People want karoos in - trilands out
People want Power out - similar effects in
People want Thieving Magpie out - I want Worldwake tapper in, trying Voidmage Prodigy for the time being.
People want Darksteel Pendant out - additional accelerator in
I think taking out the shard trilands would be good for the karoos. It will make everyone happy and it continues our attempts at making the cube less prone to three colors unless its a real commitment.
Power is an interesting issue. When it is just a 4 man and you don't reuse the cards from each draft it does not make that big an impact, Power does not come up that often. Tonight we ran an 8 man and a large majority of the Power did show up and it had a huge unfun impact. I think the solution to this is to offer substitutions for Power based on the number of people and personal preference. (Time Walk - Time Warp, Ancestral - Sift, just because its easier to play than concentrate)
Thieving Magpie is on the shot list, and I think replacing it with Voidmage Prodigy for now. Lets see how that dude does.
Darksteel Pendant I still personally like, but drafting the cube is very different with 8 people. I think this will most likely become an accelerator of some sort, alone with the substitutions for the Power artifacts.
I was amazed at how different drafting the cube would be with 8 vs 4. I think these changes will make drafting with more people better. Let me know what everything thinks about these and Ill post when something final is decided.
Obviously you should do what makes the cube fun for your playgroup. That said, I completely don't understand the point of taking out the power. If you do that, what becomes the most broken thing in the cube? I can name 20 other cards that are just as unfair/possibly unfun. I think this is a weird slippery slope situation, where Mana Drain, Jitte, Sol Ring, SoFI, ect become just as problematic. There will be a 9 best cards in the cube no matter what you do, and the power are certainly not the nine most unfair or unfun cards in the cube. What can you do with a turn 1 Lotus that can't be undone in the next 2 turns in the cube? Removal is really powerful. On the other hand, situations like tokens-Opposition lockout or Brine Elemental-Shapeshifter are actually basically unanswerable.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. To me, the cube is special because sometimes really crazy shit happens. In limited. I wouldn't ever take that element out.
Magpie, whatever.
The Pendant.... come on. What do you want in that spot? Acceleration? There are moxes for that, but you don't want those... I think one of the most valuable things in the cube is out-of-color effects- that's one big way it's different than normal limited. As far as I am concerned, cutting the pendant is not correct.
Well, that's a novel. And again, the most important thing is that it be fun. I just think some of these choices are a little rash/insane.
Oh, speaking of which, is tricolor somehow become overpowered overnight? You aren't running four of each shardlands- they don't singlehandedly make the mana in three color decks easy. Don't get me wrong, I love the karoos and am happy to play with them, but the shard lands are in there because they are three different CITP duals. Not because Sphinx control is unstoppable.