Meltyman posted an old bordered list in another thread and started a blog. Got me to thinking about how cube has changed over the years. That and how the idea of "retro" has probably also evolved (like Bon Jovi is somehow now considered "classic rock" according to more than one local radio station. I'm getting old.).
I've become somewhat depressed by the influx of new cards (as bizarre as that sounds). There are just too many playable ones now to where building a definitive list is pretty futile. I get why guys are making more than one cube now. And recent discussions too have made me question if I'm focused on the right things in my own list that has gotten so far from what it was intended to be. I hardly recognize it now.
Anyway, I'll try and get to the point.
If one were to look historically at Magic, what logical breaking points would you find with Wizard's card design? Here is my rough thinking on it.
Early days (old bordered) - weak creatures overall with strong spell effects. Dominated by a handful of mistake cards? As I didn't start playing until around Mirrodin, that is a genuine question. Seems to me that a lot of cards we consider super broken today were printed back in these days but if you look at the card pool back then, these cards had some pretty weak targets. What was anyone tinkering for before Mirrodin? Tiskelion I guess? Memory Jar? Thran Dynamo? I mean, good cards sure. But is that really a broken play since you 2 for 1'd yourself? I'd call that value tinker today and it isn't worth it in high powered cubes IMO. What about Natural Order? Or Sneak Attack? Or reanmiator (even super fast reanimator)? Top end creatures were pretty awful outside a few exceptions (Akroma?). Penumbra Wurm leaves a 6/6 behind I guess. Arcanis the Omnipotent? Sneak Attack to... draw three. Yay?
Mirrodin - Time Spiral - creatures got better here. I think Wizard's got wise to the fact that paying 6+ for something that dies to a slew of 1-3 mana removal spells and nets zero value is simply unplayable jank outside casual magic or some kind of silly combo deck. Mirrodin gave us just a pile of ridiculous artifacts that took tinker from value town to WTF? Equipment to "fix" the friendly aura mechanic overshot so hard you have to wonder who feel asleep at the wheel during testing with clamp, swords and then jitte shortly after (shit, even splitter and wargear are both pretty insane). I'm biased because I was playing tons of Magic during this time, but Ravnica block felt like such a good place mechanically. Maybe creature heavy compared to earlier eras? This is where I think the game went away from spell based decks and became more creature based. I don't know if this was all net positive (or even a correct interpretation), so curious what true old-timers think. Game felt extremely deep to me at the time, especially from a deck building perspective.
Llowyn to pre-M10 - fn' Walkers. Creatures getting better and better. Really pushing the envelope on that with all the ETB stuff starting to pop up. In small doses, ETB feels like a solid mechanic. I've built so many cube decks around this I've lost count. Blinking your evoked Mulldrifter (etc.) feels great, but when does this just lead to midrange value town and the inevitable creature arms race?
M10 forward - Mythics (I guess technically came right before M10), rule changes, new wording for everything (battlefield, exile - why change all this??). Creature arms race I just mentioned, highlighted by titans. I'll just stop here as I think everyone knows my feelings on most of this stuff and this post is already too long.
So if you were going to do a retro cube and cut off at some point in history. Where would you do it and why? And if you were going to make a handful of exceptions and allow newer cards in this theoretical cube to bolster a color or archetype, which cards would they be and why (or would you not do it)?
I've become somewhat depressed by the influx of new cards (as bizarre as that sounds). There are just too many playable ones now to where building a definitive list is pretty futile. I get why guys are making more than one cube now. And recent discussions too have made me question if I'm focused on the right things in my own list that has gotten so far from what it was intended to be. I hardly recognize it now.
Anyway, I'll try and get to the point.
If one were to look historically at Magic, what logical breaking points would you find with Wizard's card design? Here is my rough thinking on it.
Early days (old bordered) - weak creatures overall with strong spell effects. Dominated by a handful of mistake cards? As I didn't start playing until around Mirrodin, that is a genuine question. Seems to me that a lot of cards we consider super broken today were printed back in these days but if you look at the card pool back then, these cards had some pretty weak targets. What was anyone tinkering for before Mirrodin? Tiskelion I guess? Memory Jar? Thran Dynamo? I mean, good cards sure. But is that really a broken play since you 2 for 1'd yourself? I'd call that value tinker today and it isn't worth it in high powered cubes IMO. What about Natural Order? Or Sneak Attack? Or reanmiator (even super fast reanimator)? Top end creatures were pretty awful outside a few exceptions (Akroma?). Penumbra Wurm leaves a 6/6 behind I guess. Arcanis the Omnipotent? Sneak Attack to... draw three. Yay?
Mirrodin - Time Spiral - creatures got better here. I think Wizard's got wise to the fact that paying 6+ for something that dies to a slew of 1-3 mana removal spells and nets zero value is simply unplayable jank outside casual magic or some kind of silly combo deck. Mirrodin gave us just a pile of ridiculous artifacts that took tinker from value town to WTF? Equipment to "fix" the friendly aura mechanic overshot so hard you have to wonder who feel asleep at the wheel during testing with clamp, swords and then jitte shortly after (shit, even splitter and wargear are both pretty insane). I'm biased because I was playing tons of Magic during this time, but Ravnica block felt like such a good place mechanically. Maybe creature heavy compared to earlier eras? This is where I think the game went away from spell based decks and became more creature based. I don't know if this was all net positive (or even a correct interpretation), so curious what true old-timers think. Game felt extremely deep to me at the time, especially from a deck building perspective.
Llowyn to pre-M10 - fn' Walkers. Creatures getting better and better. Really pushing the envelope on that with all the ETB stuff starting to pop up. In small doses, ETB feels like a solid mechanic. I've built so many cube decks around this I've lost count. Blinking your evoked Mulldrifter (etc.) feels great, but when does this just lead to midrange value town and the inevitable creature arms race?
M10 forward - Mythics (I guess technically came right before M10), rule changes, new wording for everything (battlefield, exile - why change all this??). Creature arms race I just mentioned, highlighted by titans. I'll just stop here as I think everyone knows my feelings on most of this stuff and this post is already too long.
So if you were going to do a retro cube and cut off at some point in history. Where would you do it and why? And if you were going to make a handful of exceptions and allow newer cards in this theoretical cube to bolster a color or archetype, which cards would they be and why (or would you not do it)?
