MTG Reddit Hot Takes - July 21st

Here I muse over Magic Reddit being...Reddit.

[@marshallscot]

Commander players need to know when to let a game end. People just love to drag out the game even when they have almost no chance of winning.

[@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688]

EDH as a format may not have "ruined" MTG, but 100% its existence has WARPED how MTG cards are designed, and I would agree that MTG as a whole has not been changed for the better. Sure, now everyone has a nuclear weapon, but some of us still miss knife fights.

[@GrayVMhan]

That's why you build a low level cube and play draft or sealed with your knife fight buddies!

[@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688]

@GrayVMhan That's a great idea! I've always said that the things missing from the EDH experience are less consistency and the games not being long enough.

[@27777BigRedBarn]

I would love it if treasures said “tap, sac, add a mana of any color and lose 1 life.”

[@Guru4hire]

Hot take: we arent experiencing power creep. We are experiencing power normalization. We are getting a large accessible pool of B+ cards.

[@seanwechsler6783]

I don’t think “free” counter spells should exist in the game. “Free” meaning being able to cast without using mana from a permanent source. No worse feeling in the game than thinking you’re safe to cast an important spell, just to still be countered with the opponent not even needing to bluff you.

[@akihitokoizumi2474]

I am okay with there being free counter spells. However they must have a huge downside. For example the one that next turn you have the pay the mana cost or lose the game.

[@seanwechsler6783]

@@akihitokoizumi2474 I understand the point. It’s nice for players to have a counter spell answer when another player takes off and goes for a win con by turn 2 or 3….however I’m no cEDH player who likes or plays fast competitive commander like that.

[@BlobThoughtsMTG]

Agreed!

[@slavisatosanovic2672]

Free counters are very necessary in legacy and modern

[@seanwechsler6783]

@@slavisatosanovic2672 Yes they are necessary for turn 1-2 win cons. However that’s another problem in itself. But that’s my own problem. I don’t understand the point of games and decks like that.

[@brendans1983]

Players need to pretend their deck is more powerful than it is, rather than pretend it's less powerful than it is. It would lead to way more games with less salt.

[@marshallscot]

Treasures have definitely warped the game. Some Treasure cards are ridiculously overpowered, but it's also good because it gives certain colors like mono-red access to decent ramp.

[@cool_scatter]

18:37 when you searched "magic card back" to make the point about removing white, one of the results was literally a reddit shitpost with the white pip photoshopped out lmao

[@kleverkitsune4363]

I also am quite happy with the very Redwall, Silverwing, that kind of vibe that Bloomburrow is bringing. I admit, I am a huge fan of darker content, but it's nice to have a set right before Duskmourn to contrast so harshly against. I also really like the fairy tale vibes, and I'm very excited to get my hands on a Bat deck. I wouldn't call this a "Hot take" or anything, because it should be common sense. I think anyone that sits down at a casual commander night with a deck that's clearly meant to be played in CEDH is a prick. I'm talking people that run super expensive cards in a casual match (or more frustratingly, proxy them), not people who came to win. No one is impressed by your ability to google a broken deck then print it out to use against the guy who's running Phelddagrif group hug.

[@adamantlotus]

I think that Commander has certainly changed the game, but for the better. Card design is much more in-line with a set pie and designs are more varied and fun.

[@JovialRoger]

I genuinely cannot stand when people but Smothering Tithe and Dockside Extortionist together. The cards are not comparable in any meaningful way. One costs 2 mana, generates a mass of Treasures on ETB, so must either be countered or effectively a table wipe of artifacts in response in order for the controller not to gain the benefit once cast, and is attached to the most commonly and cheaply available graveyard recursion target in the game (CMC/MV < 3 Creature). The other costs 4 mana, generates either slowly or after resolution of other spells/abilities (Wheels), is much more expensive and harder to recur. Every time I've heard the two compared in person, videos, or on podcasts, if the question of how to "fix" Dockside arises, they wind up making it still better than Tithe (Make it cost 3, have the treasures come into play tapped, add "if it was cast", etc) then moving on to complain about how Tithe is as much of a problem. It objectively isn't. My hot take is that the only reason people think of these cards as anywhere close to the same level of power is that players hate cards that give them a bad choice more than ones that give them no choice at all.

[@josiahclarke3535]

Smothering tithe will never been even close to as cracked as rhystic study, too. As far as “pay one 1” cards go its 4th place at best.

[@drew8235]

It's sad to see the way Magic is going. I'm happy for all those out there who enjoy Commander and Universes Beyond, but I think now we should all be able to understand what exactly it is that we've lost along the way.

[@BlobThoughtsMTG]

I agree that Dockside > Smothering Tithe. I was mostly commenting on how both are over-tuned.

[@rcarlson787]

@rcarlson787 Hot take: I wish there were more sliver cards with the M14/M15 redesign style. Like every sliver since that time should get a printing in both OG style and redesign style. I don't think the redesign nailed it but the more humanoid and biomechanical look needs more exploration.

[@Guru4hire]

Mono white should get more cards that tear down the other players value engines, instead of turning the entire color pie into simic value piles. And unban balance. Then the healing can begin.

[@TheAngelRaven]

Commander-Specific: Players should run more permanent removal and feel zero remorse in blowing up problematic lands. | The banlist should be removed and completely rebuilt from the ground up because the RC is moronic, current cards on the banlist are below the power of the current game, and most of those bans nowadays might not see much play even if they WERE legal. Magic-Specific: 'Free' Counterspells - or similar 'No' effects - shouldn't exist without bigger drawbacks or not at all.

[@marshallscot]

How long until we get a dedicated keywod for creating a copy of an artifact token? We already have populate for creature tokens. Artifact tokens could be duplicate.

[@andrewfornes5320]

Construct would be a good word tbh

[@Shmar7]

I think treasures would be a lot more balanced if they entered tapped edit: I didn't watch far enough to see that he said the same thing lol

[@Henryernice]

Tectonic Hellion is the best card ever designed

[@shnorkeythefourth4572]

Magic being set in multiple universes and planes makes it easy to include these crossovers like Godzilla and my little pony but regardless of the excuses it still cheapens Magic’s unique image and is making it a shell of its former self On that same note bring more unsets back, that was meta humor done well and no I’m not talking about the damn sticker set. I mean the cards like the longest name wrapping around the card and cheaty face letting you sneak it in.

[@anexistanthuman2435]

I thought that the story articles for bloomburrow were mid as hell

[@jaceg810]

my first impression of bloomburrow: Why do all the cards rival yughio cards when it comes to text boxes? apart from that, looks cool

[@hmonglord]

"You should win a quarter of your game" Me with only one win to my name:pikachu face

[@Ummmm-fx8gc]

Some people are just terrible at magic.

[@shnorkeythefourth4572]

I think there should be a niche counterspell in every color like how white has mana tithe Specifically because if I’m against a white deck running 4 copies of sun fall, depopulate, farewell, and every other sweeper under the sun where one card destroys my whole board stare at some point my green or red decks should be able to say “no”

[@kingzded5130]

Pretty sure they all do have their own counterspells, null elemental blast, red elemental blast, that Tuvalu card, and I can’t remember what black and green have but I know they do have at least one each

[@shnorkeythefourth4572]

@@kingzded5130 that’s interesting I’ll have to look them up

[@anexistanthuman2435]

If you think they have a sweeper, don’t play a lot of creatures, hold back and wait

[@drboolin]

black has Dash Hopes, and green has Avoid Fate... maybe not great cards but they sure are cards that were printed

[@WladcaPodziemia]

EDH is only format that keeps MTG alive/relevant (getting players in, or to stay) and without it other card games would push MTG out, since there much better designed games and with better mechanics and without bloat, or stuff like "reserve list".

[@drew8235]

Yeah that is a pretty hot take lol.

[@josiahclarke3535]

I kind of agree. I think, without commander, magic would have possibly taken an irreversible hit when they shifted everything online/pushed arena. There’s been a slow recovery; but I don’t think it would have been possible without commander as an anchor for the game.

[@academyruins1278]

Commander isn’t magic, it’s a board game using magic cards

[@27777BigRedBarn]

Bloomburrow being better than recent sets like OtJ and Karlov Manor is not exactly a high bar to clear. Cute is not MTG. How many cute cards were in Alpha?? Mtg was billed as satanic and evil when it came out. How is magic Cute? Bloomburrow is meh at best.

[@DavidTheReject]

I agree not everyone is down for bloomburrow. Cute is lame.

[@josiahclarke3535]

Bloomburrow does a good job of depicting a fantasy setting. Makes me wonder about the lore(I don’t read the web story posts) and the characters give me vibes of things like Lord of the Rings. But I can understand that bits not everyone’s vibe.

[@DraphEnjoyer]

The game lost its identity decades ago. Art looks nothing like it did years ago

[@jackdimambro484]

Agree on 1v1. I played yugioh for years, and quit because I was sick to death of building a fun theme deck only for every single other player to have the same bullshit win turn 1/2 deck. And they're all dickheads- same with magic, just a worse smell. At least plying commander I can have fun playing a sub-optimal deck sub-optimally, for a decent chunk of time, with a chance to win. 1v1 can die a painful death and 75% of the playerbase wouldn't care

[@hircenedaelen]

I agree that draft isn't fun People that complain about universes beyond are whinging about nothing

[@drew8235]

Hmm.

[@anexistanthuman2435]

Draft being fun depends entirely on the set you are drafting. Phyrexia all will be one and Dominaria united were fun as hell to draft with my friends

[@josiahclarke3535]

Draft is fun if you get the cards passed to make your deck. Sure, being able to feel out what people are picking so you can build around that is good, but it sucks if you get two packs deep on an archetype then proceed to get nothing relevant after that.

[@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688]

"Draft is 100% skill" is the hottest take in this entire video. First off, even the most highly skilled player can only build a deck out of the cards in their pool. Second, draft environments come pre solved these days, so pat yourself on the back for studying the meta while the rest of the normal people with lives outside of MTG are out living. You probably prefer draft because it's low power. You probably just miss the days when MTG was a resource management game. And that's fine, but don't delude yourself into thinking the reason you prefer draft is that it "levels the playing field". It doesn't, and TCG players don't like even matches. We like choosing our opponents decks so we can pubstomp innocents and feeling like our penises are bigger and girthier.

[@BlobThoughtsMTG]

Compared to casual commander, draft might as well be all skill. Yes there is some luck and variance involved, but draft rewards planning and preparation the most. 😊

[@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688]

@@BlobThoughtsMTG Maybe I'm misunderstanding the spirit of draft, but I feel like knowing what the best picks are ahead of time turns it into a constructed format where the variance is what deck you get to build. Tell yourself whatever beautiful lie you need to convince yourself that draft envolves more skill than constructed, though, I guess. Definitely less variance in a meta that contains 30,000 individual game pieces. Draft definitely isn't as solveable as EDH.

[@GrayVMhan]

​@@thesaurusakasickakatheomc7688 Well draft is pretty much two games, the drafting and construction is one game and then you play magic with the results of the first game. It tests a lot of construction skill and things like flow (if you're getting a lot of red cards passed your way then maybe you can build red without anyone else taking those wanted cards) and thus becomes more skill intensive than just netdecking a list.

[@slavisatosanovic2672]

"can only build a deck with cards in their pool." Are you sure you aren't confusing draft with Sealed? One of the most skill intensive parts of drafting is reading signals on what other players are drafting and to stear away from those colors if it means you can have a more consistent plan.

[@drew8235]

Yeah, I don't think you really understand draft.