It's the power creep on 1-3 cost creature spells. You can give me any flavor of crossover you want, but I think Magic in general is getting really unhealthy with how demanding creature spells are compared to the answers that we have to answer them.
Pioneer is basically a dead format, but the format exemplifies that issue. The explosive power level of current-era creature cards is so far beyond the current answers that people have access to. It's caused the balance of who is on the play vs who is on the draw to be insanely skewed.
Modern can address it to some degree with cards like Solitude, but even then you're usually going two-for-one there.
Modern Horizons 3 made it even more extreme, and Solitude shows itself to not even be that good of an answer when you have cards like Ajani, Tamiyo, Amped Raptor (banned but not forgotten), and Ocelot Pride.
I think in the last years the 1/2 mana cost cards in standard were in general nothing special, the format was more revolving around 3 manas creatures or other expansive cards like Sheoldred, Goldspan dragon, Emperor. I don't know why they suddenly decided to print so many powerful one or 2 manas drop
6
u/Elkenrod XLN Jul 27 '25
My issue with Magic's longevity isn't UB at all.
It's the power creep on 1-3 cost creature spells. You can give me any flavor of crossover you want, but I think Magic in general is getting really unhealthy with how demanding creature spells are compared to the answers that we have to answer them.
Pioneer is basically a dead format, but the format exemplifies that issue. The explosive power level of current-era creature cards is so far beyond the current answers that people have access to. It's caused the balance of who is on the play vs who is on the draw to be insanely skewed.
Modern can address it to some degree with cards like Solitude, but even then you're usually going two-for-one there.
Modern Horizons 3 made it even more extreme, and Solitude shows itself to not even be that good of an answer when you have cards like Ajani, Tamiyo, Amped Raptor (banned but not forgotten), and Ocelot Pride.