Why Magic: The Gathering Sucks…

I play M:TG — and I’ve been playing since Revised. I play regularly play Standard, Modern, and dabble in draft when I’m bored, and I would play Legacy, but I don’t enjoy prostituting myself for cards. I honeslty love the game and find it interesting, challenging, and creative.

Or, at least, I did.

You see, I took a long break from Magic. I originally played from Revised until Urza’s Block, and M:TG players will know — especially the old heads like myself — that block was overpowered and a tad oppressive. I didn’t buy another booster pack, or even look into what was happening in the game, until Return to Ravnica. Now, back when Urza’s block was fresh and new I was sixteen years old, didn’t play in any sorts of competetive tournaments, and routinely made many a memory at various kitchen tables throughout the small town I called home.

It was fantastic.

The oppressive nature of the block did, however, put a big dent in the tournament scene, and I’m not sure on the exact figures, but WoTC did see a significant drop in DCI memberships during that time — the same problem happened during the Affinity era. However, since me and my Magic friends only played kitchen table and weren’t ‘power gaming’ or min-maxing, we didn’t think there was anything wrong with the block, and no one was pissed when every so often I made you draw your entire deck with stroke of genius and Palinchron. It was powerful, sure — but hardly oppressive. Mostly because we were friends, enjoying the game for what it was — a game. We didn’t front end our decks with the powerhouses and crush each other with Morphlings and a deck full of lightning bolts and counterspells. We just had fun.

That’s not the case now, and I learned that the hard way.

When I began playing again in RTR block I played a mill deck and didn’t play the tournament staples. I lost often and horribly. Geist of Saint Traft and Thragtusk kicked my ass every tournament — damn near every game. It was demoralizing but I trudged along, knowing if I made the right tweaks the deck would be good. Mind you, I have no illusions that mill is tier 1 — I know its. nothing more than a fringe strategy, but I love it and use it pretty much every rotation. I have my other decks but there’s always a mill deck in my bag, ready to go. I also understand that not every strategy can be tier 1, or even tier 2 — or even remotely good for that matter. They cant’ all be winners.

And that’s my problem.

WoTC play tests the shit out of these sets, and I understand why. Urza’s Block and Affinity took them by surprise and made people hate the game, and I’m not sure about Affinity, but I know Urza’s wasn’t play tested. It got out of hand and people walked away — but. BUT, competitive players walked away. The Pro Tour guys and the min-maxers, they were the ones complaining about Tolarian Academy and Ravager. Us kitchen table guys didn’t give a shit, because if you kept bringing a busted deck to my house every week no one would want to play with you. Problem solved. Which is also how WoTC solved the problem — BANNED.

But my point is that these ‘broken’ environments weren’t an issue with those playing the game casually. And that’s where I think the problem lies.

Competitive Magic ruined the game.

Here’s the cards that are going to impact standard, all 10 from this new set. Play any of the others and you’re going to lose. But wait, here’s the six deck archetypes we want to be powerful and good this rotation. Play those or perish.

And nothing illustrates this point more than the website mtgtop8.com with its lovely tag line — neckdecking with the stars. You show up to a tournament or even an FNM and chances are you’re going to face most of the decks that placed in whatever tournament happened recently. Some may have slight variations but only slight.

Now, I understand Magic is a business and they have to make money, and every once in awhile they toss us kitchen table nerds a bone — and then make it so fucking mana intensive its a joke, but thats where I think the real problem is rooted.

Magic is like Batman. Its such a money maker that it can no longer take chances, because if they tweak the formula it might make somebody somewhere mad and then they won’t buy as many Magic cards. Its gotten too big to innovate.

I know this is an ignorant complaint in the eyes of many players — just don’t play, right? True, and I agree, but I also miss the days when you could play a homebrew and have a chance of doing well. Those days are long, long gone.

Oh well. And this is why I always play homebrews, because I’d rather lose with a deck I created than win with a netdeck. Maybe it’s the kitchen table player in me clinging to the past, or maybe it’s the rebel in me giving WoTC the finger because they’ve got no balls anymore.

Maybe — who knows. And Wizards — if you truly want to show me you’re not a bunch of bitches who pander then give us counterspell and lightning bolt in Magic Origins, because you know goddamn well not having both of those cards in the last core set is a fucking travesty. And don’t give me that shit that counterspell is too powerful — because you printed Rhino and Thragtusk and those cards are just fucked. If it’s too good for modern then just ban it — worked for Cruise and Dig. Get over yourselves and take a fucking chance.

Ok, I’m done now. Enjoy M:TG because as much as I just complained I still play, so I’m just as bad as WoTC.