Three weeks into the release of Amonkhet, the latest Magic expansion, competitive play is tormented by an overpowered combo that players hate for making games feel less strategic and more like spinning a roulette wheel. 2017 has seen more cards banned from Magic‘s Standard format than in the past 10 years combined, but many pros find today’s popular gameplay strategy boring enough to demand that yet another card get the boot.
James Paick/Wizards of the Coast
Shortly before Pro Tour Amonkhet, this season’s major tournament that took place May 12-14, a broken combo deck called Copy Cat was emergency-banned out of the Standard format. Its unmatched power dominated tournament play and flattened the competitive viability of other deck types. Itching to pilot decks with other play styles, the Magic community welcomed the ban, though some players feared that the “fixed” format would instead become broken in a different way.
This dark prophecy has been fulfilled, but not in the way that the community predicted — it is not Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, a pushed, merchandisable “face card” of Magic, that has torn pro Magic asunder. The new menace deck revolves instead around Aetherworks Marvel. It lets its controller cast random cards off the top of their deck. If that deck’s pilot is very lucky, they can win games very quickly, eliminating the opportunity for players to leverage the technical skill and long-term strategy that make Magic fun and interesting.
It is trivially simple to play a Marvel on turn four and activate its ability once, which allows players to look at the top six cards of their deck and then cast one free of any cost. The dream is to hit an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, a card that both presents an enormous and fast threat and denies the opponent of their best resources. The reason that a card like Ulamog can exist is its steep mana cost, which means players generally can’t use it until their tenth turn. Players using the Marvel combo will win or lose based on the six random cards they can access each time they give it a spin — sometimes you get Ulamog, and sometimes you get nothing.
Michael Komarck/Wizards of the Coast
Marvel is not a new card, but it has ascended in power because of the nature of the Standard format itself, the premier format for competitive Magic. Standard is a rotating format where only cards from the past two years are legal. The reason is twofold: A rotating card pool provides players with a reliable influx of new card designs and strategies and challenges players to come up with novel strategies. Of course, it also also enables Magic‘s publisher, Wizards of the Coast, to market new products.
Because Standard’s card pool is so small, there are usually fewer viable deck types than in other play formats. However, Magic players (like NBA fans) are unhappy when the number of competitive contenders shrinks to a field of one. After Copy Cat combo was banned, Marvel has filled the void at the top, and once again, a single deck with a single win condition is far and away the most powerful option available.
I spoke with a few professional players about current Standard gameplay, and they emphasised that a dependence on luck trivialises the value of strategy. Emma Handy, a popular competitor and writer, told me: “There isn’t as much to leverage in randomising one’s deck. There are ways to try and posture one’s plays in such a way that different hits on Marvel will be better, but it all feels like playing the lottery at times.” Canadian pro Pascal Maynard agreed that although the Marvel deck does allow some room for maximising competitive edge, “with Ulamog in the format there are too often brainless decisions made.”
Magic Hall of Famer Ben Stark put it more bluntly: “More luck in the game does mean better players will win less.” Stark argued that evening the playing field through luck is a poor plan to make newer players feel successful and enjoy the game. “In my opinion what matters is that the game is strategic so people of all skill levels can make meaningful decisions… If [weaker players] or their opponents put a turn 4 Ulamog in play in Standard, no one is learning anything.”
When a format is broken and not fun to play, Magic‘s governing body at Wizards of the Coast issues card bannings to outlaw the offending cards. Wizards has been in hot water recently because of an excess of bannings in Standard in the past year — if Marvel does get the hammer, it would be the fifth card since January.
The recent wave of bans has shaken consumer confidence in Wizards’ ability to create fun, balanced game. Martin Juza, a decorated Czech pro, told me that Wizards “messed up big time in the last few sets,” and added, “As far as I remember this is the worst I felt Standard has been since I started playing.”
Stark and Maynard advocate a Marvel ban, but Handy was more hesitant. She explained that bans mean that money players invest in powerful cards can disappear overnight. So, players are faced with two lousy options: “[You have a choice] of ‘play a sub-optimal deck’ versus ‘play the best deck but have your collection lose value when the cards get banned in a few weeks’.” Juza thinks that Wizards of the Coast will likely hold out on bans and instead wait out the three months for Ulamog to rotate naturally, although Marvel itself would remain legal for another year.
Wizards argues that the problems we’ve seen in Standard gameplay are due to a flawed design philosophy that they are trying to rectify. Associate communications manager Steve Sunu told me that the Research & Design team used to believe that “If we made the best set and cards possible, keeping in mind format requirements, then we would naturally make the best format possible.”
Wizards of the Coast/Jakub Kasper
If there is a bright side to this saga, it is Wizards’ acknowledgement that they have been messing up with Standard, and their intent to change course. Last week, longtime Magic designer Mark Rosewater announced that Wizards will be rolling out a new Play Design team with the explicit intention of improving the quality of tournament play. The two high-profile hires for the team are Melissa De Tora and Andrew Brown, both of whom have achieved success at the highest competitive level by placing in the Top 8 at a Magic Pro Tour. A number of pros, including Maynard and Juza, have applauded this development. The impetus for the Play Design team, Sunu says, was to think about Magic more holistically: “We recognised there was an opportunity for improvement; to have an entire team focused designing the best format(s) possible, independent of the teams focusing on designing the best sets and cards possible.”
Wizards is next scheduled to update their ban list on June 14, and it remains to be seen whether Marvel survives. At least Wizards is putting away their dice when it comes to new card design — players will not tolerate rolling another snake eyes.
Comments
9 responses to “A Cheap New Combo Is Ruining Magic: The Gathering”
As an ardent Magic player I do disagree with this article.
the simple solution is to wait until Ulamog rolls out of standard and wait to see what the next combo people will complain about is.
If TCSs are concerned over FNM attendance they can issue their own instore bans but also make prizes better to attract people (none of that rare redraw crap which people despise but cheap stores do to avoid giving out prizes). WotC can also give out better FNM prizes to stores too, beyond the typical promo cards.
FNM? Also whats the redraw crap cheap stores do, im new to magic as a player and in the process of buying stock to open a shop but it would probs come under a “cheap store” due to low physical turnover, but ill avoid disappointment if i can
FNM stands for Friday night magic, Wizards sends registered stores promo cards to give out specifically for tournaments held on a Friday.
I assume rare redraw is another name for rare redraft, which means instead of the store providing prizes for a draft, everyone returns some of the cards they drafted, usually at a minimum whatever was in the rare slot of the packs, and the winner picks a card from the pool to keep, then second place does and so on.
Some people argue this allows them to focus purely on picking the best cards while drafting and it helps keep the price of a draft low, on the other hand it’s incredibly hostile to anyone who isn’t a serious magic player.
I believe ‘FNM’ refers to Friday Night Magic. A lot of stores run weekly Magic tournaments for their customers/players every Friday.
I’m not a Magic player myself, but I have a couple of friends that are always talking about the friday night lock-ins at their local stores.
I have been in and out of MTG for years (currently out), still have an interest in the game and don’t agree with the premise re: “standard card pool is so small”. There are huge numbers that can be played with variety, however I think a lot of people today are inclined to go online and lookup the best decks and replicate, where I remember tuning decks over 3 – 4 month periods before they became good.
There have always been OP combos (Lotus petal + double dark ritual, hatred + raging goblin or city of traitors + fluctuator), however they do not always come off. Drawing 7 cards, having 3 or 4 draws and then relying on Ulamog being 1 of 6 cards being drawn as a result relies on more luck than good deck tek.
Is it OP, sure? However Wizards should not just band everything, players need to work around things.
You know something I came across a Marvel deck over the weekend for our “Gameday” the guy triggered his Marvel 3 times and didn’t hit Ulamog. So it really is a luck based thing. But when it does hit the battlefield the game turns salty like a fine day at the beach.
If Ulamog comes out turn 4 just bounce him back and they got no way of casting him again until later turns. Bam just fixed standard. That or just counter marvel. But yeah I am kinda of sick of seeing these decks there isn’t much enjoyment playing against decks like this.
You still have his cast trigger which you have to deal with which ruins your mana base and puts you back 2 turns so countering doesn’t really help, but i dont think banning ulamog is going to help cause there are other fatties that can just as easily cause you problem
No I was referring to countering the marvel not Ulamog himself. I also don’t think he needs to be banned there are ways to deal with it and like you said there are others that are just as obnoxious. Like Thing in the ice if that doesnt get pushed or answered when it hits the board it is fun and games from there.