 Vol. 1, Issue 3 - 8/23/99
In My Not So Humble Opinion
by Seth Johnson
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The DCI
It looks like the DCI has been shaping up a bit. From what I've heard, they
have alleviated numerous problems concerning scoring, rules enforcements,
judge compensation, and all sorts of matters like that. Of course only the
people that heavily attend tournaments are likely to be in tune to that sort
of thing. What the DCI does that most people are conscious of is Bannings
and Restrictions. While a pathetic amount of cards have "slipped through
playtesting" in the past 9 months, after the so-called "Combo Winter", the
DCI snapped to and banned a whole fleet of cards that were causing problems,
and they've been continuing thus.
Some players find it frustrating when rares they have sought because of
their high play value are banned from tournaments dashing their carefully
crafted killer decks and squandering their hard-earned money. I think it's
really a balancing act. The DCI's primary concern is their sanctioned
tournaments. They want to keep people attending, so they have to act in
terms of what they consider to be the good of the many. They must have
concluded that keeping the field of decks diverse and interesting by banning
degenerate cards would do more good than harm. These are the decisions of
leaders really; weighing values and making choices, while knowing that
somebody will always end up yelling at you.
R&D
R&D has taken a real bum rap of late, much of it deserved. I should hope
they are carefully reviewing their playtesting techniques after having so
many tested cards banned in various formats. I think I can understand how
Yawgmoth's Bargain was let through, more than I can understand cards like
Tolarian Academy and Time Spiral. I remember the "Black Summer" as well as
anybody, but the whole problem with Necropotence was that it was too fast.
Yawgmoth's Bargain is signifigantly slower. If you'll notice, no truly
dominant decks have come from Bargain. The dominance of the Extended deck
that caused Bargain to be banned in that format probably stemmed more from a
rules loophole with Lion's Eye Diamond than from Bargain itself.
Ever since ProspBloom (and really before that, with things like Prison and
TurboStasis), there have been combo decks that could take complete control
over the game ensuring victory at an early point (usually about turn four or
five). The real meat of these decks, I think, comes from the search cards
like Impulse, Intuition, and the Tutors. Few of them have ever truly
dominated their environment. Those decks that have caused cards to be
banned usually dominate due to some way to get a large amount of mana going
at a very early point (i.e. Academy). I think these are the real cards to
watch.
R&D also handles rules and that ever infamous errata. People have
complained for a long time that the amount of errata made on magic cards
could sink an aircraft carrier. The Oracle was supposed to be something of
a solution to this, by providing the current wordings for all magic cards.
Errors have been found in the Oracle. I have to agree that this is
completely inexcusable. Typos are a fact of life, but this is something
that should be painstakingly reviewed and proofread. This is most likely a
manifestation of somebody who did not do their job.
Waylay wasn't an error, it was a problem with the Sixth Edition rules. I
feel that the Sixth Edition rules greatly simplify things. They're still
quite complex, but I don't think you can change that without removing a
certain depth that the game possesses. After one tournament of dominance by
"Waylay White", it was errated, along with Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Vale,
and Scorched Ruins. Unlike the DCI, R&D is less concerned with maintaining
the integrity of sanctioned tournaments than it is with maintaining the
integrity of magic as a whole. It's a similar decision to the decision to
ban a card in these cases, though Waylay was being used to do things that it
was obviously not intended to do.
The Sixth Edition rules loopholes are somewhat more excusable than the
errors in the Oracle. 6thEd was basically an overhaul. You kind of had to
expect something like this. It's something like computer software. You can
take twice as long to release the product hoping that you've removed all of
the bugs, or you can release it on time and risk having to make a patch to
fix things later. I'd say that R&D put the Sixth Edition rules into effect
according to schedule and knowing that their were few if any loopholes left.
The mistakes were found and (hopefully :) fixed. Superior playing and
deckbuilding are supposed to define the top players, not ability to find
loopholes.
WotC
R&D, the DCI -- I don't have a bone to pick with them. However I sometimes
wonder about the corporate side of the company. The entire Apprentice
fiasco made me sick to my stomach. I think Wizards of the Coast was
genuinely concerned that their patents and copyrights were being violated.
Obviously there is the fact that people could use Apprentice to play without
actually buying cards, but they didn't change that, so I don't see how it
could have been their motive. My problem is, I don't think that Dragonstar
was actually in violation of the patent or copyrights. I tried to look at
the patent, but I'm not a lawyer. If I was Dragonstar I would have screamed
for my lawyer. I get the impression that copyright law in the information
age is becoming a bit sketchy.
Then there were the disallowance of premier stores from participating in
online auctions and the general frowning upon Internet card dealers. I
suspect they are trying to encourage more physical card shop business, as
this is where a lot of players come from. They don't actually lose any
physical money as they sell cards wholesale. It's the people that buy the
cards that seem to concern them. However, the Internet makes it
easier to buy cards.
Thats all for this month. See you next issue!
Seth Johnson
a***s@a***o.com
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