I have a love/hate relationship with Standard.
Despite having not played at all this season and being unfamiliar with the format, I decided to tune in to some GP Miami coverage over the weekend. I told myself I would just leave it open in a tab and listen to Patrick Sullivan and Cedric Philips banter, but I got sucked in-truly the term "Cardboard Crack" is best applied to Standard. Despite, or perhaps because of, the limited design space, Standard is a constantly evolving and exciting format to play and follow. There are always a variety of playable decks, lots of tournaments to go to, and room for relative "innovation" and metagaming, all aided by the proliferation of tournament coverage and netdecking. The cards are easily accessible and appear relatively cheap up front.
I have heard claims both from people in real life and on the internet that the current Standard is awesome and much better than last Standard. I think these claims are greatly exaggerated. I believe that in a healthy Standard format, Aggro, Midrange, and Control should all be well represented and viable decks. Unfortunately, while this format appears diverse at first blush due to all the different deck names and colors, there is very little strategic variation between them, with an overwhelming presence of 3-color goodstuff midrange decks. True fast aggro has a hard time coping with all the Caryatid/Courser and Lifelink in the format, and while control decks have appeared to fight the Green midrange decks, they are appallingly bad against everything else. This was somewhat inevitable with the quality of mana fixing available alongside powerful wedge colored cards.
Overall, I do like that Standard has been decreasing in power level over the last few seasons, because it provides a home for lots of awesome cards that won't see play in other 60-card formats like Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. When cards like Snapcaster Mage, Primeval Titan, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are being played in Standard, there isn't much room for worse cards to compete. However, I know people who hate playing with "bad" cards, and lament that Standard is an "easy" format for inferior players. While I prefer playing Eternal formats, this attitude is conceited and ignorant. Standard is certainly accessible and has a low floor for skills required, but a very high ceiling. Things as basic as attacking and blocking, more prevalent in Standard than Modern or Legacy, are very skill intensive and separate the good players from the average players.
Unfortunately, the characteristics that make Standard great are also those that make it one of the most expensive formats. Last Standard season alone I played 5 different archetypes and spent about $500 on cards that are nearly worthless outside of Standard. Does the fun of playing Standard justify its costs? I answered "no" to that question, sold all my Theros cards, and decided to sit this Standard out for the sake of my wallet. But I can't deny that watching GP Miami gave me the itch again.
Despite having not played at all this season and being unfamiliar with the format, I decided to tune in to some GP Miami coverage over the weekend. I told myself I would just leave it open in a tab and listen to Patrick Sullivan and Cedric Philips banter, but I got sucked in-truly the term "Cardboard Crack" is best applied to Standard. Despite, or perhaps because of, the limited design space, Standard is a constantly evolving and exciting format to play and follow. There are always a variety of playable decks, lots of tournaments to go to, and room for relative "innovation" and metagaming, all aided by the proliferation of tournament coverage and netdecking. The cards are easily accessible and appear relatively cheap up front.
I have heard claims both from people in real life and on the internet that the current Standard is awesome and much better than last Standard. I think these claims are greatly exaggerated. I believe that in a healthy Standard format, Aggro, Midrange, and Control should all be well represented and viable decks. Unfortunately, while this format appears diverse at first blush due to all the different deck names and colors, there is very little strategic variation between them, with an overwhelming presence of 3-color goodstuff midrange decks. True fast aggro has a hard time coping with all the Caryatid/Courser and Lifelink in the format, and while control decks have appeared to fight the Green midrange decks, they are appallingly bad against everything else. This was somewhat inevitable with the quality of mana fixing available alongside powerful wedge colored cards.
Overall, I do like that Standard has been decreasing in power level over the last few seasons, because it provides a home for lots of awesome cards that won't see play in other 60-card formats like Trostani, Selesnya's Voice. When cards like Snapcaster Mage, Primeval Titan, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are being played in Standard, there isn't much room for worse cards to compete. However, I know people who hate playing with "bad" cards, and lament that Standard is an "easy" format for inferior players. While I prefer playing Eternal formats, this attitude is conceited and ignorant. Standard is certainly accessible and has a low floor for skills required, but a very high ceiling. Things as basic as attacking and blocking, more prevalent in Standard than Modern or Legacy, are very skill intensive and separate the good players from the average players.
Unfortunately, the characteristics that make Standard great are also those that make it one of the most expensive formats. Last Standard season alone I played 5 different archetypes and spent about $500 on cards that are nearly worthless outside of Standard. Does the fun of playing Standard justify its costs? I answered "no" to that question, sold all my Theros cards, and decided to sit this Standard out for the sake of my wallet. But I can't deny that watching GP Miami gave me the itch again.
No comments:
Post a Comment