Regulars will know I have a habit of complaining about the state of Magic, particularly in terms of the direction it's headed. The art's getting worse, the story's getting worse, the card stock is getting worse, the strategies being supported are getting worse, yadda yadda yadda... is there no stone left unturned? What if, in an ironic twist of fate... even being worse is getting worse?
This isn't some roundabout, double-negative way for me to say things are actually getting better (they're not.) What I mean to say is that the bad cards are worse than they used to be... in that they're better. They're not as good at being 'bad' cards, so they're... um... does your head hurt yet?
What I'm saying is that, generally speaking, the highs aren't as high and the lows aren't as low anymore. As the game's designers get better at identifying problem cards before they're released into the wild... well, it would appear they're also better at cutting down on the truly awful cards while they're at it. Impetuous kids might typify early Magic as being defined by huge gulfs in card strengths, with many falling into either the camp of brokenly overpowered or irredeemably weak. And, uh... they'd be right. Ancestral Recall and Healing Salve are simply not made equal. So as everyone involved gets a better understanding of what's good and what isn't, the designers have found the margin of balance where it's better for most cards to fall.
And that's a good thing, isn't it? I'd be inclined to say yes, absolutely. But here's the thing: there are always cards that slip through the cracks. This is to be expected; the designers are only human. But then again I question the accidental nature of some of these 'oversights' - nothing gets packs selling quite like a Standard-legal card with a triple-digit price tag, eh? You're not going to tell me Jace, the Mind Sculptor took the design team by surprise. He only got banned from Standard when his omnipresence in competitive play and overbearing price tag started to impact tournament attendance.
Well, it's happened once again with the new Oko, Thief of Crowns. After being banned in a staggering four different formats, this problem card has finally been put down. Again, I question whether this showing took R&D by surprise (wow, the three-mana planeswalker with removal on a plus was overpowered? Who could have guessed?) but the point I'm getting at is that unbalanced, overpowered cards still happen. And, cynically speaking, why shouldn't they? They sell boxes.
But here's the thing: I don't really feel like the converse is true. We still get the pushed cards every set or so, but the absolutely worthless dumpster divers? Not so much! I mean, yes, there's tons and tons of junk every set - far more filler than there was a decade ago, with plenty of bland Limited chaff filling out the ranks of each pack you buy. It annoys me, however, that there don't really seem to be cards that go out of their way to be remarkably bad. It's been many years since we've seen the kind of so-bad-it-hurts stuff along the lines of Aven Trooper, Warping Wurm or Crawling Filth.
Consider the latest set, now that it's all spoiled one place or another: what's the worst of the worst in Theros Beyond Death? Stuff like Triton Waverider? Final Flare? Maybe Chain to Memory? Well, none of those are especially awful, to be entirely honest. And I know what you're thinking: wouldn't you rather have better cards available than worse ones? That doesn't really matter, though. Yes, they aren't awful, but you aren't going to tell me you'd be any more likely to make serious, competitive use of a Nyborn Brute than a Viashino Skeleton.
I see you all murmuring amongst yourselves with worried expressions and cautiously hauling out the straitjacket, certain that I've finally snapped. I'll admit, this is an especially minor gripe. The lessening of one-star crapmeisters is by no means a serious blow to the game. But hear me out: if you're designing a cube for backdraft (which yes, I am) don't you want the most excitingly awful stuff to work with? Not just any old vanilla 2/2 for 3 mana will suffice. I want more cards where you have a better chance of winning if you don't play them.
Again, this is a minor gripe, but don't you think these kinds of cards add interest to the game? Bad cards have a shelf life of that drafting season, when they serve as Limited filler then are forever forgotten. Spectacularly bad cards, meanwhile, become the stuff of legend - who hasn't laughed at the mere thought of trying to play Wood Elemental? Who hasn't tinkered with a build using Sorrow's Path, the card with a drawback so unimaginably steep that is is of real strategic value to donate it to your opponent? These cards are opaque, mystifying... and ultimately treasured, in a way. Dazzling Ramparts is bad but just kind of boring.
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