So… Playing within the new environment and looking ahead there are a few problems lurking on the horizon.
Bringing them up now so Oktagon can adjust steering if necessary!
There are probably others that other people will mention, but on the weekend I noticed 2 things happening more than once.
They are existing problems, but there have always been workarounds (and currently are still) but the existing workarounds are leaving and the last few sets have shown nothing new to deal with these situations, so Oktagon need to be apprised of them so they can decide what the future state should be.
I like the (overall) slower environment that is being planned but there are some problems with it that will NOT go away through sets rotating.
Every single land or mana card has been moved to take at least 2 turns to get out on EVERY planeswalker, but there are situations where this is a huge issue, COMMON situations.
First off…
Lilliana 1.
If she gets a cascade first turn she can empty her hand and then empty yours with her first ability. Depending on how things go she can keep doing this, or her first cards can simply be enough for her to win over time.
Your only way out is loyalty abilities or cards that you can cast in 1 turn, but there are now almost none of these, certainly not any that will overthrow an existing board position and put you back in control.
The current strategies against this are Aftermath spells and Eternalise creatures, both block specific, both going away.
Apart from that you are counting on a lucky cascade yourself.
You used to be able to help yourself get lucky but drawing and playing a land in one turn, setting yourself up for better luck the next turn but now no lands can be played before they are discarded.
It is frustrating and painful to play against, but the main problem is you have very little real hope apart from luck.
Lilliana one owned by everyone and this takes zero cards at all, it’s deeply part of her. It hasn’t been a huge problem before now because there have ALWAYS been sufficient things to cast that cost 6 or less to fight against her with.
Kiora
Her first can prevent you from casting something unless it’s in one turn. Similar problem to Lill 1 but from a different source.
By itself it wouldn’t be the worst since the resources stay in your hand and EVENTUALLY you get lucky and get to play something (especially if you have a nice desert, but they are going away too!)… BUT then we hit out other enemies…
Sphinx’s Tutelage.
This is seeing a resurgence. Bounce is really powerful and plentiful now, card draw is everywhere, this is a cheap and common card that being Origins will never disappear and is now in most blue decks and rising.
It increases the cost of cards markedly even by itself, but add just a small amount of card draw or drain mana (both in every set) and suddenly you can’t play anything that you can’t draw and play in one turn and (as outlined above) these are going away completely.
Green doesn’t even a support removal spell that costs 6 anymore, 7 minimum (and that is going). The best you get is the Ooze (which is great) but if it’s a clean board that Ooze ends up in the first slow and is probably disabled or bounced or stolen before it removes a single shield off something.
So… We’ve been relying a LOT on playing things within one turn to overcome particular entrenched strategies and, until now, it hasn’t been a problem, but what’s the future going to look like when Hours takes it’s deserts and aftermath and eternals away and we can no longer cast anything within one turn?
The biggest rule for this game, for people starting out, is that the beginning planeswalkers need to be viable otherwise people won’t keep playing enough to get anything else.
Since they will be playing from the start against Lill1 and Sphinx’s Tutelage there need to be tools widespread to counter these problems from the very beginning of the game at common and uncommon rarity.
And even things costing 6 are too high since they don’t get +3 in their main colour until level 58.
So these problems need to be solvable by common/uncommon cards that cost 5 at most. There is no sign in the current sets that there is any allowance for this.
I’m sure there are other issues too (and since I actually want the slower environment, how do you accomplish that without getting trapped by these roadblocks?)
Thanks,
Kinesia.
