Hoo boy. Magic is currently sitting at over 16 000 unique cards, and let me tell you... lately it really shows. How's that, you ask? Just look at the newest set, Kaladesh, and tell me they aren't scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel with card names nowadays. Effective, punchy, single-word names are in short supply after twenty-three years of printings, and we're left with entire sentences, the most tenuous synonyms left for "fiery" and made-up fantasy words that would make even George Lucas wince. Every set has had its weak names, all the way back to Alpha with Bad Moon and Dingus Egg. Except nowadays... it feels like every card has its weak names.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Retard 2: Zendikar
So it seems as if this blog is coming out of a retirement of sorts - let's call it a sabbatical. Well, in order to commemorate it in some marginal way, I think this calls for a moment of reflection. The first post here was to do with Zendikar block, many moons ago. What should we return to for this post of resumption?
Why not Return to Zendikar...?!
Seriously, though. In keeping with Wizards' recent trend of regular "Return to a place you didn't like the first time" blocks, which I suppose is still a step up from "New plane every block; never look back," we're finally getting to revisit that crapsack world of floating rocks and Lovecraftian wannabes, Zendikar. It was promising in theory: an unprecedented theme of Lands Matter, revisiting the Kor, and even a decent surprise in the form of Eldritch horrors. Unfortunately, it somehow ended up being all Razor Boomerangs and The-Land-Continues-to-Burns. How a block simultaneously "upped the power level" and dropped more balls than a palsied basketball team, I couldn't tell you. Clearly one of those statements must be fallacious. Hint: quotation marks.
Anyways, we're not talking about Zendikar, here. We're talking about "Zendikar, after these words from our sponsor." The question is... with the bar set, and not particularly highly at that, how does it compare? We should examine the important things in any set, particularly one spearheading a new block: the story, the mechanics and the playability.
Why not Return to Zendikar...?!
Seriously, though. In keeping with Wizards' recent trend of regular "Return to a place you didn't like the first time" blocks, which I suppose is still a step up from "New plane every block; never look back," we're finally getting to revisit that crapsack world of floating rocks and Lovecraftian wannabes, Zendikar. It was promising in theory: an unprecedented theme of Lands Matter, revisiting the Kor, and even a decent surprise in the form of Eldritch horrors. Unfortunately, it somehow ended up being all Razor Boomerangs and The-Land-Continues-to-Burns. How a block simultaneously "upped the power level" and dropped more balls than a palsied basketball team, I couldn't tell you. Clearly one of those statements must be fallacious. Hint: quotation marks.
Anyways, we're not talking about Zendikar, here. We're talking about "Zendikar, after these words from our sponsor." The question is... with the bar set, and not particularly highly at that, how does it compare? We should examine the important things in any set, particularly one spearheading a new block: the story, the mechanics and the playability.
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