 |
| Home Articles Zendikar Spoiler (249/249) Radar Forums Blogs Wiki Writing/Contests Chat About |
Thank God it's Over NowBy Stefan Preiml on September 13th, 2005 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 32 Comments
Some don't get the idea that I only started playing Magic a little after 8th Edition came out in August 2003. My knowledge of the game extends back longer than two years because I read much about this game: older articles and even tournament reports, Limited and Constructed alike, and I'm very interested in the history and roots of the game. The fact that I played other card games before Magic (no, I played neither Yu-Gi-Oh nor Pokemon) and I started playing sanctioned Magic pretty soon after that was also very helpful. I think understanding the evolution of the game and seeing how things where played in the past helps a lot to understand how to play and understand the game as it is now. I also caught some experience in Onslaught Block Constructed and Odyssey/Onslaught T2. Soon after Mirrodin came out, I started getting some major tournament experience in Onslaught/Mirrodin T2. Mirrodin Block is a double-edged sword. On the one hand you have a huge bag of very playable cards that aren't outright broken at all rarity levels. On the other hand, you have also an discomforting amount of inherently broken mechanics and cards putting several formats into utter chaos when they came out. These are the two major similarities between Mirrodin and Urza Block. Mirrodin Viewing it from the outside, Mirrodin has a wide range of cool and interesting cards that aren't outright broken. Cards like Troll Ascetic, Arc-Slogger, Damping Matrix, and Chrome Mox are nice additions and are quite powerful, but not really overpowered. Mirrodin seemed like a very good set with lots of playables, but how little we knew back then! The Dawn of Doom Mirrodin rotated into the constructed formats in October 2003 and immediately wreaked havoc upon the Pro Tour: New Orleans, November 2003. The field in this Extended Pro Tour was dominated by Tinker-driven Artifact decks abusing a huge amount of cheap mana acceleration. The resemblance to PT Rome in November 1998, shortly after the introduction of Urza Block, was really no coincidence. Third turn kills were no rarity [And first turn wins were quite possible - Ed, who had some very irritated opponents around that time]. Bannings given out in December took Tinker and Grim Monolith along with some other cards out of the format to slow it down, but the impact had already been made on the PTQ season. Affinity Standard, on the other hand, was relatively unaffected, thanks to the fact that it was Extended Season at the time. I still swear I had that weird feeling when Randy Buehler introduced the Artifact Lands in his column and the Affinity mechanic was already known through the rumor mill. The first Affinity decks featured Broodstar and counters and tried to kill by dropping a load of cheap artifacts and then bouncing everything on the other side of the table with Temporal Fissure. Darksteel In February 2004, Darksteel became tournament legal. Arcbound Ravager pushed Broodstar out of Affinity decks and various other decks popped up at Champs, but it was clear that the format was dominated by Ravager Affinity. Other cards from the set like Death Cloud, Blinkmoth Nexus and Pulse of the Fields started to pop up occasionally. Still, one little artifact flew a bit under the radar. I Survived the Skullclamp Disaster of 2004 Games didn't get decided by who played better, but by who got his Skullclamps out earlier and could overwhelm the opponent with card advantage. The T2 meta started to be Clamp against Clamp and pretty much every deck had to either play it or be prepared to face it, if not both. The fact that it was an artifact and could go into any given deck, also catapulting underdeveloped Block control decks on top of the T2 forces just by adding 20 x/1 Creatures, made it even more ridiculous. Block and Go The funny thing is that Pro Tour Kobe 2004, playing Block Constructed with Mirrodin and Darksteel, didn't get entirely warped by the Clamp. Still, only decks that ran at least eight maindeck Affinity hate cards were able to compete with it. Three archetypes could be found in the Top 8. The deck everybody was out to kill, Affinity, was represented by two players. A French Mono-Green build whose only purpose was to accumulate mana and cast big spells was piloted by Gabriel Nassif. The remaining five decks each played Mountains, a whole slew of burn, and one or two large badasses. Things seemed relatively OK. Hey June This was at the end of February 2004, but as the season went on, Standard just went down the drain. The Clamp was everywhere and Standard seemed more like the Clamp Faction (Goblins, Affinity, B/G, Elf and Nail) vs. Anti-Clamp (MWC, UWC, Big Red, March of the Machines). This looks relatively healthy, but it really wasn't. If a card just pops up in every second deck and the game depends on drawing it or drawing removal against it, something has to be done. Finally in June, the new Banned and Restricted list was issued, and on top of it was that goddamn Skullclamp being removed from T2 and Block Constructed, effective June 20th. Sure, people complained that Elf and Nail was "unplayable" now, but at least Affinity got to take a big hit. Unfortunately, a big chunk of National Championships, such as Italian, Japanese, and U.S. were to be held before those bannings would kick in. And then still there was Fifth Dawn, and with it Affinity just got a powerful replacement for the Clamp named Cranial Plating. In the end, the only effect that the banning made was removing a card everyone played from the game and giving some control decks a possibility to compete while Affinity just gained more momentum. But Fifth Dawn also held a little item named Eternal Witness that would go on and wrap Block Constructed and Standard alike around its little finger. Block and Go II Parallel to the Nationals Season, Block Constructed was still going on, and the inclusion of the Fifth Dawn and the removal of Skullclamp seemed to really help the format, although it mostly consisted of Mono-Red, Mono-Green, and Red or Green decks combined with other colors to beat Affinity. Big Red, TwelvePost (Elf and Nail's block counterpart), B/G, Mono-Green Beatdown, and a deck that could endlessly recur artifact removal thanks to the combination of Crystal Shard and Eternal Witness, along with Affinity were mostly defining the format. But in the end, everybody was just looking for a way to stop Affinity. And so on As the seasons continued, Standard became more and more like Mirrodin Block Constructed that just spit out decks with the focus on destroying Affinity like a machine gun... but nothing seemed to work. Even the Onslaught Block Constructed Predator Goblins seemed to vanish from sight along with the rest of the soon-to-rotate Onslaught Block, but not without a final uproar. Worlds was no less in the shadow of Affinity than the rest of the season, but at least Onslaught was back in the game. The Witness gave new gas to Astral Slide if no Viridian Shaman was at hand and set up endless removal, and also Goblins seemed to rush and take no prisoners again. Julien Nujten won it all with his G/W Slide. Extended Stay Everybody knows that there is enough hate for Affinity in the format. No one will play Affinity if it gets hated, so why should I waste precious sideboard slots for a deck no one will play? Pierre Canali piloted his Affinity Version using Aether Vial and Meddling Mage, and went on to be the single Affinity in the Top 8, taking the Pro Tour despite the presence of Energy Fluxes and Meltdown in the Top Eight. But that's not the only way Mirrodin influenced that Extended season. Reanimator was viable and the strategy of putting a large creature first into the grave and from there into play was enhanced with Mirrodin using Goblin Welder to replace Seats of the Synod with Sundering Titans, first presented at Grand Prix Boston. At least the people were warned now and took measures in their own hands. Banned in T2 Standard at the time was still horrible to play, another reason Extended boomed like hell: everybody was sick of the format and wanted to play something different. Yet Wizards didn't announce bannings for T2 in December, but everybody expected them. Finally in March, Wizards took a huge step. The new Banned and Restricted list was issued and effective 20th of March 2005. Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, and all six artifact lands were no longer legal to play in Standard. Some people complained that Ravager and Disciple would have been enough, but Wizards wanted to be sure that neither a Ravager and Disciple-less Affinity nor the Krark-Clan Ironworks combo deck would step into the hole. To the Present In the meantime, the secondary predator of Mirrodin, Tooth and Nail, was still alive and killing, as were several G/X builds and a range of different mono-colored decks in all variations. Still, Mirrodin, with a whole slew of overpowered artifacts that could go in any deck, was menacing Standard. At least Kamigawa was able to make some effect, enabling competitive decks like White Weenie or mono-Black/Green-Black Rats and also putting some big hits into a wide array of decks. In front of it all stands Sensei's Divining Top, ironically yet another Artifact. Finally I'm realy happy that Mirrodin is finally leaving the Standard environment, and with it a nasty one-card-combo-deck, a slew of retarded equipment, a guy your opponent can pump like mad but you can't target with removal, a neverending chain of blockers or endless removal and probably two of the worst designed cards I can think of. Thank God it's over now! Credits: Writing: chaosof99; Banner & Images: iloveatogs; Editing: Binary By Stefan Preiml on September 13th, 2005 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 32 Comments |
|
