Just Some Random Guy wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:28 am
Le Redditeur wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2017 4:50 am
Charlar wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:22 am
What is better in theory in MTG a better deck: Red and White or Black and Green?
Green and Black are the colors of Dredge, one of the top 3 stupidest, broken game mechanics of the game. So, I'd go with that particular combination.
(the other stupid, broken mechanics are, in no particular order, Affinity for Artifacts and Storm - caused mass bans on every format they ever shown their ugly heads)
What bans, let alone mass bans, did Affinity cause in Legacy or Vintage? Skullclamp doesn't count, that card was a problem in and of itself.
For that matter, the Affinity for Artifacts ability itself was relatively innocuous even in the formats that did result in bannings. The real problems were cards like Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager, and the artifact lands. Even if all of the cards that said "Affinity for artifacts" on them weren't around, those other cards I listed still would have been incredibly powerful and would've likely warranted some amount of bannings in Standard, if perhaps not as many as actually happened. In fact, as far as I can remember, no card that actually has the ability "Affinity for Artifacts" was banned in any format.
Heck, most of the so-called "Affinity" decks nowadays in Modern and Legacy don't play a single card in them that has the "Affinity for Artifacts" ability, though they do run the aforementioned Cranial Plating/Arcbound Ravager/artifact lands. Which might be why a while ago there was an attempt to retitle the deck as Robots, but that never really caught on. Still, I think the evidence goes against the idea that "Affinity for Artifacts" was actually a problem.
I think Delve would've been a much better pick than Affinity for Artifacts.
Well, maybe not in Vintage and Legacy (since there are enough artifact-hate in these formats), but just look at the Modern/Standard/Mirrodin block banlists and you'll find half of the Affinity deck is there - the artifact lands, Arcbound Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, Cranial Plating, etc. I got the current banlist and I counted - Mirrodin block as
twenty cards on the banlist, 6 more cards than the Urza block. And all the banned cards are cards Affinity ran.
Affinity was a degenerate mechanic because it made the game very much like Yugioh - you don't have to pay for anything you're casting anymore. Atog + Disciple of the Vault was the first win condition, then Arcbound Ravager provided an ever better substitute for Atog, then Cranial Plating + Ornithopter/Somber Overguard, then they basically gave up on trying to balance Affinity for Artifacts, and in the new Mirrodin block they came with a different form of Affinity that isn't nearly as good.
I wouldn't say Delve is worse than Affinity because I can think of only two cards that abused it - Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise. Of course, they abused it
hard, that's why they're banned everywhere but Vintage (they're still restricted there), but the mechanic on itself has the same potential of wrecking the game (mana cost reduction). Magic is balanced towards mana costs, and whatever card or mechanic that changes that is a potential disaster.
If I had to rank mechanics on a scale of how bad to the game they were, Dredge would win, hands down. It's such a hateful little stupid mechanic. Storm would come next, because playing against a Storm deck when it goes off is just a miserable experience (reminds me of the worst days of playing against Tolarian decks), and Affinity would come in third.
Poonoo wrote: ↑Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:35 am
Kugelfisch wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:56 am
How did you know what card you were to draw, Yugi, you topdecking, slight of hand son of a bitch cheater?
This quote is funnier that it should be.
It's also, if I'm not mistaken, surprisingly in canon - the Millennium Puzzle's ability is supposed to have something to do with "manipulating fate", which is a nice way of topdecking on demand if you're an amoral Egyptian pharaoh that has nothing better to do with this amazing power.