I came back after 2.5 years off from playing this game. Here are my observations

Mainloop25

Origins is a really well-put-together set! A lot of cards in it are still effective in Standard. When I had almost nothing in new sets, I found that I could still pair some of the ORI mythics with whatever I grabbed from new packs and make them work. Thopters with Warstorm Surge is a good combo.

Way less buggy now! “Error: Something Went Wrong” happens a lot less often, and are rarely game-breaking. Kudos! One of the big reasons I quit playing a couple of years ago.

Hate to break it to you, but drop rates are the same as they’ve always been. 

The loop detector is an awesome addition. I rarely need to use it though, which is nice.

All the same top 10 coalitions as 2 years ago

Omni loops are still the most effective way to get quick and easy wins in standard.

Very complicated mechanics, probably overly so. Maybe because I’m coming to them late? But the whole Buried/Escape thing feels so convoluted to me. They are kinda fun to tinker with, but are slow to set up and are not as good at winning as just good old beat-down decks.

Did everyone get Shadowspear? Very few standard decks don’t have one

Took me a while to figure out how to use Vanguard cards but they’re pretty fun. I don't have any of the rare/mythic vanguards but I'm not sure how crucial they are.

A lot of the newer PW’s don’t have great standalone abilities. They seem very tailored to specific deck types.

Certain common cards are either as good or better than their older way rarer counterparts. Vindicate = 6 mana target exile Masterpiece. Final Death = 7 mana target exile common. Dark Petition = 9 mana rare, Unbreakable Bond = 8 mana common for better effects. What’s up with that?

Support destruction outside of red is hard to come by nowadays

Ruinous Ultimatum is like the new River’s Rebuke.

Two opposing Underworld Coinsmiths will mutually self-destruct the game in a -2 damage loop. It’s a hilariously frustrating way to lose a match.

Newer sets don’t have a lot of crazy cheap mana ramp. Seems to be mostly replaced with cheating cards out of your library or graveyard

Some of my favorite new cards I own: Drana Bloodchief, Genesis Ultimatum, Vengevine, Warstorm Surge, Kaza Roil Chaser, Thada Adel (stealing all of your Shadowspears), Unbreakable Bond, Eye Collector (graveyard shenanigans was always one of my favorite mechanics), Colossification, Volcanic Geyser. Probably others I’m missing.

So, they were never going to actually expand Story Mode, were they?

PvE is still a lot of fun though. Wish they had more of it. A lot of the new ones don’t have the same charm as the old ones. People still love Avacyn’s Madness!

They changed objectives on some of the old events. I like a lot of the changes.

Is there a new OP card set - a la Innistrad or Kaladesh - in Standard now? Or are the new sets pretty balanced now? To this day, a lot of the best mythic creatures I own are still from those first 4 or so sets. Not a lot has come around to change my opinion on that.

Big changes to card mastery since I last played. Way harder to master cards now, not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I like that mastering cards gives you a little something for your effort, but it’s so much more of a grind to do so. I don’t even know why, but mastering cards was always something I enjoyed doing for its own sake, and now they’ve made it way slower. Yet I still love doing it for some reason.

Same forum complaints as back in the day, just different in the specifics. Lots of familiar names here still, which is cool. Whatever happened to OhBoy and Shteev? lol

Tremayne

@Mainloop25 - shteev got banned about 18 months ago. It is rumoured he is here in a new guise maybe you’ll be able to spot him in the extremely sarcastic and snide threads. 😄

Great post to read. 

A few immediate comments. Zendikar rising has plenty of cheap lands that comes out with landforming. The designers have decided that cards like Rishkars expertise is a no go instead it has mainly been replaced by cards that give you half and full mana. Or cards that are more similar to Animist Awakening.

Vanguards are very swing and a miss, but a few have seen a lot of use. Sorin, vengeful bloodlord when it was in standard, but now Shadowspear has taken its place.

There are a few mythics that does the support destruction, but it is mainly artefact and enchantment support destruction that is available. My guess is that we will see a change here because it is to limited IMO.

jtwood

Mainloop25 said:

Omni loops are still the most effective way to get quick and easy wins in standard Legacy

They have printed some Omni hate, but they're really not good, so it continues to be a powerful card for players with Whir-Omni (i.e. people who aren't me ).

Mainloop25 said:

Did everyone get Shadowspear? Very few standard decks don’t have one

It's just a rare, and it's colorless. That means it's going to be fairly easy to obtain and playable in just about every deck. The fact that it shuts down one of GR's best abilities means it's almost necessary to play.

Mainloop25 said:

Certain common cards are either as good or better than their older way rarer counterparts. Vindicate = 6 mana target exile Masterpiece. Final Death = 7 mana target exile common. Dark Petition = 9 mana rare, Unbreakable Bond = 8 mana common for better effects. What’s up with that?

In general, I think they have significantly improved their ability to port Magic cards from Paper into the Puzzle Quest format. Part of that learning curve seems to have been determining what features are powerful in this game, which ones are not, and distributing them in proper doses. As you mentioned, green ramp isn't as "dumb and simple" as it used to be. It's best with a mono walker, because a lot of good ramp cards convert based on your PW colors (see: green Omen and Cultivate). Otherwise, the dumbest multicolor ramp these days comes in the form of Song loops or Zen Nissa land decks that power up to her ultimate. In that way, they still offer a lot of the same pathways to victory, but it's more nuanced.

Mainloop25 said:

Support destruction outside of red is hard to come by nowadays

Ruinous Ultimatum is like the new River’s Rebuke.

Back to what you said about Origins, Conclave Naturalists has suddenly become great as a source of generic support destruction in the current environment. With Ruinous Ultimatum, watch out for land-heavy decks. And there are some great lands out there today, like Hall of Heliod's Generosity.

Mainloop25 said:

Is there a new OP card set - a la Innistrad or Kaladesh - in Standard now? Or are the new sets pretty balanced now? To this day, a lot of the best mythic creatures I own are still from those first 4 or so sets. Not a lot has come around to change my opinion on that.

Zendikar is very strong and will last the longest of anything you could get right now as a returning player. Ikoria is also very strong, but it will rotate sooner. If I were returning, I would focus on those two sets.

Welcome back!

Mainloop25

jtwood said:

Mainloop25 said:

Omni loops are still the most effective way to get quick and easy wins in standard Legacy

They have printed some Omni hate, but they're really not good, so it continues to be a powerful card for players with Whir-Omni (i.e. people who aren't me ).

Mainloop25 said:

Did everyone get Shadowspear? Very few standard decks don’t have one

It's just a rare, and it's colorless. That means it's going to be fairly easy to obtain and playable in just about every deck. The fact that it shuts down one of GR's best abilities means it's almost necessary to play.

Mainloop25 said:

Certain common cards are either as good or better than their older way rarer counterparts. Vindicate = 6 mana target exile Masterpiece. Final Death = 7 mana target exile common. Dark Petition = 9 mana rare, Unbreakable Bond = 8 mana common for better effects. What’s up with that?

In general, I think they have significantly improved their ability to port Magic cards from Paper into the Puzzle Quest format. Part of that learning curve seems to have been determining what features are powerful in this game, which ones are not, and distributing them in proper doses. As you mentioned, green ramp isn't as "dumb and simple" as it used to be. It's best with a mono walker, because a lot of good ramp cards convert based on your PW colors (see: green Omen and Cultivate). Otherwise, the dumbest multicolor ramp these days comes in the form of Song loops or Zen Nissa land decks that power up to her ultimate. In that way, they still offer a lot of the same pathways to victory, but it's more nuanced.

Mainloop25 said:

Support destruction outside of red is hard to come by nowadays

Ruinous Ultimatum is like the new River’s Rebuke.

Back to what you said about Origins, Conclave Naturalists has suddenly become great as a source of generic support destruction in the current environment. With Ruinous Ultimatum, watch out for land-heavy decks. And there are some great lands out there today, like Hall of Heliod's Generosity.

Mainloop25 said:

Is there a new OP card set - a la Innistrad or Kaladesh - in Standard now? Or are the new sets pretty balanced now? To this day, a lot of the best mythic creatures I own are still from those first 4 or so sets. Not a lot has come around to change my opinion on that.

Zendikar is very strong and will last the longest of anything you could get right now as a returning player. Ikoria is also very strong, but it will rotate sooner. If I were returning, I would focus on those two sets.

Welcome back!

Oops, meant Legacy. Totally makes sense about Shadowspear. Currently chasing it in booster crafting. Just learned about Song of Creation, so I haven't really thought about that card much. I'll look out for those cards, and thanks for the tip about what sets to target. Thanks!

Tezzeret

It's often taken for granted, but I think the biggest improvement  has been the games interface and how much smoother the game runs. Anyone playing back in orgin days will remember  how blocky and clunky the game played. And the UI was a mess back than!

madwren

Mainloop25 said:

Origins is a really well-put-together set! A lot of cards in it are still effective in Standard. When I had almost nothing in new sets, I found that I could still pair some of the ORI mythics with whatever I grabbed from new packs and make them work. Thopters with Warstorm Surge is a good combo.

Way less buggy now! “Error: Something Went Wrong” happens a lot less often, and are rarely game-breaking. Kudos! One of the big reasons I quit playing a couple of years ago.

Hate to break it to you, but drop rates are the same as they’ve always been. 

The loop detector is an awesome addition. I rarely need to use it though, which is nice.

All the same top 10 coalitions as 2 years ago

Omni loops are still the most effective way to get quick and easy wins in standard.

Very complicated mechanics, probably overly so. Maybe because I’m coming to them late? But the whole Buried/Escape thing feels so convoluted to me. They are kinda fun to tinker with, but are slow to set up and are not as good at winning as just good old beat-down decks.

Did everyone get Shadowspear? Very few standard decks don’t have one

Took me a while to figure out how to use Vanguard cards but they’re pretty fun. I don't have any of the rare/mythic vanguards but I'm not sure how crucial they are.

A lot of the newer PW’s don’t have great standalone abilities. They seem very tailored to specific deck types.

Certain common cards are either as good or better than their older way rarer counterparts. Vindicate = 6 mana target exile Masterpiece. Final Death = 7 mana target exile common. Dark Petition = 9 mana rare, Unbreakable Bond = 8 mana common for better effects. What’s up with that?

Support destruction outside of red is hard to come by nowadays

Ruinous Ultimatum is like the new River’s Rebuke.

Two opposing Underworld Coinsmiths will mutually self-destruct the game in a -2 damage loop. It’s a hilariously frustrating way to lose a match.

Newer sets don’t have a lot of crazy cheap mana ramp. Seems to be mostly replaced with cheating cards out of your library or graveyard

Some of my favorite new cards I own: Drana Bloodchief, Genesis Ultimatum, Vengevine, Warstorm Surge, Kaza Roil Chaser, Thada Adel (stealing all of your Shadowspears), Unbreakable Bond, Eye Collector (graveyard shenanigans was always one of my favorite mechanics), Colossification, Volcanic Geyser. Probably others I’m missing.

So, they were never going to actually expand Story Mode, were they?

PvE is still a lot of fun though. Wish they had more of it. A lot of the new ones don’t have the same charm as the old ones. People still love Avacyn’s Madness!

They changed objectives on some of the old events. I like a lot of the changes.

Is there a new OP card set - a la Innistrad or Kaladesh - in Standard now? Or are the new sets pretty balanced now? To this day, a lot of the best mythic creatures I own are still from those first 4 or so sets. Not a lot has come around to change my opinion on that.

Big changes to card mastery since I last played. Way harder to master cards now, not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, I like that mastering cards gives you a little something for your effort, but it’s so much more of a grind to do so. I don’t even know why, but mastering cards was always something I enjoyed doing for its own sake, and now they’ve made it way slower. Yet I still love doing it for some reason.

Same forum complaints as back in the day, just different in the specifics. Lots of familiar names here still, which is cool. Whatever happened to OhBoy and Shteev? lol

Hey, welcome back! Hope you're having fun in your return trip. Let us know at From the Ashes if you need a place to play.  A few comments: 

The game is generally more stable, and has been for a couple of months. There were some rough times last year. 

The loop detector is great in theory, but there are a lot of reports of Greg ignoring it, thus defeating the purpose of having it. 

Speaking of loops, they're harder to come by these days, which isn't a bad thing. They've done away with overpowered ramp spells, which was a necessary change. Most "ramp" nowadays is by using land supports, but another subtle way they've nerfed loop decks is by making the existing ramp spells convert gems to the planeswalker colors. That means mono-green benefits most (as it should), but throwing something like Cultivate in Tamiyo means that most of the time it'll just fizzle and do nothing for you.   

There have been some fun new mechanics. Landform is pretty great.  Buried and Escape are indeed something of a dud, though there are a few cards that are really strong with those mechanics (like Vengevine.) Landform is my favorite new mechanic. 

Vanguards are one of my favorite additions, with a few caveats. One, the current crop isn't quite as good as the introductory set of Vanguards, which rotated out of Standard when Zendikar Rising came out. Two, they aren't craftable, which makes them jewel sink.  Three, since there are plenty of bad ones (just like other card types), it's a frustrating jewel sink. 

If you think support destruction outside of red is hard, check out creature removal outside of black. 

The Underworld Coinsmith mutual self-destruction also happens with Razia, Boros Archangel. 

Story Mode remains the most squandered potential in the game. 

I actually feel that Ikoria is the best Standard set right now. It has some core threats/buildarounds like Song of Creation, Whirlwind of Thought, all the Ultimatums, Quartzwood Crasher, Winota, and even Unpredictable Cyclone (which is pretty much the only cycling abuser around). That being said, there are solid cards in all the sets, and I haven't been disappointed with any of the recent releases. 

I still find the game pretty fun as a veteran player. The complaints have pretty much never changed, but a lot of us are numb by this point.