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Date: March 19th, 2024 8:09 AM Author: marvelous balding regret
The entire game of Magic, from June 1995 to October 2000, is in one way or another defined by the card Necropotence. It shaped nearly every format it touched, which was virtually every format thanks to the reprinting of Necropotence in Fifth Edition, which anchored Extended for many years. More broadly, Necropotence defined Magic by bringing into a crystal clarity and laser-like focus the paradigm that emphasized the paramount importance of card advantage. Within that paradigm, there was no greater engine. As a siphon, Necropotence was unparalleled in its ability to translate an abundant resource into the most precious. It’s unheralded arrival in Ice Age, where it was not simply overlooked but actively disparaged, can be contrasted to a period in which Necropotence was increasingly regarded as among the most problematic cards in the game.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5506094&forum_id=2#47506493)
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Date: March 19th, 2024 10:48 AM Author: marvelous balding regret
Khans of Tarkir’s damage to Vintage continued, and it’s likely that Dig needed to be restricted sooner. In the 6 months before Dig’s restriction, Dig was a shocking 43.75% of Top 8 decks.
Dig’s versatility made it a useful card beyond Comer School Xerox decks, but was used across the spectrum of blue strategies. The only reason it did not need to be restricted with Treasure Cruise was because Dig was not heavily played when Treasure Cruise was unrestricted.
Workshop decks, which had been marginalized during the Treasure Cruise moment, were resurgent again, thanks to more powerful printings. There were calls for restriction, and a nexus of players – especially on the Vintage Super League – focused on Chalice of the Void. Chalice of the Void was only in 26.6% of Top 8 decklists in the months before its restriction, compared to the nearly 44% noted above or Dig.
I argued that Chalice would not solve the problem, which was, and had been, Lodestone Golem. When Lodestone decks made up half of the Top 8 in the 2012 Vintage Championship, it should have been restricted at that point, especially since it was so oppressive in the year before.
At this point, instead of restricting Chalice, which was a lynchpin of Workshop Control decks, a better restriction would have been Thorn of Amethyst. With Thorn restricted, Workshop decks would have had ample incentive to diversify between Aggro and Prison variants again.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5506094&forum_id=2#47506868)
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Date: March 19th, 2024 10:57 AM Author: marvelous balding regret
The year from the summer of 2007 to the summer of 2008 is hard to describe. It was like an aberration from the larger trajectory and evolution of the format, on account of the unrestriction, and the re-restriction of Gush. But what followed it was incredible.
The restriction of Flash, Ponder, Merchant Scroll, Brainstorm and Gush in June 2008 was overkill, but it created space for a beautiful moment in Vintage. In the clearing, two decks briefly bloomed: a powered-down version of The Perfect Storm, using Grim Tutor in the place of what is now filled by Dark Petition, and a Control Slaver deck utilizing Strategic Planning. These two decks were the entirety of the Top 4 decks at the 2008 Vintage Championship, and TPS won a smattering of tournaments before and after.
But what made it beautiful was that pretty much everything else was viable: Stax, Dredge, Painter Servant combo, Dredge and others were all viable and competing in a beautiful garden. But this cornucopia of Vintage goodness was short lived.
It came to crashing halt in the fall when Shards of Alara arrived. Shards not only gave us nasty cards like Ad Nauseam and Tezzeret the Seeker, but more importantly, it also coincided with the removal of power-level errata and an adjusted templating for Time Vault. Predictably, the format collapsed into a miasma of Time Vault Tezzeret control, leading to the restriction of Thirst for Knowledge a few months later. Had Tezzeret not been printed, the errata on Time Vault would not have been quite so format-warping. But with both changes at the same time, the format sunk into a deep funk for a while.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5506094&forum_id=2#47506908)
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Date: March 19th, 2024 10:58 AM Author: marvelous balding regret
Mind’s Desire is an interesting case, and the first case of a pre-emptive restriction of a new printing in the history of the format. The mocked up “Slurpy” deck (so named on account of the win condition, Brain Freeze) promised to be one of the best Combo decks never played, because Mind’s Desire was pre-emptively restricted.
The problem with pre-emptive restriction is that it is impossible to know, with any degree of confidence of certainty, that a card truly merits restriction. It is a better policy to let cards play out. There are too many cases of cards being wrongly overhyped and completely ignored to trust one or even a few great minds to understand how it will unfold in a complex metagame.
On the other hand, the DCI probably did not want the inaugural Type I Championship a few months later at GenCon to be marred by Mind’s Desire. That was probably the right call.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5506094&forum_id=2#47506913)
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Date: March 19th, 2024 2:46 PM Author: unhinged half-breed
" how comfortably are we with unrestricting Fastbond in a world where Misstep is restricted? Probably much less so. "
WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5506094&forum_id=2#47507641) |
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