Card Potence-- The Real Issue

I frequently hear Magic players complaining that cards are getting too powerful these days (which really means the people I play Magic with). Dixman2000 has posted an article about this, inwhich his basic point is that some cards are more powerful, some are less powerful, and others are more versital. In otherwords, he's arguing that the game is taking on a new flavor, but that the overall power level has remained relatively constant, give or take.

I will agree with him in part, however, there's more to this question. So let's get some observations out of the way, and then I'll get to my actual opinion on the matter.

FIRST: The people saying that the cards aren't getting too powerful are usually new players.

SECOND: The people saying that the cards are getting too powerful are usually the older players, who haven't bought any new cards in large numbers since about 10 years ago. Notice the "new cards in large numbers" portion of that sentence, it'll be the key later.

THIRD: The people saying the cards aren't too powerful these days generally never bought large numbers of the older edition cards.

FOURTH: The people saying the cards are getting too powerful usually don't play in Tournaments, and have never owned the POWER NINE cards, the cards from the initial editions which are so powerful that they quickly made the restricted list, and are now worth Six Hundred Dollars or more individually.

FIFTH: Generally speaking, those on BOTH SIDES who actually argue the point (either way) were not collecting during the period of 6th edition to 8th edition.

So here we go.

Comparing individual cards will not, ever, solve this question. The reason is because too many conscious and unconscious decisions will go into choosing the specific cards to use. What would happen if I compared every card in the Lorwyn block to a Black Lotus, or a Mox, or an Ancestral Recall? On the other hand, what if I compared every card in Lorwyn to the Sea Serpent? Really

Really look at that card. It's a 5/5, but it costs 6 mana. So already it's a loser of a card, because it costs more than it's worth. But the horror doesn't stop there. It also has that horrible ISLANDHOME deficiency. That deficiency should decrease its mana cost, but it doesn't. So you're left with a useless creature that costs too much for its power level anyway. This thing was a staple in my home-group back in the day when we didn't know any better.

Actually, that's the entire point. The makers of Magic didn't know any better either. Listen to this comment by Mark Rosewater, one of the big Magic big-wig people, discussing early Magic fads. "Rock Hydra was just mind-blowingly awesome. And in the early days I traded a Fungusaur for a Mox Emerald and I believed I was the nice guy to be willing to make the trade (I didn't have a Mox Emerald, or any Mox, at the time, and I had two Fungusaurs)." That's from his article "+1/+1 Size Fits All" from the Wizards main site. Here's the link: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr318

So let's start by allowing for the fact that the game developers have been learning how to make the game balanced from the beginning, initially putting out some cards (like the Moxes) that were insanely powerful (they didn't realize it at the time), while also putting out cards that were unbelievably useless, like the Ironroot Treefolk. I mean look at that thing, a 3/5 should cost 4 mana, and there it is, sitting with a casting cost of 5 for no reason at all. No one will ever be justified in playing one of these ever again. And yet right alongside this card we have the DUAL LANDS, those amazing inventions which were so powerful that many expansions have included other lands that are just like them... with penalties or weaknesses. Compare a Tropical Island to a Breeding Pool. Nearly every expansion block for the last five years has included its own kinds of Dual Lands, none of which are penalty-free.

The Actual Result:

Ok, so I'll just say it. The most powerful cards have gotten significantly less powerful. The days of the God card that costs as much as a home computer are gone. The new super-cards will never cost you more than 30 dollars (ish) if purchased singly. However, the mid-level cards have improved and have become GOOD mid-level cards. What's happened is that the "Curve" or Magic potence has evened out, whereas it used to be spiked in a way that's difficult to grasp. Do yourself a favor: Go to the Gatherer, and look at every card in the Legends expansion. Legends has a reputation as being full of very powerful, very rare cards. Go look. The VAST majority of the cards in that expansion are worthless in terms of play-value.

Like this one: Barktooth Warbeard. At the time they published this guy, they thought that having a DUEL COLORED card was such an advantage that they made you pay EXTRA mana for it. A casting cost of 7, but it's only a 6/5. And to make it worse, it requires at least two colors of mana, which puts a greater strain on the deck. Get this... This card was UNCOMMON. They thought it was that awesome.Most of the cards in Legends will be remarkably similar to this one, inwhich you look at it and think to youself, "is that all?"

However, that same set holds the card Mirror Universe (also shown above), an artifact which allows you to exchange life totals with your opponent.

So to make sure we're clear, there has indeed been a change in the way that magic cards are made these days. They aren't getting MORE POWERFUL, they're getting MORE MIDDLE. There are fewer worthless cards, and the middle level cards are better, while the super-level cards are less powerful. This only LOOKS like the cards are getting insanely powerful to those who only owned the middle-level cards in the early sets. But to some one who actually went and bought the cards in large numbers (such that one booster box would be gauranteed to give you at least 3 of the super powerful cards, as well as several other very good ones), the newer sets have lost some of the omnipotence that used to be so prevalent.

And Along Came Seventh Edition:

There is one other factor here that I mentioned at the beginning. Seventh Edition was the time when they made a MAJOR rules overhaul. The game changed forever... into what it always had been. What they did was begin what's called "Templating." This just means that they started wording the cards in a consistent way, in a way that corresponded to the rules of the game as a whole. This had miraculous effects. Gone were the days of having each card need its own references in the big rule book to explain what that card was supposed to do in the first place. Gone are the days of card-wordings that are impossible to interpret. Gone are the days of distinctions that do not have any impact. Like Interrupts vs Instants: Seventh edition did away with Interrupts entirely, because they realized that the difference was entirely meaningless.

Let's look at some examples on how cards used to be worded. Look at this Life Chisel here. What the heck does it mean? Is it a mandatory effect? Are you required to sacrifice a creature? Can you sacrifice more than one? The new official wording for this artifact is much clearer, and solves both of these ambiguities. "Sacrifice a creature: you gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness. Play this ability only during your upkeep." OH, turns out the ability wasn't supposed to be required, and can be done to as many creatures as you control. Who knew?

And since we brought the topic up, have you ever read the actual wording of a Black Lotus? Read this and ask yourself if its actually even possible to obey the rules on the text as printed. What it should say, and what the oracle text says, is "Tap, Sacrifice Black Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool." But looking at the original card, it sounds like it has to be played from your hand, since you have to "Discard" it. And since it's an "interrupt," couldn't you activate the ability, to get 3 mana, and then as a fast effect to it being "discarded" activate the ability another time, perhaps an infinite number of times? The fact that it includes "THEN is discarded" means that there are two steps, so you can interrupt the process with other instants and interrupts... like it's own ability, since the card itself makes not direct connection between tapping it and gaining the mana, or between tapping and sacrificing. Now, I know what your thinking: 1) we'll never own one, so it doesn't matter, and 2) I'm just splitting hairs when I knew perfectly well what the card MEANT, even if it didn't say it properly. I mean, do we really care about having cards that are worded by lawyers? Why is this necessary?

It's not about lawyering the cards. It's about having the cards designed by a group that understands the game well enough to know how that card connects to the rest of the Magic universe. It's really the same reason why they used to publish cards like that Barktooth wimp mentioned earlier. They know HOW to make good cards, and they know HOW to make bad cards, which means that when they publish an expansion, they do so with an ability to see the way the whole expansion is going to fit together, so the cards are properly balanced.

Early cards were about nothing but flavor. Like that Sea Serpent I showed earlier. They gave it Island Home specifically because of the flavor of a Sea Serpent, whether or not this made for a horrible card. Now, cards are designed with an entire block in mind. Interestingly enough... this has led to an explosion of flavor, as it means the blocks now have certain FLAVOR-based interactions built right into them, such as the Rakdos propensity for sacrificing its own creatures as a weapon, which can be combined with the Golgari propensity for bringing things back from the graveyard. Observe the interaction between Lyzolda, the Blood Witch, when combined with Gleancrawler and Savra, Queen of the Golgari.

Now, I will grant you that these three cards are more powerful than a Sea Serpent. Together, they are not as powerful as a Mox, and I would say that individually they are not as powerful as an original Dual Land, though when combined they might be. Note of course that two of those are Legendary, which again limits their effectiveness. But the result is a deck that has PERSONALITY. And heck, all you have to do is add three creatures that have "Comes into Play" effects or "When this creature is put into the graveyard" effects, and you've got yourself one FUN and POWERFUL little 6-pt Strategy article. Say... an Ashen-skin Zubera, a Centaur Safegaurd, and an Infectious Host? Suddenly your deck is ready to be the plague that boils over with its own sickness, but never dies. Oddly enough, the fact that the makers focused so much on getting the rules-wordings just right is precisely what allowed for such an intense flavor for the whole set, or for this deck specifically.

Conclusion:
Ok, so I've rambled on, and gone off-topic.
So the very basic, one sentence point is that the cards have averaged out, instead of being so one-sided as either WORTHLESS or GOD-AWESOME like they used to be.