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What Makes a Good Constructed Format - Massdrop East/West Article #31

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Hey everybody,
It’s no secret that Standard has been through some rough waters recently. There have been three separate ban announcements, as many as there had been in the last 10 years combined. However, now that the dust has cleared and the worst offenders are banished, it’s starting to seem that the new Standard format is actually really great. This led me to think about what I enjoy in a Constructed format, and I figured I’d share some of those thoughts with everyone.

Playskill Matters One of the feelings I like best in competitive Magic is winning a game, and knowing that it’s because I played better than my opponent. For me to feel this way as often as possible, playskill needs to be a big factor in who wins the games. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather play Magic than chess and I prefer that variance be present in Magic (a necessary price to pay for the dynamics of hidden information), but I like it when I feel that I have agency over the game, and that we aren’t simply revealing the top fifteen cards of our deck and deciding who wins. In the current Standard, there are a number of decks that have very difficult decisions to make, many with no default answer. For example, understanding when to draw cards with Cryptbreaker versus dealing damage by attacking is a very subtle and important skill while playing Zombies. Negate has become a popular spell to play even in tap-out decks with lots of Sorceries, such as Temur Energy, and it is much harder to know when to hold mana up for Negate when you aren’t playing with Torrential Gearhulk. Sequencing your spells and sideboarding in the Monored deck are both surprisingly difficult. For more examples of how playskill matters in this format, you need only watch Brad Nelson’s games on his way to the trophy at GP Denver.
I do think that it is important to draw a distinction between “impactful decisions” and “more decisions”. I don’t think that having more decisions necessarily means that playskill matters more. When Kaladesh first became legal in Standard, I thought Smuggler’s Copter was a great card to have in Standard. There were so many fascinating decisions to make with the card. You had to discard the right cards, and you could decline to crew and attack with the Copter if you wanted to try and protect it from removal or put pressure on your opponent’s mana. It seemed to me that it provided so many opportunities to outplay the opponent. In reality, almost none of those decisions ever mattered. Smuggler’s Copter was so overpowered you would win a huge percentage of games you had it in play even if you weren’t making optimal decisions. The decisions I had fun trying to make were simply not impactful, and when I realized that they became a lot less fun.

Deck Diversity Even though playskill mattering is one of the most important features of a good Constructed format, I do not believe that it is sufficient. The two-deck format of Mardu Vehicles and 4c Saheeli was widely regarded as one of the most skill-testing formats. Unfortunately, if you weren’t playing one of those two decks, it probably didn’t matter how much better you were than your opponent because nothing else came remotely close to being able to compete. The Caw-Blade period was the same way. When everyone has to play the same thing and the same thing happens every game, the format gets stale. Fast. One of the reasons I love Standard so much is that it doesn’t stay the same. I get to have new experiences and play different decks every rotation. When Standard breaks that promise and you have to experience the same thing for months, everyone who likes playing for that reason suffers.
Right now, it looks like Standard has a huge variety of decks to play. There are all sorts of very different strategies that are viable in Standard. Aggressive decks, control decks, combo decks, midrange decks, all have had decent representation in tournaments of late. Modern has always been known for its diversity of decks, and despite the best efforts of the Death’s Shadow players, no single strategy has emerged dominant. Both of these formats are currently regarded as being in a great place right now.

Attackable I think it is very important for a metagame to be attackable. There need to be tools available to fight against each strategy. The best decks must be able to be kept in check. Put another way, I believe that if someone could perfectly predict the metagame of the next tournament, that player should have a massive advantage over the rest of the players. This is not always the case. When there are only a few top decks and they are too good, everybody knows approximately what the metagame will be and there could be no way to effectively fight the best decks. For example, this happened in the 4c Saheeli/Mardu Vehicles metagame. Each of those decks kept in check the decks that would have preyed on the other. Alternatively, sometimes a metagame can be too diverse! Sometimes there are not enough strong cards that attack multiple strategies. I have felt that this has been a problem with Modern in the past. Matchups were too lopsided and the metagame was too diverse, so even with perfect metagame knowledge you still could not pick a deck that would do much better than a random good deck. Now I believe the number of “good decks” has shrunk and the metagame has collapsed enough that this hasn’t felt like as much of an issue as in the past.
One way to keep a format attackable is to print good sideboard cards. Wizards has usually tried to make sure that there are safety valves and good sideboard options. For example, Theros had color-hoser cards to combat the Devotion mechanic. They experimented a bit with reducing the power level of those safety valves with graveyard-hate after Eldritch Moon, and artifact-hate after Kaladesh. Those Standard formats were pretty much hated, and I think one of the biggest reasons was the inability to target and attack the best strategies. Right now Standard has the defeat cycle, as well as excellent graveyard hate in Scavenger Grounds, as well as efficient sweepers, cheap damage-based removal, and a variety of midrange haymakers that all make excellent sideboard cards. Moreover, even the best, most powerful threats out of each deck have answers. Hazoret, while resilient, can still be killed by a variety of removal spells, such as Grasp of Darkness or Stasis Snare. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar has always been an incredibly powerful threat, but his stock is at an all-time low from facing down threats like Ahn-Crop Crasher and Relentless Dead that make it hard to protect him. Skysovereign is typically chosen as a powerful finisher, but it can still be easily answered by Abrade. The lesson here is that if you want to make your deck good against Temur Energy, you can! If you want to make it good against Monored, or Zombies, or Gift of the God Pharaoh, or any of the popular decks, you easily can. It’s more difficult to make your deck good against multiple decks at once, but that’s the puzzle that I find so fun to solve!

Conclusion For me, it is really important that how I play a game affects the outcome, that my experiences stay fresh and new, and that it’s always possible to target the metagame. I wrote this article purely from my own perspective, but I think that it generally holds true. I think the average Magic player feels very similarly to the way I do about what makes a format fun. Luckily I think Constructed Magic is extremely fun right now, and I think that Wizards has done a great job rejuvenating Standard specifically by printing cards that foster these attributes. If any of you have other thoughts about what makes Constructed fun, feel free to leave them in the comments and we can talk about it!
-Ben Weitz
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We had an exciting reveal of two Amonkhet masterpieces , check out the video here: https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1482/scouting-report-massdrop-east-west-on-2-amonkhet-masterpieces
If you are curious about our team, check out our intro: https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1117/announcing-team-massdrop-east-west or, read our previous weekly articles:
1. How to Prepare for an MtG Pro Tour by Ben Weitz (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1158/how-to-prepare-for-an-mt-g-pro-tour)
2. Approaching New Magic Drafts by Ari Lax (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1193/approaching-new-magic-drafts)
3. Constructed Testing for Pro Tour Aether Revolt by Jarvis Yu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1213/recap-of-constructed-testing-for-massdrop-east-west-for-pro-tour-aether-revolt)
4. Breaking into Eternal Formats - Case Study: GP Louisville by Jon Stern (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1240/breaking-into-eternal-formats-case-study-gp-louisville-massdrop-east-west-article-4)
5. In Good Company - Top 8 at GP Vancouver by Eric Severson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1285/in-good-company-top-8-at-gp-vancouver)
6. Adapting to Full Block Kaladesh Limited by Jiachen Tao (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1323/adapting-to-full-block-kaladesh-limited-massdrop-east-west-article-6)
7. Sorry My Felidar Guardian Ate My Homework by Mark Jacobson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1364/sorry-my-felidar-guardian-ate-my-homework-massdrop-east-west-article-7)
8. Taking a Mardu Vacation - Top 8 in New Jersey and Heading to an Eternal Extravaganza by Jarvis Yu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1401/taking-a-mardu-vacation-top-8-in-new-jersey-and-heading-to-an-eternal-extravaganza-massdrop-east-wes)
9. A Guide to the Grind by Pascal Maynard (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1448/a-guide-to-the-grind-massdrop-east-west-article-9)
10. Asking Aggro-vating Questions by Timothy Wu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1493/asking-aggro-vating-questions-massdrop-east-west-article-10)
11. The Meat and Potatoes of Jund by Paul Dean (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1534/the-meat-and-potatoes-of-jund)
12. Hidden Values in Magic: The Gathering for Kids and Parents by Scott Lipp (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1572/hidden-values-in-magic-the-gathering-for-kids-and-parents-massdrop-east-west-article-12)
13. The Importance of Preparation in Competitive Magic: The Gathering by Ricky Chin (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1606/the-importance-of-preparation-in-competitive-magic-the-gathering-massdrop-east-west-article-13)
14. How to Find Amonkhet's Star Players by Ari Lax (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1643/how-to-find-amonkhets-star-players-massdrop-east-west-article-14)
15. Top is No Longer on Top by Jarvis Yu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1692/top-is-no-longer-on-top-massdrop-east-west-article-15)
16. Casual Multiplayer Fun by JC Tao (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1731/casual-multiplayer-fun-bang-magic)
17. Monoblack Zombies at Pro Tour Amonkhet by Eric Severson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1764/monoblack-zombies-at-pro-tour-amonkhet)
18. To Puzzle or to Puzzleknot by Paul Dean (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1793/to-puzzle-or-to-puzzleknot)
19. The Evolution of Vehicle Aggro Decks by Ricky Chin (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1822/the-evolution-of-vehicle-aggro-decks-massdrop-east-west-article-19)
20. Putting down My beloved Bant Eldrazi by Ben Weitz (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1863/putting-down-my-beloved-bant-eldrazi-massdrop-east-west-article-20)
21. Breaching into Grand Prix: Las Vegas by Scott Lipp (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1895/breaching-into-grand-prix)
22. Tim’s Top Ten Tips for Team Trips by Timothy Wu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1934/tims-top-ten-tips-for-team-trios-massdrop-east-west-article-22)
23. Breaking Through to the Next Level by Jon Stern (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/1983/breaking-through-to-the-next-level-massdrop-east-west-article-23)
24. Teaching New Dogs New Tricks by Mark Jacobson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2005/teaching-new-dogs-new-tricks-massdrop-east-west-article-24)
25. The Bug Lords of Amonkhet by Ari Lax (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2033/the-bug-lords-of-amonkhet-massdrop-east-west-article-25)
26. Fervently in Love with Affinity by Ricky Chin (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2067/fervently-in-love-with-affinity-massdrop-east-west-article-26)
27. Let's Go Camping by Timothy Wu (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2092/lets-go-camping-massdrop-east-west-article-27)
28. Zombie Strategy Guide by Jon Stern (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2126/zombies-strategy-guide-massdrop-east-west-article-28)
29. The Many Flavors of Snake by Eric Severson (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2163/the-many-flavors-of-snake-bg-constrictor-decks-in-current-standard-massdrop-east-west-article-29)
30. Lessons from a Failed Experiment – Minneapolis GW Ramp by Paul Dean (https://www.massdrop.com/talk/2179/lessons-from-a-failed-experiment-minneapolis-gw-ramp)
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