Six Ways to Improve Magic
Today I’m going to take a break from deck techs and metagame breakdowns and focus on some improvements to Magic I would like to see. We play a great game, but there’s always room to make it even better. These are just my opinions and each topic is multi-faceted.
Some of the areas of improvement involve cEDH which I played at a recent RIW 1k. There’s growing support and enthusiasm for the format.
TAKE WIZARDS OF THE COAST PRIVATE
Starting it off with a bang.
It has been pitched to spin off Wizards of the Coast into its own company in the past, but the key component of moving away from Hasbro is to go private. Publicly traded companies, such as Hasbro, are subject to quarterly Wall Street expectations.
Many companies have been taken private in order to regroup without the quarterly scrutiny. WOTC is currently trapped in a printing cycle in hopes of showing constant growth.
There are clear diminishing returns on creating too many new cards. They’re running faster and faster with less to show for it.
Gone are the days of getting excited by spoiler season because the next set is already on the horizon by the time the product gets into your hands. I want to once again be excited by prereleases. There was a string of about fifteen years where I didn’t miss a single one. Prerelease weekends now only disrupt my constructed tournament schedule.
Privately-held companies are not without their faults and it’s by no means a guaranteed success if it happens. It does offer a chance at normalcy and I think it’s the best bet.
CONTINUE TO KEEP THE RESERVE LIST
The continued aggressive printing of new sets and reprints of old favorites has fans worrying about a deflationary event. When Magic cards are expected to be worth less tomorrow there’s little incentive to buy today.
Despite the accessibility drawbacks of the reserve list it’s actually one of the few tailwinds to encourage collecting cards. The signaling alone of abolishing the reserve list would be a massive blow to WOTC’s credibility.
There may be a time in the future after enough goodwill has been restored that faith can remain without the reserve list. This may sound like I’m pessimistic on Magic’s outlook, but there are meaningful changes that can be made to restore balance. I’m hopeful for the future.
SHAKE UP PIONEER WITHOUT A MASTERS SET
Pioneer has great bones to be a solid format. The lack of fetch lands keeps the game moving which is a breath of fresh air.
Many folks, including myself, have called for a ban on Karn, the Great Creator or Nykthos despite Mono Green not necessarily having a stranglehold on the format.
Not only is Mono Green very powerful, but comboing off takes too much time. What we really want is change and going after green is the path of least resistance.
The Pioneer player base wants a shakeup to the format despite the metagame being fairly diverse. We have also observed the Modern format in the last few years face the same issue. Sometimes the format is healthy, but stagnation makes us lose interest. Rakdos versus Mono Green, we get it already.
Modern Masters has garnered negative feedback as the top decks attempt to jam as many staples from the latest set despite a vast card pool. To keep Pioneer’s identity I would vote against a masters set.
Rather than a master set there can be Pioneer-specific cards introduced gradually with new releases to help out archetypes that are close to being top tier. This doesn’t mean printing exclusively cards that go into numerous decks like The One Ring or Orcish Bowmasters.
Wizards has announced Pioneer will be fleshed out on Arena next year which is a great step for the format. A long time coming.
CREATE MORE DIRECT TO CEDH STAPLES
CEDH is currently more popular than ever which can serve as a pressure test for the format’s long term viability.
One of the common critiques of cEDH is that you must aggressively mulligan to your strongest cards which is very true. At the moment there aren’t enough cEDH-specific staples making Sol Ring and Mana Crypt too powerful compared to the 70th spell in the deck. Narrowing the gap between the worst spell and the staples will make aggressive mulligans less of a necessity.
One way to avoid banning the expensive staples on the reserve list is to create more powerful cards. The choice to ban a card in a format is typically about its relative power and not absolute. CEDH will need shakeups just like every other tournament format to avoid stagnation.
REMOVE THE FREE MULLIGAN AND DRAWING A CARD FOR GOING FIRST IN CEDH
CEDH is a brutally efficient and consistent format given that everyone has access to their commander. Players would be less incentivized to aggressively mulligan to their power cards if it always meant having a smaller hand size.
As it stands the player going first in a cEDH game is massively favored compared to being in the fourth seat. It’s no fun to have such a significant disadvantage before your opening hand is drawn. Sixty card formats don’t have a draw step when playing first and it’s still preferred to start.
The argument for keeping the current rules is that it mirrors casual EDH. In the two cEDH events I’ve played so far the similarities have created more negative feelings as entrants show up with low-powered decks. These formats are not remotely similar despite having the same rules today.
CREATE MORE RELEVANT PROMOS TO ENCOURAGE PLAYING TOURNAMENTS
The recent Lotus Petal promo was awesome and I would love to see more of it.
Unfortunately the rollout was less than stellar as there wasn’t clear communication ahead of time for players to attend events they would otherwise skip. Many stores gave out Lotus Petals to attendees of all events until they were gone which meant only a couple tournaments. It didn’t drive a change in behavior.
A positive step for the Lotus Petal promo was that it expanded access to an expensive common that isn’t on the reserve list in a way that won’t meaningfully affect the value of other versions. My collection of Tempest Lotus Petals will still be worth a similar amount of money, but more players can build a Pauper deck or add some bling to EDH.
I was also happy to see WOTC printed a promo that’s demanded by casual and competitive players alike. At the end of the day many tournament players also have an EDH deck; it’s just how we play the game now.
A way to further improve the idea of these promos is to establish a clear release schedule. I remember my early FNM days when each month had a defined promo that went along with placing well in the event. Certain months would have a cool new foil version of a tournament staple and I made sure to attend.
To avoid flooding the market with these promos I would suggest handing them out to top finishers as well as door prizes. This way all competitors can gain access to cool cards.
I would like to see Goblin Shaman tokens, Lórien Revealed, and Up the Beanstalk in future promo releases.
Magic is a complicated game with room for improvement in each format as well as the company itself. We all want what’s best for the game we spend so much time playing. Let me know what you think about these ideas on social media.
