Flowstone chat

[Hermes_]

So, Cryo did an interview with Toby articles/1053-flowstone-chat-with-toby-elliott and he responded on reddit to a comment with the following:

I am pushing for us to write an explanation of our thinking, regardless of what we ultimately choose to do, with the Ikoria update. We recognize that there's a chunk of the community for which a "no change" announcement would be insufficient, even though it would be for no changes! And if we do make a change, we'll obviously need to explain that.

My experience with judging tells me that being heard is important, but only goes so far, and there comes a point at which a person who just disagrees will use the information to try and nitpick at everything. There's a balance that we're looking for, and it may not be enough for everyone.

I think some explanation beyond "Just not changes" will be welcomed,and Toby's right that there is a segment that will nit pick it a part.

I had also forgotten about the Batman Metaphor,so glad it was found and reposted.

[Sinis]

I think some explanation beyond "Just not changes" will be welcomed,and Toby's right that there is a segment that will nit pick it a part.

I don't think so.

At this point in the argument's lifecycle, I think that people are talking past each other. cEDH players, especially on reddit, are trotting out the same balance arguments and essentially contending (in what appears to be full intellectual honesty) that the RC doesn't know what competitive balance looks like. The RC and their supporters are trotting out the same philosophical argument: This is not, and has never been a competitive format, and there isn't any reason to change that for a tiny minority of people.

If the RC, as I would generally expect and anticipate in their next update, says "We decided not to ban anything" and followed it up with the explanation that Flash remains unbanned for philosophical reasons, what do you think /r/competitiveedh is going to say? They're going to froth and vomit the same tired old non-point as before.

As far as I can see, banning it is a non-option. Cave this one time, and it will be the same problem in a few months when the format gets solved again, over and over again, for as long as the current RC sits as arbiters of the format. Even if the current card pool is acceptable, the current card pool is not forever (and, in fact, lives for only a few months at a time).

I do hope there is an explanation, but, I absolutely expect that nothing will change from competitive circles, and that the levels of vitriol and bile will remain unchanged or increase.