Subject: A declaration to R&D Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 11:19:17 PDT From: "Chris Warren" To: mtg-l@wizards.com CC: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Dear Wizards of the Coast R&D: I hereby, on behalf of the hundreds of people who are realizing what a mistake Urza's Saga was, ask WotC R&D to cease and desist set creation until they can stop and realize what's happened to the competitive magic environment. I feel that due to choices in the creation of the cardpool, we will soon have the largest collection of no-fun, mindless, skill-unnecessary decks running around in constructed competition that we have ever seen. This all started with Stronghold as far as I'm concerned. Stronghold was, and still is, widely considered a fairly weak set, with too many cards that lent themselves to combination decks to either lock the game or win it all in one turn. Exodus, by printing a buyback counterspell (abusable on the face of it!) not to mention cards like Recurring Nightmare, compounded the problem. Urza's Saga makes it even worse. I've given up trying to figure out the logic behind some of these selections. Horseshoe Crab: obviously abusable. Now, print it, as a common, with another common, in the same color, Hermetic Study, to make it an obscenely powerful combination in limited. That's bad enough. But when they print Fertile Ground in the set? With Earthcraft still in the cardpool? Tolarian Academy: oh, sure, we give blue massive fast mana production all the time since we know if you give blue a lot of mana right away, it can't do anything TOO bad. Especially with cards like Mind over Matter or, heaven help us, Mishra's Helix around. Serra Avatar: Let's say I made a Bigger Furrier Creature card. my BFC is a 100/100 for 16 black mana. It's amazingly uncastable. Would you print it? NO! There are too many efficient ways to get creatures like this into the graveyard and then in play. Now, we get Show and Tell and Sneak Attack, so you don't even have to go that far. Gee, we'll make it self-recycling just in case your Oath of Druids deck needed a kick. With Mox Diamond and Lotus Petal running, around, a turn 2 20/20 shouldn't be a problem. WHAT ARE YOU DOING, R&D? I'm totally mystified. Even decks that took some skill to play, like Recurring Nightmare, by adding THREE CARDS from Urza's Saga, I can turn into a turn 4 instant kill. These aren't hidden gems, these are things that are just obscenely obvious. You're changing constructed play from a game I used to like, that basically consisted of players summoning creatures, attacking, destroying opposing cards, countering spells, etc., into a card-drawing contest of who can get their nifty combo first. Wonder why people claim green sucks? Green doesn't suck. Creatures you CAST suck. In this environment, if you have to cast something over 2 mana that doesn't win the game, you're dead. Or will be soon. Bam, you're dead. hope you have a disenchant. Though maybe that wouldn't even help. To compound the problem, the engines for these deck marvels run on enchantments. Ahh! Enchantments! Probably the #1 hardest type of permanent to remove. Only one color has reasonable enchantment removal. two have limited measures, and two are helpless. Stop and think: IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? Maybe you like combo decks, I don't know. Can we all come to a conclusion that some cards are by their nature bad for the environment? I think that's pretty accepted. It's why the DCI has banned and restricted lists. That's why Braingeyser is on the list. So you reprint it, arguably better. IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? There aren't many ways to kill your opponent. In limited, there's even fewer. The Urza's environment it slow in limited. So, you print a 4-mana instant to gain upwards of 12-20 life and a 4-mana enchantment that makes you virtually unkillable. IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? There are numerous creatures that destroy things, get you things, or whatnot, on leaving or entering play. Let's print a card that makes them use their abilities over and over and always come back until you get rid of it. It's an artifact. but wait! Now only 2 colors have reasonabl artifact control where it used to be 3. IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? I'm sure I've forgotten or just haven't yet seen some other abusable cards. Constructed play is turning into a card-drawing contest. Limited's coming really close to turning into find-the-broken-card. I can't even stand the new Standard environment. It's not just me. I've talked to multiple people, including playtesters who either don't like the set, or just don't want to play anymore, since it's just not much of a game to sit down, draw 11 cards, and win or lose after getting a deck and practicing for 20 minutes. Why didn't the playtesters do anything? "R&D told us we complained too much." Big surprise. If the people you ask to find flaws find a lot of flaws, you have two choices. You can address their concerns, or ignore some and make cosmetic changes that don't affect the problem. It's been largely the latter. IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? If your answer is yes, we like a MUCH different game. Incredibly disgusted, Chris Warren ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com