Ampersand said: The meta is shifting. They seem to be hinting that they want lands to be more prominent, so I expect to see a lot of decks with a Gate-based "shell" popping up to work around losing gem converter spells and cards like StV etc.
Firinmahlazer said: I really feel like this is in the same vein.
I really feel like this is in the same vein.
Ramp spells have always been a conundrum. As ramp power increases, card balance effectively decreases. What matter is it if a card costs 14 or 19 when I can just Rx or HoP myself into cascades of mana at will? Games are faster, more dangerous, more able to be looped and combo’d.
Thus, if they want to slow the environment down, the best way to do it is to limit ramp spells. However, when that occurs, the power shifts from the player to Greg, because limited ramp drastically inhibits player ability to dig themselves out of a hole. When Greg explodes for 70 mana into a board full of creatures, and all you have in hand are a couple of gates, how do you make up the difference?
This is a problem endemic to their base concept: They took a game based on linear mana progression and converted it to one with randomly imbalanced mana gains.
madwren said: I think they've deliberately moved away from large-scale converters. Ramp spells have always been a conundrum. As ramp power increases, card balance effectively decreases. What matter is it if a card costs 14 or 19 when I can just Rx or HoP myself into cascades of mana at will? Games are faster, more dangerous, more able to be looped and combo’d. Thus, if they want to slow the environment down, the best way to do it is to limit ramp spells. However, when that occurs, the power shifts from the player to Greg, because limited ramp drastically inhibits player ability to dig themselves out of a hole. When Greg explodes for 70 mana into a board full of creatures, and all you have in hand are a couple of gates, how do you make up the difference? This is a problem endemic to their base concept: They took a game based on linear mana progression and converted it to one with randomly imbalanced mana gains.
Firinmahlazer said: Seriously everything is so expensive to cast and we are on the last set before we lose our best converter. I feel like they reverted back to XLN thinking when they designed this set. Is anyone else struggling with casting costs?
andrewvanmarle said: madwren said: I think they've deliberately moved away from large-scale converters. Ramp spells have always been a conundrum. As ramp power increases, card balance effectively decreases. What matter is it if a card costs 14 or 19 when I can just Rx or HoP myself into cascades of mana at will? Games are faster, more dangerous, more able to be looped and combo’d. Thus, if they want to slow the environment down, the best way to do it is to limit ramp spells. However, when that occurs, the power shifts from the player to Greg, because limited ramp drastically inhibits player ability to dig themselves out of a hole. When Greg explodes for 70 mana into a board full of creatures, and all you have in hand are a couple of gates, how do you make up the difference? This is a problem endemic to their base concept: They took a game based on linear mana progression and converted it to one with randomly imbalanced mana gains. I do agree that the really big converters like rishex do skew the game a bit, but at the same time i really hope that they don't deliberatly try to slow down the game...Balance and speed do no need to exclude each other.I really dont want to go back to the origins era where you took 30+ turns to whittle down your opponent.What about ramp that converts an many gems as are shields and add a shield per turn? that gives time to answer it while being lucky enough to keep it means you get big rewards.
madwren said I also feel the competing urges. I hate when my games take a long time, but I also dislike when everyone's just casting their entire hand at will. I certainly don't have an answer to that problem; I was just commenting on why I think they are trying to get away from converters and forcing us to build mana ramp using lands, which presumably in their mind is closer to the actual spirit of MtG. /shrug