SHM SHM EVE drafts on modo: the predecessor of cube?

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

you know how modo on occasion will try to make you forget it sucks by rolling out a sweet old draft format for a week or two? and then you remember that they should have them all the time? (i'm aware there are supply arguments for keeping these periodical, but those arguments are terrible, because old drafts are fun and they should have them all the time.)

well, shadowmoor block is in for the near future, and i just did one and it was great. the draft process was difficult. many punts were made. most of those punts were by me. i lost in the second round. i timed out, which is not something i ever do in even modern online. timing out was a bummer, but the event was a blast. it was way better than winning a GTC draft. i didn't even realize how much i hated GTC until i drafted SSE. maybe that's why they only roll out old formats once in a while...

my train of thought led to the following theory (i am blessed to have drafted basically every format due to a nice LGS). modern limited formats can be fun, and there's an argument for their even being skill-testing (if you believe that good players HAVE been posting better results since NWO, which could be true or thinly-veiled mothership bs or both at once. if it is true, i have no idea why -- beyond variance -- and would be interested in an explanation.) anyway, new formats are not ... difficult. activated abilities are scarce. complexity is combat tricks and curving out. bombs are opened and played. all of this is true for even the good NWO formats. M11 and M13 were multi-faceted enough but still had that core-set feel of old-school magic. SCR is full of efficient beaters (and not durdly utility dudes) and is the likely predecessor to full-RTR-block drafting. ZZW has fewer game-ruiners but is still very fast and simplistic. ROE is a challenge to draft the first few times and the boards can get gummed up but beyond that it's straightforward. DII is decent but heinously overrated, and III while better is still the same format.

my theory is this: cube is the successor to old format drafts. (the range i have in mind is from IPA to SSE.) this is mostly a function of complexity; cube games are supposed to be hard, and if they're not hard enough to make me fuck up, then i've fucked up my cube. other comparisons are easy: 'being able to do anything' (as opposed to getting sucked into a boring guild), flatter power curves, and a general 'grindy' feel. i like grindy. grindy is great. it means not so much 'dull' as it does that the games have gone long and involved a lot of decisions. a board-clog is not 'grindy' because the turns are easy; just play another dude and pass. getting a bomb at the end of a board-stall isn't grindy. being grindy involves eking out incremental advantages over the course of a game. i like incremental advantage, too. it means that the decisions up until that point have mattered and will continue to matter. it means a sense of control over the course of the game, and a psychological battle that goes levels beyond 'durr does he have aetherize?? he has it / i lose; he doesn't / i win.' if i wanted to cast giant bombs and watch the game state get obliterated over and over again while pretending to be challenging myself and deluding myself into thinking it wasn't the same goddamn thing time after time, i'd play EDH. or i could play the modo cube!!!

but i digress. my cube and sse also share a few specific similarities, viz. a multi-colored theme, few clear first picks, and being 1/3 eventide cards. most of my other favorites (RGD, SCR, IPA) are multi-colored and power-flattened too, though a couple of them are neither. but how much sweeter would ROE and OTJ be if they were multi-color, I wonder? anyway, though old draft formats (at least some of them) are the work of geniuses, a well-designed cube can be better. cube instantly solves a few of the issues with these formats, viz. fewer non-games due to color-screw, at least some familiarity with the cards (to minimize level-0 mistakes), and having to go out and buy the damn packs. cube combines the powerful interactions and mind games of constructed with the improvisatory joy, creativity, and accessibility of limited. you can draft for free, with only people you like!

that being said, SSE was the nadir for MTG's popularity. because SSE sold so poorly, NWO started right afterwards. NWO formats have sold phenomenally well; the absolute maximum continues to ascend, and the community continues to widen. it's a good thing people like to buy NWO cards. they come out to FNM to draft even hackneyed GTC, bland M12, and dresden-bombed SOM; of course it would be better if they came out to draft the old RGD, but the fact is they didn't. how much of the commercial success of NWO sets is due to NWO itself is up for debate, but even though the wotc marketing team underestimates the effect of mtg's demographic shift towards older people (as kids who play it grow into adults), it's got to be at least part of it. no doubt the modo cube's design reflects how wizards sees NWO -- 'people expect bombs', chiefly -- but that's a topic for another time. what do you guys think?

[Jason Waddell]

There's a lot to unpack here and I'm not sure that I am well suited to really address most of the points you make. 

For me, the biggest difference between Cube and retail environments is the difficulty involved. I love games where I feel challenged from Turn 1 to make the best plays, where I can dissect it afterwards with other players and look at all the crazy decision points. I love feeling that the fate of each game feels like it depends on my play (and my opponent's play) more than the shuffler. 

This is one of the reasons I like to keep a really fast and low-cost environment. The decisions and interaction hit early and often. The tension ratchets up immediately. We're not waiting around for somebody to land a bomb. We're dueling, grinding for advantages, trying to shape the flow. I've mentioned this story before, but my all-time favorite cube game started with me getting Wastelanded twice and Dazed on Turn 3. The whole game was a slug fest. It was a high-wire act where every inch was fought for. Each of us had a half-dozen opportunities to punt the game, and it kept ticking away. The game was in jeopardy until my opponent nodded to the question "Does the Helix resolve?". It was spectacular because it was earned. 

I think that appeals at a very high level. We have drafters who scrub out 0 - 3 and 1 - 2 over and over and keep coming back for more. Every draft they learn and improve. And one of these days they'll 3 - 0 and I'll buy them a celebratory Duvel. 

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

right, that's the big point -- cube should be like these old formats, where you have a ton of choices to make all the time. in other words, difficulty is fun. there are kinds of difficulty that aren't fun -- forgetting what your stuff does; having to keep track of a million triggers -- and there may even be a certain point past which on-board complexity and activated abilities aren't fun. but for the most part more difficult = more fun. RGD is difficult; every time i draft it -- which is not often, these days, because it's prohibitively expensive -- i'm reminded of why it's the best format of all time. those SSE matches were very tough.

a nice parable will show the difference between then and now. one of my deck's better cards was knacksaw clique. i punted a game by activating it using a land of his i'd played, leaving me barely unable to cast incremental blight (in my UWg deck). the untap symbol is so interesting; there's a lot going on with it. and such a situation is inconceivable with nightveil specter. all you have to do with that card is remember to play your land post-combat in case you hit. there are few decisions to be made, fewer opportunities to blow it and therefore fewer opportunities to play brilliantly. knacksaw clique is then, specter is now.