End of 2019 Sheldon AMA

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RxPhantom
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Post by RxPhantom » 4 years ago

Dunharrow wrote:
4 years ago
I am impressed by the fact that he answered so many questions.
I am also relieved by his stance on wishes.

I am surprised the 100-card limitation has been coming up in discussion.
Agreed on both counts. Wishing would undermine a lot of what I love about the format. Also, making 100 cards a minimum just seems odd. I get that there are people who want Battle of Wits to work, but...I don't think it would add anything to the format aside from being a trap for new players.
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Sharpened
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Post by Sharpened » 4 years ago

Kudos to Sheldon for tweeting the link out when it became free after a week. I think what I hate most about Starcitygames.com new setup is that its fine to have to wait a week for the articles to become free, but since you can't easily find them, it barely matters.

I get the desire for decks to be allowed to be 100+. It's not just a Battle of Wits thing. I'm torn, there are positives in both directions.

The current situation is great, with so much tension and challenge in getting the list down to 100 cards exactly. Restrictions breed creativity and all that stuff. Building, updating, tweaking and thinking about Commander decklists is a game in and of itself, and that would probably be lessened with the 100 limit switching to 100+.

That said, two of the biggest draws (at least to me) of the format are the variety of play between games, and the massive cardpool of cards that tend not to see action anywhere else. I think both those things would be enhanced with larger deck limits. While the correct choice would still be to build your deck to exactly 100 cards, when playing/building commander is where we get to put the more fun choice over the objectively correct choice more often than not.

As for Battle of Wits, I think it would ultimately be a negative for the format. Look, I've played the card in a SCG Legacy open, and that was fantastic fun. But the gameplay itself is tutor heavy, and once the novelty wears off, its not the kind of fun I'm looking for an a casual commander game. Alt-wincons aren't inherently awful, but this one is not needed for the format.

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