Extended Format Being Retired
- Thread starter Spiderman
- Start date
Killer Joe
New member
Yeah, Modern Magic has pretty made extended not as sexy as it use to be.
I have yet to play the Modern Magic format, I'll have to look it up, it looks fun.
I have yet to play the Modern Magic format, I'll have to look it up, it looks fun.
Shabbaman
insert avatar here
No. I haven't played Extended after Vampiric Tutor left the format. I did play Legacy for a while, but the ever-increasing price of cardboard turned me off. I owned a boatload of cards, playsets of several duals and fetches, Force of Will, Survival of the Fittest and whatnot before the price skyrocketed. What I didn't have was newer stuff like Thoughtseize or Vengevine, nor the motivation to pay serious money for those cards. For instance, although I had all other cards besides Thoughtsize for a B/U Reanimator deck (hot stuff before Mystical Tutor got banned), I own only a single Underground Sea. Apparently even moxen are cheaper than those nowadays (slightly exaggerated). As it turns out, I'm only playing Commander anyway, so I sold the most expensive non-land cards.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Well, I opined on Modern not that long ago. I think later in that thread I even basically said Modern, the format in which Sensei's Divining Top is banned, and Extended seemed sort of in conflict or that one might replace the other (and it was a sentiment I'd probably seen elsewhere long before I voiced it myself). Well, it's finally happened. Really, Extended isn't that interesting anymore and probably deserves to be replaced by Modern, even if Modern is the format where Hypergenesis is too scary to be allowed. So yeah, it's finally happened.
No one cares about Extended anymore, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, Extended was at one time, in one sense, the most influential format in the game. Of course it didn't have more tournaments than Standard, because that never happens. But almost everyone was paying attention to Extended deckbuilding. Extended was where the innovation happened. It was also full of broken brokenness that was totally broken. This was a format where they held off on banning cards like Necropotence and Tinker for so long that people thought it was crazy, and maybe it was. I suppose it's correct to say that Modern killed Extended. But the Extended that people once actually cared about began dying all on its own, long before Modern was created. And I'm not quite sure why. Were mere format rotations enough, or was there more to it?
Whatever the case, this step is a consolidation, sort of, and is probably a good thing for the game. Like they say, too many formats can fracture the player base. The dozen or so Extended players that remain will surely be able to find a new home in some other format. Perhaps they'd like a format where Punishing Fire is banned, just in case some mean player recurs it and uses the same spell more than once. I mean, how cheap is that?
No one cares about Extended anymore, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, Extended was at one time, in one sense, the most influential format in the game. Of course it didn't have more tournaments than Standard, because that never happens. But almost everyone was paying attention to Extended deckbuilding. Extended was where the innovation happened. It was also full of broken brokenness that was totally broken. This was a format where they held off on banning cards like Necropotence and Tinker for so long that people thought it was crazy, and maybe it was. I suppose it's correct to say that Modern killed Extended. But the Extended that people once actually cared about began dying all on its own, long before Modern was created. And I'm not quite sure why. Were mere format rotations enough, or was there more to it?
Whatever the case, this step is a consolidation, sort of, and is probably a good thing for the game. Like they say, too many formats can fracture the player base. The dozen or so Extended players that remain will surely be able to find a new home in some other format. Perhaps they'd like a format where Punishing Fire is banned, just in case some mean player recurs it and uses the same spell more than once. I mean, how cheap is that?
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Modern already has a much bigger cardpool than Extended. Modern goes back to Eighth Edition. Extended only goes back to Zendikar, which seems crazy, because Zendikar seems so recent, but time is weird like that. My guess is that players either want to keep playing with their cards, which Modern allows, or they want set rotations and a focus on the latest releases, which Standard emphasizes. The number of players that don't want to have their cardpool go back as far as Eighth Edition and also have some reason to be interested in a format that allows the latest four blocks instead of just the latest two (Standard) is no longer enough to save the format, apparently.
Also, your criticisms of Legacy are accurate and valid. I mean, it's still my format of choice, but I think most of us that got into Legacy did so because we thought of Vintage as inaccessible. As time goes on, the gap in accessibility between the two formats, for most players, becomes smaller relative to just how inaccessible they are. Legacy probably won't swallow up Vintage like Modern has swallowed up Extended, as Wizards of the Coast will want there to be some official format where their oldest, most broken cards can still be played. And anyway, players that want a different experience from the regular set rotations of Standard now have the choice between "Eternal" formats that require inordinate investments for slips of cardboard and a format where Dark Depths is apparently too degenerate to be allowed. Or I guess they could just avoid all that nonsense and play Commander. It's a weird, multifaceted problem, but I'm not offering any solutions: I'm just making fun of Modern!
Also, your criticisms of Legacy are accurate and valid. I mean, it's still my format of choice, but I think most of us that got into Legacy did so because we thought of Vintage as inaccessible. As time goes on, the gap in accessibility between the two formats, for most players, becomes smaller relative to just how inaccessible they are. Legacy probably won't swallow up Vintage like Modern has swallowed up Extended, as Wizards of the Coast will want there to be some official format where their oldest, most broken cards can still be played. And anyway, players that want a different experience from the regular set rotations of Standard now have the choice between "Eternal" formats that require inordinate investments for slips of cardboard and a format where Dark Depths is apparently too degenerate to be allowed. Or I guess they could just avoid all that nonsense and play Commander. It's a weird, multifaceted problem, but I'm not offering any solutions: I'm just making fun of Modern!
Mooseman
Isengar Tussle
The Anti-Modern format.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
That was the alternative name for Type 1 before it became "Vintage." Of course, it wouldn't be too much of a cause for confusion because everyone has forgotten about that by now.
It's easy to assume that the cards banned in Legacy would probably also be banned in a hypothetical anti-Modern format, but just doing that wouldn't really be enough. Legacy with only the cardpool predating Eighth Edition would still be at a much higher power level than Modern. Extensive bans would be in order. I injured my leg a couple of days ago. If I get sick of playing video games and procrastinating on writing, I might make up a fake banned list to mirror the Modern banned list.
Oversoul
The Tentacled One
I get to make fun of Modern and make a serious point at the same time. Yay!
No, seriously, I think this is relevant because most players here, much like myself, are way more used to cards from the first ten years of the game (the pre-Modern releases) than they are used to the new stuff. That doesn't preclude an interest in Modern. Anyway...
Survival of the Fittest is definitely setting the bar too high, even without Vengevine and Necrotic Ooze. I mentioned Punishing Fire. For Modern, the DCI used bans to hate combo out of the metagame and then proceeded to become shocked when Zoo decks overran the world championships...
So it looks like Cursed Scroll would have to go. Yes, Cursed Scroll. Don't laugh. It was banned in Rath Block Constructed.Erik Lauer said: