. Maybe we don't have to use one product to accomplish both of these goals.
• Expanding on that, you could market them differently. Bomb rares wouldn't ruin limited. Worthless commons wouldn't clog up your packs when you are looking for tournament quality cards. 
• What if, like Richard Garfield originally imagined, you played with these sets of cards independent of other sets, or in a modular fashion, instead of treating them as part of one giant mass?

This isn't a diatribe about how core sets suck. This isn't a rallying cry that they need to change. Ever since this Magic 2010 thing Core Sets have been getting a little...awesome. Instead, this is an inquiry: what does it do? Is that what we want it to do? How can it do that thing better?

Starter 1999, 2000, and the Portal series were attempts at this concept, but they ended up being too similar to a 'normal' set. They changed the rules instead of just changing the format. They didn't prepare you well enough for 'real Magic'.

All of this got me thinking. The game is hard to learn and hard to teach, but what if we had a tool to facilitate that? What if we had like a...Beginner's Cube. A small, tightly focused play environment where all the decks are pre-constructed. Specifically designed to easy to be use, but also to allow you to progress to higher difficulties. Sort of like the 40-card promo 'decks' that Wizards gives away at certain events, but with much more design work and much more potential for expansion.

This lead me to two possible designs for a prototype.

1. A very small set, less than 360 cards for sure. Each color would have maybe 3 rares 8 uncommons and 10-15 commons that would showcase the most common themes and mechanics in the game. This is for the real first timers. A kiddie pool if you will.
2. The second model would be large, 1000 cards or less, with only a few cards being printed in multiples. This would include every mechanic, in every color, for the ENTIRE history of the game. This is like the encyclopedia. The living, playing history of the game. You get to see it all, but just a few bites at a time and the cards that are shown are the simplest to understand. These are the hooks, the cards that get you into playing and designing with these mechanics. This would give you a small taste of what Magic has to offer, while showing you a little bit of everything there is to find out there in the game. You could really engender a sense of the game's rich history by including popular cards that have significant design choices or historical anecdotes.

Wouldn't that be great? If the flavor text on a card wasn't just some vapid nonsense, but instead told you something about why the card exists, how and when it was used, and how it fits into the larger picture of the game I would be just BESIDE MYSELF with joy. 

So here is my challenge to you, Zoners! Do you ever teach new players the game? Don't you wish it were a littler easier to get them to understand the nuances? Design a set for them. Make the Beginner's Cube and try it out. See if you can improve the translation of your experience into their learning. And of course, let me know how it works out! Feel free to share your designs here on the blog. In a few months, after I have spent some time building and refining my own, I will circle the wagons to discuss my experiences. Until then let us do our best to make the game that we all love as appealing and inviting to new fans as possible.

-GG

M15 Set Review: The Legends

Heya Zoners!

Welcome back to TGZ Spoiler week (and a half). Today's the typical day Grandpa takes off in our little two-cents on the set review, and Landdrops steps in to talk Legends.

Here's a few quick links to what we've gone over so far, in case you missed it:

M15 Threats, Part I
M15 Threats, Part II

We'll start with a sarcastic Kudos to Wizards. Now that they've changed the card border, there's no excuse- Just print entire sets of planeswalkers. We officially won't be able to tell the difference, and it's all the more clearer with this new border that they really want to.

For those newer to the game, my first look at Anorexic Avacyn drew an aesthetic comparison to Jaya Ballard, Task Mage, which rumor has it, was supposed to be R&D's first hack at designing p-dubs.

As far as design goes, AA and Jaya couldn't be more different. Mostly, this is color pie nonsense, and not being a fan of original Avacyn, my unconscious dislike for it is unfairly projected in here as well. But I'll try to be nice.

The rules change on Legendary Creatures and Clone Effects made old Avacyn pretty annoying to play against in my metagame, being that anyone playing Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and anyone with a Clone basically made their board state inpenetrable short of a handful of tuck and exile effects.

I imagine this, along with the key word changes to indestructible, are a few of the compelling reasons R&D might have had to make a new card for her. This one is obviously more fair, which if you subscribe to my pal Grandpa Growth's Rosetta Stone, means it's a significant power-down from her first moments of fresh air out of the Helvault.

Still, I think she's totally playable. As a guy who favors 6-cost or less creatures with relevant static and cheap activated abilities, there's room for design and abuse. An evasive, two-way attacker that can shape the battlescape and protect herself on the cheap is still useful. Couple that with a big 5WW cost emergency button, and you've got a Commander that has the potential to shut down most mono-colored and non-artifact-based two color decks as well.

From Avacyn, however, the rest of these Legends seem pretty bad as Commanders.

Take Jalira. Like surgeons, the designers on this card nipped and tucked until they were sure a Master Polymorphist couldn't do anything that was "unfair," which makes her look more like a novice than anything else, and R&D like chumps once again.

Personally, I see no problem with a Master Polymorphist possessing any or all of the following qualities:

1. Being able to turn one's self into something else.
2. Having the ability to do this with as little resources as possible.
3. Being able to turn any creature into any other creature, regardless of sub- or super-type.
4. Having the skills necessary to do this as quick as possible.

When we examine this card, the designers only got one of these right. But ask yourself- would it be busted if Jalira could turn herself into something? Would it be "un-fun" if she could Polymorph into Kozilek?

I don't think giving a Master Polymorphist these kinds of powers would make her worse- especially if you held all her other qualities constant. And even if Jalira was 2U, it would compare with something like Proteus Staff, which as far as I know, isn't a heinous imposition on any metagame anywhere.

Based on what we have, which does not include information from the Future-Future-League, like R&D does, I find this card pretty disappointing overall. If anything, a card should at least be able to validate its own flavor text, and when it doesn't, I'm a little peeved.

In case you haven't gotten the vibe from our first couple of cards, I'm not particularly enthralled with our newest additions to the Commander pool.

That said, Kurkesh is a card that possesses more of the qualities I'd like to see, even if I'm not thrilled about it.

For starters, the Onakke Ancient is a 4/3 for 2RR. So even if the rules text is no bueno, we still have a Legend with the ability to hack and slash our way to 21.

Looking at this rules text, we've got a pretty weird one, which is particularly refreshing for me, as it gives us Commander players excuse to do some research, even if it's a dead end.

I haven't done any for a potential Kurkesh deck, but having a cheap trigger for the activation of artifact abilities seems good.

Yet perhaps the most exciting part of this card to me is his creature type. Ogre Spirit. Awkward, unique, and from a place we haven't been yet- Shandalar. All of these add up to an overall okay design, even if it's not something that jumps out at me as "good" or "playable."

Last time on Zendikar, Ob Nixilis was a lowly, spark-less Legendary creature trying to make his way through a world of Hedrons, Kor, and Eldrazi in an attempt to be a planeswalker again.

Thanks to Brad Muir, it looks like our boy O.B. Nix is looking more like his old self. Just look at Karl Kopinski's artwork. This is some seriously scary-looking art.

Looking past flying and trample, it's pretty clear this version of O.B. is intended for us EDH players. Punishing players for library searching is something that is severely lacking in Commander outside of Psychogenic Probe, and I like that Ob Nixilis is a potential piece of removal that also forces removal because he gets bigger if you don't.

All that said, I still feel he's overcosted. It's clear this card wouldn't be fair at 3BB without an additional cost, but it still feels like a shaky investment, even when I have an intangible emotional investment in the Demon ex-Planeswalker as a character.

Why do all of our new characters have to have unbelievable fantasy names in this set?

I know I've been complaining a lot, but Yisan is a dumb name. So is Kurkesh, and so is Jalira, but Yisan is the straw. They all look and sound terrible, but Yisan is just- I don't know. They don't feel like names. It just looks like someone pulled out scrabble letters and strung a few together until it sounded like a car accident.

The actual design of this card isn't horrible, but surely underpowered. While I don't get how a Bard is also a Rogue that can summon creatures, like Kurkesh, I'm more intrigued than completely put off by the design.

Unlike Aether Vial, the Yes Man (this is his nickname, because I don't want to say his name. I know it's terrible, but this is improv) doesn't have access to all colors, so he's really on the bad of the eight ball when thinking of ways to double up his verse counters. I imagine he'll be part of a gimmicky squad or the General for some fun toolbox decks, but not much more than that, which is disappointing. I like to see bad cards become better, and I like to hold out for the hope that they can. But this is just not gonna work.

Our last creature is perhaps the most boring thing Wizards could've come up with. An Indestructible Sliver granting other Slivers Indestructible. I'd vomit if it didn't already look like I did.
Just look. ----------------------------------------------------->

Now I'm not a "Sliver Hater." They are a very powerful tribe in Magic, and I think it's possibly one of the most unique-to-Magic tribes in the card game, as they have an expansive presence throughout its history.

Mostly, I'm just bored with the way Wizards is attempting to revive the tribe and make it exciting. This is one of the easiest decks to put together across every format the game has to offer, and that's just horrible for a person like me who plays Commander, and values the artistic process of building a deck.

Since their revival in last year's Core Set, it seems that my distaste is only going to grow as they continue to give Slivers every ability imaginable, and I get it, but I'm not okay with it. I wish they had their own specific abilities, not just sharing common static, activated, and triggered abilities within themselves. It's not uncommon knowledge that Harmonic Sliver and Necrotic are two of the most popular, and it's not just because they are great at policing the board. They are representative and reminiscent of specific cards in the game, and their power is checked.

Sliver Hivelord basically gives this deck a cheaper Darksteel Forge, which is a very "win-more" card, I think, as far as the Sliver deck goes. While it's true most of these decks are aggressive, losing Slivers isn't really a problem because they have access to Living Death and Patriarch's Bidding.

Mostly, I think this was designed for some of the reasons I mentioned above, but also to help beat into the ground all these new rules changes they made about indestructible. Being a Core Set, it offers old players getting back into Magic and new players the chance to understand the game, and so here's the obligatory "garbage pop" card they make for these players, who, I'd guess, probably won't even like it.

Our last card is also tragically bad, possibly worse, and I'm genuinely disappointed about this.

Back in Innistrad, we heard the story and seen the $70 version of Liliana super-charged with the veil, and watched our formerly Green Hunter Garruk get infected with the Veil's curse.

Now that it's here, I'm angry about it. Not only does it make zero sense flavor-wise, but it's inclusion in this set is baffling.

I know Core Sets represent all the cards from pre-existing planes, but this was an integral part of a set- Why was it not included then, if the card was obviously already designed?

Furthermore, how is this a curse? Planeswalkers getting to activate their abilities again seem like a privilege to me. The only thing that's a curse is if you don't have planeswalkers.

And on top of all of this, why is it so expensive to play and cast? How does that make sense at all? In a world where we're talking about Rings of Brighthearth doing better work to copy a P-dubs abilities, or Proliferate cards being able to add the counters you need, I don't believe I need more evidence to demonstrate how sad and pathetic The Chain Veil really is. Truly a "Win-More" card, when you consider no player in any format is going to let you have more than one P-Dub out, unless they are already going to lose anyway.

Well, that wraps 'er up for today. Godspeed at your prereleases. Make good choices.
-UL