When Power Creep Kills Old Friends
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- Опубликовано: 19 ноя 2023
- Some thoughts on where power creep inevitably takes us as the game grows and expands.
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#mtg #powercreep #magicthegathering 
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I feel like *Thalia with a Gun* who shoots your opponent in the face _Blap Blap_ would see more play than normal Thalia because killing your opponent is basically just winning the match.
Ohh I was going on magic stats, where a Gut Shot is 1 damage.
I agree when i see old favorites become increasingly a detriment to any deck you slot it into. but i also think you looked right past a key part of this.
there's an aspect of familiarity that i also loved about this game. when playgroup favorites hit play, you already had several memories associated with those cards. now, with the number of product releases, every other card has to be explained to the table when its cast, because there's always someone at the table who has never seen that card. this point isn't to drag new players for not memorizing thousands of cards, no, my criticism here is that we didn't just lose our flickerwhisps, we lost an environment of familiarity, the context they existed within.
The habit of newer cards becoming tiny novels hasn't helped either. There's more card text in 7 cards now than there used to be in 60.
thisssssssss
And with how quickly this stuff gets crept now, it's not even like anything after gets to build its own legacy before it too is swept away.
@@anorouch yeah, good point. there's an element of simplicity lacking in newer releases as well.
@@christopherb501 Well said.
I was recently thinking about that time when Young Pyromancer was printed for the first time, and everyone was discussing whether belonged with Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, and the then-recent Snapcaster and Thalia as the premier 2-drops of Modern and Legacy. I really love all 5 of them, and it's odd to see where they are today.
i remember once thinking in my head that all five of them were 2 drops that represented their color extremely well as much as the original 5 one-mana instants from alpha. all 2/1s that do what their colors does, except green which of course gets to be bigger. and im ngl i really miss snapcaster being good, despite me never playing it
I remember that debate, I miss those creatures too. I saw a goyf for sale for $10 recently and it was so sad
Snappy still definitely has a place, but the rest of them, no.
wow 1 of each color
They were all so prominent, along with many other two drops, that it made Spell Snare playable.
Ever since War of the Spark and Throne of Eldraine, power creep has gone off the rails. The shareholders realized that if you keep making the newer cards stronger, us fools will pay to get them, even if for a Casual format. I’m sure the designers pushed back, “for years we make sure power creep is very slight”, but the high managers realized if you just make them even stronger, more profits. After that, nothing mattered. We just power creep now. Magic joined the YuGiOh and Pokémon power creep train with the release of War and the Spark and Throne of Eldraine, and continues to do so. There is no regard for long term health of the game, so long as this Quarter posts 1 more dollar of profit.
I’ve been saying this for ten years while people have been telling me I’m wrong while trying to explain that their $50 cards are totally necessary to run the $3000 deck they copied off tapped out. It’s amazing they don’t understand that they are ruining the game
@@yoyepo91 Back in tournament Magic days I kinda get it. But now that everyone plays “casual” Commander you think there’d be no need for it, but people still spend like crazy. Imagine having a casual deck that’s $3,000!?
I agree that powercreep is getting insanely bad, but you still don't understand how companies work. High management and shareholders are generally speaking two completely different things
@@federicoantonietti7851 🤣
This experience is why I’ve really moved towards the cube format and left most other formats. Power creep is no longer a requirement to keep up, it’s a choice I can make in the environments I design.
I'm in the same boat. I can understand why some people aren't into Cube, but I love that I don't need to constantly update a ton of decks.
Cube format?
@@R_J8 Cube is effectively a curated limited draft format that the owner (curator) can update as they desire. Instead of drafting from 3 fresh and unopened boosters, you select 3 booster packs worth of cards randomly from the selected pool (or cube) and draft from those cards. So you build it once, and you never need to buy new cards, and nobody has to buy in to play. You can just redraft it forever. They are often 360, 540, or 720 cards, as those numbers accommodate 8, 12, or 16 players in the draft, but can be any size as long as it's enough for all the players involved.
What makes Cube special, however, is that it is a personalized set based on the curator's own preferences. So it can be a pile of cards with dedicated archetypes, or it can be something like a Grixis Only Cube that has no white or green cards. Or a Pauper Cube that has no rares/mythics. Or a Ravnica Cube that only has cards from sets that were on Ravnica. The build is only limited to the curator's imagination. For example, my cube's basic lands are all from Unglued and Unhinged because I like the way they look.
If you have any interest in drafting, or trying a new format, I recommend looking into Cube. It's my favorite format, and one that has a relatively small, but passionate fanbase. Card Kingdom even sells a low power, but surprisingly well balanced 360 card starter cube for anyone who is afraid to build one from scratch.
@@R_J8its basically limited but you draft from a pool of cards compiled by someone for a certain play experience. For example the vintage cube has all the most powerful cards in MTG history, so it's like a super powered limited format, but it can be scaled back to lower power and things like a tribal cube or something like that.
Time can never mend
the careless wispers of a good friend
I left mtg due to money issues and the fact i was heading off to university, and returning has given much the same vibe I genuinely cannot play cards i spend a ton of time with due to the power creap and even decks that have the same name are unrecognizable. it makes it so i just dont ever want to go back in to constructed
It is a very difficult thing we are both going through. The game feels nearly unrecognizable now and as if it's left us behind. Finding a comfortable place in it again feels nearly impossible
I can’t imagine being such a baby over what is essentially rotation…..
New cards came out, old version is no longer viable/playable……. JUST LIKE ROTATION 😲
Shit happens, cards change, and players who can’t hack it like to whine….
Power Creep is getting out of hand.
But it's NOTHING compared to Universes Beyond.
Play mtga ,it's cheaper
I was in the same boat. I left the game around Kaladesh and came back in with ONE. I was super overwhelmed with all the new cards but ended up just playing the game with what I had and worrying about optimizing later. There's zero reason that you can't play casual formats with older less crept cards and gradually learn new staples and cards through things like pre release, gameplay videos, edhrec, etc.
I just accept that there's going to be cards I've never heard of or played against and that's fine.
This is the beauty of Kitchen Table Magic. Formats don’t matter. You can play what you love, forever. 😊
It is part of your identity, and a game piece in a social game that you get to share with other. When that identity is taken from you by outside forces it's no wonder why you feel sad. It's not a fun feeling (as I went through that with Liliana of the Veil, Bloodbraid Elf, and Snapcaster Mage).
Cube and Commander are the fields to which we retire our old friends, and are my favorite fields to visit.
having personally played DNT in legacy and modern a lot, this hits home with the Flickerwisp. Often times games were won on the back of this card because it was the out to so many problems the deck had to deal with
I know you didn’t have a ton of structure for this video, but I loved it. I’m subscribing after watching this too - your thoughts on Flickerwisp parallel mine with Spell Queller. Still play it in Modern to some success (4-1’s and some 5-0’s) - but I would also be sad if it got replaced. That said, it’s almost necessary too. It feels like we’re at a point where MtG is just sad. They gave up what made it sacred and broke their “golden rules” IMO. To Flickerwisp and Queller. Let them be good again in time!
Thank you for the kind words.
I find that the cards I remember the most strongly and by extension feel the most strongly about are ones with memories associated with them. Magic isn't just a game it's a social experience for a lot of us and I think that the cards are part of the window dressing to those experiences. I would imagine the more you cast a card the stronger that association and its corresponding feelings are. In a way a card you love being crept out is like saying goodbye to an old friend or a bygone era of your life that you can't go back to.
Bullseye. When I retired out my oldest cards (Fallen Empires, 4th, Ice Age, ect), I invariably think back to playing at my friend's kitchen table; before half my brainpower was being expended worrying about bills, fixing the house, work, getting old, and all the problems that make you realize that being an 'adult' is the ultimate bum deal.
I saw a custom card that was an 8/8 with trample with an alt casting cost of "sac 2 artifacts", and all I could think was, "it dies to a scammed fury or solitude."
Scam isn’t the best deck in Modern, you know that right?
@mathewdebol923 doesn't change how the evoke creature are some of, if not the best, creatures in the format. Also shows how much they effect the format with their power creep. I think it was PleasantKenobi that pointed out how well the deck's conversion rate is, and how it actually has a deceptively higher meta share then what is reported.
I couldn't imagine a t1 8/8 trampler in modern prior to the evokers. Now people are combing off on turn 3 in standard.
@@aneverdayhobbiest2837 lol we did have a turn 1 8/8 trampler in Modern before. It was pretty wild 😂
What turn 3 combo do we have in Standard?
@@mathewdebol923 got my format mixed. It's a turn 3 pioneer combo. Uses the new discover 5 dino, E. evolution, and clones.
I think part of what drives this feeling is, Magic cards (among other things) are immutable (... mostly). The world changes. You change, everyone you know and everyone you don't, all change. Flickerwisp is still the same.And that is comforting.
But it's not the card that matters, it's what you do with it. It's the play patterns, the decisions, those crucial lines of play that win or lose games; that's what makes cards special. Other cards can end up with the same feel, even when mostly or strictly better. Then it all comes back to you and how you play, as part of the story of your life as a Magic player.
Where power creep gets scary, is when they forget that the play patterns and decisions are what matters. Then the players really have lost something. That's what turns them away.
Thalia is just a powercrept Glowrider
This reminds me of a line in one of my favorite songs _Evagria the Faithful_ by Coheed & Cambria: "I wish she'd stay mine, but her place is in some other time."
It's hard having to say goodbye to those lifelong cards that are part of you because they've become stone unplayable/hated out of the format.
That's a good lyric. Love that band.
Big Afterman fan here.
I've framed my Flickerwisp. It was part of my first modern deck (U/W midrange), and I also have fond memories. In my case I felt like MH1 was an acceleration of the power creep that ultimately pushed me out of Modern, but so long as the game is fun to play and there are a variety of fun and interesting decks to play/brew, I don't mind cards eventually becoming obsolete as the meta shifts and power creeps. For financial reasons I just couldn't keep up for very long in modern's new era, and I was a fairly casual modern player, upgrading and modifying my deck/collection very slowly.
I framed some of my Tezzerator deck too, my last modern deck. It was very fun to take to FNM and GPs, and I miss those times. I know Urza gets blamed for alot ;) but he basically totally killed my enthusiasm for my favourite format. And not because he was a bad card, but because he was a too-good perfect card for my deck and prohibitively expensive. My fun "Tezzerator" deck became an "Urza-less urza" deck overnight. It's ok tho, I just left paper modern behind to play casual EDH.
Well utza is like 10 bucks now. So
if you turn 1 drop the calendar it would take 10 double triggers to get to 1000, devoid of anything else happening. It's very possible to do this.
You better make a combo whit that card cause waiting till turn 11 to win is pointless. But i think the card is still strong. There are multiple artifact based untap stratagies. And as a 1 mana artifact it is verry searchable. I can see this beeing used as a wincon for a combo. But playing it straight nah that will not work.
@@scheikundeiscool4086 devoid of anything else meaning you don't count any more untap triggers, not "wait 11 turns". TBH once you get past 16 counters the untap triggers don't really do much ito speeding up the clock. You're right on the money on which shells this would work in though.
I think retiring old goodies from years past before they become Talrand levels of meme is a valid option
I feel this. My favorite creature, Monastery Mentor, hasn't been playable in any format for quite a long time
Isn’t mentor a busted legacy and vintage staple? A mentor on the board and a ponder on the stack and go to town?
@artist91fb it's too slow for legacy, forth eorlingas has entirely replaced it. It's restricted in vintage as well, so even in a deck that wants it you only get one
This is why I like Commander more than other formats. For the most part, I can just put whatever cards I like and enjoy into a deck and it works relatively well.
Also, a Flickerwisp that's power crept would still be a 3/1 flier, but it'd cost 1 white and 2 generic, and Ward 1.
Tattoo suggestion for Flickerwisp - just tat the wings, fam. Iconic enough to be recognizable, and you don't have to put the creepy part on your body. Maybe tie in the mana cost or power/toughness for more specificity?
I feel this a lot. I have been running a version of a mono blue affinity deck since I started back in Mirrodin in middle school. Turning it from a standard deck, to extended, to a kitchen table 60, to various commanders. Currently it is an Urza deck thats about to be taken apart cause urza is both too strong and too unfun. All I really want is a place for my mycosynth cards and darksteel colossus. Finding that home is becoming harder and harder with every set bringing in stronger and more targeted cards.
"Thalia with gun" is such a funny concept. Love your videos :) Agree with the forced rotations. F in chat for flickerwisp.
Cube is the perfect place for old friends like these to retire ❤
Video was lovely and as structured as it needed to be. I wanted to hear it and I'm glad you made it ❤
I feel like such a magic boomer with all my friends and coworkers whenever one of us has the random thought of "Remember when *insert nostalgic card* was good? Man, that'd be like an uncommon if printed today." Our most recent subject being Vraska's Contempt. It's crazy to think that that card used to be a staple in standard and commanded a $15 price tag and it'd probably only see limited play if anything. I'm waiting for WOTC to rip the nostalgic band-aid off and reprint path to exile into standard / pioneer just to see if it can still hang since it's essentially been pushed out of all older formats.
This is something I mentioned recently. If you only build your home up and never out it will eventually topple over.
You need a growing foundation. You can not sustain rapid endless skyward growth.
I can certainly feel the emotion behind this. Even if it's fun to watch the game evolve and change in different and even exciting ways, we also have to watch some of our favorite magic cards fall to the wayside simply because they lose the ability to compete with new game pieces. It's one of the reasons I've always gravitated toward casual formats over competitive ones. Even though I enjoy playing modern, I prefer kitchen table and commander because Maze's End is able to compete there, but will never be able to survive in the current landscape of modern.
Even if this video doesn’t do well, I hope you know it was a lovely introspective piece that really made me think. And I and I’m sure many others appreciate and enjoy these videos.
Thank you so much! Genuinely, thank you.
Powercreep is a reason WotC is so liberal with reprints these days. Might as well make money with high-powered reprints now, because you have cards that are going to make them obsolete coming down the pipe.
Flickerwisp will forever live in my cube. I love that little critter! It'll also serve as a reminder what power level I want the cube to be at.
That's why commander is so great because you can build a deck around something and have every card with it
When I lose an old cardboard friend like this, I make sure it gets into an EDH deck. But even then, sometimes, it ends up as the 101st or 102nd card and ends up getting cut. Like Fact or Fiction.
I would love a flickerwhisp with bigger stats. We could call it "thickerwhisp"
I also miss wisp in dnt. I feel like if aether vial is out, then it limits the neat things wisp can do at instant speed.
Hey, I watched it because I also love Flickerwisp and a lot of similar cards that just aren't good enough now. Totally feel you on this and while getting new, more powerful cards is fun, it makes me feel bad to take cards that were cornerstones of competitive decks that I've loved and try to make them work in commander again.
I was a one trick Borderpost Restore Balance player, in Modern. This ENTIRE video speaks to me about what happened to my favourite deck. The format just power crept it out, and I am left empty. Very sad times for older cards
I got into MTG in Avacyn Restored, I love the art on MTG angels. When I started playing commander I built an Avacyn deck where every creature was an angel where I didn’t start playing until about turn 4-6. It was certainly not optimized and I’ve altered it through the years but it’s the only Commander deck I never unbuilt.
But even though it’s still sitting on my shelf I’ve felt unable to play it because there really isn’t any reason to pull it out anymore, 8 mana to give permanents indestructible just doesn’t cut it anymore, and I have always refused to swap the commander to a creature other than Avacyn.
Obviously I could build a more powerful deck, but that was never the point of what I had put together.
Magic doesn't have power creep anymore. It has power sprint.
I understand being sentimental about specific cards. I am the same way. Power creep is part of what keeps the game selling and keeps it somewhat fresh, but it also can take away stuff we love about the game too.
kenobi son: dad what a flickerwisp?
kenobi: *insert vince mcmahon meme*
Do you think that, rather than a shiny new version of Flickerwisp, you'd prefer some other card being printed that synergized so well with Flickerwisp that it suddenly became viable again? Maybe a bit "have your cake and it eat it too" but still an interesting follow up to the discussion of cards falling by the wayside as card design marches on.
3:13 “When you become the target of a spell or ability, you may put this card from your hand onto the battlefield”
Could even make it more narrow and say “black spell or ability” - like specifically to hit grief and Thoughtseize
Thanks for sharing this, because it seems that people like us exist out there, feeling the same feelings. I almost felt bad changing my Enchantress into a Shrine version in EDH with Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, but her spirit lives on in this kind of format. Archetypes that don't work anymore in Modern or Legacy have always a place in Commander somehow. The more cards Wizards spill out to sell, the more obsolete our friends get. :(
You're feeling what I felt when they let supplemental sets into modern. It isn't the same format now and I can't play any of the cards that make me love mtg.
Wonder how Modern Horizons 3 will affect the format, perhaps it will replace everything from Modern Horizons 2 ?
I love Savage Knuckleblade the way you love your Wisp. It's so sad he was never playable enough for non-standard formats and got bullied out of pioneer so fast. He's a meaty, slightly above rate 4/4 that has a haste insurance for late game, a self buff to reach 6/6 and a way to sort of dodge removal in long value games. He does so much, he really feels like what a RUG card should be and I'm also sad that half the RUG legendaries WotC feels like printing are just cascade nonsense.
id definitly have been more of a rug player if mst rug cards wer like that boi
It's silly, I guess, but I kind of feel this way about Serra Angel, which hasn't been relevant for who knows how many years at this point. It's just one of those archetypal creatures, like Flickerwhisp, I would argue, that defines the space that...represents something in Magic. While power creep is...an inevitability, I do really wish they'd quit printing cards into (or that target) eternal formats, because it creates greater impetus to increase power level
Standard being, well, standard, sort of has this ebb and flow that slows down the increase in power level over time. When rotations happen, with the power level reset, there's room to print weaker cards again...but we don't ever really get that mechanical breathing room anymore, since so much has to be relevant for older formats
10:53 i feel like the extra minute of just a black screen with the background music still playing adds to the somber feeling. It gives the viewers a chance to just. Sit and think about the cards that used to be.
I'm not sure it was intentional given that the music just cuts off abruptly. But I'm glad it's there
"Watching at home" implies the existence of a studio audience
One of my happiest magic memories is the day I finally completed my playset of snapcaster mage, one of my favorite cards of all time. These days, 3 of them sit in a binder because I can't bring myself to get rid of them but they are basically unplayable in modern. The standard micro creep of standard has always been a part of the game and I don't think anyone ever really resented that, but the damage that horizons sets have done to the history and metagame of older formats is really sad.
I personally…..love it when you ramble…
That's why I like Commander more than Modern, ngl. Every so often, they'll introduce a mechanic, a commander, or a card combo that makes something old all new again. Happened to me recently with Ojer Axonil. I pulled him at the pre-release and immediately made a deck full of old pingers from Mercadian Masques and shit. Plays amazing!! 😍
As someone who bounces back and forth between Yugioh and Magic, normally, I find it a little quaint when Magic players complain about power creep because it is so much worse in Yugioh.
But that's because it's just a complaint. Not an expression of loss and sadness. And I found that much more resonant than a mere complaint.
It's kinda hitting me how much sadness lurks below the surface when I've played Yugioh at just how often we've been forced to say these goodbyes. It makes me think back to all the cards in Yugioh that were really special to me that I simply cannot play any longer if I expect to win. And how much emotional muck I've been stuffing beneath the surface, excusing away and ignoring, just because I know I can't do anything about it.
I appreciate your sentiments.
This is kind of how I feel about Sun Titan. I have long said that in 2050 i'll pull out my commander decks full of dozens of free white spells and heignous crimes...and Sun Titan. There is no world where I replace it. I love it too much. We got the new on in Ixalan, but I can't do it. I wont do it. Almost any other card can fall from my deck due to power creep, but Sun Titan wont.
"Miss wisp" dude if better flickerwisp gets printed you can do an EIGHT WISP DECK imagine the jank ❤
To be that guy, Loxodon Smiter is an example of power creep. When it was printed it replaced something else in the meta.
For this to be a game that continues to exist and be played, some degree of power creep is necessary. Then add the amount of time the game has existed and a small increment in power each year adds up.
Yes. Yes. And yes. There is still quite load more to it than that, but Yes.
I think my entire relationship with MtG is similar to what you feel towards Flickerwhisp.
I'm terrible at the game and build decks not to optimise my chances of winning but purely based on what cards I like (based on art, flavour or sometimes just superficial colour/mechanic similarity).
So if I actually try to build a deck solely for the purpose of winning games I feel like I'm leaving my friends behind to focus on my career and am sacrificing valuable emotional connections for the sake of results which I don't like and much prefer to win one out of ten games with a deck I really love to winning 6-7 out of ten with an objectively good deck.
(I want to specify that I hate the very idea of commander as a format so I am talking about mostly kitchen table 60 card constructed games)
I feel a similar way about Wild Nacatl. I never got to play modern when it was in its hay-day, but I feel in love when I starting playing with it. The card and deck style of Zoo was so fun and all about going fast. By the time I had enough money to get all the fetches to make the deck work Modern Horizon’s was on the horizon. Zoo was not nearly as good as it had been years before, but I struggled through some games and did decent enough. But through University I didn’t play as many games as I would have wanted. Once I could finally enjoy playing with Nacatl freely, I just faced endless Constructs and Furys and Solitude. I felt like a little kid boxing with heavyweights. It was apparent this was never gonna work.
Wild Nacatl to me feels like a girl I was starting to date and just when we were getting serious, some thugs beat her up and now she is in the hospital in a coma. I visit her from time to time and I am just waiting for her to wake up, being unable to move on to anyone else.
I'd like to see more reprints of fun cards like this. I'm inclined to think WOTC should make every card in a set "count"; and I think Flickerwisp could see Block play (if Block comes back) & Standard play easily.
To help it see play in Modern, I think you need to go Tribal (or just print a toughness booster that's good enough across the board). Imagine a 2/2 1W Elemental Lord that said "Other Elementals you control get +1/+1," and "You may cast Elementals as though they had flash." Legendary if need be. That seems printable, and gives elementals some additional utility.
Look at Merfolk. There are a lot of otherwise mediocre creatures that see play specifically because they're Merfolk.
To me as a newcomer to MTG, the power creep can make MTG formats like EDH and pauper a headache because you cannot be sure how long a deck will stay relevant, and with the now MONTHLY set releases, it becomes more enticing to just play cube to keep a limit on cards among friends to keep power levels in check.
To me a properly balanced pauper cube would allow more breathing room for decks like White Weenies, Orzhov Ephemerate, and Green Stompy.
I completely under how you feel about flickerwhisp. I feel the exact same way about lingering souls. I feel STRONGLY connected to that card and want to run it as much as possible, but it's basically been power crept out of the game with orcish bow masters and dauthi void walkers running around every where.
These videos are honestly why your channel *is* worth watching, so here, have a subscription! :)
For me, my own boosterpulled copy of Elspeth, Sun's Champion holds the same emotional value in my life. It's currently not used in any serious play and I feel sad about it. It once was in a janky jeskai tempo deck that I won a FNM Modern with, it can really dominate the board, and it will forever be holy to me :)
I don't really think she can ever come back into competetive Modern, but I also dont want her to change
Sun's Champion and Sphinx's Revelation will always have a soft spot in my heart from that time in Standard.
@@PleasantKenobi
During that meta ( 2013-2014 isch? ) i just got back into the game and those cards used to drive me nuts (:
My 4c nonblack heroic would often die to Supreme or somesuch.
Later i just learned to respect that Control Style so much that i got converted into a controlplayer myself :D
This was indeed the flickerwisp that I’d always hoped for, thanks dad
a small additional thought about meta, that you talk about around the 6minute mark:
it's not that 1hp creatures became worse by themselves. there have been specialiced tools for a long time for most hp-amounts.
but when a creature is so metadefining, people begin to stack answers FOR this creature, all other creatures vulnerable to the same answers get nerfed in effect.
fe. if ragavan had 3hp (oh god), this would need answers that can do 3dmg. outside of lightning bolt this would mean, 1hp creatures would get a small buff, because ragavan-coutnering answers are probably getting a bit worse, cost/effect-wise.
My point is that 1 toughness just incidentally gets hurt by randomly good cards. Wren and Six is a famous example of it.
These are my favorite kind of videos that you do.
I will never forget the moment I realized how bad power creep actually was in mtg. I decided to build a new commander deck since I just pulled Teysa Karlov in draft and the fact that after 20 games of playing her I never once noticed the 2nd part of her ability was just insane.
We may never get flicker wisp with rizz but I hope you're ready for ragavan with a vacuum that sucks up and reflects ork arrows.
I feel a similar way about Snapcaster Mage. For a LONG time he was the standard. When creatures would get instants and sorceries from the graveyard, it was known as a "Snapcaster effect". I think he suffered the second fate, as Halo Forager was the last "Snapcaster" effect I remember getting printed, but it's weaker than old Snappy. Nothing has really come out as an obviously powercrept Snapcaster mage, so he's just been slowly and quietly cut from most Modern decks, only really showing up in slightly off-meta builds of control.
All of the changes from the past few years power crept paper Magic out of my life, so I feel you.
I'm glad you made this video, i agree with it and i think power creep makes formats boring with how it constricts options
I do think making “lateral moves” is a healthy space in the game that isnt nearly talked about enough. For you, do not think of Flickerwisp as a friend who has faded, instead imagine now as if it were a musical, and its just not their time to sing. Eventually there will come a time when its viable and good to play them again, its just these things wax and wane.
I think something thats not often talked about, is there are always times when game designers look to the past for inspiration and reformat new ways to make stuff fun. I think to Yugioh’s “Thunder Dragon” which was a very old but unique card from decades ago rhat they decided to take a chance on and designed some support for, and the community exploded with love for the “Thunder Dragon” archetype. Eventually something will happen like that with this
This makes me feel old as dirt.
I recently opened a Kaldheim booster and found a 1 mana, 1/2 flying first strike...
My brain goes: "since when can a card be this much better than tundra wolves?"
... Old man vibes I know...
Pour one out for our boy wisp. I started getting into modern D&T because of you and I have fond memories of our weird tentacle faced friend as well but sadly the world has moved on.
Your rambling is appreciated.
Means alot to hear this sometimes.
Old friends is why I make custom cubes. I get to keep the old classics preserved in a world where they cant be outmoded
Flicker wisp was always best in cube for the weirdest interactions
Standard was supposed to be the tool that prevented powercreep, and while it may not have been the best at doing so in the beginning, we kinda kept a pretty consistent power level of cards between Mirrodin and somewhere around the Shadow over Innistrad era, which is still 15 years of Magic. However, with more people playing EDH and Modern being a bit stale, the need to print better and better cards came and it ruined the purpose of Standard being a rotating format.
I have this friend I met at a really bad time in my life. We became best friends even shared an apartment for a while. There are gaps in our friendship, but everytime we speak It's like we never stopped talking. Just have more to say. There will be something that comes out. Some power crept elemental/lord/pod that makes flicker wisp dynamite for a couple weeks or months. It's been that way for some of my favorite cards. I hope the same for flickerwisp.
I completely understand the undying tenacity of your favorite cards that have essentially started decaying and slowly becoming irrelevant.
“Undermine” is a card that comes to my mind that I don’t think I’ve seen a single person play let alone mention in probably 15 years.
There’s always an angle, though, and a great player can make those slightly less powerful cards work, in my opinion. It’s not impossible to win now, but it does show the sort of attention to the structure and pace of the game of Magic that is maybe a little better preserved by the seasoned, nostalgic player. If Wizards wants to take skill out of the game, then eventually luck becomes a stronger influence, which does give the player with the Wisp or the Undermine a chance.
Don’t give up, Kenobi.
Rest in peace Flickerwisp.
I’m scared that someday i will be nostalgic for Ragavan and Orcish Bowmasters.
I think it happens with any format or media that becomes personal to us, almost to the point of being part of our identity.
For example, as a kid entering adulthood in the turn of the millennium, I played the crap out of Shenmue on the Dreamcast. For me it was the greatest game of its time and that’s a hill I’m happy to die on. But the game has aged really badly - it’s the equivalent of that relative that was super cool to visit when you were young, but they’re now divorced and not looking after themselves and kinda uncomfortable to hang around with. It’s sad because the memory doesn’t mesh with today’s reality.
Funny you mention Thalia in the video. Atleast in the context of Modern, Thalia hasnt been a playable creature in atleast a few years sadly. Did enjoy the video though, think theres something hard to parse about how some of these cards make us feel.
A modern day wisp would have flash, lifelink, and vigilance. People would still say it sucks.
3/2 flash flier flickerwisp, that you can choose if it returns the thing immediatly or at the beginning of the next end step.
Flickerwisp would be a cool card to see reprinted at common rarity, bringing it simultaneously to Pioneer and Pauper where I think it could have a really happy home now that it's been evicted from Modern.
No. Keep your power creep out of the two best formats.
@@dankbreh9013 Is Flickerwisp really that strong compared to some of the other busted stuff in those formats? Pioneer and Pauper are my favorite formats too, so I'm not looking to ruin them with powercreep, but Flickerwisp is hardly that menacing.
Especially not in Pioneer with the power level of these latest sets. I think Pauper would be fine too, Pauper's power level isn't really *that* low where the Wisp would disrupt it. In Pauper there's already powerful flicker cards like Ephemerate and the decks running flicker aren't really top tier decks.
All in all, I say bring on the Wisp, buddy needs a new home, at least in Pioneer if nothing else.
the minute silence was a nice touch
I feel the same about whole decks. I miss Lantern Control dearly and before that RW Sun and Moon.
This is an element of the larger problem with competitive games that allow for expression through card/weapon/build choice, without the possibility of the freedom of expression this way the games would feel hollow and detached. But with the competition you will eventually create situations where players will be at a disadvantage, a great almost insurmountable disadvantage in MTGs case, and you will have negative experiences that could span the probably short length of that players time playing your game.
Happened to me with MTG, Destiny 2, and practically anything that I could challenge other players and had the agency to make my own strategies and builds.
btw this has been my favorite video of yours in a while.
Thank you. Means a lot when I hear that.
The savannah lions problem. That card was the aggro white weenie best card. I'm not sure it would see play in standard anymore at common. Time matches on and magic does too
Yeah, as a 3 decade-spanning casual player, what has happened in the last 2ish years in MTG completely killed my desire to follow Magic.
It's like following a train until it goes off a hill steep enough to be questioned as a cliff.
The thing it has done is given me a desire to make my own formats with friends- like chaff (where your goal is to make a losing deck you have to play well) which is hilarious & still involves deckbuilding & skill, and 'infinite' where the sole win condition is to get an infinite combo drawing from a neutral deck.
There's 26,000 cards we don't need to throw away, we just have shift the types.context of the games we play (as casuals). For competitive players, I'm sorry to see what's happened to the scene; you'll likely keep up with it- many of you- and ultimately it's becoming a ridiculous IQ competition with the paragraphs on every card, which I wonder how fun it'll be for new players.
Solemn Simulacrum has entered the chat, it’s me. I’m the sad robot now.
We really need fan art of Vince embracing flickerwhisp, then disappearing momentarily.
That's why Pioneer is here to save us.
One day WotC will learn that they can create engaging and unique play environments by reprinting older cards, but with new names (the same way they do it with Universes beyond where the card has a sub name indicating that it is the same card as the original for deck building purposes). It's a simple method that sidesteps a lot of power creep while also making "new" cards via retheming of old cards. It'll also stop the problem where plane specific lands end up not being able to be reprinted because the lands name places from say Ikoria or New Capenna.
I pulled this card in my first bit of cards I bought since childhood, love its flavor!
I first started playing modern in 2013, I remember playing goryos vengeance, a glass cannon of a deck, RG Tron, jund, and affinity. However, the deck I miss the most is just UW Control. Some of the most nostalgic games were beating an opponent down with snapcasters and Celestial Colonnades 😂 I miss when Path was the premium removal, until fatal push came in and did it better. I feel like the old man raving about the good ol' days 😅
My solution to power creep is to play objectively bad cards...I don't win a lot of games but I rarely worry about losing my favourite toys.