Eternal Masters

Melkor

Well-known member
Feels like if they had revealed Rishadan Port on the last day instead of the Sphinx the set would have had a 99% approval rating (from a design standpoint, print run complaints would probably be even more rampant). Almost all of my own actual complaints can be easily explained by, "It has to be that way for Limited" (no way that Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach could be in the same set). Even having played the game for as long as I have, I only truly realized the constraints that limited play puts on set design in the last couple years. It was a big lightbulb that went of in my head which explained most of what I always complained about whenever a new set came out.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Feels like if they had revealed Rishadan Port on the last day instead of the Sphinx the set would have had a 99% approval rating (from a design standpoint, print run complaints would probably be even more rampant). Almost all of my own actual complaints can be easily explained by, "It has to be that way for Limited"
I get that, and if this is what it takes, I'm content. If we have to have a set partially filled with silly stuff like shrines and landcyclers in order to get the goodies, it's worth the price. However, like I said earlier, Limited players get babied in every set that comes out, and this year they're getting another Conspiracy product on top of the increased Standard set release schedule. If this set had somehow been undraftable, they'd have no believable reason to complain. Also, it would sell like hotcakes even if no one could draft it. In fact, drafting this set (offline, anyway) might be rare anyway. A SoI draft would cost a player less than half of what this would cost, right?

(no way that Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach could be in the same set).
Well, Hymn is bumped up to uncommon and Sinkhole is bumped up to rare, so it wouldn't be that bad. But there are other good targets too and some of the other colors are already weaker. I suppose they'd have to tweak other parts of the set in order to keep black/red from being unbeatable. You've got a point. There are some possible workarounds but black was pushed for Limited, and really with this much depth, it's easy to push black in the first place. White, on the other hand, well, that's a mess. I mean, where do go with that in a set with so much diversity? Seems like they gave up and just let it be a support color (and also the color for the guy who obnoxiously signals being in white so that he can have the color to himself).

Even having played the game for as long as I have, I only truly realized the constraints that limited play puts on set design in the last couple years. It was a big lightbulb that went of in my head which explained most of what I always complained about whenever a new set came out.
They definitely prioritize it for their set design and development. On the one hand, it makes a lot of sense: they've been able to make Limited more popular and Limited is inherently a moneymaker for WotC. On the other hand, it seems like every single set gets like 90% approval among Limited players, no matter what. Sure, some individual here and there won't have liked how some set was too slow or too fast or whatever. But we really have no metric for saying how much prioritization of Limited is worth it. It's like...



That said, I suspect that Limited players will love this set. I mean, it is tailored to them, but that's not why. It seems like every Limited player's favorite format is Cube, which is fast-paced with powerful cards. And then their second favorite is sometimes some Tarkir or Alara stuff because they just want to play a bunch of big, flashy multicolored spells, but usually it's triple Innistrad because it let them play fast-paced games and murder each other. It turns out that, like the rest of the Magic community, people who draft like to play with powerful cards.
 
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