article - going rogue

[goober]

I think that we are really underestimating the innovativity of T1 right now.  Belcher, Drain and Workshop Slaver, FCG, O Stompy, Landstill are all new decks.  Thats more decks than are playable in T2 right now, and they all came about recently.  They were rogue a few months ago and have now become part of the core.  

In T1 new sets don't add much usually, so even if 5D doesn't change anything, which I doubt it will, except maybe a few combo type things.  It isn't that bad.

Look at T2 right now, the 2 of the best decks are just wizards giving them to you, and theres a couple other decks that are playable right now.  They aren't any more innovative then T1.  

Building a deck consists of choosing the different units of a deck and putting them together.  If you are going aggro you take the best creatures and put them in a deck.  If you are going control take the best draw, control, and utility and put it in a deck with a win condition.  T2 seems more innovative because you need to change those slots every rotation, but in T1 they don't rotate out.  Which leads to people finding the best ones, and not needed to change them until something new and better comes out, which isn't often.

[Swanky]

In a way, Type 1 does experience a sort of rotation.  It's been well documented that as of late new sets have contributed something to the format, though they may not be the "format breakers" that Psychatog was.  As Type 1's prevalence increases, we can definitely expect a greater infusion of cards "from Type 2," as Wizards may see our demographic as one worth catering to on a more frequent basis.  As such, there could be some semblance of a "rotation," per se, though it would definitely not be as frequent as Type 2's.  

Stagnation is additionally staved off by the occasional banned and restricted announcment.  If a certain number of decks remain powerful for a given period of time without much "tweaking," some component of those decks could be misconstrued as "dangerous" (or something to that effect).

I suppose my point is as such: as it has been mentioned, there will always be space for rogue deck development due to general Magic principle concerning "The Deck," "The Anti-Deck," and so forth.  Though those decks may not be "viable" in the true sense of the buzz-word, the prospect of creating a "rogue" deck through careful analysis of one's metagame and the tools one has available will always be present.

[bebe]

I think we need to step back and perhaps look at this in a different light. I would have responded ear5lier but i needed to work out the right response.

The metagame is the study of Magic trends globally and regionally. The basic units by which we assess these trends are decks. Let us see how we can relate this to biology. Biology is the study of life.  Organisms are the basic unit of life. First let us define a few terms:
Biotic means other organisms
Abiotic is everything else - availability of resources, natural events, etc.

Like organisms, decks do not exist in a vacuum. They interact with and
modify their surroundings. There are two factors an organism has to deal with:abiotic and biotic. In our game biotic factors are other decks.  
The abiotic factors are card resources and supplies based on new releases
available for the decks.

Evolution plays a major part in the construction of magic decks.  Look at the Sligh deck today.  It is not the same as the Sligh deck of a year ago.  
FCG has rep[laced all other versions. Gauss's competitive exclusion principle states that two organisms cannot occupy the same niche. FCG has more reproductive success (people copy it more). The same applies to U/r Fish and mono-blue Fish.  U/r occupies the niche.

The Darwinian model of survival of the fittest theory dictates  
that When a deck succeeds, it is copied (it reproduces). Decks succeed based on their niche.  A niche is the sum of all factors, biotic and abiotic, that allow an organism to succeed. There are very few favorable "prey" decks for Tog, while there are a dozen "prey" decks for FCG.  There are many "predator" (bad matchup) decks for Belcher and mu8ch less for Dragon. Decks can be hunted to extinction unless they evolve. Look at Mask.

Every time there is an environment altering event (a new set being released, more old decks are tweaked and occasionally totally new decks appear.  The metagame is altered. Sooner orlater, the balance of nature is established and the 'decks to beat' become apparent.  However, DCI Restrictions or sleeper cards/decks can shake up the balance.
If Workshops or Bazaars were to be restricted we would saee new developments immediately as the restriction of Gush led to Tog.

I cannot see how Magic can remain stagnant.
Finally, i think its time to lock this thread. It is becoming stagnant.