a) Yes I do think it's an improvement for flexibility and in-game deck building. The pool has gotten quite large and if you're going to build a deck in game, narrowing down the selections is always useful.
b) This list might be a bit longer
As with everything Stainless, it's just incomplete and unfinished. Maybe there's ways to consolidate more key words or themes (like Trample could possibly fall under Evasion) but really they just need to add more options to use. The 'feel' of it (maybe it's the HUD they've chosen) is clunky and becomes time consuming. Like for example when recreating and building a deck from the forums. Moving through and selecting any additional filters beyond the 'basic' tab just isn't worth it (specifically because it's awkward and incomplete). I wish I had a suggestion for cleaning it up but it definitely seems like it was built with the console in mind (so I'm not sure how they would address it). As for the sort options, they need to finish (or fix) them. Others have mentioned about things missing (I'm guessing there's a reddit thread somewhere that compiles all these misses?) when used and that just undermines the whole thing in general. Like
Murder not being listed under removal. Missing out on options to choose is a big deal when building. It also makes me question if the old stand by method of cost, color, card type and rarity hasn't been punked somewhere along the way (every other time they make a change, there's a ripple effect). Also mentioned is that they didn't make the effort to separate 2 and 3 mana costs. That just seems like something they should have focused on as a priority when making a change like this. The value of filtering by cost, color and type will far outweigh any other option they could possibly include.
c)I sort of answered this as I went through (b) but - more filters (more key words, more mechanics), completed/finished filters (everything is tagged properly to appear), separating 2 and 3 mana spells, and a more user friendly navigation set up (if that's even possible at this point). Others that would be nice but aren't likely to appear are: keyword search (which would be nice with that 'quick type' where as you enter letters, it narrows down the choices it could be), a filter option for power/toughness (</>= option would be nice too) and import/export of decks.
d) Right now I use the tabs/filters beyond the basic tab for ideas and janky brews (can't trust it to much else) and use the basic tab search for everything else (building lists from other builders, searching for key/known cards etc).
e)A
LIST of BBB acronyms.
elk