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When Magic 2010 was released last year, Wizards told us that they were trying to take the game back to its mono-colored roots. They wanted to help players become viable "red wizards" or "black necromancers" if that was what they wanted to do, and they printed a ton of flavorful, mono-colored cards that did just that. "The pendulum is swinging in the mono-colored direction" we were told. Magic is supposedly becoming more easily marketable to new players while staying familiar and nostalgic to veteran players.
It seemed too good to be true, and it was. What has happened with these uber-powerful cards? Take a look at the latest constructed "Premier Event" MTGO deck lists. At least half of these decks don't just employ one or two of the "most powerful cards printed since Alpha"- they employ nearly all of them in the same deck. And how is it so easy to get the most powerful white card, the most powerful blue card and the most powerful green card all into the same tournament-level deck? The answer lies in the casting cost of these cards.
[caption id="attachment_11184" align="alignleft" width="235" caption="The Blue-est card in town."]
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Take a look at Jace, the Mind Sculptor- the bluest of blue cards. Each of his abilities completely and totally embodies the color blue and could in no way be interpreted as another color's influence. Why then does he cost only two blue-colored mana? Why can I use one green, one red and two blue mana to get him onto the battlefield? How is it that the undisputed KING of, and representative of, the color blue can be cast with 1/2 non-blue mana? Flavor concerns aside (which are substantial!) casting costs like these beg for players to "splash" them into any deck. I've even seen Jace splashed into Jund and effectively make it onto the battlefield. Did Wizards really intend for the Ambassador of an entire color to be splashed into a B/R/G Jund deck? I sure hope not.
Since Alara, competitive deck construction has simply become "putting all of the best, most expensive cards into a deck and pressing play". A Magic deck shouldn't just be a collection of good cards in every color being packed into a single build. Deck making strategy should involve putting cards together to become more than a sum of their parts. Today, competitive decks are simply "a sum of their parts". When Vengevine, Elspeth, Knight Errant and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are all four-ofs in almost every non-Jund deck out there, the game has a big problem. Magic not only becomes bankrupt flavor-wise, but deck-brewing loses its "strategy" element and basically turns into a "list of the most powerful (read: expensive) cards still legal in X format".
[caption id="attachment_11181" align="alignright" width="235" caption="What a horrible card!"]
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Can someone explain to my why Planar Cleansing costs 3WWW while Baneslayer Angel is 3WW? Is one less "white" than the other? If I had to choose one I'd probably pick the Mythic Angel with Flying, Lifelink, First Strike and Protection from Demons. If anything, I'd say the most powerful Angel/Creature/Card printed in recent memory should be more contained within it's place on the colorwheel (remember that old relic, guys?!). Sure a 2WWW Baneslayer would be inherently less powerful but should you really be able to "splash" the most powerful card in the game into every, single, deck this side of Jund? Couldn't Jace, the Mind Sculptor have gone for 1UUU? Isn't that a more appropriate cost for the "bluest card ever printed"? How is Cryptic Command more blue than Jace, the Mind Sculptor? And aren't these cards powerful enough that a slight shift in their casting cost wouldn't prevent them from being loved universally? This would make them "less versatile" but it would also keep them all from being played together in the same decks and would solve a lot of the flavor issues involved in some of these "super friends" and "rainbow control" decks we've seen lately.
I'm not saying we should limit a card as fun as BSA to simple, mono-white Angel decks. Indeed, this card was meant to be played and it should be somewhat playable in a few different decks. But should the card be so easy to cast that it can be played alongside various enemy colors without hindrance? What makes flavor-sense about Jace hanging out with the savages of Jund? Or Baneslayer Angel tagging-in Vengevine from the graveyard? Part of the fun of Magic is the ability to make these things happen but should it really be the norm? Surely you'll require some sort of an explanation if Blightning is being cast in the same deck as Jace, the Mind Sculptor, right?!
With the multi-hued Alara block rotating out this fall, we'll really get a chance to see these mono-colored cards shine in mono-colored (or mono-with-a-splash!) decks. Alara's tri-lands, bi-lands and multicolored bombs have assured that multicolored decks have reigned supreme recently, but without them we might have to resort to sticking more to the colorpie. However, if Scars of Mirrodin brings one, two or even three cycles of dual-lands we're going to be right back where we started with multicolored cards as well as splashable power.
Colorless casting costs turn the game into "putting all the best cards available into one deck" as opposed to "how can I mix these cards together to be greater than the sum of their parts." Decks today are simply "a sum of their parts". Cards should get stronger when used in conjunction with one another. The game loses something when every card is an uber, self-contained, Chuck Norris approved bomb. Is he going to cast Baneslayer Angel, Bloodbraid Elf or Jace, the Mind Sculptor?! Maybe he'll cast all three this game! Oh boy! This isn't the type of game I'm wanting to play. Some of these decks have basically turned into the equivalent of some kid eagerly showing you his Mythics binder. I love bombs and exquisitely powerful cards as much as the next guy but when you foster an environment where deck construction becomes a "best of breed" list, Magic loses something special.
