A break

A couple things happened all at once... well, they all came together at the same time.

The new set of Ikoria is not, what I would call, a fun set. Its wonky... its weird. The monsters are very large, and get bigger. One of the mechanics, mutate, is not really good in paper. The other mechanic, Companion, is shattering every single version of constructed. The response, from the grand pooh-bah, Mark Rosewater... was, ummm, not re-assuring.  He even admitted the entire mechanic could be banned in Vintage, which seeks only to restrict things.

I tried to enjoy Arena, I really started out to draft. Things changed with Ikoria release, they moved to human drafts and doubled the cost of the virtual currency to support it. Okkkkkkk... thats fine. But I have had less than middling results in my game. They have been downright awful to be honest.
Before you get me to be a neh-sayer, I got to Platinum Tier 1 in Standard on the back of mono-red. Yeah, I'm a sucker. But after 3 drafts of Ikoria and completely crapping the bed on game play, I had enough. I uninstalled the software Saturday night. Haven't even felt the need to go back in.

My preferred constructed format, Legacy, has been under assault due to Ikoria. Well- actually, the Companion mechanic. Yes, on-line meta is different than paper. Yes, I doubt I will ever play in a 50+ tournament any time soon. But to hear the complaints about things being broken from every set that need to be banned, is hard. You either get the cards, play that deck until they ban it, or just sit on the side and wait for sanity. (I'm the later) I play at my local, with friends, etc. I am no grinder. No on-line Twitch streamer. I enjoy that format, but not such that I need to wait for bans. It happened with Wrenn and Six, then Underworld Breach, now an entire mechanic. *sigh*

I will never invest in digital legacy, well, not now. Paper play is the way I prefer. I have cards. There are practical restrictions. There are beers to be drunk with friends. (I'm old) I've done some digital over cam games with people all over the US. Its a nice substitute, but not the real thing. Even for an introvert like me, I enjoy the small slice of away to hang with like minded people and enjoy the game. Heck, there are times I actually get free cards out of the deal by winning. Go figure!



All these things made me pause many of my ingests of Magic content. Arena. Podcasts. YouTube. Blogs. Auctions. Reddit. If I was consuming Magic via it, as of Saturday night, I was done with it. Its been almost 48 hours since I did that, and I'm fine. I need the break to be honest. Lets see how long I can take this break for... its not a challenge. But things are crappy all at once. Thats how these things go.


I can't wait for paper based drafting is possible/safe again. My first draft back will be with my Beta Basics. Hell yes. I need to do that.