The Power Creep Problem in Commander 

I wish WotC slowed down printing new sets and related products, the sheer amount of new cards also keeps it hard to keep track on the power level. It's 24/7 spoiler season, and the hype train goes on.

"Just because something's powerful doesn't mean it's well designed" THANK YOU

Power creep is not exclusively WoTC' fault. Sure, given commander is now the most popular format, they need to convince players to buy in every set otherwise players will enjoy their old stuff. Power creep might be a lazy way to instaure a "rotation cycle", but on the other end, the fun lower power sets like dnd and baldur's gate are discarded and fail miserably. Players speak with their wallets, not with their outcry or love letters online. If you buy into power creep you will get more power creep, period.

This is why we play multi and also have a few handicaps set. Still, when one starts to "power up" their deck. Everyone follows suit.

It’s not exclusive to commander. This stretches across many formats especially standard and even jumps games. I play warhammer 40k and age of sigmar and both games are notoriously plagued by power creep with every update to every faction.

Power creep is here to stay. I am used to the focus on fun in my own playgroups, but as soon as I play with regular players in a store I realize how strong EDH play has become. Lots of people play with mana crypts, mana drain, and powerful commanders like Niv Mizzet Parun, Urza, and Chulane. I cannot keep up, especially with my budget decks which is my own limiter as I do not want to spend much more to enjoy this game. Great video and will continue to listen to more of your vids.

Personally I have grown out of Commander in the last couple of years: it used to be about flavour and creativity on how to build around cards in one's collection, while nowadays it's all about hyper-efficiency, fast play and kill-on-sight threats. While I am not saying that the latter is a wrong way to play, but if I want to play quick and competitive high-power games, I play Legacy or Vintage, I don't need singleton multiplayer Legacy that is practically current Commander. To me the fun of EDH was to have a more relaxed social format to spend some time playing, to change gear from the competitive eternal formats. If one is not lucky enough to have a playgroup of friends aligned on more contained power level, such option is no longer available as most Commander pods I saw in stores are mostly tryharders that approach "casual" games as if they were sanctioned Legacy tournaments. Surely both WotC designing power-crept cards meant to be Commander staples and popular content creators pushing the idea that very fast and highly optimized decks are the only correct way to play does not help the format to be welcoming to more casual players.

for me commander's appeal came from being able to use flavour and function to build cool theme decks comprising of my old cards

Commander really is something that can get tiring when you take it too seriously. I have 1 combo deck, korvold, other than that my other 5 or so decks are just meant to be fun, all with varying power levels but regardless they’re just meant to play cards I enjoy or tribes I like

If you played MTG on 90's or early 00's you know that Sheoldred, the Apocalypse should cost 8 or 9 manas if it'd been printed on that period

I always liked to think of commander as the format that I can play my really old cards in, maybe to a unique theme or weird playstyle. More often than not though, these days it mostly ends up being working up to a win, however you get there. That usually means using only staples or the latest cards released in the newest set. It's really sad to see that older style of play start to die out. It absolutely makes me wish WotC just ignored commander and just kept their focus on standard or modern or whatever. One set of commander decks a year was a blessing and we didn't know it. Now everything is a commander product...

The example I use is how baneslayer angel was basically a novelty in m21 with things like Elder Gargaroth around

I was just talking this thing with a cousin that started play magic and EDH, 2020, that still are old cards that arr absurdly powerfull, but many other that were way too powerfull back in the day now are regalted to "i dont have the better version, i will use it as a place holder". I love to play those broken commamder that ppl just build in one way bc is the most efficent and powerfull, and build it in a fun way, like my animar, that i always build it non-eldrazy tribal, or now my jodah, the unifier using only lengendaries with partner with, or my esika bridge to all precon, where all tje creatures had been face comander of precons. Thanksfully for a long time i have a usual playgroup so we put some in da house rule to try to make the game balanced and avoid the "power creep" in a rule 0 way.

In the shattergang vs braids argument, shattergang arguably becomes better as the game progresses because as the game moves on, you should have more mana sources and permanents to activate shattergang often 2-4 times a turn, especially by playing cards like heartstone and tons of land ramp. Braids begins more powerful, but after a couple of tur, or if the deck is built right, it can just outright surpass braids. With access to 2 more colors, you also have access to land ramp, removal, and could even throw braids into the deck itself.

See, the problem here isn't that cards are too powerful or that CEDH is a detriment to the format, it's that too many people are in the game who are decidedly *NOT* looking for casual play and their decks are not built to play casually. Ultimately, It comes back down to the fact that someone *decided* to put an obviously broken card in their deck, Someone made the choice to push the power level and play the broken cards. We can't have it both ways. Broken cards exist because people keep buying them and playing them, which generates sales, which tells WOTC that the playerbase wants this stuff.

I just started commander barely 2 months ago and I must say I enjoy playing the longer more interactive games than the win turn 4 games that a lot of people play

I play my cute Ixalan dinosaurs and I don't care. But it would be much fairer not to fight against crazy combo Decks or those Dragons that create 20 Tokens.a I feel If everybody would play themed decks the Game would be more fun, because you need to make compromises for themed Lands and Spells and can't just use the best ones If the art doesn't fit :)

The best example of power creep that comes to mind, is from the recent party time deck. Deep gnome Terramancer and weathered wayfarer. Black market connections and Phyrexian arena. Sort of comparable lol.

I’ve been spending some time on Arena and I get so steam-rolled by certain cards like Sheoldred that I feel like I have to conceed as soon as I see them. It’s not a good feeling at all.

i'll admit, i was too emotional about xander. i was so taken aback by all the half effects (including the on death one mostly) that it felt like you couldn't effectively counter it.

That one comment saying that Xander is in stacks colors when he's grixis (THE turbo-win color combo) is absolutely hilarious.

As for power creep in black, I mean we went from what used to be called 'suicide black' because black was very painful. Phyrexian negator vs phyrexian Obliterator.

Remember modern before modern horizons?

The burn out from all the printing is hitting my play groups pretty hard right now. From this kind a stuff

Coming from mostly playing Yugioh up until recently (a card game that only has eternal formats), I think it's interesting to see just how much the popularity of eternal formats has made powercreep an integral part of Magic, similarly to the way it's been in Yugioh since the end of the GX era. At some point Konami realised that nobody was playing the really well (or at least interestingly) designed cards from sets like Cyberdark Impact or Force of the Breaker despite multiple banlists hitting all of the popular strategies from older sets, so over the course of four or so sets beginning with Gladiators Assault they started printing more and more powerful cards until the game looked almost nothing like it had before that point, and there's been no going back ever since. The game has gotten so crazy that they've started unbanning objectively powerful and objectively poorly designed cards like Raigeki and Cyber Jar, but nobody has been playing them because everything else in the format is just too powerful for them to be relevant. I'm glad Magic still has a rotating format though because at least you can play some semblance of how the game used to be (even if it is still kinda powercrept to a degree)

Power creep is an interesting concept in general. A lot of games / video games that have a lot of expansions and updates almost universally have some form of power creep. I do wonder how “intentional” it is from a design perspective.

3:40 people also confuse power with fun. Power is relative to the card pool. Erg Raiders and Hypnotic Spectre were powerful once upon a time. The fun comes from balance, variety and having the tools to answer problems.

I don't think powercreep is intentional cedh pandering, but it does sell cards if you print strictly betters

For me, part of the issue is how fast commander has become. I remember the original EDH precons, and some of the commanders there, while not necessarily weak, are just so expensive mana wise that it is hard to actually play them. For example, Riku of Two Reflections is a 2/2 with a decently powerful ability, but he is priced as though he is a dragon. Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter is expensive enough that you may only be able to cast him once before he becomes too expensive to cast. And legendary creatures from sets prior to this are often even worse; compare someone like Lim-Dul the Necromancer, which is stupidly expensive, or some of the Kamigawa legendaries, which where overcosted and also rather weak.

I agree with most of all of your points, but the examples you used aren't the best. Shattergang brothers, phyrexian arena, and sheoldred have all been considered weak for quite a while. I remember telling people to cut phyrexian arena as early as ~2018.

Power creep is an inevitable facet of any competitive or semicompetitive game that has a long enough life. There is power creep in Pokémon. There is power creep in League of Legends. There is power creep in Yugioh. There is power creep even in games like Diablo. There always has to be the best and biggest thing you want to play in order to keep players coming back for more. I'm not sure exactly what the remedy is beyond investing more time and effort in curating a team of whipsmart designers. This power creep issue isn't just an issue in commander, either. The Modern Horizons sets have permanently and irrevocably altered modern for the worse. For cards to be meaningful in competitive formats they must by definition be an upgrade or a side grade to an already existing staple. Magic has the unfortunate problem of having to contend with the most powerful cards of the past two decades. In order to drum up interest, the cards must be insanely strong. On a side note, as a dedicated limited player, games of limited have never been more complex or interesting, but by the same coin, they have never been more one sided or back breaking. I hate the fact that the best decks in DMU (G+any other color) can play every color and be rewarded simply for playing tap lands and still sail to victory.

Powercreep is fine, as you can just play more of the same effect if you want to. Braids is not remotely he same as the Shattergang Brothers, as it plays completely different and doesnt replace the effect at all. However, true powercreep, if a card is just better than another in basically any way, it will replace it entirely, unless you want multiple of the same effect and you are fine running the worse one too.

I mean I'm building an Imotekh the Stormlord deck when the new 40k stuff comes out and old Sheoldred will be in it but new Sheoldred will not (and new Sheoldred is the commander for another of my decks). I don't know that two cards with completely different abilities really are an example of power creep because there are lots of situations where the effect of the old one is simply what you're looking for more than with the new one

Braids vs shattergang vs phyrexian arena is an interesting point. When i first got into edh i was looking at looking at shattergang as a commander option and phyrexian arena as card advantage option for the 99. I ended up not going with either of them. (I ended landing on Sidisi from you reccomendation of best sultai cards way back in the day) I couldnt work with shattergang bc it waa too clunky as you said. But the reason i didnt go with phyrexian arena is it was more expensive money wise than i was willling to pay at that time for a card. By the time i would be will to pay for that there were better cards for less money i already had access too. So from personal experience i think power level vs money definitely plays a role which edges phyrexian arena out as an expensive card that has to compete with better black card draw

You hit the nail on the head though. This is inherently a noncompetitive format. It's about choosing commanders you love playing AS. Recently I played against two decks in a comander 4 top, they were (I can't remember the names) a donate deck and a random attack voltron deck. The donate deck was being played by a power bottom who was really into me, and the random attack deck was being played by a rich kid who just wanted to be there. This is a social format and a lot of people just play to sit and talk to a bunch of other nerds without the stress of actually trying to win. You're not wrong about power creep, but it's true of magic in general. Fussing about power creep in commander is the same as in the other eternal formats. It's always been possible to buy a deck that can consistently win on turn 3, it just cost you an arm and a leg. What wizards is doing is opening the acessabilty of that kind of power up. If everyone has a turn 5 infinite combo you don't have to buy that $700 key combo card for your deck, you can just buy the $5 three card combo and drop it in instead. They've leveled the playing field in that regard, now everyone is a Krenko or Korvold, and everyone has a prosbloom combo

The card draw bit, running less of them because your commander does it means you're relying on your commander more and the deck less. Your deck is now less reliable.

I dont even really want to play against combo decks anymore, i find them boring.

I don't think the new sheoldred would really be considered stronger than the original... sure it's 4 mana and it drains opponents when they draw but these are 2 completely different effects that revolve around 2 completely different play styles and honestly i think overall the new sheoldred is overall weaker in terms of strategy than the original. The new one you are going to be dedicating your BLACK DECK to drawing cards and gaining a bit of life... which is off set by the almost ubiquitous cost of losing life with black card draw. Then you are also dedicating cards to making opponents draw, oh good now they can draw into those answers to your sheoldred.. Meanwhile the original was built in a graveyard centric deck, using revival cards and sheoldred to cheat POWERFUL creatures onto the board while making your opponents sacrifice their creatures which will hurt them more. You dedicate card slots powerful, likely high cost, minions that you can cheat into play... you dedicate cards to reviving creatures from your graveyard, which is GREAT because if they deal with your sheoldred you have cheaper cards to bring her onto the field without paying tax and her cost again. I don't really get the "you want immediate impact" in that comparison either, new sheoldred will deal 2 damage NEXT TURN to the opponent if played on 4. Meanwhile, you could easily get old Sheoldred out on 4 and have the opponent SAC A CREATURE. Hell it's still at 7 mana making them sac a creature on the next turn.

What does EDH stand for again?

Old Sheoldred is leagues above the other one in terms of playability as a commander. Making your opponent sacrifice creatures and resurrecting your own creatures is so much more relevant than an insignificant life swing

Solid points at the end of the vid. I still appreciate fast new gen cards though since EDH /cEDH is the only format I play. Still, very good points

Good point, but now follow up video with a viable solution.

I can't really say if it's a big problem simply because commander is a casual format so if you just agree with playgroups on what you want to play you won't exactly feel it so much. Power creep is always gonna be a thing in tcgs tbh, don't get me wrong though I get where you're coming from but to go this far... Idk man. Good vid ofc tho

Tl:Dr rite of replication isn't good anymore due to power creep. I run a high power casual momir vig deck, and augmenter pugilist//echoing equation is infinitely better in my deck for my win con, biovisionary! Rite of replication asks me to pay 9 mana, but with echoing equation, it's front side is a creature so momir can find it, and then I can cast the other side of it as soon as I get it, for 5 mana. Rite simply doesn't make the cut anymore.

I mean, I have a Atraxa deck. Instead of making a infect deck(minus a few creatures who have it to end the game) I made "Atraxa: Angel of blessings and curses" the shield counters and Ikoria counters help. Plus a flurry of way to proliferate (not hard in in B/U/G/W.) There's way to make over powered commander's fun to play against. No one wants to lose on turn 3. It's interesting turning the table against someone by throwing a hex proof and indestructible counter on their commanders.

Shattergang doesn't nessasaily get removed immediately. Braids does get removed on the spot

Half the problem with Commander is the mindset. As it became more popular, we’ve gone from “Here’s my fun Jund Cats Deck” to “How can I optimize this deck to win on turn 4-5 consistently?” I fully believe cEDH should get it’s own format and banlist. With cEDH getting more popular, people are virtually making cEDH decks and taking out some of the consistency to justify winning on turn 7 instead of 5, then calling it casual cause “See I don’t have Grim Monolith, Jeweled Lotus, Mana Vault/Crypt, and a couple of high efficiency tutors”. That’s the mindset that kills casual EDH, just make something enjoyable and have fun, and if you *need* to win to have fun you probably shouldn’t be playing casually.

I personally don’t really agree with your opinion on new Jodah being nothing like the original, because of you take a step back, they actually do reward you for the same things, old Jodah wants you to play big flashy expensive spells with the benefit of casting them for only 5 mana, where as new Jodah’s cascade type effect rewards you for doing the same thing, but limits it to legendary cards, letting you cascade one big flashy expensive legendary into another. Yes it’s extremely strong, but I don’t think it’s an unfaithful version of the character

PREACH ON BROTHER!

I dont think power creep would be as big of an issue as it is now if WOTC just slowed down set releases. We are getting overwhelmed with content, it feels like the second people are finishing up making and improving decks from one set, another one or two sets has dropped, and it hasnt even been a whole year yet. I love the game, but Im always feeling like Im falling behind with my decks because new cards come out faster than I can keep up with. It strains the player, and it strains the wallet. It's an arms race every set to get the big ticket cards that will be format-changing, Dominaria United proved that with all the bombshell cards they dropped. And now with some of the Unfinity cards being legal, I feel like the spirit of EDH is just being rotted away. When the cost of a viable deck in most circles is costing over $100, sometimes pushing over $200, the game isn't nearly as fun. The precons of today even are far stronger than the ones just 3 years ago. It's hard to ignore, but there's so little that can be done to stop it

More colors = more difficulty doesn't apply to commanders. Mono color is the easiest due to the possibility of perfect mana after that the game gets easier the more colors you have. Due to the singleton nature a 5c deck has a better chance at good mana then 2 or 3 thanks to more fetches duals and shocks. Additionally you get access to more staples.

The power creep complaint has been around for literally decades. It's not unfounded but it's not nearly as bad now as it was 10 years ago. When I started playing 3 mana for a vanilla 2/2 wasn't uncommon. 10 years ago you got 4 manas with little to no down side and probably 2 keywords and a triggered or activated ability. Likely in the 4/4 or higher range.

As someone who built braids, i can count on one hand the amount of times someone didn't let braids effectively read sac a permanent for each opponent draw a card and they lose 2 life. now while this does power creep card draw options, it and shattergang bros are accomplishing different things. shattergang works like a stax piece, controlling the board by saccing chaff permanents and forcing your opponents to do the same. braids like a value piece granting a frankly absurd amount of card advantage. is it overshadowing some pieces? yeah, but if you don't have the fodder for her or space in hand she becomes a lot worse than something like a phyrexian arena. Add in outside of braids commander decks she's a one of 99 cards and you're going to need more options. New jodah i agree is just poorly designed and new sheoldred is a symptom of the format slowly getting faster. old sheoldred used to be great when you could expect her to stick on the board for at least one turn cycle, but as the format got faster because it got more popular old sheoldred got worse and worse because she had the least immediate impact of the old praetors and was a removal magnet. Whereas cards like new sheoldred are better suited to faster games. Commander was always going to get faster and more powerful because just the sheer amount of cards that are legal with the most attractive stuff floating to the top. Luckily, you can talk to people set up lower power games and can feel out what exactly you are looking for. "Is power creep an issue?" is a bit of a dumb question because it always is, but when you're trying to sell cards; the powerful stuff is what often sells the cardboard.

I really dont mind power creep. Power creep ebs and flows. One color, one strategy gets a big boost from a new card and it makes another card look much weaker. Then a different color gets a boost the next year. It gives you a reason to continue acquiring cards. Just because there's a new jodah doesn't mean you have to swap the old jodah, maybe you run the new in the 99. I dont know about you guys, but there has been more than one time I've made the suboptimal decision in deck building and play because of some extra love for a particular aspect of a card on more than one occasion. My deck, my rules, im trying to have fun. Power creep won't shut out casual players unless you never plan on getting more cards ever again.

I don't entirely agree with your examples as the ease of a perfect mana base means commanders that aren't multicolor are weaker and I would rather reanimate big Sheoldred.

I love my new Braids deck

Talking about power creep🤔.. like when you see fow, mana drain, reb, beb, free or 1 mana remooval, moxes and other shit like that in the format? New "powerful" cards can't do shit against the old broken ones. Some are cool and strong, but the question is: are those gonna resolve or stick? Probably no..

People who play commander competitively are just not fun to be around lol usually when I play I am just looking to have fun and play with some cool cards! Regardless of how “powerful” they are :)

One thing I feel a lot of people underestimate is that playing powerful cards paints a target on your back., especially powerful commanders. You can have the best cards on the board, but if your opponents have good threat evaluation, that just might mean your cards will never stick.

I was today years old when i learned what EDH stands for. lmao

I left Yugioh for MTG due to power creep. Games lasting 1-2 turns and basically watching your opponent play solitaire and board break is ridiculous. Games decided by the coin toss of who goes first was too much, let me say this, Mtg is far from obsolescence due to PC.

When first strike came out, it was game breaking

I don't see the powercreep you're talking about in any of these cards though. Braids is a waaaay slower version of the brothers who can do things at instant speed and on other people's turns, combined with access to more colors so more power. Also if anything she's a step down from her banned version since your opponents have a choice now. She's a much better designed version of Cabal Minion. In this video you make it sound like they've ruined the game with her or are on their way with her. At most her and new Jodah, are unique and new ways to approach the game, which is good. It's healthy for the game to have things like this. If the most powerful, unique, interesting cards have already been released because people don't want "powercreep" then every new set is meaningless and the game dies.

duh, why do you think braids went right in my shattergang deck

Commander was designed not to sell cards, not to purely 'win' but to have fun. Wizards is a company designed to make money, which is why the original format needed four cards, so you bought more. Now that format is going a tad by the wayside because edh is more accessible to casual players, and therefore, more money for wizards in the long run, so they decided to create value by making cards for commander itself This inevitably leads to power creep, because they gotta keep making money, and I don't like it The format was designed around fun, rather than making money, so a lot of it was very janky, and that's a good thing. It took longer, had bigger swings in spells and abilities, and let you sit at a table of three friends and actually have time to chat and enjoy your friends company. Wizards can't have that, you aren't focused on your deck, and on how you can win, and win only, so you aren't as focused on buying cards Hell you might buy cards that are 'bad' because they are funny, but those are really cheap, and don't make wizards much money, can't have that Tl;Dr a company learned about something fun, and decided to make things for it, slowly ruining the fun in the process, because that's not what a company is designed for, they make money, not fun You can lose and still have fun

Remember your powerful deck means nothing when no one wants to play with you

Sheoldred is so damn good.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; I'd love a year of reprints. There are so many much desired cards in Magic. Why not take at least a year to just appreciate all the stuff they've made and reprint some much-desired cards? It wouldn't cost them as much resources as a year of all-new cards would, we'd get the cards we keep begging them to reprint, and maybe - just maybe - Magic: the Gathering could become a little cheaper, at least for a year. If nothing else, I'd appreciate them bringing back the core sets. They've actually done a smashing job with them from what I can remember.

Shatergang Brothers and Braids Are completely different Brothers are control/removal card in command zone Braids is a Value Engine Jodah Archmage Eternal and Jodah the unifier are also completely different The only thing similar in 2 sheoldreds is name. Power creep is a problem But those examples are not on topic at all!

3:45 Do keep in mind the other face of this coin, just because a card is powerful does not mean it’s not well designed. Powercreep isn’t inherently a bad thing, its what the powercrept thing does which is a problem.

I really like custom legendaries. Woah woah woah, before you kill me, let me explain. There are thousands of community made cards that are both really interesting with unique mechanics, returning mechanics and even whole new archetypes out there and you can make them as fair or as broken as you or your playgroup see fit. I recommend starting with the dark souls custom set.

There’s need to be a change on how commander tax works for higher cmc commanders. Most commanders I see how are 3-4 cmc. I haven’t seen a maelstrom w. Muldrotha etc in ages

I don't 100% agree with the take that Wizards is completely ignoring the casual side of commander. The 40k decks (another can of worms) in particular seem to have a lot that reward large spells in particular, and shows them building into a design space that could be very interesting. Counting the high cmc matters cards they've printed recently, and the good 3+ mana mana rocks they're printing, casual edh looks like it's going to be eating well in the future. Also, I don't think that saying cEDH harms the casual format is a good argument. It just causes a more fragmented player base. It's completely healthy for the format, and lets people find the style of game they want to play.

Talking about edh power creep is weird because most of these cards are not made for commander. Also, most of the early commanders and made for commander cards are obviously much stronger than the ones made these days. There are actual small instances of power creep, and power creep always happens, but saying old Sheoldred being worse than new Sheoldred means power creep is ignoring stuff like Elesh Norn and the original Vorinclex, which are insanely strong. Commander is one of the biggest formats where you can argue AGAINST power creep. Your Shattergang argument is dumb because you never mention a card like Korvold, which basically you have no reason to ever play any other Jund commander. Most of the old commanders are the strongest. Also, commander is a casual format. If you’re arguing about commander options like new Jodah making it so we should never reprint old Jodah, you’re missing the point that people just like old Jodah, and claiming that you only play commanders based on their strength, which is not at all what most commander players play the game for.

WOTC has been trying to bring everyone else from other formats into Commander and that has been killing the game. If I wanted to spend thousands on a deck that wins on turn 2. I would be playing Legacy.

Tbh I feel like this video is a bit overblown. Power creep is very much real, but many of the examples given just... don't matter? Like, none of the new preators actually have abilities even remotely similar to their old ones, so the sheldred comparison is moot. Same with Jodah. Sure, old Jodah is worse than new Jodah, and sure, new Jodah is pretty darn strong, but old Jodah is still kinda irrelevant in the power creep discussion. I feel like a video is more trying to go "back in my day", especially with mentioning the original elder dragons that took a ton of mana to play, but I'm sure a lot of people would agree that early magic design was... questionable (hybrid mana, phyrexian mana, even eminence, Chulane). Something like new Sheoldred is just a lot more muted than some many prior cards

I don't think Shattergang vs Arisen Nightmare is the most apt comparison. A jund commander should be compared to other Jund commander options. Korvold literally just blows everything else out of the water with Ziatora not even being a close runner up. Well there's also Windgrace and Soul of Windgrace, but those aren't fulfilling the same roles. Braids Arisen Nightmare is Phyrexian Arena on steroids that happens to be OPT sac outlet. I'm not gonna tell you that powercreep isn't a thing, but some of your comparisons are really off base here.

I think an easy comparison is Yugioh. Its always been an eteranal format and there are objectively better cards being printed in reference to their older “worse” counterparts.

I love the new Sheoldred. Glad to punish people for crazy card draw

I wish they banned all the horizon set from Modern. Power creep destroyed that format since 2019

disagree with this one - Its less power creep and more like.. arms race or better yet evolution. Whats the new thing we can do, how can we do x different than before. But thats the nature of it. You can't just reprint Jodah to applause, and where are you going to go with making a new one thats similiar to its old card. New Braids is just a down power shift to old braids, instead of 4 triggers around the table its 1 at your end step and players can opt out of it. Getting cheaper commanders is a trend in a format where players -should- be running interaction. Having a 7 cmc commander feels bad when its removed a couple times and it requires 11+ mana to try and run it back out, effectively being taxed out of playing your commander or the game.

I really don't like the new Jodah - it just feels so uninspired and lazy.

I mean sheoldred is a bad example since old sheoldred is still much better then new sheoldred, though I will agree as commanders new sheoldred is more viable, though neither are good as your commander

It's all about the $$$ now. That and the climate of society today. Everyone seems to be in a rush unfortunately. In present times our lives are ruled by the clock.

seeing how many manarocks were printed, for me, old sheoldred is still a powerful general in edh. i keep hearing/reading that she's just bad or straight up useless but... it's not true, if you want to build a deck around her, you will be able to make funny deck that can keep up around her abilities.

Idk I don’t think power creep is any sort of threat within commander. I feel like this possibly may become a problem for CEDH players but casual it really doesn’t affect them whatsoever. Plus I don’t think there was any solid example of power creep other than Sheoldred. Orvar is a very good example too of how it actually hurts the format.

I think they are eroding their long term brand value by diminishing the enjoyability of the format. Now obviously you and your friends decide on which appropriate decks to play - but when you sit down with new people at LGS this happens all the time. I have some pretty tuned decks like Orvar and Derevi, but I try not to play those at fresh tables bc I want to have fun w people that aren’t grinders, but casual players are playing w S tier cards like rhystic and remora - my fun decks can’t compete with. random folks that don’t realize what’s unfun at a casual table and then next game I’ll change decks and lock them out of the game on t3. You did this, not me.

Me 10 years ago- lets establish levels of power and ban all these $10+ cards so wizards stops printing op stuff and ruining the game Everyone else- but i like my $30 tutor Me today- same thing Everyone else- but i like my $50 tutor Me in 10 years- yea i play this new game. It plays like old mtg did before powercreep. Now mtg plays like yugioh, turn 1 or 2 wins every game Everyone else- we’ll play the new game too! Does it have any $100 tutors? Companies will buy what sells money. They meet your demand. If people would just agree to play reasonable cards, the power creep wouldn’t be an issue. You guys who won’t stop playing your $3000 decks that you just copied from tapped out are the cause of where the game is heading.

As much as I dislike new mtg design ... The design of the new Sheoldred is beautiful ... Broken and op .. But beautiful ...3 lines of text 4 mana 4/5.. Simple .. Easy to understand ... Just clean

The frustrating thing to me is wotc pushing cheap cmc commanders

The issue is that content creators always spam staples and insist that everything but staples are garbage. Nitpicking nerds game knights. This empowers spikes. Why did everyone want double masters 2022? To get their commander staples drop from 80 dollars to 78? 😂. Wotc doesn’t really help with secret lairs or other garbage tactics. Commander is never going to be a “slow and casual” format when people are just using phyrexian arena and senseis diving top to get their combos

I don’t think jodah the unifier is that good. The whole main ability is meh. I think the original jodah is better. I’m pretty sure everyone will disagree but I just think it’s meh. Shieldred the new one also isn’t THAT good. Gaining 2 life per card draw is good but not busted and that second ability a ton of other cards do. I’m not saying power creep isn’t a thing just these two creatures. They’re meh. Great in the 99. The downside to a really powerful card for at least shieldered is the mono colored. I think the goblin is better more colors one of which is green.

I mean power creep can only go so much further if we are being honest. There are so many staples that literally never will be made obsolete. Well unless they ban them and replace them with something else but that's really the only possibility for making them obsolete. Cards like fetch lands, zero cost mana rocks, one cost tutors or zero cost counter spells. They are never going to print more powerful versions of those types of cards. I'm sure we'll see new staples replacing cards that are just considered as okay though. Honestly it really doesn't bother me all that much. I think that power creep has improved the format.

Imagine something like dockside extortionist in og edh. Poster boy for absolutly insane power, but for good reason

Lmfao... just because the Elder Dragons came out in Legends doesn't mean that's when EDH started. EDH was about 2008 and shortly before Alara iirc.

Old staple -1 mana= new staple. Money is all wotc cares about

ehhhh I hard disagree. With a few exceptions, I think most of the cards printed nowadays are sidegrades rather than strict upgrades. Just look at the 40k precons. Some of those cards are just versions of what already exist and give you a slightly better effect but by paying more mana, or a worse effect for less mana. That's fine isn't it?

I just don't play with any cards newer than Eternal Masters. I'll use the cards I love

Let me just say that most of the things you saind were... Wrong. 1) Shattergang brothers was bad and will be bad 2) Braids is just a good phyrexian arena, it doesn't win you the game or make it harder for an opponents. 3) Jodah new and Jodah old are entirely different playstyles. While old one was making 6+ manaspell (that are mostly very powerful) into some 5 mana spells letting you chain extra turns, card advantage and ramp into nex extra turns, card advantage and ramp, the new one is just an good coat of arms and a bad Yidris. To build new Jodah you need PERFECT legendary spells stairway that will do things after wrath (and wraths are common to EDH so i know) 4) New Sheoldred is a 4/5 for 4 in EDH, nothing more. It's goon in Nekusar, i guess, but nothing more. Yes, there IS a power creep in MTG. No, it's not because they print interesting and strong commanders. It's because they printed interesting and bad commanders in past AND because they print strong non-commander cards lake Jeweled Lotus, Jeska's Will etc. But just remember, Sliver Queen, partner commanders, most of the combocommanders and good goodstuff commanders was printed back then, a while ago. And they STILL are good and rule the format. P.S.: Lord Xander WAS, IS and WILL BE bad commander.

People didn't play Elder Dragons because they were powerful. At the start, your commander (general) had to be an Elder Dragon. Later, players would continue to use them out of spirit. With the existence of the Invasion dragon cycle it was always clear that there were better options in their colour combinations, so an Elder Dragon has always been picked as a commander in the conscience that they are inherently bad options. Edit: I'm not saying there hasn't been power creep since those days ;)