Why the fuck are Planeswalkers these days so busted???

>becoming pay to win
>becoming

Highlander is Commander without the commander or color identity bullshit that comes with it

I'm curious why you rate Knight-Errant so high when literally no deck in any format plays her. Even Black/White Tokens, a tier 2 deck at best, has largely replaced her with Solemn Visitor and Ally of Zendikar.

Also, can't take your list seriously without any mention of Dack Fayden.

Because Elspeth is just a stupidly good card, while Dack Fayden, who isnt a bad card, is only so highly talked about because he steals overpowered and busted artifacts in Vintage.

1. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2. Liliana of the Veil
3. Karn Liberated
4. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound
5. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
6. Chandra, Torch of Defiance
7. Garruk Wildpseaker

You have to use a "free to play" business to be pay to win.
You literally have to pay to play.

I'm not sure you were either. Caw Blade was the only deck that broke $150.
Cripes, what did Valakut even cost? ~$30 for your PrimeTimes, upper 20 range for the Valakuts, and was there even anything else above $2 in that deck?
Outside of Jace, Stoneforge, and two Swords, cards were a lot cheaper than they are now. Like, if you went back in time and told people that Splinter Twin would eventually become a $20 dollar card, you'd be laughed out of every store you tried to preach that.

Chandra has a long history of her cards being considered shit and faring poorly with wizards' marketing research.

Chandra is the main character of Kaladesh.

R&D and story clearly wanted to make a good Chandra this time, and decided the push was safe enough in a format where she can get run over by vehicles.

yup

Because it takes 110 boosters to open an specific mythic.
If every tier 1 deck in Standard needs at least one playset of one mythic from every set, that's 14,080 boosters sold to fit a small tournament.

Dack and Sorin SV are only good in specific builds. And Gideon doesn't potentially punch as hard as Elspeth, she's still used nowadays to force flying Jitte-wielding Bobs or flying Batterskull germs into your oponen's face and she's first pick in any limited enviroment unless there's P9, Pack Rat or Jitte in the same booster.

Because planeswalkers are vitally important cards to the storyline of each block, and wizards' development team wants to make sure that the most powerful format staples are plot-relevant cards. That's why they added the second +1 ability.

Staples are now required to be plot-relevant cards, and planeswalkers (which are always plot-relevant) can only be printed at mythic.
>QED

nahiri is a gimmick. dack is situational.

>I'm at the point where I only care for the art and lore.

I, too, only collect bookmarks now. Subjugator Angel is going well in Paradise Lost, Godless Shrine in Notre-Dame de Paris, and so on. Got a Kozilek's Translator keeping my place in an Operating Systems textbook.

Also, highlander is 1v1 competative vintage lite, while commander is usually multiplayer and sometimes casual

I think the reason for this is because of the massive expansion of the playerbase that INN brought in, as well as WOTC not increasing card supply to meet player size.

>pay to win
>Most highly pushed format is cheaper than ever
>current set's prices are tanking out of the gate
Okay.

It's the combined draw+discard and the ability to steal busted artifacts. Do not underestimate Dack's looting ability in a format with Yawgmoth's Will, Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time.

Because of the lack of quality lower end removal and damage spells at instant speed kind of push planeswalkers out to be much stronger in Standard.

She'll still be good in Standard. Not good enough to warp the format but good enough to be played in the midrange R based value decks.

Because Hasbro/WotC wants to see what they can get away with.

No. You're pay-to-win if paying more increases your odds of winning. You have to pay money to buy chess pieces, but no matter how expensive a chess set you buy, your odds of victory won't increase. In Magic your chances are dramatically increased by simply paying more for your cards. There's an upper limit, but the upper limit is so high that it's functionally unreachable. Even pros often have to loan cards for their decks because they can't afford them.

I like how one card has to be stupid expensive every set.

Nu-Liliana is not very good, yet it's commanding a ton of money for arbitrary reasons. I don't even know what deck outside of standard would play her. Even NuMerkal is just a shittier mindslaver, and there is no possibility it's worth more than $5 after rotation, but somehow it's still worth a ton of money for arbitrary reasons.

Looking through Kaladesh, I'm very underwhelmed. Outside of that green Gearhulk, barely anything looks interesting, and the only expensive cards outside of said gearhulk are the 'walkers. If there was some better cheap burn it wouldn't be an issue, but WotC knows they can print garbage walkers, hike up the price on them through "neat" abilities, and people will lap up the sets for speculative purposes. It's just silly.

Vehicles are particularly underwhelming. Why would someone run those without making a dedicated vehicle build for hipness' sake?

What's the differenc between highlander and EDH?

>I like how one card has to be stupid expensive every set.

Fact: Stores try to set prices by force. They just decide that Jace the Gaping Anus of the Mind is this set's 50+ dollar card and simply refuse to sell them lower. Sometimes it doesn't work and lack of demand eventually makes the scheme collapse, but if any tournament success can be attributed to the card, they get their jewgolds and do it again three months later.

You've obviously never played kaladesh. Go give it a try. It's fun.

>What's the differenc between highlander and EDH?

Highlander doesn't have commanders. It's just 100-card singleton.

Doesn't surprise me at all. This is why I either buy powerful cheap cards just after prerelease or wait until the set rotates.

>implying
Sure limited is probably fine. I wouldn't play it in standard, and as a EDH player, I can only think of 5-8 things that I want for any reason. I looked at starcity this morning to see what I should order, and the answer was nothing. I'm going to wait until dumbasses open 10 million packs for those stupid masterpieces, and buy everything else on the cheap. Look at Dragons, every card is worthless except CoCo and the ones with niche EDH playability.

They have to concentrate value into a few powerful cards so that the majority of other cards in the set are worthless chaff. I mean, how may boosters would be purchased if they all contained 15 roughly-equal cards?

That's rediculous. I'd be much happier if it was like Dragons release, where basically half the rares were worth more than $5, and the other half were $0.50. They already concentrate all the value in rares, no need for ultra-super-niche magical mythic rarities to have the ONLY expensive cards. I feel like most sets could be saved by an expensive uncommon or two, 5 expensive rares, and an ungodly mythic or two.

>I mean, how may boosters would be purchased if they all contained 15 roughly-equal cards?

I don't even know if that would have any effect to be honest. I think only thing that would change would be that people would be a lot happier with the game.

>and as a EDH player,
Oh, for a second there I thought your opinion mattered

a game can be pay-to-play AND pay-to-win at the same time

>he plays formats other than limited and EDH
How do you like throwing your money away? I bet you'd play nu-extended too. I can support legacy, but modern is exclusively for idiots, and standard is for bad idiots.

>I have barely been playing for year and think I have a relevant opinion.

:^)

Nahiri was good enough to basically create a high tier Modern deck.

She's easily in the top 10.

>Jeskai Nahiri
>High Tier
Deck is bad, barely tier 2

I find the core system of magic genuinely fun, but absolutely cannot stand the way Wizards is jewing everything into oblivion. I have a Standard deck because the cards are around and the power level is lower. (thus cheaper than other formats, but only by about $100, I'm not deluding myself about that)

Is there a way I can play this game without caving to Wizard's demands? (Preferably at my game store were the community is?)

Is this... is this real?

I though the powercreep was usually limited to being between sets at least.

>"A rare is strictly better than a common"

WOW!

Except rares shouldn't be strictly better than commons, you dribbling fuck.

You're either very, VERY new or you've been in cryo-sleep since 1995

But it was always like that.

Shouldn't doesn't mean 'aren't'.

Why the FUCK were you acting like this was some kind of surprise or betrayal?

The game has ALWAYS been designed like this.

And that's how it should be because limited would be a fucking mess if it wasn't.

Not to mention that it just makes financial sense.

MtG has always been pay2win. You can always go play a different TCG if you don't like this.

Nahiri is probably the #1 most controversial PW.

25% of the community says she's great, 25% says she sucks, the other 50% plays non-interactive decks and therefore doesn't give a fuck.

This isn't a powercreep issue but rather an uncommon vs. rare power level issue. The days of rares sometimes being "weird cards with a powerful but almost almost useless effect" are over, or at least it happens less often.

>Tron and Dredge players say she sucks, every other Modern player says she's great, and everyone with a brain doesn't give a fuck about Modern.

Fixed.

This.

Serra Angel was an uncommon.

Now, the 2016 equivalent of Serra Angel, Archangel Avacyn, is a Mythic.

>Seems like MTG is increasingly becoming pay to win and not friendly to new players

It never were. Did you forget 12 fetchland 4 color decks running loose back in khans-bfz standard?

>becoming pay to win

pro playing a Tier 2 deck can easily beat a new player piloting Tier 1 deck. Unless you consider it "pay to win" because you and your shitbrew is getting rekt each fnm.

Nobody played her on camera yet, unless I missed something.

Except Avacyn has a lot more shit stapled on to her

Flash, gives everything you own indestructible on etb, and explodes into a 3 damage board blast when something dies and becomes a 6/5 flier

NWO was supposed to fix that sort of shit, with rares being more complex and more involved to use than uncommons, and uncommons more so than commons.
Of course, mythics weren't supposed to be tournament viable, and see how far that went.

A pro playing a tier 2 deck can do really well. Case in point: Jeff Hoogland's Jeskai Flash at SCG Indy

MURDER IS AN UNCOMMON NOW
HOW LONG UNTIL IT'S A RARE MARO

Which is hilarious because Kaladesh has the highest number of playable commons / uncommons that we have seen in some time and there are a lot of "build around me" rares.

Compare to other recent sets where almost all of the playables are rares...

>NWO was supposed to fix that sort of shit

No?

NWO is about one thing and one thing only

Complexity at the common level.

It has NOTHING to do with power.

It has nothing to do with the comparative complexity of cards above Common rarity

Kaladesh, just like Innistrad 2.0, is absolute trash. When cards are evaluated outside the tiny bubble that is standard, ie. Modern and Legacy, the only card that has had even a bit of impact is Nahiri. In Kaladesh, only the new fastlands might see play outside of the remedial M:tg that is standard.

Hey, pauper got some fun toys

Cathartic Reunion, Ceremonius Rejection, and Blossoming Defense would like to have a word with you.

I will say this though. Having come back to the game during Innistrad 2.0, I quite liked it.

It's not at all comparable to original Innistrad, (nor most of the Mirrodin -> Lorwyn era sets) but I did thoroughly enjoy my time with it.

The same cannot be said about Designatadesh

>Outside of that green Gearhulk, barely anything looks interesting
What the fuck are you smoking? The green Gearhulk is easily the most boring card in the set. Every other gearhulk has a great and unique effect never printed on a body before. The green gearhulk is just another big, dumb creature.
>has played less than a year
>has a relevant opinion on MTG's direction
pick one, retard.
>EDH is for intelligent people and only stupid people play other formats
sure thing Hawking
Tier 2 is not great, but still good. In the right meta and with the right/wrong pilots, a tier 2 deck can defeat tier 1 decks.
I don't understand the question. Do you want to play magic without paying for cards? Then stop buying cards and invite your friends over for kitchen table magic. You can even print out standard/modern/legacy proxy decks and have a blast.

Infect, Zoo, Dredge, Merfolk and Tron are tier 2 decks as well. I'd say Jeskai Nahiri is in pretty powerful company. Sorry kid, not every Modern deck can be Eldrazi.

Innistrad 2.0 made pure dredge aggro a viable modern deck

Cathartic Reunion is a slight upgrade for Dredge. It was good before, and CR is not going to push it over the top. Same thing for Blossoming Defense in Infect.

Ceremonious Rejection is a very narrow sideboard card. I don't see any Eldrazi, Affinity or Tron people shaking in their boots. And it's not like it's a silver bullet against them.

So, a couple of slight upgrades to already good decks, and a sideboard card.

Is that all?

>slight upgrade for dredge
You might want to actually look at the math but it is a huge difference in speed and consistency. It is one of the most powerful commons printed in a long-ass time (Treasure Cruise notwithstanding).

draft is the main mtg game and standard is a cool expansion pack. all other formats are functionally fanfiction and shouldn't be taken intro account when evaluating design.

>Cathartic Reunion is a slight upgrade for Dredge
>slight

You arent supposed to chug the bong water.

You're a god damn retard.

Have you ever stopped to think why vintage and standard are named "Type-1" and "Type-2" respectively?

>thinking Chandra the Mindsculpter isn't going to see modern play

Alright, buddy.

Wow, your an idiot.
Is this bait?

user, let red have good cards once in a while. You can only reprint the same shock card so many times.

I have been playing since Homelands, and it has always been pay-to-win. You have just gone from not understanding the meta, to understanding the meta.

Have to buy $210 worth of lands every time I want to make a competitive modern deck

>And now I have to buy the goyfs

>He doesn't have a playset of all the shocks and at least all the Tarkir fetches.

At this point it's really mostly your own fault senpai.

1) Planeswalkers today aren't nearly as busted as they were in their early days. Granted, back then they also had some incredible misses due to Wizards not yet having figured out how to design them.

2) Wizards new design policy is that what's story related and tournament playable should overlap more.

>Vintage
>Not having four mana until turn 4

WotC seems to be permanently stuck between two modes of thinking: 1) we need our game to be more accessible so we can get a wider casual audience like Hearthstone, and 2) we need to wring every fucking cent out of every sucker who dares to even think of playing our game. So you end up with a game designed for casual players, but only really affordable for dedicated ones.

WotC needs to take drastic action to lower the price of entry for their game, secondary market be damned, or they need to accept that their game does not work like the other big successes they're trying to ape, and that new players who are willing to pay $100+ just to get a single playable deck are going to be relatively few and far between but more profitable to milk.

The only way to keep making money is selling to new players, this is an objective shared by both Wizards and your store. As players get more experienced, they stop buying as much product (unless they're completely retarded) because they learn most of it is garbage.

Wizards knows for certain how long the "new" player goes until they stop generating dollars, either they've gotten good enough at the game to buy singles or just outright stop because they see how much of a shitshow competitive play is. While a player is "new" they will purchase so much Sealed product, consisting of garbage like Boxes, Toolkits, Intro Packs, Fat Packs, etc.; Wizards also knows this dollar value.

All that matters, is that new blood enters the game. And once you are no longer "new" you don't fucking matter anymore.

And guess what, price entry into the game is absurdly low. A couple Intro Decks here, a Booster Box, Toolkits, because we ALL (Wizards, stores, especially players) perpetuate the idea that it's a great way to get started. Yeah, it's a great way to get started but what we don't tell these new players is that it's a shit way to get good. We all want newbies to savage for store credit or prizes.

Time to start looking from the perspective of making money. So the next time you want to do something about it, you have to punch your store in the dick and tell those young kids NOT to buy Wizards' garbage and in turn if the store doesn't go out of business, it will stop ordering Wizards' shit.

I think it is very lucky of Wizards to have draft be such a difficult thing to organize and Constructed with a high prices. That means all the serious people who want a challenging Limited game or want a serious Constructed play environment will go online to practice, which leaves FNM as a breeding ground for new players.

You might be saying to yourself, "My FNM is competitive". You're not looking at the new blood that comes and goes. Nobody talks about the people that go.

>buying mtg cards
>not just easily creating a deck in TTS (having access to all cards ever made for free while doing so)
>takes like 10 minutes

>paying for a game to play magic online
>playing card games on TTS
>not just playing on cuckatrice or xmage

You are all kinds of stupid, user