/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>9647383
I'm actually impressed with how they manage to juggle the balance of the bazillion formats they're supporting. Banning is very rare in Magic (not counting the tons of early banned cards), to the point where Standard hadn't seen a single ban since Mirrodin, all the way until Zendikar block.

As for the shifting power levels, the power balance between mechanics and decktypes is continually shifting, and as a result a lot of superior/inferior cards are printed, mostly at common (but again, Wizards deserves credit for making the weaker version keep some advantage over the stronger version; Doom Blade is clearly better than Dark Banishing, but Dark Banishing still has the anti-regeneration advantage).

In MTG, unlike many other TCGs, it's not a simple power creep where things keep getting better, but rather a simple shifting balance, with elements getting stronger at one point and then becoming weaker again later. Low mana cost creature destruction instants are a good example of this; the game started with Lightning Bolt (R, 3 damage) and Terror/Dark Banishing (1B and 2B, destroy target non-black creature (terror also can't destroy artifact creatures), it can't be regenerated). Then as the balance shifted, red burn was nerfed to Shock (R, 2 damage). Eventually, black destruction was also shortly nerfed to only have Terror and Nekrataal (Terror in creature form for 2BB). Then finally red burn was boosted again back to lightning bolt (R, 3 damage), while black destruction got boosted with Doom Blade - Dark Banishing for the cost of Terror, but allows for regeneration (as part of a successful recent effort to make regeneration matter again).