Maybe not a paradox, but great information for cube creators. Strong creatures nix a lot of fun strategies. Thing is, the strength of each card/archetype/deck has to be in balance with each other. I like my creatures on the weak side of the spectrum, but only 1/1's or a lot of walls is no fun either.
Sets (MH3) Modern Horizons 3 Previews
- Thread starter TrainmasterGT
- Start date
Personally, I feel it has improved the game and allowed for more diverse designs. Most notably, you can interact with creatures more easily than you can spells.
However, it comes with a catch. The combat system is not the most interesting aspect of Magic and the way Wizards pushes creatures (by giving them overwhelming card advantage) is poor.
Interaction is a crime according to Wizards
In my cube the creatures are weak compared to the spells. Still, the creatures are the ones that win the game. There is another catch which I already mentioned, strong creatures lead to fast and unforgiving games. There is another reason I do not like strong creatures combined with the mana system. Strong low mana cost creatures imply that more expensive creatures have to be even much stronger than the low mana cost ones. This leads to games were the amount of damage one can do increases much too fast for me. Almost like the early turns do not matter much.
I feel like "good creatures make the game worse" is a reductive sentiment. While it is fair to argue that the improvement of creatures over time has made games faster, I think saying that this has somehow made the game worse is an extreme stretch.
The combat system is actually capable of being pretty good, the problem is that the fun parts of it (multiple blockers, combat tricks, hidden information like morph) are the parts that scale least well as power levels get higher.
The two extremes are... say, old core set limited, 7th through 9th edition were trash, because all creatures were trash and the format was so slow that Treasure Trove and Flame Wave could be bombs. The other end is Standard (or really, all constructed formats), where nobody blocks.
The sweet spot is, imo, best described with individual cards - Legion's Landing should require some deliberate decisions and you should at least think about wanting Mutgenic Growth.
Since Dragonstorm is a fringe Modern deck, I have been waiting with baited breath for a Modern Horizons release to finally print something to take advantage of the fact that it can fetch "Dragon Permanents."
Please Maro, I need a janky Dragon Tribal Land or an errata'd Form of the Dragon. Some absolute lad left a door open with that "permanent" choice over 20 years ago and by God I want to take advantage of it in my cube so bad.
Please Maro, I need a janky Dragon Tribal Land or an errata'd Form of the Dragon. Some absolute lad left a door open with that "permanent" choice over 20 years ago and by God I want to take advantage of it in my cube so bad.
We even had Temple of the Dragon Queen recently and that card sucks so much they might as well just errata Kindred right onto it!
It’s pretty good in a 2 or 3-colored Dragon deck. It’s an untapped land of any one color. But it’s super specific and only works in that shell.
Aaaaaand it’s also therefore I don’t have it on the Playable Lands list 
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/da3e467c-6e23-4c7c-94c1-4fed03c72da2?view=spoiler
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/da3e467c-6e23-4c7c-94c1-4fed03c72da2?view=spoiler
So, it's been a while, and I'm not full-up on mental energy so I'm not going to go into a ton of detail, but I felt like I should clarify why I think that creatures getting better has had negative effects. In my mind, the problem comes from two interrelated problems — the overall clock has sped up, and creatures are more threatening in general.
The clock being faster means that, barring cards that say otherwise, both players see fewer cards. This increases the overall variance of the game, since your opening hand becomes more and more important the shorter the game gets. By itself, not really a problem... except for the fact that "how much mana of each color do I have?" is up to chance. I suspect that the increased speed of the game has a lot to do with people insisting that you "need" good fixing in order to play 2-3 card decks — if the game's going to be decided in ~5 turns, that's certainly true.
The other sneaky thing, though, is that taking a turn off instead of dealing with a decent creature has gotten more punishing, because so much value has been shifted onto creatures (because, hey, everyone's already packing removal for them, right?). Now, on the face of it, this is good thing — a tight game of magic where both players are interacting is more exciting than watching two goldfish drag race¹, after all! The thing is that "taking a turn off" is sometimes something variance forces you to do (because you didn't draw a land - tough break, buddy!) and also includes stuff like "playing a creature to develop my board" (which means that whoever goes on the beatdown first gets a big first mover advantage).
I'd clarify/elaborate further, but I was never terribly good at writing essays (picked my undergrad specifically so that I could avoid them
) and I feel like I need to go take a nap.¹ I would absolutely watch two goldfish drag race in real life, though. That'd be hilarious.
New flip walker leaks. I think they all look pretty sweet, though obviously each has a million words. Having played with the new Ajani a little bit, he hasn’t been too confusing because he doesn’t usually have more than one relevant mode on the backside.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I'm not looking for flip cards any more, but these do look sweet!
landofMordor
Administrator
Grist + Lurrus or Unearth 
(but really idk if any of these look "fun" per se. Mostly they just look cracked.)
(but really idk if any of these look "fun" per se. Mostly they just look cracked.)
I adore all of them, and am inclined to run the whole cycle. Lots of words, but lots of fun to be had, too!
My opinions on all of these are as follows:
Ajani– The most consistently powerful. A watchwolf statline across two bodies for is already good, and becoming a Planeswalker is gravy!
Tamiyo– Probably the card with the highest ceiling of the group. She makes artifact tokens. She's pretty easy to flip and has a game-winning ultimate. Her plus ability is even good at keeping her loyalty up! The big question is– are you flipping her by paying four mana and sacrificing clues or are you using a draw spell? I'm not sure this is a card I would pay 4U for, but it is insanely good off of a Brainstorm!
Sorin– Actually my favorite design of the bunch? Maybe I'm just a sucker for Syndic of Tithes and blood tokens, but something about this design just feels super elegant. I know Life Gain is falling out of fashion in the Cube world, but I think the fact that extort does damage might just get our boy across the finish line!
Ral– I was definitely expecting Dack but that's ok! This card feels like a shoo-in for every [[450]] [[Powered]] Cube out there. For everyone else, I don't think he's actually that great unless you're also looking at a Storm theme. Ral is definitely a constructed card!
Grist–I'm surprised the bug girl with minimal established lore is getting a spark walker, but its cool to see her again after three years! I think grist is the hardest to transform of the bunch and has a fairly mediocre backside. Unless she's supporting some sort of Escape/Reanimator theme in green-black that we haven't seen in this set, I think she may be somewhat safe to write off. However, using Unearth in conjunction with Grist is pretty cool, so maybe there's something here I'm missing!
Prices allowing, I would say that I will definitely Cube Ajani and Tamiyo, test Sorin, and ignore Ral and Grist.
Ajani– The most consistently powerful. A watchwolf statline across two bodies for
is already good, and becoming a Planeswalker is gravy!Tamiyo– Probably the card with the highest ceiling of the group. She makes artifact tokens. She's pretty easy to flip and has a game-winning ultimate. Her plus ability is even good at keeping her loyalty up! The big question is– are you flipping her by paying four mana and sacrificing clues or are you using a draw spell? I'm not sure this is a card I would pay 4U for, but it is insanely good off of a Brainstorm!
Sorin– Actually my favorite design of the bunch? Maybe I'm just a sucker for Syndic of Tithes and blood tokens, but something about this design just feels super elegant. I know Life Gain is falling out of fashion in the Cube world, but I think the fact that extort does damage might just get our boy across the finish line!
Ral– I was definitely expecting Dack but that's ok! This card feels like a shoo-in for every [[450]] [[Powered]] Cube out there. For everyone else, I don't think he's actually that great unless you're also looking at a Storm theme. Ral is definitely a constructed card!
Grist–I'm surprised the bug girl with minimal established lore is getting a spark walker, but its cool to see her again after three years! I think grist is the hardest to transform of the bunch and has a fairly mediocre backside. Unless she's supporting some sort of Escape/Reanimator theme in green-black that we haven't seen in this set, I think she may be somewhat safe to write off. However, using Unearth in conjunction with Grist is pretty cool, so maybe there's something here I'm missing!
Prices allowing, I would say that I will definitely Cube Ajani and Tamiyo, test Sorin, and ignore Ral and Grist.
landofMordor
Administrator
i suddenly feel older than dirt
We can finally build Squirrels vs Eldrazi - the MHX Duel Deck Cube