Board 8 > Magic the Gathering Gopic (Ikoria is here!)

(+) Yeah! (+)

BlackDra90n posted...

Reposting the bracket and ID list for the new page.

https://challonge.com/b8mtga
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jyxKuX5qYRGXR4IbDqCDBTowln-i6nK0JEZ69xkZVfk/edit#gid=0

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Does anyone play Historic? If so how is it?

I've just been drafting since I came back to the game but with the ladder becoming permanent soon I'm wondering if I should look into it. Standard is pretty wacky right now and Lurrus Cycling is a good enough deck for ladder anyways.

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I'd be curious as well. Standard is still a trash fire, so another format would be nice, even though I'm sure Historic will probably be companion hell right now too.

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I pretty much only play Standard, Limited, Brawl, and Ikoria only decks. Not really super interested in Historic but if it's on a separate ladder than Standard I'll probably make a deck.

Speaking of Standard, anyone interested in trying their luck for the Arena Open? Day 1 being entirely Bo1 is such a crapshoot.

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As a f2p player the stakes are a little too high for me, I'd rather just draft with those gems/ gold

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Nah I don't have enough meta decks or experience with them.

Since I started in War of the Spark I've been "saving up" for Zendikar and the rotation that comes with it.

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I am in no way surprised that a mechanic borrowed from Hearthstone turned Magic into a shitshow.

Even if you like Hearthstone, the digital-only nature of it does not translate into try to turn its stuff into tabletop mechanics. Genn and Baku were banned a year early for a reason, so I'm not surprised Companion is way too good.

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@Peace___Frog Sorry I totally didn't see you respond to my ping before, what time do you want to today if you're around?
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Will you be around in a few hours?

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Yep, you thinking like 8-9 ET? (It's about 6 ET rn)
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Yep, that's exactly what I'm thinking

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I'm good when you are

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Peaf beat me 2-0. I came close to stabilizing the 2nd game but he just kept pouring creatures on the board
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2-0 win, I'm really glad I'm not getting totally shut out in this event

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@banananor

Sent you a request on arena. Let's do this thing!

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will do, will be online by 7:30 EST

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Ah sorry didn't see that message. If 7:30 is when you normally have time I'll try to be on arena around then.

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https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/announcing-double-masters-2020-05-21

So many sets this year. No fetches but maybe we'll see other things of value.

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There are literally 3 different booster products slated to come out with a month of each other this summer. Feels excessive.

That being said, that full art Blightsteel is dope. Now excuse me while I prepare my Foil Ophiomancer summoning circle.

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My greatest mtg regret is not being able to draft the original modern masters. I had it all lined up and then I had to work that weekend, sucked so bad.
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The alternate art Atraxa looks amazing too. I can't be too mad if they reprint a bunch of $50+ cards.

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I've mostly only followed standard since I started with Guilds. What's the competitive impact of these kinds of sets?

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They're mostly reprints so they're targeted to increasing the number of older cards available and bringing the price down. For example, the five cards they've spoiled so far are all expensive cards and printing new ones should hopefully bring the price down.

That said, it seems like they don't actually want to bring down the price of cards too much since then they'll sell less packs.

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pjbasis posted...

@banananor

Sent you a request on arena. Let's do this thing!

Did this match end up happening?

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Peace___Frog posted...

I've mostly only followed standard since I started with Guilds. What's the competitive impact of these kinds of sets?

None of these are going to be standard-legal btw. If you play Arena, Jumpstart (which has some new cards legal in Eternal formats) will be legal in Historic.

I do agree that wizards puts out a ridiculous amount of product these days. I just found out about Jumpstart about a week before they announced Double Masters. Reprints are good but I wish they'd concentrate them into fewer sets instead of spreading them into so many limited run ones. We're at two Masters sets per year, two Commander sets per year, I don't even know how many promo art and random supplementary sets per year...

I guess it's moot to me because I don't see myself getting back into paper modern anytime soon what with the pandemic, the companion meta, and the still outrageous price of enemy fetchlands and other staple lands

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BlackDra90n posted...

Did this match end up happening?

Lol not yet. He caught me after I went idle once but I didnt get back in time.

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Free gold in the Arena store again today

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Companions are probably getting nuked on Monday. Most likely some kind of functional errata.

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Wonder what it would be. Having it replace a card in your opening hand seems like a more balanced way to do it.

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Common theory on reddit appears to be that from now on, the companion will live in your sideboard, and you can pay (3) at sorcery speed to move it from your sideboard to your hand. Not sure if there's any inside knowledge behind that, but it sounds like a stupid enough fix that Wizards totally could have come up with it. I'm not sure if that's enough to actually fix the problem, I think it would be a lot cleaner to just delete the companion mechanic from existence and let the cards be played on their own.

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That is really dumb.

making companion come with a 6 card hand makes way more sense

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You cant delete companion as a mechanic. What do you do with all the ikoria sets already printed. Recall them? You going to reimburse everyone who bought some?

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Yea that seems super clunky but I guess doing that means the current reminder text doesn't get contradicted. So who knows, maybe that'll actually happen.

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Well that proposed solution TMS mention also doesn't match what is on the card, which explicitly says you may cast it from outside the game. So you are still deleting the mechanic because moving from your sideboard to hand is not casting.

I like reducing the amount of cards you start with, though I'm not sure that actually addresses the power level of the mechanic. The card advantage is mitigated a bit but the consistency that enables decks is still there.

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masterplum posted...

You cant delete companion as a mechanic. What do you do with all the ikoria sets already printed. Recall them? You going to reimburse everyone who bought some?

They have given cards functional errata before. The cards would still work, they would just read as if the companion text wasn't there. It's not that wild of a solution.

Edit: And just to be clear, I don't think there's a really good answer to this at all beyond going back in time and killing the mechanic in design. I do think, however, that the mechanic does need to be expunged from the game or all the cards with the mechanic need to be banned. The former at least lets people play with the cards they just bought in some capacity.

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I think having to start with one card less is the optimal errata for Companion. Anything else gets too complex and/or deviates too much from the intent. They definitely won't be banning the mechanic itself.

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The deck building cost should balance the card advantage if they do their jobs right, so just ban the cards that break that.

If most I the metas can get fixed with a lurrus or other ban, why would you need to change the mechanic?

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The deck building cost did balance the mechanic. I think the mechanic is totally fine for standard. Sure companion decks are top tier but so is non companion cycling, non companion mono red, and non companion wilderness rec

The problem is that they aren't balanced for older formats at all, where huge card pools make the costs completely trivial. W/U control playing the orphanguard because it plays zero creatures is a laughable fail

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I mean...the cycling and mono-red decks both play companions too. Temur rec doesnt, but that deck mostly just exists to prey on yorion lukka, which is the biggest part of the meta right now.

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@banananor

My internet went out. I wonder if we'll ever be able to do this.

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ha! well, i'm signed in to discord whenever i'm chilling (i use it like i used to use aim), which should be most of the weekend. poke me and i'll probably be up for playing whenever

edit: i'm countersmell in the b8 discord

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A companion ban in all formats older than standard is what I vote for.

I am a draft guy and I haven't personally been negatively impacted by them in any way, but I want other people to get their format back.

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I paid the 20k gold to enter the Arena Open with my Keruga Fires deck. Went 3:3 so it wasn't worth it, but it was fun.

First loss was a fair loss against mono green. Second loss was against a guy who managed to get two Leyline of Combustions in his opening hand, which made removal very painful. Was one turn away from taking it but he managed to finish me off. Last loss was some crazy Winota shenanigans. He played Winota turn three because of his goose, swung with an elf, managed to get an Agent of Treachery out which stole a land, bringing me back to one land. Turn after he swings with the team again, gets two more Agents, and takes all my lands.

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Yeah I think Id definitely play Winota if I was going to enter one of those, especially day 1 is best of 1. You just have such a high chance of free roll wins.

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Im tempted to enter this arena tournament. I have basically every card so I can just make the best deck and im a pretty good magic player, but also I dont really know the decks so theres a decent chance I screw up
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If you have the gold or gems lying around, go for it. Day 1 is Bo1 so it's there's a bit more variance though.

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The EV of the event is surprisingly good, but I dont play enough standard to enter.

I'm cool saving gems for cube draft

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Companion changed so you add it to your hand with 3 mana. Agent and Fires banned in Standard.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/june-1-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement?asp=4

RIP my Keruga Fires deck.

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told you it was dumb enough of a fix that they'd do it

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Damn I shouldn't have underestimated WotC's commitment to clunky solutions. Though like I said, this is a much bigger power level reduction than other changes.

Fires and Agent bans are also deserved, I think. Winota is a nasty card but you'd have to ban it AND Lukka without the Agent ban. Maybe the deck is fine without it, though Historic has some pretty good targets still.

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