How to fix Standard with one card (maybe)

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Lord_Mektar
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Post by Lord_Mektar » 4 years ago

Double and Nothing W
Instant
Exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls. That player draws two cards.

Basically, this is a fixed, more pushed Oblation. It's the perfect catch-all answer to whatever broken nonsense WotC allowed to slip by. However, since it draws your opponent cards, you'll only want to use it on whatever the most degenerate card in their deck is (*cough*Oko*cough*). Against something like mono red, you likely wouldn't want to use this at all, since it's always card disadvantage and you risk turning their one spell into two spells. As a safety valve on Standard and other formats, though, I think something like this would work.

Morpic_Tide
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Post by Morpic_Tide » 4 years ago

This sort of "Catch the broken" card is poor game design, unless present in all colors, and even then exacerbates the meta into a controlathon mess. If it was an Artifact available turn two, then it'd work. For example:

Soul-Shot Bow
Artifact - Equipment
Equip
Equipped creature has "Whenever a creature or planeswalker enters the battlefield under your opponent's control, you may sacrifice this creature to deal damage equal to its combined power and toughness to that creature or planeswalker"

---

While this doesn't catch everything, what's been breaking standard lately is Planeswalkers and persistent value engines off of creatures, or the fundamental set design problem of too many control cards. For the first, this allows you to do something before the Planeswalker actually activates their ability. Such as use Double and Nothing, which would not work as spelled out, because Planeswalker abilities can't be prevented once the 'Walker is on the board. It's why Oko's such a pain in the arse, he always makes a food or Elks something, which is easily able to be worth 3 mana on its own.

For the second, it's a danger in its own right, but requires a creature big enough to kill the target upon entering play, constraining it to trading a decently-valuable creature to counter a more-valuable one. Doesn't solve ETBs, solves most other issues, including allowing one to winnow away any creature-based aggro deck with your usually-less-efficient one-drops and sometimes two-drops.

The third is just Wizards not having a clue how to keep the game vaguely fair.

FrostNova
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Post by FrostNova » 4 years ago

The idea of printing cards that overpower broken cards is suicide.

Some spells can't be countered. But if you make all spells like that you have to print "exile target spell". Then "this spell can't be exiled". Then "Nullify target spell that can't be exiled", ...

user_938036
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Post by user_938036 » 4 years ago

Adding a single card to any format can't fix it regardless of what is broken. Adding a single card could break a format but that's because a format can be broken by a single straw while fixing it requires either removing broken peices or adding a plethora of fixes that don't in turn become their own straws.

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