Why is this allowed?

I'm not an mtg guy but I think it's the fact that one looks flat out better than the other
1st is a conditional +2/+2, the other is an unconditional +2/+2 that also gives life. Only reason I can think of doing this is the fact that it looks like they're from different sets, so one of them probably isn't legal in certain formats.

1 mana combat tricks are essential to limited play if you get bfto in constructed to a 1 mana trick you should feel bad

Why is THIS allowed?

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Magic's most powerful cards were printed a long time ago. There's no going back to shit like that and this low-level power creep doesn't matter. The weaker card does have an advantage.

To elaborate on what I meant to "the weaker card has an advantage" is that its "creature you control", so on the off-chance an opponent has a spell that allows him to change the target of a spell, he cannot choose to target his creature. It is a very limited advantage, but it is one.

What is that broken bullshit

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Power creep you stupid fuck

You are comparing cards of different colors. White was never about going tall like green

You're also disregarding the versatility, the 'heal 2' can have, outside of merely buffing a creature

Because Bolt is, despite competing with some of the most broken cards ever made, one of (if not THE) most played card in every non-rotating format?

Depending on the set, white has tools which deal with creatures of certain strength

Not saying, you're wrong, though

Why are you complaining about 1 mana combat tricks when red has access to shit like Shock, Lightning Strike, Searing Spear, Lava Coil and Wizard's Lightning all in the same rotation?

Then shouldn't they then print more as the demand obviously is there?

Mana drain used to have a downside. Unused mana used to cause "mana burn", when the pool emptied you took 1 damage per unspent mana. As such, without a mana sink you could potentially hurt yourself quite a bit with mana drain.
It was still powerful, but it was an obvious and intentional way to make the card more powerful, but limited than counterspell.
Another casualty of the removal of mana burn is making pic related an awkward design that doesn't really do anything special, instead of a creative use of existing mechanics.

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He's asking why they're making strictly worse versions of other cards at the same rarity in the same standard rotation.

you can only have 4 bolts

green and white aren't the same tactic. It's like complain green with fly cost 3 more mana than any fucking blue bird

Why did they even remove mana burn? Was it just pandering to retarded casuals or did they actually have a good reason for it?

Bolt being in a standard format instantly warps that format in a very specific manner. Decks are forced to compete with red having access to more efficient removal, making x/4s at a premium, while simultaneously needing to maintain a 7+ lifetotal at all times.
As a result, you really need efficient sweepers, 2 mana x/4 blockers, and every creature MUST have an x/4 body above cmc 3 or be unplayable unless it has a very relevant ETB.

I know that was the intent, but that's like saying Necropotence has a downside. Technically true, but the tradeoff is so skewed that it was always basically negligible.

core set vs. expansion later in the cycle introducing more powerful cards.

I used to have a strategy to kill my opponents with mana burn.

But then they decided to get rid of it because filthy casuals couldn't understand the rule.

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Arena exclusive cards don't exist in paper or on MODO, and don't come in arena packs. With the possible exception of Inspiring Commander, every single one of them is unplayably bad in every format intentionally so as to not impact the meta and shift arena away from paper parity. It's a similar reason that planeswalker deck exclusive cards are meant to be jank, such as the entirety of those china only decks.

Man I started playing MTGA and it's my first magic experience, I'm loving it.

I'm loving the Saproling/Merfolk decks, this games blows HS out of water

Monoblue decks are gay tho

That's an Arena-exclusive card which debuted after Ixalan. It wasn't even in any limited format, so there's literally no reason for it to exist.

The left card isn't from a core set, or any set. They are Arena promo cards. They are intentionally underpowered.

(you)

It does nothing 99% of the time. If you wanted to make a card where excess mana is a drawback like Mana Leak was, you could just add the text "lose one life for each of this mana not spent at the end of this phase" to the card. Similarly, you can now make cards that add a lot of mana without having to design around the mana burn rules.

FUCK RED
AND FUCK BLUE

I guess the idea was to have basic cards the same way hearthstone does.

Do starting players get these cards as a base to build from?

L
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M
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D

Fair point. But do they print cards that are not standard legal?
I just play kitchen table and some pauper and don't keep up with the inner working of the game. I just want cheap cards.

This. They are also intentionally simplified. For example, the "attacking or blocking" restriction is made for retards to understand that Instants like these should be used on combat and not as Sorceries.

It was part of the M10 rules changes, which were aimed at making the game more in line with expectations of new players. They wanted terms to be consistent and intuitive, some of the more abstract rules removed or simplified, and for a new player to be able to pick up a card, read it, and understand what it means with little to no extra reading.
magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-2010-rules-change-2009-06-10

You just discovering that MTG balance is shit?

If a card sucks sometimes they'll print a better version of that card in order to have the effect see some use.
Neither of the cards in the OP are particularily good, but the added versatility of the right card might at least give it some use in limited formats unlike the left card.

>shit bulk that will never get played anyways gets creeped by shit bulk that will never get played anyways
Who cares?

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>tfw you can't give your opponent's creatures first strike after first strike damage is calculated to stop them from attacking anymore
Every MTG rules change made the game worse. Change my mind.

Power creep means new cards=better, this one is the opposite.

They do, in fact Lightning Bolt was reprinted in Masters 25, the 25th anniversary set, last year. Additionally, a number of supplemental products, like the Commander and Archenemy precon decks include reprints, and the most recently announced set "Modern Horizons" is a set full of reprints and new cards that will be modern legal, but not standard legal.
The issue is that WotC tends to charge more for all those products than standard boosters, so they don't have the same impact on demand/cost as a standard reprint.

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Removing mana burn was fine, it barely mattered at all.

Pretty much every supplemental set or product is not Standard legal. Masters Sets (and the upcoming Horizon Set) are made specifically to cater to players that want cheap cards.
Also, Commander Preconstructed Decks are mainly made for Commander play, but more often than not also include valuable reprints as well.

I think even they knew open fire went too far and gave us lightning strike back.

its like this game has mindgames?

It's a trading card game. Some cards are meant to be better or worse than others. That's how the card economy forms.

The grand creature type update was a net positive to the game experience across the board, even if it did remove funny things like Island Fish and Summon Uncle Istvan.
Beyond that, i largely agree, especially in cases where cards drastically had their playability and power levels altered due to new rules changes. Damage on the stack made every creature with a sac ability drastically worse, for example.

>are made specifically to cater to players that want cheap cards.
Banger job those did.

>mindgames
what fucking mindgames?
The right card can be casted in all the situations the card on the left can.

>there are people here right now that don’t run a mono-red deck

>even worse, people who don’t run mono-red goblins

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The deck i typically play is arclight phoenix, but i sometimes run this for fun.
I'm still unsure if Clamor Shaman should replace goblin gathering in that slot, maybe as a 2-3 of alongside an extra shock.

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Bugger that they are more expensive. But since the cards are sought after I can't really blame the company for wanting extra money for zero effort. And a expensive reprint is still a reprint I guess.

based and redpilled

That example seems like a great argument as to why they were right to clean up the rules. It shouldn't feel like there are bugs to be exploited when you're playing a fucking card game.

Which plane has the best goblins and why is it Jund?

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Kamigawa, hands down.

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It increases the flexibility of spells granting first strike though, leading to a more complex game.
I'll take the frustration of it being used on the first time over removing the complexity.

Is it as op as It sounds?

FYI Modern Horizons will not reprint any cards currently legal in modern.

>Take a kappa
>Make it red
For what purpose?

Spoken like someone that has never made a deck about exploiting step resolution.
Flicker decks with sundial of the infinite are fun as fuck. Thankfully that strategy still works. At least for now.

Why is THIS allowed?

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True, and while that precludes the inclusion of Bolt specifically, the user in question cared about kitchen table magic anyway.

>2RRR for a 2/2 that dies to shock
No, it's pretty bad. There are ways to go infinite with it but it's still more or less unplayable outside of cube.

It may not be a T1 deck like Twin was, but kiki-combo is still entirely viable in modern.

You sound like a pretty immense faggot. Using inefficient methods to generate mundane effects in novel ways is just done by faggots who like to masturbate about how good they are at understanding the rules. If flickering is the first thing you think to do with Sundial you aren't very smart in the first place though.

99% of the time players like you boast about how well they know the rules but can't play a game of Judge Tower to save their fucking lives.

tap it's ability in response to shock and make your clone. it's real value comes in if they fail to shock it, otherwise it's just a more expensive Twinflame that you can't strive.

Yes. Every card in Kiki combo is legal in modern, technically making it a viable modern deck. Unless you can point me to some [recent] events that it top 8'd though I'm pretty sure it's just as dead as podless pod/Melira combo.

I strongly suggest you stop posting as if you know anything about the game on a strategic level. The fact that you're comparing it to a card from fucking Theros block proves that you haven't been playing long enough to pretend you're knowledgeable about this game.

Isn't he the finisher in Vannifar pod?

OLD CARD GOOD

NEW CARD BAD

Man, I should add that to my Cube.

Does Arena have fun draft events with Cubes like MtG:O or just booster pack draft? Does it have fun Constructed formats besides Standard like Pauper?

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>comparing cards from different sets to complain about balance
Is there anything more reddity?

Damn be clear next time cause I also thought you were just complaining about combat tricks. But yea Tactical Advantage is an MTGA only starter card that was made to be crappy on purpose. It's also not unusual for spells like this to be stronger or weaker depending on the limited and standard environment they want to encourage.

The cost is restrictive, but it used to be part of the redundancy for earlier Splinter Twin combo decks and Birthing Pod win conditions. Now it's fallen by the wayside due to bannings except in EDH.

Again, not being T1 doesn't make a deck unviable. Merfolk is in the same boat, its currently bad but always played.

>If a deck isn't tier 1, it's bad

There's a difference between mediocre and bad, user.

It doesn't have enough cards programmed to build a cube, but arena has had momir basic, singleton, omniscience draft, and other gimick events.

just making a comment about the usual "dies to removal" as you can still get off his ability unless he is outright countered.

also you would be surprised how the theros block is aging, there has been some noticeable movement with the god cards though i feel that is mostly due to EDH players.

I'll actually fully concede that I overlooked that. I strongly doubt that Vannifar will become a proven deck without a number of new cards being printed, but it's too early to tell.

Because MTG isn't a good game, so why bother caring about these sort of details?

I might join just for that. I have no interest in Standard, can I still earn packs through gimmick formats?

Depends on how you define "proven". The deck works, but it's not a big runaway success like Phoenix decks.

You can*.
*you need gold for the majority of events, and you need to play standard to earn gold via quests.

with cards like merfolk mistbinder and jadelight ranger it seems absurd that fish wasn't good enough to be a major player in standard. what besides true name nemesis could they even have reprinted to push it further?

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I play kitchen table and enjoy making bogus shit work. Sundial has much better uses. I don't care, this is about fun and it's very fun for me to play a deck like mine.
If you don't understand the pleasure of making inefficient jank work anyways you have no soul.
Now kindly never reply to me again. Your opinons are shit and I don't want to hear any more of them.

If you want cheap cards print them out and glue them to lands. Then put the cards in sleeves so they shuffle smoothly.

Lands are like a penny each and you can print this shit at work if you don't get caught like a retard.
Enjoy your 20 dollar 'anything goes' deck.

P.S. only faggots will complain about proxies.

A monoblue merfolk lord would probably push the current monoblue aggro deck firmly into fish territory.
Which is the real reason, mono-blue and midrange both functioned better using the good merfolk than an actual merfolk deck using the 2-3 pretty strong merfolk centric cards available.

You need to understand what tiers actually mean. T1 decks are the cream of the crop. Using modern as an example, Izzet Phoenix; Grixis Shadow; and I guess maybe Bant Spirits/Burn would be tier 1. Competitively viable decks like Scapeshift; Affinity; Jund; and Prison/Hatebears decks are not tier 1 but can still get solid results. If a deck cannot put up competitive results it is not a viable deck. Otherwise it becomes impossible to properly define 'viable' since 59 forests and a llanowar elves can hypothetically win a game.

Merfolk is also a dead deck since it's almost completely worse than Humans and/or Spirits in every aspect. Anyone playing in a competitive environment is using Humans or Spirits over Merfolk and, once again, if it is not putting up any results it is not viable.

If you're going to be pedantic about words at least bother to use the same one I did in the first place. Hint: Viable is not the same word as Bad.

>Saproling/Merfolk
>not based vampire tribal
It's fun ending the match with 66 health

The stricter targeting is a buff

Yes, Kiki can get his ability off even if you have a shock in hand. However he's got a hugely restrictive cost thanks to the RRR and is effectively sorcery speed. There's a reason that people played Splinter Twin over him even though it was basically asking for a 2 for 1.
>I can't handle when people disagree with me so I just tell them to stop talking to me because I shouldn't have to be exposed to dissenting opinions.
You sound like exactly the type of faggot who can't handle the fact that he's bad at a game and hides behind 'it's just a jank brew so that's why I lost!'. Do you also seethe at netdeckers to hide your own impotence at playing the game?
Interesting. I know that some decks steal a few wins in events because people aren't ready for them but once the deck becomes less of a surprise they can't put up consistent results since people actually know what they're up against. I believe that Vanafir is probably one of those decks at the moment but then again, Eggs and Lantern Control were the same way and they proved effective even post-novelty period. I'm interested to see how it turns out.

I still get a knee-jerk averse reaction from proxies since kids in elementary school printed black lotuses and expected everyone else to just accept it.

Friendly reminder to play jank and do your dailies.

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The cooler the card looks, the more autism you can channel into your luck stats and increase your chance of pulling it.

>P.S. only faggots will complain about proxies.
I have a couple partial proxy decks and while I'm generally okay with using them and playing against them, I draw the line at shit like this
If you're not planning to actually buy the cards at some point in the near future and are playing with cards like this, you can fuck off with that shit. Proxy within reason.

Business idea: make a semis competitive vampire lifelink jank deck BUT add like 3 or 5 neutral meme cards nobody plays like screaming shield so you get paired up with the jankiest of jank.
Thoughts? Anyone figured out how yi abuse the matchmaking system?

How does the matchmaking even work? n
I tried making the shortest deck possible and they somehow matched me against someone with a worse deck than that. Is it voodoo?

>how does matchmaking work
It doesn't

Wait, does the matchmaking work by matching decks and not by player winrate?

nerds get a life
dead game

If it worked by Winrate I'd just join a match into concede for two hours while watching a film, possibly set up an autoclick not to do that for me.

Free Derry

Is this game fun?

Fucked if I knoe

The cardgame is fun, but has the same problems as any of its competitors in that you have to spend shit-ton of money on it.
Arena is decent but requires shitty grinding.

yes it's a very fun card game with interesting card interactions, i would suggest trying out Magic Arena to get an idea what the game is sorta like as it provides a bunch of free starter decks to unlock to get you started and you can use the cards from these decks to build something.

doing the daily quests nets you gold and 1,000 gold = free booster pack of 1 rare, 2 uncommon, and 5 common cards. you can also use this gold for special formats that once skilled you can go infinite on and reap all kinds of rewards including the premium currency for what would of otherwise been pay-only events.

the game is grindy if you don't cough up money but i've found it to be far more generous compared to most if you decide to never spend a dime on it.

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i had a merfolk deck around the release of 5th edition with Lords of Atlantis and Sunken cities. I'd cast false demise on my Lords of Atlantis to preserve them and Phantasmal Terrain on my opponent's lands to turn them into islands. This allowed me to summon unblockable powerful merfolk fodder for very little mana. I had a few counterspells added in. It was fun for casual play.