mike

I think all of these are good. Nadu especially. Didn't see Extortionist coming but that is also probably a good idea.

They hit more fast mana artifacts, which are going to continue to be a problem for EDH as they continue to print more powerful cards. I thought the comment about Sol Ring was interesting:

We should also talk about the elephant in the room. We're not banning Sol Ring and have no desire to. Yes, based on the criteria we've talked about here, it would be banned. Sol Ring is the iconic card of the format, and it's sufficiently tied to the identity of the format that it defies the laws of physics in a way that no other card does. Banning Sol Ring would be fundamentally changing the identity of the format. We aren't trying to eliminate all explosive starts—it happening every once in a while is exciting—and removing the other three cards geometrically reduces the number of hands capable of substantial above-curve mana generation in the first few turns.

I think they're doing things right here.

Didn't see this until today, but ZNR might actually get me back onto Arena drafting again 🤣 That was the last set I drafted a lot of. UB Rogues for me forced.

Yea I agree, I thought this was the cancelled one but maybe they changed their minds? 😝 I am exited though, I've always thought there is more than enough content in the game's history to make a tv show out of.

Wow I didn't know this was even something considered.

I think this is just all a bad take from Mark. I understand his position and that this blog is mostly a defense for WoTC's decisions, but this just misses every one of the complaints for me. He's basically saying "this is hard, I've been doing this for 30 years, trust us" while not addressing the actual complaints.

To me these are arguments why Maro, Michael Majors, and the entire FIRE team should be let go and new people brought in. Doing this for 30 years and still making these mistakes means that someone else is making the decisions and those decisions are not and won't be in the best interest of the game.

All good bans here, I think they're still 3-6 months behind on Legacy tho.

The Vintage bans really surprised me, both of those are much needed imo and I'm glad they did something about them. Vexing Bauble kind of nerfs the entirety of why anyone plays Vintage, and Urza's Saga is just ridiculous with that many cheap powerful artifacts.

Yes, absolutely. I think they're being a little tongue-in-cheek with that but it was Ice Age Block Constructed and Rade came with a brew that was targeted against the current meta.

Yea I think you're right, I remember reading somewhere that Wizards may change the card abilities up to the last minute too. Perhaps it was more balanced at one point.

This was so unbelievably needed, but I think these cards are also proving to be too strong in the other eternal formats too.

I think what we're seeing here is how little playtesting is actually being done anymore. Now, and especially with Arena and the # of games being played, they just do whatever they want and wait and see how it breaks the game. Then let everyone hate their lives for a month or two before fixing the cards back to what they should have been from the outset.

I don't think anyone in the world can convince me Ocelot Pride should ever have been printed at 1 mana. That's a 1/1 or 1/2 for 2W all day every day for me. I just saw Ocelot Pride win in a LEGACY mtgo challenge last night. The deck at least got to the finals, the player streaming lost to it in the top 4.

If they don't ban Grief in the August announcement then I think the organizers may just take matters into their own hands.

Yea you're right about Sunfall, I don't know how I forgot about that lol I hate that one too.

This is awesome! @andrew@mtgzone.com is in Pittsburgh, and may be going. You could win this, Andrew!

Top 32 players get one 😛