Shark Stunter

@Metallix87 @SaffronOlive I'm more impressed it's survived the last six years, with sets getting worse and worse and worse with every set. How are people even still playing, let alone playing the premier format of Standard, with cards this unfathomably bad and still crying about power levels?

@SaffronOlive He's not talking about crypto, though. He believes Magic will be dead and gone in 5 to 10 years.

I'd take Magic not being relevant to crypto bros as a win, honestly.

@pickin_pines @wildstwawberry @MillThat Hell even the mass bannings of 2019-2020 were unnecessary at all and just kneejerk reaction to mass opinion. The only need to bans from that era were field, oko, and agent. And clearly they don't play test their cards because literally every nonland card is bad.

WOTC doesn’t play test and design the sets evenly anymore. That’s what needs to change IMO. Then you wouldn’t have bans. You’d have balance. Back in the day nothing got banned unless it was truly a problem. Only things that come to mind are skullclamp, umezawa’s jitte. That was for about a 10 year span.

This BnR has convinced me that most Magic players are babies. I don’t care what deck you lose to at locals every week, it doesn’t mean it needs to be banned

@pickin_pines @wildstwawberry @MillThat Are we playing the same game? Because the power level is so far in the toilet that I don't know how people still praise it. Standard is just glorified draft decks and has been that way since brothers war.

@wildstwawberry @MillThat Seriously. Sure some things are over the top on power level, but not most of it. Figuring out how to beat a deck used to be a key factor of the game.

@xoskiyiaa Glad to see you're back again~

@WillErker They just don't print the actually good cards anymore. #BoltForStandard

First they reprinted Dark Confidant and nobody cared. Then they printed a Cranial Plating and body cares. I dont know if I can handle Tarmogoyf.

@Djmoyer23 @adamwasmo I'm not talking about UB, I'm talking about magic in general. Card power has been slipping since Ikoria and every time I think that a set can't get any worse the next spoiler season starts and I'm appalled at the things they're printing. I genuinely miss Oko and Lurrus.

It's a hard balance. If more cards were naturally good you'd upset a lot of people printing must have cards in UB. I think that hurt spiderman at lot, it's works primarily within it's own set. I think TMNT has a ton more that is generally good or large archetype good like +1/+1 counters, lots of squares, and sneak. None of it is going to see CEDH though so many don't see it as "powerful". We have upgraded hardened scales on a body for example. It's clearly powerful.

My gf, after me explaining to her that everyone hates UB/TNMT "The magic community is just a bunch of haters. Y'all just love to find things to get mad about" Is she cooking?

@Djmoyer23 @adamwasmo I just miss the days when cards were naturally good and archetypes were open. "There's so much diversity now!" Yes but it's more of a question of what flavor of control you want to play since aggro has been dead since Theros/Ikoria and was executed by the printing of Sheoldred.

100%, majority just complain to complain. The prof is the worst all he does is cry and wish for the "good ol days". The problem with the TMNT hate is 90% is unjustified. "It's ugly", no 99% of the art is spot on to amazing, sorry you don't like the subject matter. "Sooo much pizza", there's 20 some pizza cards if you count each land individually across 300 plus different arts in this set that's almost not enough for how important pizza is in TMNT. I've begun to wonder if 1 it's just a smaller more niche property so the loudest voices were complaints but 2 if it being a "boy" targeted property matters more than we think. TONS of the complaints I've seen are "it's gross" or some variation. Well ya, they're mutant turtles made by ooze in a sewer who obsess with unrealistically cheesy pizza with insane toppings the series has always been kind of "gross". It almost feels like it's part of the core design to be a little "gross". In my 36 years of life I've never heard someone say TMNT is gross. Of course about everyone I've talked to TMNT has been a fan of it and 98% were boys. Is TMNT just to "offensive" ie "gross" at it's core design to appeal to a mass amount of the MTG community as MTG has become very feminine and/or become a "safe space" for femininity? I say all this to point out that not a single reason stated which is the bulk of complaints I see are a valid reason the set is "bad", maybe you don't like it but it is a good set.

@tirentu I wish we saw the same formats, since Standard and Pioneer are so simple. Play the cards that say "Discard" or "Destroy" or "Exile" and you just fucking win. There is no variation to what I experience, and it's infuriating to know others are seeing wildly different metas.

i think the decks in standard are too strong. the cards are too complicated. we need worse decks with simpler cards

@MnnMouse_RL @SaffronOlive Not ragebait, 100% honesty. Jund is the most unfair magic you could ever play, and is the poster child for degenerate control you could find next to UW "Land-Go", except Jund gets to do everything UW does for a *third* of the mana cost. Also Thoughtseize was a mistake of a card

@SharksInSpace @SaffronOlive Ts ragebait?

Monday in the #BestStandardDeckEver Tournament we've got a midrange battle with Jund from 2009 against Mono-Black Devotion from 2013. Who do you think wins? Jund: #paper" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mtggoldfish.com/deck/7586446#p… Mono-Black Devotion: #paper" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">mtggoldfish.com/deck/7586466#p…

@SaffronOlive Here's a better solution to the companion thing in commander: you just don't.

Lutri being "banned as a companion" makes sense, but it also makes the idea that "banned as a commander" is too complicated even more laughable than it already was.

@Funk_fu749 @SaffronOlive @Theasianavenger I wish I had whatever metagame you have because my metagame across every format has been "If it moves it fucking dies" since Neon Dynasty.

@SharksInSpace @SaffronOlive @Theasianavenger Aggro not being viable, imagine that.

Sultai Reanimator is looking really strong with the new evoke Elementals and Formidable Speaker. Going to need to pack even more hate I think.

@Funk_fu749 @SaffronOlive @Theasianavenger I mean in a format ruled by control you just had to eke value whenever you could. Aggro hasn't been viable in years.

@SharksInSpace @SaffronOlive @Theasianavenger Hearse was around during a gy meta and was a beater even without valuable creatures under it. MBing vacuum this whole time was always kinda wild but when it was relevant it was clutch.

@Funk_fu749 @SaffronOlive @Theasianavenger Nor was playing hearse or soul-guide lantern, but people apparently think that's not what the sideboard is for.

@SaffronOlive @Theasianavenger playing Ghost Vacuum in every deck doesn't seem so crazy now, huh?

@SaffronOlive Considering that aggro is effectively dead in standard (sheoldred killed that) planes walkers are just another spell to counter. Plus how many things just outright destroy/exile permanents?

I was thinking about how Standard seems fairly light on planeswalker removal, and then I realized it was because of Universes Beyond sets. Since UB doesn't have planeswalkers, UB removal spells don't include planeswalkers, so only 50% of sets get planeswalker removal now. (I checked Scryfall, and there are currently zero cards in Standard UB sets with the word "planeswalker" in their rules text).

@JohnRamosMTG Strange, on my runs up to diamond I saw 90% black based control decks. Zero variation, zero deviation, and zero fun allowed. It's been this way since dominaria.

@SharksInSpace I see a crap ton of Islands on Arena Standard Mythic Ladder.

Chat, if you are in these colors; play these. You will thank me later.

@JohnRamosMTG I haven't seen a forest or an island in arena since 2023, to be blunt.

@SharksInSpace Arena mythic ladder is mostly whatever MTGO results show or some major creator: badgermole cub being a big huge deal. The context here is me posting cards available for some answers to some Simic Decks lol.

@JohnRamosMTG I'm more impressed that people are playing green and red at all. It's all orzhov degen control here.

@SharksInSpace The place where everyone is complaining about Simic and others being a problem; go off king👑

@SaffronOlive I still genuinely question the card quality that has come out of wizards since M21, since it seems like they don't do any amount of actual testing or the testing they do is extremely narrow and biased. Plus this B&R is the biggest "no fun allowed" since the Lurrus ban.

I appreciate the transparency, but reading the explanation for today's bannings doesn't give me confidence in the playtesting process for 3 year Standard. If you can't playtest Profs with a card a few months in the future, how can you possibly playtest for a set dropping in 2028?