Subject: Re: Rath cycle, Whining, "Scrubs" Green and Attitude
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 09:33:26 EDT
From: Talvin69@aol.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Frank, this is a copy of an e-mail I sent to Jamie Wakefield after he posted
his tremendous article about Magic in General entitled "Raht cycle, Whining,
"Scrubs" Green and Attitude" to Usenet.  Approximately a week after i sent it
I received a reply from Jamie, where he suggested I submit it for the Dojo,
which i believe to be a good idea.

>
>Later
>
>Jamie C. Wakefield
>King of the Fatties
>Thinks Mean People Suck

Wow!  That is all I can say, Jamie.  This was another tremendous article-book
is a more apt term, but whatever :-).  I agree with you on many accounts.  I
haven't played in a tournament since the qualifiers for new york last year.
Part of it is that the game doesn't interest me as much, but part of it is IMO
Rob Daugherty's fault for moving all of his tournaments out of Boston and into
random places, such as Brighton and Andover.  But the thing is, it isn't just
him, GP Boston was in Andover, and the PT Chicago Qualifier run by David Doust
was in Newton.  The reasoning behind the move is obviously money, but why?
Probably because attendance is down.  Probably because magic isn't as fun as
it used to be.  I don't know if it's part of the so-called "Dojo Effect" and
having to play against the same decks, or if it's because WotC keeps putting
out more and more overpowered cards.  Personally I long for the days of
beating people down with Orggs and Aeolipiles.  I think the thing that is
ruinning the game is that Wizards has made it much too easy to kill your
opponent in 3-4 turns with speed decks.  I mean, I remember back before
Regionals 97 struggling to get my Green Worb deck to goldfish in 5 turns
better than 50% of the time so i could beat Bloom and Sq. Stasis.  I long for
the times when mid-speed decks were the rule, rather than the exception that
proved the rule.  Look at type 2 right now, and you see WW, S. Black, Sligh,
Bloom- 4 Speed kill deck.  You have Cuneo Blue (my favorite deck right now
actually), Pheonix, Oath-3 Slow Control Decks.  you then have Death which is a
mid speed deck, and you have Tradewind whivc tneds more towards control than
mid-speed.  Whatever happened to 3-4 color decks with removal and efficient
creatures?  I mean, look at the PT1 top 8 decks, you have 2 Control decks,
Loconto and Hammer's millstone decks.  You have Justice's Worb deck which is
pretty much control.  You have 2 geddon decks, a necro, Tam's 4 color
funkiness, all mid-speed decks.  and you have Baxter's 3 color black which is
right on the line between mid speed and speed.  Whatever happened to Fireball
as a viable card?  Why is Wrath now too slow to beat fast decks?  Because
people bitched about weak sets so WotC started printing cards which weren't as
blatantly broken as the Broken cards of old, but were still broken, i mean,
look at fireblast, hatred, jackal pup, sarcomancy, etc.  you should not be
getting 2 power for 1 mana with such a slight drawback.  Hell kird ape was
probably more balanced, as back then you could play bolt and plow.  But i
fear, we will never be able to go back to the days of 96 when Magic was
amazing and fun, and everything was more or less balanced, though Ice Age II
might be a good start.

Part of the reason for the speeding up of the environment, i believe, is
caused by the lack of efficient removal.  Gone are STP, Bolt, Pyroclasm.
Wizards keeps printing more and more efficient creatures while making removal
weaker and weaker.   I remember when R/W control was a top tier deck, now
however you have no way to remove pro-red guys as white's removal sucks so
bad.  Without efficient removal the more mid-tempo decks have little chance of
succeeding as they are unable to stop the early rush, or to win fast enough to
defeat control. Before, mid speed decks owuld beat control or speed around
half the time, now they beat control maybe half the time and just have no
chance against hatred or sligh.

Regards,
TJ Xenos