izzipurrito asked:
I know this is a big ask, but…
Please no more direct to Modern sets.
If you guys must, at least make it so that it is Standard legal so it is Standard level in power.
That would only hasten power creep even further for whatever formats the set will be legal in.
Personally, I think this is not a very clear question to ask in a poll. I’m not sure if Mark is asking if we want standard to be higher power or if we no longer want any direct to modern sets, or something else. It’s not clear and it’s going to just be used to further whatever conclusion they’ve already come to.
I think direct to %format% sets have been perhaps the biggest mistake in the game’s history. That’s how you kill off constructed formats through engineered powercreep, and it looks like that has succeeded. The entire game’s balance hinged on the cards being designed for a single format that waterfalled through the other non-rotating formats. We have pretty much Standard and Commander right now and if you like 60-card formats you’re pretty much out of luck moving forward unless you want to play a 7-sets-per-year Universes Beyond standard.
It’s not clear and it’s going to just be used to further whatever conclusion they’ve already come to.
Yeah, whatever the results of this poll are, I guarantee Mark/WotC are going to learn the wrong lesson from it. Like when they look “it’s too hard to maintain a collection for Standard” to mean “cards should stay in Standard for longer” and raised the format’s power level by half.
Exactly. My current take on this is that the % of the customer/player base that wants to collect all or a majority of the cards, wants to know about all the cards as they hit etc is just small enough to not matter to them anymore. Same thing for the 60-card non-rotating constructed player base. Too small to cater to and maybe they figure that group isn’t going to quit anyway.
No doubt in my mind that the suits at Hasbro would kill off all competitive events and just sell us scratch lotto cards if they could but they must currently figure that’s an end-game scenario. So they begrudgingly have to support constructed play and they went in on Standard because it rotates (i.e. forced buying) and Commander because it’s the largest group that actually still plays the game.
The biggest group though, and the one they principally cater to is the Finance/Investment base. The ones who buy 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars of sealed products. That’s who they are building this “game” for moving forward but that’s a different topic.
Finding something for commander in a standard set was always delightful. Seeing a commander card printed only in a commander deck is obnoxious. I don’t mind things like commander boosters as much, as long as they don’t print any obnoxious bullshit like whatever lotus they just banned.
Format reprint sets are a fantastic idea because they lower the barrier to entry.
I’m a limited player so I’m all for high power formats. Mh3 was a great draft environment.
If I’m gonna play constructed everything over a dollar is gonna be proxies
The first Modern Masters was a blast to play with a high power level (at the time), but it was all reprints. Hell, cube is the highest of high power levels and is curated from existing cards. It’s entirely possible to make good Limited formats without destroying Constructed.
For sure and some of the worst (either too powerful or unplayable) cards for limited are regularly pushed constructed/commander staples. But despite that, set design over the last 5 years has generally been very good from a draft standpoint.
Oh for sure. The number of playables in each set has increased. I’m more often making cuts, rather than trying to fill in gaps. I just wish we had more cards like Tough Cookie and Imodane’s Recruiter and less Atraxas and Sheoldreds.
