I was a big fan of rotation time, before things like Arena and MTGO were so omnipresent in the MTG scene. Back before all the data and analytics you could brew and not run into the buzzsaw of "best decks" for a few weeks. Now it only takes a couple days before a format is fairly solved and degenerate decks are everywhere. Now the release of new sets are about as impactful (AKA you get a couple days of experimenting). A longer standard format SHOULD improve the quality of the format. Larger formats almost always have more viable decks. More cards generally means more options and more Rock/Paper/Scissors. With more sets you can create more "niche" cards and not worry about ruining limited. You don't want to deal with too many hyper aggro creatures or powerful control cards in a single set (you know, the powerful common/uncommon slots). When you have a bigger array of sets you have have more hosers, super aggro, and control cards spread out to allow at least multiple strategies to exist - Control, Aggro, Denial/Prison, or Combo. Combo decks generally don't work in small formats but the other three should exist as the paper/rock/scissors. Sure, some strategy will be dominant but there will be more room for meta picks. My best tournament finishes were in standard and block but during sets that allowed the most creativity. My favorite format to play was always Legacy because you could show up to a tournament with any of 100 decks and have a great day. You might be more likely to top 8 with a handful of decks but experience with a deck mattered.
On that day, Day9 was most certainly not late for his haircut.
I tried to channel your same energy when drafting G/B/W deck but needing GGG, BB and splashing WW. The things we do, for greed no less
Hey Sean, are you going to Blizzcon this year?
Have you ever played Netrunner?
Love that game. Too bad they lost the license.
I was a big fan of rotation time, before things like Arena and MTGO were so omnipresent in the MTG scene. Back before all the data and analytics you could brew and not run into the buzzsaw of "best decks" for a few weeks. Now it only takes a couple days before a format is fairly solved and degenerate decks are everywhere. Now the release of new sets are about as impactful (AKA you get a couple days of experimenting).
A longer standard format SHOULD improve the quality of the format. Larger formats almost always have more viable decks. More cards generally means more options and more Rock/Paper/Scissors. With more sets you can create more "niche" cards and not worry about ruining limited. You don't want to deal with too many hyper aggro creatures or powerful control cards in a single set (you know, the powerful common/uncommon slots). When you have a bigger array of sets you have have more hosers, super aggro, and control cards spread out to allow at least multiple strategies to exist - Control, Aggro, Denial/Prison, or Combo. Combo decks generally don't work in small formats but the other three should exist as the paper/rock/scissors. Sure, some strategy will be dominant but there will be more room for meta picks.
My best tournament finishes were in standard and block but during sets that allowed the most creativity. My favorite format to play was always Legacy because you could show up to a tournament with any of 100 decks and have a great day. You might be more likely to top 8 with a handful of decks but experience with a deck mattered.
In your opinion what period of Standard sets do you think enabled the most creativity?
5 colour nonsense xD