Why was the MTGPQ version of Experimental Frenzy designed the way it was? Should it be changed?

FitzyJM
FitzyJM Posts: 1 Just Dropped In
in MtGPQ Suggestions & Feedback
I was recently playing a spell based deck with a few Jump-Start cards and Experimental Frenzy in the decklist, and then after one game (and a quick search through a couple forum posts), I realized that the way the card has apparently been designed actually just prevents you from ever casting a card with Jump-Start from the graveyard while it's on the battlefield, as it actively prevents any of the cards that you "exile" (re: discard) from providing any mana for cards with Jump-Start already in your graveyard, due to how the Jump-Start mechanic is phrased and coded.

In the thread linked below, an admisistrator on the D3 forums spoke to some of the designers for MTG Puzzle Quest, and apparently, this is how the card is intended to function, which...why? 


If this is the intended design for this card, I honeslty don't understand why it was designed this way. So, the way that Jump-Start works in paper magic is that you just discard a card into your graveyard and then cast the card with Jump-Start. The fact that the MTGPQ version of Experimental Frenzy actively mentions "...a spell with Jump-Start..." in it's secondary ability, it seems to imply that Experimental Frenzy would be beneficial to spell-based decks that use some number of cards with the Jump-Start ability. Part of the main appeal to Experimental Frenzy is being able to stock your graveyard with cards that you might not want/need in your hand at the moment while also potentially fueling the Spells in your graveyard to have Jump-Start. This is particularly relevant/important for cards that care about the number of spells in your graveyard. 

These include the spells Beacon Bolt (which also has the Jump-Start ability) and Invade the City; the creatures Crackling Drake, Enigma Drake, Warfire Javilineer, Cyclops Electromancer, Pteramander, and Ghitu Lavarunner.

This is also relevant for cards that can interact with spells in the graveyard, which include the spells Expansion, Mission Briefing, Finale of Promise, Bond of Insight, and Flood of Recollection; the creatures Bloodwater Entity, Dreadhoard Arcanist, Salvager of Secrets; and the supports Harness the Storm and The Mirari Conjecture.

However, instead of allowing a player to add mana to Jump-Start cards in their graveyard while the card that was discarded also goes to the graveyard instead of exile, all Experimental Frenzy does is allow you to stock your graveyard with specific things.And on top of that, it's literally impossible to use the Jump-Start ability to cast a card that has the ability in your graveyard while Experimental Frenzy is in play, unless that card already had full mana before you played the Experimental Frenzy. The second ability on Experimental Frenzy adds exactly three mana to any spell with Jump-Start that enters the graveyard while it's in play. It only does this once for each spell with Jump-Start, as that spell is entering the graveyard. Notably, the lowest mana cost of any spell with Jump-Start in MTG Puzzle Quest is exactly four (Radical Idea). 

The amount of mana that Experimental Frenzy gives to cards with Jump-Start as they enter the graveyard is literally one mana less than is needed to cast the cheapest Jump-Start spell in the entire game. 

With the way that Experimental Frenzy functions right now, it actively hurts/hinders the Jump-Start ability, and because of this, it's only really of use to spell based decks that don't use and/or care about the Jump-Start ability and/or other potential graveyard strategies. Unfortunately, the vast majority of cards that care about and utilize the graveyard effectively are in Black and/or Green.

Below is a list of every current Planeswalker in MTG Puzzle Quest who in some way cares about and/or interacts with the graveyard through their loyalty abilities:

Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants (White)
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper (White/Black)
Liliana, Death's Majesty (Blue/Black)
Liliana, Defiant Necromancer (Black)
Liliana, Untouched by Death (Black)
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh (Blue/Black/Red)
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager (Blue/Black/Red)
Ral, Izzet Viceroy (Blue/Red)
Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge (Blue/Black)
Vraska, Golgari Queen (Black/Green)

Because Experimental Frenzy is Red, only three of these Planeswalkers can actually use it, that being the first two versions of Nicol Bolas, as well as Ral, Izzet Viceroy. For both versions of Nicol Bolas that are on this list, their ability that cares about/interacts with the graveyard is all about returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, and are not spell based. 

Meanwhile, Ral, Izzet Viceroy's second ability cares about the number of spells in your graveyard, and then uses that number to deal some amount of damage to a creature (similar to the spell Beacon Bolt). Interestingly enough, in regular MTG, both Ral, Izzet Viceroy and Beacon Bolt (and Crackling Drake for that matter) also count the number of instant and sorcery spells in your exile as well as in the graveyard.

Honestly, the second ability of Experimental Frenzy just shouldn't be on the card. At least, not while Frenzy interacts (or doesn't interact) with Jump-Start cards. Either that, or it should be changed/fixed to actually work with Jump-Start, because the way it is now makes it seem like it's supposed to work with Jump-Start and there's a bug/coding error, but it's been confirmed that it was intentional, so why is that second ability even there? You have to destroy your own Frenzy if you want to cast any of the Jump-Start cards you put into your own graveyard using it. 

Realistically, I feel like Experimental Frenzy can only be used in a primarily creature based deck to make some graveyard shenanigans happen, like discarding a bunch of really powerful legendary things and then casting a Primevals Glorious Rebirth using one of the Nicol Bolas planeswalkers, or one of the colorless planeswalkers (I guess maybe Nahiri? But honeslty, most of the stuff I'd be the most interested in reanimating aren't really in white, with a couple exceptions, so maybe one of the colorless planeswalkers could work best? idk)
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