Scattered metagame

[Erdrick]

Here is the post: http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17151
Here is the article: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7240
Here is the quote:

Type One is having a little trouble demonstrating the theory of Constructed that only a few decks are really viable at a given time. It's rare to find a segment of Magic history where a competitive Constructed metagame was close to as scattered as this, and I for one think this is a phenomenon indicating that people are playing bad decks for personal reasons. (Or worse, reasons of under-playtesting.)

I would agree that people are playing bad decks for personal reasons, but probably not for the reasons you are thinking. I would say that many people are playing the best deck they can play. Which also means, many people are not playing good decks because the can't. And this is because they don't own the cards needed to make the good decks. (I know there are also many people playing bad decks and liking it, but I want to concentrate on those who would be playing good decks if they could.)

What are the reasons they don't own the cards?

1. No Proxies. (I know, reason number one and I already break topic, but this is why it matters that they don't own the cards.) I PMed Dr. Sylvan and asked him how many proxies were permitted at each of the 9 tournaments featured in his article.

I don't have definite information for most of them, but in general the European tournaments have zero proxies, and Washington DC was definitely a no-proxies event.

The most obvious cure to this is to have all the tournament organizers read Steve Menendian's article on proxies: http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=7149

2. Price and Availability. This is two fold.  First, good decks are popular. This leads to the cards in those decks to become harder to find and their prices increase. Two perfect examples are Bazaar of Baghdad and Mishra's Workshop. These cards have doubled in price in just the past 6 months. Second, Type 1 is becoming more popular. This leads to many of the staple cards in the environment to become even harder to find and even more expensive. Two examples of this would be the staple Black Lotus, which has also doubling in price, and the fact that I can't seem to find a simple card like Null Rod even for sale. (I am sure there are other even better examples, but I was just at http://www.trollandtoad.com looking for Null Rods. And finding none, I decided to use them as one of my examples.) Both parts have their greatest impact on the newer and poorer players (this does not imply that they are bad players). If they can't find or pay for the cards, it makes it hard to own them. The result being, the Budget Forum, where cheaper decks are being designed to try and compete with the Tier 1.

3. Influx of new cards. Let me regress, I think many people (like myself) find Type 1 attractive because they can play with all the cards they already own and slowly add cards from the newer sets.  The hope of this is that the cost to maintain their habit will be low.  The problem being, that the recent sets have had so many meta defining cards that it has been very hard to keep up.  The people that fall into this category have been playing for a while, but now have girlfriends, wives, or even families.  This effectively makes them poor in both time and money.  Which in turn, makes them slow to react to the large changes in the meta (again, not implying that they are bad players).  The result being many of the only slightly tweaked former Tier 1 decks remaining in the meta.

Simply put, if you can't make the good decks, you can't play the good decks. Proxies are probably the best cure. Until then, people will try to make the best deck with the cards they have.


NOTE: Please don't complain that Type 2 has the same problems, because it does not.  How many Type 2 events with proxies can you find.

[Swanky]

3. Influx of new cards. Let me regress, I think many people (like myself) find Type 1 attractive because they can play with all the cards they already own and slowly add cards from the newer sets.  The hope of this is that the cost to maintain their habit will be low.  The problem being, that the recent sets have had so many meta defining cards that it has been very hard to keep up.  The people that fall into this category have been playing for a while, but now have girlfriends, wives, or even families.  This effectively makes them poor in both time and money.  Which in turn, makes them slow to react to the large changes in the meta (again, not implying that they are bad players).  The result being many of the only slightly tweaked former Tier 1 decks remaining in the meta.
 

I feel as though what we've stood witness to for the past few years is simply indicative of the power flux that's inherent to the development of sets.  A peak was reached somewhere within the time period Odyssey, Onslaught, and Mirrodin coming off a balenced yet good block in Invasion and a "dip" block like Mercadian Masques; Masques, of course, an answer to the insane Urza block which ramped up from the less powerful Tempest block, so on and so forth.  We should come to expect periodic card insurgences.  If we don't experience them, it indicates a lack of innovation or design quality on the part of R&D.  Unfortunately, I feel as though Type 1 will inevitably reach a point of critical mass at which point the cards in the environment can no longer be replaced by cards that are "strictly better," as any strictly better iteration of a card would be insane.  

What is the result of this critical mass?  A field with a larger variety of decks.  New cards are added that are potentially without peer, as R&D will no doubt choose innovation over "broken-ness."  Some decks will be answers to other decks, which will itself have a few answer decks gunning for it and so on.  

The metagame will inevitably expand or stagnate.  The former, obviously, is preferable.

[Smmenen]

Dr. Syvaln is incorrect.  Washington DC had 5 Proxies.  

Steve

[Klep]

Masques, of course, an answer to the insane Urza block which ramped up from the less powerful Tempest block, so on and so forth.  

I don't really have anything to contest with your post, but I feel I must mention that saying Urza block is a ramp up in power from Tempest block is like saying an anti-matter bomb is a ramp up in power from an atomic weapon.  It may be true, but your opponent is just as annihilated either way.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Dr. Syvaln is incorrect.  Washington DC had 5 Proxies.

My bad. I looked at the first thread, rather than the second.

[jazzykat]

I just wanted to comment on the availibility of cards:

With only X of certain cards in print and only some tournaments allowing proxies of course we are going to see substandard decks bubble to the top of the pot because they were probably better than most of the other decks.

Furthermore, excellent playing of a less than optimal deck will normally take you very far in smallish T1 tourneys where most people are beaten on their mistakes, and them playing less than excellent decks.