The power company
June 21st 2009 06:57
So, there’s this piece of art on a Russian website that purports to be from M10. I hope it really is, because it is very, very cool. Sadly, many of our online associates are not art connoisseurs, and much of the discussion is actually centering on the English-language caption it was given: “Lightning Bolt.”
Lightning Bolt is, of course, the damage spell with the most pure power in the history of Magic. It hasn’t been in print since 1997, ostensibly because it makes it more difficult to design other damage spells worth playing. Aggressive decks are already strong right now – they wouldn’t do something that puts them over the top. Would they? Could they? Should they?
The only constant in Magic, they say, is change. We have always been encouraged to take a view of Magic that might be called “durational” – the possibility that the game will be a certain way today and a different way next week. I'm not just talking about Standard, either; as I type this, there is a deckbox from the Fourth Edition starter set next to my monitor, and the back of it reads, in part, "the more you play and trade, the more Dominia's ever-changing adventures will intrigue you." This view applies to which artists are on commission, which decks are played in tournaments, and to what the contents of the sets are. Lightning Bolt was part of Magic’s core once. It might be part of it again. But it might not be next year. Indeed, Mark Rosewater himself is on record that the only cards that will always be in print are the five basic lands. There is a joke, originally about Melbourne’s weather, that could be adapted for Magic: if you don’t like it, wait a couple of months.
It’s true that you can’t take those old cards out of circulation, meaning they will remain a force in casual constructed basically forever. That’s an entirely different animal, though, and beyond the control of the DCI. It’s also more or less self-regulating. If you think your friends’ Lightning Bolt decks are overpowered, you can ask them to play different decks. You can’t do that in DCI sanctioned play. Some people, the kind of people who genuinely believe the only difference between them and Gabriel Nassif is hours of practice, might complain . . . but does Wizards of the Coast care about that?
Indeed, should they care about that? There is another way to look at Magic, and you’ve been hearing it for between five minutes and fifteen months, depending on how long you’ve been visiting my site. Between 65% and 80% of Magic customers have never played in a sanctioned tournament. An unknown number of them use their cards as cheap fantasy art, whether that’s making wallpaper out of Future Sight commons or buying original prints from Terese Nielsen and Michael Komarck’s websites. If the game is not a game, but a work of art, does it really matter how powerful – or weak – any of the cards are?
Lightning Bolt is, of course, the damage spell with the most pure power in the history of Magic. It hasn’t been in print since 1997, ostensibly because it makes it more difficult to design other damage spells worth playing. Aggressive decks are already strong right now – they wouldn’t do something that puts them over the top. Would they? Could they? Should they?
I have to admit, there is a resemblance.
The only constant in Magic, they say, is change. We have always been encouraged to take a view of Magic that might be called “durational” – the possibility that the game will be a certain way today and a different way next week. I'm not just talking about Standard, either; as I type this, there is a deckbox from the Fourth Edition starter set next to my monitor, and the back of it reads, in part, "the more you play and trade, the more Dominia's ever-changing adventures will intrigue you." This view applies to which artists are on commission, which decks are played in tournaments, and to what the contents of the sets are. Lightning Bolt was part of Magic’s core once. It might be part of it again. But it might not be next year. Indeed, Mark Rosewater himself is on record that the only cards that will always be in print are the five basic lands. There is a joke, originally about Melbourne’s weather, that could be adapted for Magic: if you don’t like it, wait a couple of months.
It’s true that you can’t take those old cards out of circulation, meaning they will remain a force in casual constructed basically forever. That’s an entirely different animal, though, and beyond the control of the DCI. It’s also more or less self-regulating. If you think your friends’ Lightning Bolt decks are overpowered, you can ask them to play different decks. You can’t do that in DCI sanctioned play. Some people, the kind of people who genuinely believe the only difference between them and Gabriel Nassif is hours of practice, might complain . . . but does Wizards of the Coast care about that?
Indeed, should they care about that? There is another way to look at Magic, and you’ve been hearing it for between five minutes and fifteen months, depending on how long you’ve been visiting my site. Between 65% and 80% of Magic customers have never played in a sanctioned tournament. An unknown number of them use their cards as cheap fantasy art, whether that’s making wallpaper out of Future Sight commons or buying original prints from Terese Nielsen and Michael Komarck’s websites. If the game is not a game, but a work of art, does it really matter how powerful – or weak – any of the cards are?
This game already is a work of art, whether you realize it or not.
| 51 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
