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Editor: Rebecca Mitchell. Monday 2 September 2002.
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Enough with the Excuses, Wizards!
In light of having something known as a thesis due in October, I was
going to take a break from writing my monthly column to focus on my study.
However, after I read Randy Buehler's article 'What I Really Learned at Worlds 2' on Magicthegathering.com (or as I call it 'an excuse to print crap dot com' or 'the evil twin of sideboard'). I thought somebody should say
something due to the amount of crap he is trying to make the players swallow
in his little segment. In my modest opinion, I think the Odyssey block is the worst thing that
happened to the world ever since Elton John. When it comes to diminishing
their responsibilities, R&D is as bad as Magic players, for if, god forbid,
something goes wrong, the first thing that they will do is blame the mistake
on everyone but themselves. Magic players blame it on land problems while
R&D will try to rationalize things by saying 'Things aren't that bad if you
look at them this way'. Well here is a chance for you to look at things, my
way. OBC Constructed, Good or Bad? 'As I watched the Block Constructed day play out, the format didn't
look as dire as I had been led to believe. There were a decent number of
white decks running around (most based around Battle Screech], and they
seemed to hold their own against the two format-defining decks. Also, it's
not really fair to call blue-green "one" deck because there seemed to be an
endless variety of ways to build it: the madness version, the threshold
version, the turbo-Wonder version, the Quiet Speculation version, the
card-advantage version, and many versions in between.' - Randy Buehler
(all futures quotes will be from the same source). Anyone who has played in OBC will know by now that there are 2 defining
decks in this format, which are U/G and mono Black. Though Randy is right in
his argument that there are more then 2 playable decks then we first thought
and that U/G Madness is different to U/G Threshold. However, even if we
include Punisher White and agro Blue/Black there are only 5 decks in the
format that can be considered tier 1 material with most of them utilizing
the same cards over and over again. Why is he content when there are only 5
playable deck in the format? To me, that's similar to kids who say 'Sure I
got 2/100 in my exam but at least I still got marks!' Back in the days of Urza Block Constructed, we have: Tinker, Suicide
Black, Bargain, Hermit/Opposition, Accelerated Blue, Replenish, Trinity,
mono green Elf, Sligh, Wild Fire and Sneak Attack. Not only does each deck
have their unique strategy but also every color gets a fair share of the
good cards as well. Sure, the set is a bit fast for some people but at least
the diversity of the game is still there. Even the more recent Invasion block offers more variety of cards for the
players to build decks with. Such decks includes: 5 colors, Machine Head,
Go-Mar, R/G beat down, The Solution, Counter-Trenches, B/G Monger/Deed and
B/U Control. 8 decks, many colors and loads of strategy where people can
actually choose to play what they want instead of being forced to play with
decks that are everywhere on the net. Personally I think there is nothing
worst then playing mirror matches all day because not only do you know their
deck inside out, but also the outcome of the match is often draw dependant.
Perhaps winning in OBC may not be solely decided on the coin toss, but you
will find it much easier to win the game if you win the flip. 'I think part of the problem is that some cards were simply too much
better than the other available options [Nantuko Shade and Wild Mongrel come
to mind]. We also underestimated the madness mechanic, and Wonder was
probably more important to the format than we intended it to be. I think the
format was less fun than some previous Block Constructed formats because the
defining decks were so much better than the tier-two decks that players felt
obligated to play those defining cards and decks.' By saying that R&D has merely underestimated the Madness mechanic is like
calling a diamond a rock and Jessica Alba as merely pretty. The Madness
mechanic in my opinion is insane making U/G one of the best color
combinations at the moment by miles. Not only could you nullify the costs of
discarding and turn it into card advantage, you can also pay for the card
for a cheaper cost and play creatures as instants. Even the traditionally
fastest R/G decks will find it hard to match the speed of U/G Madness
decks. Another reason I think why Odyssey block is so dismal is because of the
lack of good enchantment and artifacts. If you look at the history of Magic,
most decks are built around enchantments like Stasis, Opposition and Fires.
Unlike other types of spells in Magic, certain enchantments can make
bad/mediocre cards playable (i.e. Claw of Gix in Stasis and Squirrel's Nest
in Opposition). Without decent enchantments, no wonder everyone ended up
playing the same cards in the same color employing similar strategies. Odyssey Block in Drafts 'Odyssey Block Booster Draft seemed to work out pretty well. Players
seemed to enjoy all the graveyard themes (threshold, flashback,
Incarnations, etc.) and none of the commons were so good that they caused
problems.' Who among you is happy with drafting Odyssey block? Please put your hand
up now so I can chop it off. Why do I think Odyssey is bad in limited? Well
there is the bad print run where certain cards always seemed to be sticking
together making certain packs insanely powerful and some packs so weak that
you have to first pick Dusk Imp. Then there is the uneven color distribution
with the sets that made signaling, once a skill that divides bad players
from good ones rather useless. No matter how hard you try to signal, due the
nature of some heavily color skewed packs (like opening Aboshan, Aven
Windreader and Looter in the same pack) it will often be difficult to signal
even when you have taken the best card away. In addition, Torment will often
lure people playing Black even though they are not going that color in
Odyssey due to its heavy black nature. Due to the lack of Black cards in
Judgment, such decisions will often stuff a couple of the players at the
table up badly. The Impact of OBC on Constructed 'My real point is that 'Tog didn't deserve to be 75% of the Top 8 and
there was more going on than just 'Tog and Opposition. 'Tog was certainly
format defining with almost half the field choosing to run it, but it's
overall record was only four games over .500 and one could make a case based
on the Day 1 data that the best deck in Standard didn't even appear in the
Top 8.' Check out the breakdown of the 20 decks that went 5-1 or better: Personally, I don't think that having Psychatog as the best deck is the
main issue with Type 2 at the moment, because there will always be a best
deck in the format. So, it might as well be 'tog. The more pressing issue I
think is why 85% of good decks at the moment are Blue orientated? Blue has
always been the most popular color in Magic but an 85% ratio is ridiculous,
especially when you look at how little other colors are being played. Once
upon a time, I thought Magic was a 5-color game but apparently it is a
Blue/X game. 'We know blue is too good and we've been trying to react to that
knowledge. But it's tough to predict things accurately a year in advance. We
did know a year ago that the blue in Invasion was quite saucy, and as we
were developing Odyssey block we tried not to make too many good blue
cards.' There is a visible effort on R&D's behalf to make Blue less powerful in
printing less counter spells, instant speed card drawing spells and more
color hosers (Seedtime and Spellbane Centaur). Yet Blue has still received
some powerful bounce spells like Aether Burst making creatures that costs 5
or more unplayable even though it has tons of abilities (like Spirit
Monger). It has also received one of the best Wishes (Cunning Wish is the
most expensive one in Sydney at the moment cash wise), the best
creature/atog and in case you haven't had enough, Quiet Speculation and
Upheaval will be the little icing on the cake. Well here is a secret, when you repeatedly print the best card in a 5
card cycle (like Aether Bursts out of the bursts and Wonder from the
incarnations) as Blue cards, the color tends to get pretty good after a
while. If you want to make Blue bad, simply give it a crappy theme to work
on like 'Punisher' or remove Counter Spell from the main set. I mean you
already got rid of historical Magic cards from every other color like Dark
Ritual, Armageddon, Incinerate and soon Llanowar Elves, why not give Blue
the same treatment? 'Looked at with a historical perspective, Standard seems decent and
the 'Tog deck isn't that different from the "Fires" deck or the Rebel
deck.' The main difference between the Tog deck and Fires/Rebel deck is to the
people who watch the game. With Fires at least the game is action packed and
end relatively quickly so it's more exciting to watch but with 'tog, the
game can go on forever. I think this year's World Championship's final is
possibly one of the most boring to watch as players sit there laying land
after land without playing any spells until everyone has fallen asleep. Then
when something does happen, it's an Upheaval, which just resets the damn
game but I'm sure that it is still exciting stuff if you view it through R&D
goggles. Well that's all I have to say at the moment. I will be taking a break
till November, which means that there will be no column from me next month.
If you feel the same way about Odyssey block as I do or have a different
opinion, please email me at: t_memo@yahoo.com Teleute |
