Unban cat, keep clover.

Standard 2020: vanilla creatures go brr.

I think the most annoying thing about these bans is that many people (myself included) just watched a three-day tournament to try to understand the format and pick up tricks and tech, and now all that is completely irrelevant.

Nice thing about new meta: lots more viable decks.

Not nice at all - it's ridiculous how stupid games can be. For example I just played this one, where I was monored and opponent was Cycling.

I'm on the draw.

T1: him Fox, me Akoum Hellhound.
T2: him cycle x2, attack. Me looking at the Bonecrusher Giant in my hand and knowing the game is over.

Like, seriously. If I had been on the play, I win. Since I'm on the draw, I lose. I made pretty much no relevant decisions the entire game. Why even play then? Fox is not the only culprit, there are several other cards that are pretty much "answer me or you lose". These cards are very stupid, and very frustrating. In the same way, there've been so many decks that improve tremendously if they draw [key card], and are weak otherwise - e.g. Fires, Wilderness Reclamation, Clover. The older formats actually look more interesting in this regard. Sure, there are still some decks that get better when they draw a certain card (e.g. Aether Vial, Gaea's Cradle), but not to the extent that it happens in Standard.

The gameplay is bad enough that getting to 4 wins a day still feels like a huge grind. I really want to quit, but there's nothing else to play. Sheesh. Where's rebalanced pre-homecoming Gwent when you need it. At least that game will necessarily involve gameplay decisions, every game.

EDIT: Oh yeah, MTG also has an excessively long "you are losing, but not 100% lost" phase. How long are people willing to sit through that? Some people don't mind, but god, I find it suffer.

EDIT #2: If we're allowed to sell accounts, I'd probably sell mine. It's got most cards, lots of wildcards, gems, gold. But we're not allowed, so /shrug.

Pro tip: mono red is kinda bad at the moment.
I thought you were going to bitch about Yorion... Not fox....
I was on Rakdos but the food piles just destroyed that deck.
I hate mono green with passion so that is out of the question, gruul landfall is interesting, Temur adventures seems OK, dimir control seem rather good, Azorious yorion looks busted, there must be a good Ugin pile but probably T2, Rogues are still decent I think.. But not sure.

Today number one enemy is Yorion, Fox is trash... Mono red is too slow for food piles.
If you wanna aggro I think Henge is the way to go over cleave.

Yeah, CFB gives the Yorion decks as the best right now, with Gruul the best aggro deck if it comes to it: https://strategy.channelfireball.com/al ... 0-19-2020/

Doesn't change the fact I'm not finding the gameplay very fun and getting 4 wins/day is a grind - an especially bad grind if I queue into bad matchup after bad matchup (as often happens on the ranked ladder). Meanwhile in the unranked queues it's mirror after mirror. And there're still too many games where nothing I did mattered. /wrist

Both Spikefield Hazard and Scorching Dragonfire would have taken care of that fox.

It's not that red is bad if it doesnt get to go first, you just had the wrong card in hand to deal with the fox.

Yeah, and opponent has a 40% chance to start with Fox while I have a 60% chance to not start with Spikefield Hazard. So there's a 24% chance I lose immediately before any decisions are made. Nice game

I suppose this applies to all card games, but still, it feels especially bad with Magic. Sorry for being so cynical.

Everything is going so slowly now. Ppl are hardcasting Shark Typhoon!!! Might be about time to bring back Torbran/Embercleave and start killing people on T4/5 again.
Fox be damned




Those numbers mean the exact same thing.

Tip to myself from 3 days ago: play BO3.

The meta is looking pretty healthy right now, and I can certainly see BO3 being much more fun (although BO1 is still enjoyable if I play some other deck).

AH, I thought u already were. Bo1 is really hard to navigate with the diversity of viable decks right now.

**** this game. I don't have fun when I win and I have even less fun when I lose. Playing to 4 wins every day has become a chore, especially since it can easily take 30+ minutes.

I'm going to uninstall. If anyone wants my account, LMK - it's got tons of wildcards, many of the best current decks already built and enough wildcards to build those that it doesn't already have, and some 1500+ gems left.

I'll probably continue to follow the older formats but I probably won't play myself. I might continue to read this forum for a while as well, but probably not for long.

Sorry to hear that. This happens to me every few years too. I would suggest not deleting or trading your account. You're going to miss this after a long while, even though you don't believe me right now. It's tough to keep up with every single day, and you eventually get to the point where you're thinking "couldn't I be spending my time better." And then a few months or years later you're like "gee, I really miss Magic, wonder what the newest set is like" and you're back. I don't understand how streamers like CGB do it. Dude's been playing Magic every single day since Magic: Duels was out, and he actually mentioned burnout in one of his recent videos.

If it makes you feel better, I'm doing the same. My kid still plays on my profile but I've taken to only playing about once a week now. If you, CGB and I are all getting burnout at the same time, it might just be the game and not us. I used to advocate for high level power across the board but I'm starting to change my mind. The current power-creep is just out of control IMO and the constant bans are getting frustrating.

Hope to see you again soon bro.

Uncle Sixty with the wise words.

Sorry to hear it Banedon. That’s happened to me before as well with gaming in general. No pleasure in winning, even less in losing. You’re lucky to recognize it and take a break. I haven’t touched my Xbox in over a year I think. Just not into gaming at all unless it’s on my phone .

Two close friends calling me to see if I’m getting new Xbox but I don’t see the point. I’m not gonna play I think. I don’t even watch Netflix more than once a month . Not sure what’s happening with my habits. I just like sitting on the couch, playing on my phone (gaming or chatting with people).

I think he has you blocked... Barno...
Copy pasta your comment for Banedon to read it.

Sorry to hear it Banedon. That’s happened to me before as well with gaming in general. No pleasure in winning, even less in losing. You’re lucky to recognize it and take a break. I haven’t touched my Xbox in over a year I think. Just not into gaming at all unless it’s on my phone .

Two close friends calling me to see if I’m getting new Xbox but I don’t see the point. I’m not gonna play I think. I don’t even watch Netflix more than once a month . Not sure what’s happening with my habits. I just like sitting on the couch, playing on my phone (gaming or chatting with people).

I thought only Poet was blocking me!! It’s an epidemic

You're the epidemic

huehuehuehuehuehue

Wow, that's a truly remarkable post.

My problem with Magic right now is that it feels there's little player agency. Opponent plays Fervent Champion into Robber of the Rich into Anax into Embercleave on the play - game is over, I made no relevant decisions. Meanwhile if it's me with that start, I still made no relevant decisions, it's a simple "jam the best threat every turn". Just as miserable is e.g. a game where the board is near parity and then one player plays The Great Henge. Suddenly they're going to win unless opponent draws removal for it, which they might indeed have in their deck, but they don't know where it is in the deck. Meanwhile it's very miserable as opponent's board advantage grows every turn even if it's not decisive yet. "There's an exact sequence of cards I and opponent might draw that might still result in me winning" is great fun if I actually win, but the vast majority of the time it doesn't work out. Equally miserable is to control The Great Henge knowing you are going to win if opponent doesn't topdeck an answer. It's like kicking someone while they're down, knowing you haven't won yet, but also knowing you are vastly favored.

It's possible problems such as these are fundamental, but on the other hand, I did enjoy Magic in the past. I liked playing Bant Ramp and Nexus and Selenesya tokens. Still, somewhere in the past year I stopped enjoying the game. We'll see if that changes in the future. It might, or it might not - I quit Hearthstone in a similar way, and never reinstalled. Right now I find myself missing pre-homecoming Gwent. Post-homecoming Gwent has some nice improvements, but it does feel like many of the new features cut out the heart of the game. Mythgard is still Mythgard and like an improved Magic, but it's sorely lacking in playerbase. I might wind up quitting card games entirely.

Also Cucho for the considerate comment, and I guess I will unblock Barney since I'm quitting after all

Play poker. Ez game