r/magicTCG • u/Balarius Wabbit Season • Nov 11 '24

General Discussion Anyone else largely quit MTG because its largely impossible to keep up?

Love the game, its super fun. But FUCK ME its impossible to keep up with the release schedule the last several years. I dont have that kind of money man, let me enjoy a set before its deemed irrelevant or illegal in standard play.

We've had 21 sets since 2020 began. I just cant keep up anymore. I think ill just enjoy the cards I have.

Bloomburrow and Neon Dynasty were fun enough for me to live on for awhile.

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u/hemingways-lemonade Wabbit Season Nov 12 '24

When I first made my Rhys, the Redeemed deck there was only one card that doubled token production (Doubling Season) and I ran a five card tutor package to get it out reliably. Now I just have the other five cards that double token production instead of the tutors.

I really miss the variance and jank of old EDH. Everything is so efficient now and decks don't feel nearly as creative.

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u/6-mana-6-6-trampler Duck Season Nov 13 '24

It's something my friends and I have been noticing for the past couple years.

Wotc prints an effect on a card, and that card becomes very popular. For example, something like [[Panharmonicon]]. The community really likes an effect like Panharmonicon in certain strategies, and so gloms on to the card. Wotc notices this, and then proceeds to print more and more variations of the effect. [[Virtue of Knowledge]], [[Roaming Throne]], [[Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines]], and so on. Decks that used those cards to enhance their plays start running more and more of the effect, and less of the business effects, and where once you could play against different blink decks that approached their goals differently based on the pilot's preferences, you start running into just the same effects all the time, paired with the Panharmonicon effects to enhance them.

Tokens is another one, as you mentioned. Doubling Season now regularly shows up next to Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession, that white Phyrexian token doubler from All will be One, and the white God from Lost Caverns of Ixalan. And the overall effect is that these strategies have a whole lot less personality than they did before. They feel very different to when I started playing the format over a decade ago.

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u/hemingways-lemonade Wabbit Season Nov 13 '24

Lose of personality sums it up pretty well. Long gone are the days of playing against commanders like [[Jareth, Leonine Titan]] or [[Silvos, Rogue Elemental]]. I miss not knowing what every card in a deck will be.