jegpeg

@FarfaYGO Magic doesnt really have alternate formats because a bunch of formats are officially supported. You can play (nearly) every official format and have a route to qualifying for a major event through MTGO. Whereas YGO you just have Advanced being supported in an official capacity.

Yugioh's most popular non ranked format is various old school formats whereas in magic that's just not something they really do (I could be wrong though) and their most popular alternative format is commander. Such different ways to approach alternative formats for both games.

@SaffronOlive While I do think 6 Standard sets a year is far too many, I don't necessarily agree 3-year rotation has been bad. Outside of outliers like Vivi, there's been way more diversity in top decks since the change. Pre Bloomburrow/rotation there were meta decks for every archetype

Honestly, I think that outside of taking some big (and arguably unwise) design risks, the biggest issue with Standard is it's just too big. I remember Wizards pitching three year Standard as a way to make the format more diverse and I argued that in practice that's not how things work, in big formats the best cards rise to the top and stay there and the format ends up less diverse, which seems to be exactly how three year Standard has played out. And then adding more sets to Standard made the problem even worse. Now we get sets that release and barely make an impact on the format at all (which I think is unacceptable in Standard, not every set needs to shake up Modern, but if a Standard set doesn't impact Standard, what's the point?), because they just aren't as strong as a set printed 2.5 years ago. Really, I think the actual answer to making Standard more healthy and fun is structural changes, like having less sets in Standard, which probably means going back to 2 year rotation (or something similar), because there's no way Wizards is going to sign off on printing less sets.

@SaffronOlive Vivi is obviously a factor, but Foundations happened in the middle of winter break where this is the first week of school on a holiday weekend. Location is also relevent

Those are some concerning numbers for Standard. If anything spurs Wizards to action, it's drops in attendance (although this is just a single data point, so perhaps it isn't wise to read too much into it, but I was definitely expecting closer to 1,500 than under 700).

@CONEY Halo 5 clears all these unfortunately

These are the 4 Worst Video Games Ever Made.

@TeamAPS YGO players in particular have a strange block on their shoulder about its accessibility. They seem to attack anyone who brings it up and insist the game is fine when to be honest it is a very clear problem. YGO is the least accessible card game and I don't think it's close

I've noticed when I post about Yu-Gi-Oh's accessibility & onboarding issues, I'm often met with a certain kind of backlash from people who say something like "skill issue" or say that anyone critiquing the game should just quit. Do these people not want to see Yu-Gi-Oh grow? 🤔

@TolarianCollege It's a shame because outside of the finale arc, the Disney S2 felt like it was starting to be a return to form. It does very much feel like another era of Big Finish being the only way to consume new stories for a while.

Is it weird that Doctor Who is essentially cancelled? Like, there's a lot of obfuscation and dancing around it, a lot of "Well, technically..." but the show is gone, they aren't making more, and it'll likely be a long, long time until it comes back.

@GavinVerhey Saga Creatures are some of the best-designed Limited cards potentially ever. Every bomb feels very beatable thanks to every color having access to decent-great removal, fixing makes it easy to play 3+ color decks, and it's not too fast a format so I can enjoy the cards I open

I've heard from a lot of people that they have been drafting FINAL FANTASY nonstop. And... Okay, yeah, so have I. What about the draft format do you think makes you keep coming back? What is the secret sauce? (Or, if you don't like it, tell me what you don't like!) #wotcstaff

@AlmghtyBrshSwgg If you want to start with a more "simple" one, FFIV is what I think the best starting point is as it's when the series really started carving out its identity. Helps to get the base FF systems down without all the extras in each game that come (and go) later.

Alright, the FF cards hooked me. Ive NEVER played a Final Fantasy game, so where should I start? I hear that these are some of the best RPGs of all time

@SaffronOlive Not to go up to bat for Wizards, but to be fair to them this card was a meta-relevant card not a terribly long time ago when Lizards were more popular pre-Duskmourn but Lizards wound up falling off after it was likely already produced and locked in

On the other hand, Laughing Jasper Flint as the promo for doing well enough in a RCQ to qualify for the Regional Championship is pretty lackluster.

@GavinVerhey @maro254 Pleaaase

24 years ago, the mechanic flashback released in Odyssey. It was named generically, a buyback riff. Well, FINAL FANTASY finally pays that name off: many flashback cards in the set are ACTUAL flashbacks in the games! Like this in @maro254's article! Speculate away 😄 #wotcstaff

@SaffronOlive I'm very interested in trying it out in a Death's Shadow-esque build in Pioneer with Cecil

Dark Confidant is back for the first time in nearly 20 years, but is it good? How much play do you think Bob will see in Standard and/or Pioneer?

@SaffronOlive Izzet Prowess is more spell focused, Mice is more creatures focused. Yes, it plays Monstrous Rage but the playstyle itself is much different from Mice

Curious what other people think of Izzet Prowess. Does it feel like a new Tarkir: Dragonstorm deck because it's built around Cori-Steel Cutter or is it just another Monstrous Rage deck?

@SaffronOlive To be honest, it's pretty much a 2-deck format (GW Convoke and Grixis Heist/Chorus). It's kind of been in and out of digital only being dominant and not, but digital cards are what most good decks are built around currently. If you're looking for 2-year Standard, Alchemy isn't it

Honestly considering trying Alchemy. If you are someone to play the format, curious if it feel more like Standard if we still had normal rotation or is it mostly digital only and rebalanced cards that are meta?

@SaffronOlive I think it's been really good honestly. I can't remember enjoying any of the 2-year rotation Standards since I started in 2020. The top decks are very strong, but there's so many tier 2-3 decks that are capable of beating them. Granted, 6 sets a year might strain that

Curious what people think about three years of cards being in Standard now that we've lived under the system for a while. I have some thoughts, but I'd rather hear from everyone else on their personal experiences with the changes.

@CONEY Prestige carries way too much weight. BOTW, Dark Souls, etc, would be 6-7/10 games at best if they weren't attached to the "brand" that tells you "games in this series are always good"

@Jenn_the_Judge Khanful - Have at least one creature from every clan on the battlefield.

@DabuzSenpai This could be implemented and somehow games would still be on PS2

Hear me out, new anti Steve rule You get to pick ANY stage you want against Steve, period We're including non legal tournament stages? Who is down?

@Ashlizzlle_ Not at allll. There are so many answers to Domain I feel like whereas Bounce gets really obnoxious really fast imo

chat has decided, do the twitter homies agree?

@PleasantKenobi YGO are usually over by t3 at the latest. The thing with floodgates is even symmetrical ones are still one sided, because you play all your cards, THEN flip the floodgate so only your opponent is affected by it, and they often shut off 90% of a deck's ability to play

These replies are telling me that Yugioh is a hot mess, where singular cards turn off entire games on turn 1, with no counterplay. Are Yugioh players exaggerating like an MTG Commander player crying about Wrath of God, or is there really a glaring design issue with floodgates?

@MBTYuGiOh MTGO is really the only "main" way to play, and theres a handful of Discord servers that host Modern leagues over webcam (PlayAway is a good one).

have they invented a better place to play modern than mtgo since ive been gone. can some grinder with a metafy tell me when i need to be boarding into consign to memory

ALERT ALERT 🚨THIS IS NOT A DRILL THE OTS NEAR ME IS STARTING TO RUN MODERN NIGHTS ON A DAY I COULD ACTUALLY GO MTG HOMIES. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO PLAY. I LIKE CONTROL, I LIKE TEMPO, I LIKE SMALL SYNERGIES, I WOULD LIKE TO PLAY A DECK THAT IS NOT IN DANGER OF BEING BANNED