What a wonderful metagame!

[Milton]

I find myself in the odd situation of really enjoying the game of Magic once again.  Magic, for me (and most people), tends to be somewhat cyclical.  Sometimes I can't wait for a tournament, other times I find the game to be stagnant.  I have to say, though, that Magic is really, really fun again!

I attribute this to a few factors:

1) The DCI has done a great job of managing the restricted list.  All of the doom and gloom about broken archtypes has failed to surface.  Instead we seem to have a very, very balanced metagame.  Clearly some of the credit is owed to the guys upstairs.  

2) We have had terrific innovation by the heavy hitters.  Smmenen and JP, for example, have done a great job of moving the meta.  

3) The lesser-knowns have done a phemononal job of innovating.  Look at waSP, for example.

4) It seems to me that just about everyone that has some skill is capable of building good decks that can disrupt the best decks.  In fact, it is almost better to go rogue now than it is to net-deck because if you net-deck the best decks people are ready for you.  All of the nonsense about critical mass has been lost in a sea of innovation.  Type I players are looking outside of the box now.  We really are.  I find this to be fascinating.

5) We have high level tournaments all throughout the US and Europe, culminating with the T1 championships at GenCon.

6) New sets have good cards that are, for the most part, not overpowering for the format.  Most of the new sets have a few cards that provide utility to a few decks.  Nothing is really game breaking (except Mind's Desire).  Even though cards are not game breaking, they add a very new element to many decks and continue to spark innovation.  

7) Arrogance has all but gone from our game.  The community has really cleaned up.  Remember all of the mindless discussions about tiers?  Remember the mindless discussions about Keeper winning everything?Remember everyone saying "Sligh can't win"  and "Zoo sucks"?  Many of these discussions were fostered and continued by arrogance.  The elite would make blanket statements and they would be accepted by the masses.  This kind of arrogance caused us to miss out when Chapin said that Gro is very good.  This kind of arrogance caused us to believe that Keeper was king long after it had died.  This arrogance is almost gone now.  We, as a community, are much better at looking at new ideas and trying them out.  We also get along much better now than we did in years past.

If the golden age of Type I was 1995 through 1997, I see this current environment as being a Renaisance.  The game is filled with competant players, articles about strategy and deck design are everywhere and it is actually becomming cool to be a Type 1 player.  Look at all of the viable decks!  Phid and Landstill and Zoo and Keeper variants and Dragon and Suicide and Mask and Gro and Hulk and Stompy and Slaver and Madness.  It's almost too difficult to prepare for a tournament because everything can win!  The only sure thing now in Type 1 is that White Wennie still sucks!  

It truly is a great time to be a Type 1 player.

[Smmenen]

I was thinking something similar tonight.

When I got back into magic in very late 2000 and mostly in the spring of 2001, whenever I brought up Type One at the local store, it was scoffed at as the drafters and PTQers returned to their business.  Type One was more than bad, it was dead.  It was a format of degenerate Academy decks and Keeper and no one seemed to know anything about it - despite the Mana Drain.

Two years later, Type One has a Championship, and another on the way - and a growing interest with increasingly strong competition.  If Type One is dead, so is Extended.

Steve

[Cuandoman]

In all honesty Extended died the day they banned duals and rotated.

All that did was make me want to play T1 more. I think that might be the case for many other new to the format too.

[Dr. Sylvan]

The only sure thing now in Type 1 is that White Wennie still sucks!

Ah, the last problem of the world.

I agree whole-heartedly that the format is awesome right now. I can hardly wait to see the next weird thing happen, and I keep checking morphling.de for the latest Top 8s so that I can compile more data. It's at that point where everything is trending upward and the DCI still has firm reins on whatever we manage to bust open. <3 Type One.