The Worst Magic: The Gathering Format. Ever. 

I always try very hard to offer criticism that does no fall into a territory of blind, emotional complaining. I try to support my claims with evidence, so that even if you disagree you can still see where I am coming from. I also hate more than anything the idea of "yucking someone's yum" and try only to make videos like this when they are on an extremely important issue, and not just some personal distaste of mine. I hope very much I succeeded in those goals here.

"Your life total is a resource, use it as such" Monored: Yes, use it.

There are many ways to play magic the gathering, but there is only one way to say "Many Magic the Gathering players"

How to play duo standard. 1) Buy the same deck twice 2) Buy the same deck twice 3) ???? 4) Wizards profits.

Galaxy Brain: wizards purposefully chose an unbalanced luck-based format so that the streamers could compete with the pros.

In my experience, the best format is, always has been, and always will be "whatever format your friends are playing".

Well Prof, it has been said that “Magic the Gathering is the best game made by the worst company”

word of advise Wizard: If "gaming" history has taught us anything, do not try to mimic Blizzard. So many company tries to mimic WOW and they all fail. What you need to do is to be your own beast and stay true to yourself. Only that will give you a fight chance.

When they first announced that the format was gonna be duo standard someone (I think SaffronOlive) on Twitter described it as "A solution to a problem that was already solved". Reflecting on that post invitational that rings very true lmao

Competing in the Mythic Invitational was one of the highlights of my life really, the atmosphere was incredible and there was a real sense of Magic being propelled to the forefront, we had the strongest presence at PAX & the two worlds of pro & community colliding and hanging out was such a joy. I think the format is terrible, and it's unlikely we'll see it again in my opinion, but I think WOTC didn't help themselves with the choices of feature matches at times. There were unique decks there, but often the feature match would be yet another Esper/Red v Esper/Red mirror. A prime example of this is I believe Sjow v Savjz was featured over myself & Reid Duke, so viewers got another Esper mirror instead of Grixis Midrange v Golgari Explore. I think Duo Standard could probably put forth an entertaining tournament to watch, but no action was taken to not feature the same problematic matchups coverage wise again and again. Or you know tournaments could just use bo3 with sideboards haha.

You nailed it with the whole “being ashamed of magic” thing. The game has always been great and they should show confidence in it

Mtg is already prohibitively expensive for most formats, the idea of needing two decks is ridiculous.

I thought the worst Format was Banding... *Whisper, Whisper.* Wait, Banding wasn't a Format? It was a Mechanic? How does Banding work again...?

Introducing Duo Baseball! Each MLB team must now sign on TWO complete rosters of multimillion-dollar-contract players and coaches. In the first three innings you field one roster, in the second three you field the second, and if you make it to the last three innings you get to choose which roster to play!

This reminds me of a concept I came up with at my last gaming night. Where say you have four players, and each one of them brings anywhere between 2-5 decks with them, depending on how long you want this to go. Basically as soon as you go down to zero and are out, you pull out your next deck and when your turn comes around again you play that instead of just being out. I think it would be an interesting mix up of the game. Obviously you'd have to have mostly different decks. And if you don't want the game to go on forever you'd keep it to 2-3 decks per person, but it could be fun.

1:00 "The best format in Magic is the one you enjoy the most" Woah....

Hearthstone is making format with sideboards. while MTG is trying to make one without? MFW copying goes all the way to swapping properties.

My questions for Wizards is this. Were the bizarre interactions with sideboards brought on by use the use of Mastermind's Acquisition, for example grabbing Clear the Mind to prevent decking in the Esper Mirror, really less convoluted and difficult to explain than sideboarding? The coverage team had to discuss these weird adaptations and interactions many, many times. They also had to explain the intricacies of how matchups worked in duo standard...etc. This is not even taking into account the insane consistency with which Esper, Red aggro and White aggro appeared on-screen. This was a missed opportunity for what marketing professionals refer to as "training your customer". Customers may not see the value proposition of your product because they do not understand it, not because it is inferior to another offering. If the coverage team had been able to use the time and energy they expended to explain the weird corner cases of this untested format to explain sideboarding, the huge audience they were essentially guaranteed by the event hype could have been shown why sideboarding is great and made the concept less daunting to new players. Imagine setting up a between-game look at each player sideboarding. Rather than the simultaneous sideboarding we get in standard arena, we could have set it up so that each player sideboards individually on camera. Great magic minds like Paul Cheon could then explain to the audience why the player currently sideboarding is taking out what they are taking out and why they are bringing in what they are bringing in. Best of 3 standard occasionally has convoluted transformational sideboard plans, but for the most part it boils down to easy-to-understand stuff like "Shock is coming out against this control opponent because they don't have creatures to kill. The player is bringing in Duress because it is more effective against decks that don't play creatures." Boom. It's really that simple. Rather than defaulting to best of 1 because it's easier to understand, take these opportunities to introduce players to the sideboarding concept. I came back to Magic after a long absence after Arena came out, and I was never more than a kitchen table player before that. I started out jamming mono red in Bo1 because sideboarding scared me. When I finally dipped my toes in, copying the mono black t2 zombie list that was running around at the time, I used a sideboard guide for training wheels. I was delighted to find that post-board I could actually put up a fight against Grixis Midrange, a fairly hopeless game 1 matchup. I never looked back, and I suspect that many Arena players who haven't yet taken the plunge yet wouldn't look back either. Prof said it best. Don't dilute your product, take advantage of possible teaching moments to demonstrate why its great. People are migrating to magic from other games for a reason, let's stay true to that reason, at least in professional, tournament level magic.

Prof, 'smörgåsborg' directly translates to 'sandwich fortress'. I was about to critique you on your Swedish, but I think you just felt that a sandwich table (smörgåsbord) was too small to fit all formats. I applaud your inventive use of the Swedish language!

I would still love to see that "best magic format" video going over the uniqueness and appeal of every format.

WotC, if you ever force your players to play dual standard in magic the gathering paper tournament, a lot of your players will quit this game.

Yeah... this format would work fine for some other card games, but for MTG, where decks are often built hyper specific, this becomes kind of chaotic... I feel sorry for players in this tourney.

“Do you hope we get another invitational next year?” Such an innocent question at the time but hearing that at the end kinda stung

One of the reasons of heartstone's long term decline is the amount of rng. I can't believe they would want to imitate that especially now woth the success of arena.

"The one you enjoy the most" Thank you, professor

Also getting a “video is unavailable” error

You are quite engaging, feels like you are in the same room. Subscribed.

Duo could be an interesting draft format, draft 5 packs and build 2 decks

The best format in Magic is opening booster packs.

Teferi and red agro and white agro decks took down the video

To be honest, I'm bad at this game as is, my co worker beats me constantly. Duo Standard wouldn't help me "get good" lol

I had read about this on reddit and my boyfriend, who played MTG in the past, tried to explain to me (new player) why this was such a problem, but I couldn't understand very well, having never played in a tournament. But you explained it very well, thank you, Professor!

Prof, i got to hand it to you for putting my thoughts and feelings so eloquently into words. While I enjoyed the invitational, I kept getting the feeling I was watching 'magic lite'. I don't want magic lite, I want magic

"When looking at different formats, we're trying to balance several levers." Because clearly they don't already have a format that does that. Nope, none at all, they needed a new one. Regular old Magic in *no way* fills that criteria. /sarc

I am a die hard commander player. I play nothing else. To anyone who plays a different format: Your format is amazing! It is as cool as you are!

I like the idea of invitational tournaments having weird one off formats, especially if the invitees are not there based on pure competitive merit. My only issue with it was putting such a huge money prize on the line for pure spectacle. Save that for true competitive events in the traditional tournament formats, so we can believe the winners earned the prize (mostly) by skill and dedication.

From the thumbnail i thought this would be about oathbreaker... i was kinda confused tbh

Here here, Prof! Edit: As a Commander player primarily, this was a great event! But. It totally threw me off when they switched decks mid game. For them to not have a sideboard I think further cements unintentionally the idea that one specific deck is the only way to win. Side boarding shows new players that even when I had a disadvantage, there is a way to come back with the deck that you were already playing and even come back to win. Now I think some people will just look at these decks and think that there is only one deck to build to win

Cube is one of my favorite formats. I love it that I can play my favorite cards that are not played anywhere else. Also I am able to play draft matter cards that I own and love. Another cool thing is I can had custom cards to my cube.. I also sometimes add planechase making it more chaotic than a normal draft but at a lower power level

...I'd love to see a video introduction to different formats. I've only ever done standard and a bit of commander. Keep up the good work™.

Pauper pro tour (I’m not calling it a mythic championship, that’s dumb) please

trashing on hearthstone midrole ad for new hearthstone set

this guy is such a nerd for magic lol, i love it. You can hear the enthusiasm in his voice. Subbed.

That's something strange and paradoxical. While the professor is burning down the Wizards for what he thinks is their mistakes all I can see is how this man loves Magic and cares for it!

I'd like to note that the problem wasn't using an all new format; the Magic Invitationals were similarly centered around experimental formats. Duo Standard, however was not thought through so well. Asking for two separate standard decks was too much.

We need some kind of lifegain stax deck to abuse this time out rule. So instead of reducing the life of your opponent to 0, you focus on gaining life and prolonging the game.

awesome video! i have been waiting for you or command zone to make this! fyi you have a typo in the description. "what does magic doe better than hearthstone"

I'm most intrigued by the concept of the pros and cons of having 2 different decks. I used to play the Star Wars CCG when I was a kid, in which you ALWAYS had two decks, dark side and light side, and each game would pit two decks of opposing sides against each other. This isn't an exact 1:1 correlation, obviously, since that game was designed with this 'format' baked into the game design itself instead of tacked on a quarter-century in, but I'd be interested in seeing what a sort of 'fixed' duo standard might look like.

I can't watch this because it's "Video Unavailable" but I can imagine it's great and talks about my outstanding Rock, Paper, Scissors performance at the mythic invitational and how it was at least best of three 🤔 I'll shut up, Just Take My Like!

Why make such a ridiculous format!? The traditional standard has always been a strong and fun format as well as being the backbone of the game.

just discovered this channel. Great content, congrats. Subscribed

I've been rewatching your old videos recently (mainly your podcasts while playing EDH on Moto) and youtube recommended this one. I assumed it was about Alchemy before looking at the release date

I recommend commander for the next mythic championship personally... although it would be the longest event ever.

I disagree with you, professor! The viewership numbers WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE EXACT SAME if they played a more traditional best of three standard format. The numbers WOULD HAVE BEEN HIGHER. I tuned out the moment LSV was eliminated by a series of "coin flips". I realized "what's the point?" of watching if the tournament was not going to showcase the best Magic had to offer and, therefore, decided not to watch. I am sure other people did the same.

Hey Professor! Great fan here! Wanted to know, I often saw a prop of the infamous Sensei's Divining Top on your shelf and have been looking for one for months! Where did you find that piece of collection? Love it ! Thanks heaps!

Everytime he says, "many Magic the Gathering Players," it sounds prerecorded

I think it would be fun and amazing if they did a Commander invitational Pro tour-

All this is due to the fact WOTC took the decision not to get sideboarding programmed into Arena early in it's inception.

My first competitive rel event the life total tiebreaker rule actually came up. It was a tournament grinder the night before GP Ottawa, single elimination khans sealed. Last round they ran out of time and were closing the venue. I remember watching one table in the process of sideboarding for game 3. A player sided into as many duo lands as possible, and mulled to 3 cards before playing a dismal backwater, gaining one life, and winning the series.

As a Judge on the topic of timed single/double elimination matches: It's not as uncommon as you might think, I've had to enforce this rule during 2018 and 2017. The Nationals Last Chance Qualifier and Trials were being held in this mode (although one of them changed for 2018, iirc). We announced the "Sudden Death" rule, as we called it, during each flight, and players always had some funny reactions to it.

The only real option for a BO1 Tournament ist Round Robin. And thats only possible for a small group of players.

What do you mean KBPTL isn't the best format in Magic?

I wouldn't mind if you did more break downs on other formats. Maybe my group would like to try Duo Standard, but I think will keep our Triple Modern Singleton, thank you very much.

Professor do you mind making a video with a short overview of all MTG formats and their main rules? I think new players could use a video like that. A video with overview looking into different formats based on cost for playing, difficulty and level of complexity and most of all rotating vs non-rotating formats.

It seems like it’s akin to how Yu-Gi-Oh! handles Duel Links at its events. It sounds nearly identical

All i want to watch is a faithful recreation of paper magic on arena. Bo3 sideboarding it all goes together to make the game great. Chess clocks would work too! If time constraints are and issue i would be willing to sacrifice earlier rounds to bo1 if it meant when we got to the later matches it became a true display of the understanding of mtg. Maybe that would cause deckbuilding issues but im certain its better than duo standard.

I like the idea of using different Decks in one round. It makes it more diverse. When i Look at the bracket now, its like Mono-red Aggro vs. Monored Aggro all over.

As a yugioh player new to magic I found your channel and have been enjoying it,and the new time rule sounds like what yugioh implemented half a year ago where higher life wins at time.

First time I ever heard the word "Smorgasborg". Is that an all-you-can-eat Startrek Borg restaurant?

its like EA designed the format... burn it with fire. right now.

Agreed. Also, Wizards please show Pauper more love . I really like the idea of Wizards producing a pauper deck like you said in other video

“No sideboarding” Y I K E S

Thank god, I thought you were going to say Brawl.

Hello Prof., I was an old magic grinder back in the day and I just found your channel a couple months ago when you put up an analysis video about Legends of Runeterra. Runeterra is my go-to game atm but if I were ever to come back to magic fulltime I would hope that the major tournaments are best of 3 Swiss with sideboard. I personally think they came up with this format to present familiarity with how Hearthstone does tournaments which is fine for a game that relies on RNG and has limited player interaction. It just doesn't translate well to a game as nuanced as MtG.

Duo standard sounds awesome! It would be great to break out another deck at FNM but because it's a "tournament" I gotta sit and play the same one for four hours. My decks are usually budget price range but it would be really unfair to players with less money though. When I sit down across a 16 year old kid I always think about how cool it would be if wizards gave out high powered promos to kids that get good grades. The video store where I grew up would give you a free rental for every A on your report card, Was nice.

Stopped playing Heartstone years ago because it's bad development. Recently started playing Magic and love the complexity and the ability to play in real life. The only thing which could make me stop playing Magic now I think is to turn in to Heartstone

Mine says unavailable as well

skipped out on this event but i can probably guess how it went. most people played mono red no brain aggro and either drew a good starting hand or just lost. sounds very interesting and fun to watch.

That Weebwalker pack on the shelf! i need it!

totally agree prof. the tour was a pure coinflip

I really thought this was gonna be about brawl

How he mentioned every Player by name

I feel like Duos standard would work, very well actually as a sealed or draft event with 40 card decks.

A great review of a shitty format. Thanks prof!

For those having issues seeing this, use a vpn. It worked for me

Would a Warmachine style two list format work? Bring two decks. You and your opponent can read each others lists, and choose the deck you want to play in secret.

Life Totals were used for the first year of the Pro Tour. It was later removed.

I just want the MTGO's timer implemented in Arena. I understand that MTGO's timer isn't as dynamic as the current one, and the game would be harder to get into, having a slow opponent may bore you out of it. But at least I would like it to be the timer in Traditional (best of three), so that the noobies can get hooked into the game, but the current paper and mtgo players can have a format where you can take your time in a convoluted and difficult decision. The one we have at the moment just makes it so I can't think straight while it is ticking down. Also I think that Swiss with top8 Best-of-three with mtgo's timer (and with sideboard, of course) would be the right format to have an event on Arena, so that we can watch high skill and thoughtful gameplay.

How bout... Standard. Bo3. Like Mister Garfield intended. Yeesh... had to go play PTCGO for a week it was so bad. :v ... 10/10, would watch and gripe along with again. Cathartic af. Thanks. :3

Duo standard could work but it needs a few changes. No more then four copies of a single card between both decks. The player going second on first turn may scry one before play begins. On subsequent rounds both players may choose which of their decks to play. There exists a single ten card sidebar from which both decks may trade cards, and yes this means a card may start in one deck and endup in another. Edit: on round two and three the last rounds winner must declare if they are switching decks or not before the loosing player chooses to change.

When I first learned how to play magic, my brothers and I used a format they called "Lunchroom Rules" 40 card deck, no sideboard, and on your first turn you play all the lands in your hand, but you only get 1 land drop after your first turn. Games were really fast, and I got to learn how to play fairly quickly while having a lot of fun. We haven't played like that in years, but I think a fast format similar to that would be a fun experiment.

0:35 He did it! He said the thing!

"If you are having fun, you are doing it right" XD

When I heard "duo standard" I thought you were talking about extended after Zendikar came out.

Standard two headed giant sounds awesome though..

I couldn't get through the second's day broadcast. It only made my dislike for esper control grow more.

"Video unavailable"

Hello Professor! Just got into playing mtg,i just wanna ask is there a format where you cant use expensive cards?

Next mythic championship will be 4 player triple elimination brawl

The fact that I can play league of legends without my computer overheating and not MTGA is repugnant. A card game should not take more resources than a MOBA.