[Trick]

Lee's expounding on the good ole' days and yet it's all the same! Or is it? Do you agree?

-- Trick

[imachampion]

@Lee,
I was around for the good old days. I played Gruul long before it got a title. I played when people wouldn't bitch about a card being unfun...it was just accepted as part of the game. Most importantly I played when there was no internet that had every decklist on it. You could go into a tournament and have absolutely no idea what to expect.

I remember when the color pie actually stood for something. Now there is so much bleeding and stealing going on...it just isn't the same. My proposal is to bring back the most powerful, non power, card for each color. Bring back either Balance or Armageddon. Bring back Lightning Bolt. Put the game back where it started. This is what I would like to see. Then again...in Magic years...we are the crazy old men that just shout ramblings to these youngins.

[leesteht]

I so very much agree!!!

Before the internet, you could come into tournaments with a "rogue" deck and have a very good chance of winning. Maybe, it's because the internet is a fantastic way to gain feedback and fine-tune decks. I'm not sure. Majority of the time, the best deck online, is probably the best deck anywhere. Let's just say "Deck News travels fast"

Thanks for reading 

[theory]

The times are definitely changing, gentlemen.  I came into the game right after the Mirage block was released and Tempest was on the horizon and things were a lot different.  Back when I started we'd have games where people would Dark Ritual into Unholy Strength'd Shadow creatures first turn and we would cry bloody murder until we topdecked a Lightning Bolt with a mighty roar of jubilation the next turn.  The sets seemed a lot less planned in terms of WotC pre-defining our metagame but made good cards because they wanted to.  The sets really feel like "just add water meals" (lol just add player) where what we play was already thought of by R&D and we are just rehashing concepts they mapped out and gave thumbs up to months ago.  Wasn't the last big T2 banning Skullclamp?  I don't recall anything else happening since then (maybe I missed something) and I'm thinking it's because the crackdown on potentially broken cards has been watering down everything else. 

It seems like when sets rotate out of T2, a good majority of cards become completely irrelevant to Legacy or Vintage (even Extended for that matter) because the sets are being built to support their respective T2/Extended run and fizzle from there.  Cards just don't kick the way they used to and these new mechanics with the tweaked abilities of old cards (Conspire....Tradewind Rider, anyone?) feel so lackluster.

[/old man rant]

[imachampion]

@Theory,
This is why I would like to see a revisit to old school magic. Rather than making Mono Colored matters themes...just make cards good enough for people to not need to splash. There isn't a lot of science here. The power creep is already happening...I am really counting on Shards of Alara. If they muff that up I am probably going to stick with Extended and Legacy. WOTC needs to allow for people to make their own decks...not make it impossible to not use creatures. On top of that they are now forcing colors. I want old school Magic back. They have had their fun with testing the waters and forcing certain ideas...now they need to go back to whats tried, true, and fun. I think that Lorwyn is a flop and I will be excited to move on to a more traditional magic. In short...I agree with you.

[theory]

I'm definitely looking into the Legacy and Extended route myself as well.  Lorwyn has some great cards but I agree that the block as a whole so far kind of bleh.  I wouldn't play with 90% of those cards in a constructed deck, sadly enough.  What are some of my favorite cards from the recent sets?...Reveillark, Garruk, Cham Colossus, Thoughtseize, Earwig Squad etc.  (All rares of course.)  With the exception of Nameless Inversion and Shriekmaw there weren't too many non-rares that I was super excited about.  What ever happened to commons that were good BEYOND limited?

I also think Prowl was the only thing they really got right because it felt natural to play decks built around it.  Unfortunately it falls into the trappings of other recent abilities that will die with the rest of the set after rotation unless Wizards does something with it.  Prowl has no potential beyond Extended and knowing that kills me.

Rosewater apparently said the Time Spiral was a flop because new players didn't "get it" which doesn't make any sense to me.  Some really great cards came out of that set and block constructed decks from that time.  It was the closest we'll ever get to that old school feel of using good cards together because they're good and not because WotC built them to work with each other.  Scryb Ranger for example...a Faerie that doesn't need to be in a Faerie deck - what a concept!