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Why Power Creep Is So Bad Now

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Back when I was a baby trinket, I fell

in love with a card game. It had such a

cool aesthetic, TV show, and manga. Now,

of course, I'm not talking about Magic.

I'm talking about Yu-Gi-Oh. I loved this

game as a kid and eventually went to a

game store to play some games. This is

when I first learned about meta decks,

competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, and that whole

side of the game. At first, it was

really fun. I can make a meta deck and

play games and win at my local game

store. But as the game continued on over

the years, it got faster and faster and

stronger and stronger because Yu-Gi-Oh

only has one eternal format. So when new

cards come out, they are designed to be

more powerful than the old cards and

push the game even further. And now

currently, Yu-Gi-Oh is very much a

one-turn format. There are a lot of

decks that can win in one turn or even

on the first turn. And basically, it

comes down to whether or not you drew

the free interaction in your opening

hand. I got sick and tired of the power

creep, the uninteractivity of how fast

the format had gotten. A bad opening

hand just lost you the game. That was

it. And then I heard about this cool

other card game which had a brilliant

solution to power creep. And that

solution to power creep is why I play

Magic today. But in recent years,

Wizards has intentionally given up on

using their solution to one of the

biggest problems facing long-term games

like this. So, I want to talk about

Power Creep today. How it affects the

game, how Wizards fixed it, and then how

they broke it, and also how it harms

commander. Because casual commander is

indeed harmed by power creep even if it

is less than 60 card formats are all of

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the channel. So, what's the big solution

to power creep? Standard and draft.

Draft obviously doesn't need to be

power. As long as you have fun,

interesting draft archetypes and

mechanics, people will play draft. It's

really great for local game stores. They

sell packs and then you get to draft

them. It's really good for new players.

You get to buy new cards and also learn

about the game in a slower, low power

environment. Standard is also really

great for power creep because you don't

need to print a card that's super duper

powerful to see play in standard since

eventually every card rotates out. So

when you print a new card, let's say

it's slightly weaker than what is

currently meta in standard. Well, when

that old stuff then rotates out, as long

as you didn't print anything new that's

too much stronger than that slightly

weaker thing, that now becomes the meta.

and then now it's a set that everybody

wants to buy because it's part of

standard. Or if you print something

that's a little bit stronger than the

current meta, that's okay, too, because

that old stuff was going to rotate out

after a little bit and people would have

to buy new cards eventually anyway. It

doesn't feel like they got pushed out of

the format as quickly. And since you're

always aiming for the same low power

level in standard, if things are

slightly stronger or slightly weaker

than the current meta, that's okay. Of

course, there's always going to be a

best deck, a best archetype, but if

something is a little bit weaker, it can

still be a piece of the metagame pie,

which leads to more deck diversity and

everyone having a lot more options to

play. And then on the off chance you

accidentally make a card that's way too

strong and it pushes all the other stuff

out, instead of waiting for that to

rotate, you can just ban it as a quick

emergency and then get back to the

regular meta. This also benefited

Eternal formats greatly. With a steady

stream of cards that are at about the

same power level, it took a long time

before there were enough interactions

between the new cards to actually make a

big splash in older formats, which means

older formats wouldn't have significant

changes to their decks yeartoear, which

means new players could get into eternal

formats by building a budget version of

the deck and slowly building into it

over time. Also, since the power level

of the budget cards and the non-budget

versions were closer in strength, having

a budget version of the list was

actually not as much of a detriment

compared to the actual full powered deck

list, which meant that a new player's

budget deck just was more competitive.

And because your budget list was more

competitive, you could actually win

games at your local game store and your

budget version of a modern deck could

help you pay for upgrading it into the

full powered version. This ecosystem was

great. It preserved the longevity of the

game, created good entry points for

players, and was excellent for deck

brewing. If your brew was only a little

bit weaker than the meta, it was still

pretty viable. And since the meta wasn't

that strong, it was easy to brew

something that was close enough to

powerful. Then Wizards made a change.

What if they printed a card that was

intentionally powerful into standard?

Enter Fatal Push. This completely

shifted modern. This became the most

defining card in modern, period. That

was just the beginning, though. Wizards

realized they could print cards for

other formats into standard. They could

print modern cards into standard. They

could print commander cards into

standard. By cranking up the power level

of every set, you can make it so every

player needs every set. All you have to

do to do that is make sure that the new

set has something really, really

powerful that pushes out an old card.

So, what's the big deal? Like, why is

this a problem? Why not just keep making

stronger and stronger cards infinitely?

For competitive formats, that's an easy

answer. It's expensive. Remember when

Shieldrid dominated standard? wasn't

that long ago. The card was quite

pricey. Maybe you bought four copies of

it because it was the most dominant card

in standard by a wide margin. You kind

of needed it to be competitive, but then

it got power crept. Shield actually fell

to the wayside before it rotated out.

Meaning all that money you spent was

kind of wasted. And what was it replaced

by? Mono Red, super fast aggro, which

maybe you bought into and then you got

cards banned out of it because it was

too strong. It was too dominant. Hey,

super quick addendum here. Yes, I know

that monor red is like kind of back in

standard, but if you had these cards

banned from under you and you have to

buy new monor red cards, it's still the

same problem. And also, if this mono red

deck is also super super dominant and

then more cards get banned out of it,

it's still a problem. Yes, I am aware

that technically monor red has more

metagame share than vivv at this current

moment in time. So now you're left with

VV, which why would you buy Vive? the

deck's going to get banned, so what's

the point in purchasing it? And we know

this is bad for the game because paper

standard is way down. Paper modern is

way down. Neither of these formats are

nearly as popular as they once were. And

it really all started with the power

creep. It's actually so crazy how I got

pump and dump scammed by the modern

format. Here's my story. I liked playing

artifact decks. I have Mox Opals because

it's a staple of modern, so I can play

affinity and lantern control. Modern

Rises 1 comes out, Öza gets printed, so

I have to buy Öz to keep up. If I'm

playing a non-ursa artifact deck, I'm

losing. So, I spend money on Öza. Then,

oo gets printed. Now, I know this is

going to get banned. So, I'm not going

to waste money on OO. So, instead, I

have to just quit. I take a break from

the format while OO is around. Then, oo

gets banned. Cool. Now, I can go back to

playing my artifact decks, right? Wrong.

Mox Opal gets banned because with Öza,

it's now too strong. But we didn't ban

Öza, we banned Opal. So now I have these

opals which I can't use. And now I have

these Özas that I spent money on which

are now not strong enough for modern

because you don't have Opal to support

the deck. So I sell those to try and

build a Modern Horizon's 2 deck

eventually. And then the one ring comes

out. I'm definitely not going to buy

that. I need it to be competitive, but I

know it's just going to get banned. It's

in every deck, so what's the point? And

then Modern Horizons 3 comes out and I

just don't buy any Modern Horizons 3

cards. I haven't played Modern since.

And to add insult to injury, now after

all of these shenanigans, because Modern

Horizons 3 has power the format so much,

they unbanned Mox Opal. So now I could

reby the Opals at much higher cost. so I

can go back to playing Affinity, which

is the deck I had at the start of this

whole story. Needless to say, I don't

play Modern anymore. And I stuck around

for a lot longer than other people did.

Power creep is expensive. It prices

people out of the game, and that is

really bad for a game like Magic where

you need a lot of people to show up to

play the game. It erodess confidence in

the format. Why buy a card if it's going

to be completely useless the next day?

And to be clear, I don't care about the

monetary value of cards holding as long

as they're still playable. If my

Moxoples got reprinted into oblivion and

fell to $1, that's fine as long as I got

to play the card Mox Opople for the

entire duration of that time. Enough

about competitive formats. Who cares

about that? Let's talk about EDH. Power

creep does not hurt casual commander as

much as competitive formats, but it is

still really bad for EDH. One thing

powerful cards do is they hurt deck

brewing. And this is true for all

formats. If you want to brew a deck in

modern, it has to be strong enough to

compete with Modern Horizons 3 cards. In

Commander, if you want to brew around

with some jank old stuff, it's just not

going to be as powerful as the new

things. Commander has genuinely sped up

a lot. Part of that is the introduction

of these cards designed for commander.

The commanders have lower mana value.

The removal is cheaper as well. And the

power level of these things that are

designed for commander just eclipse the

power level of things not designed for

commander. Smothering tithe is made for

commander. If you want a four mana ramp

option for your white deck, this is the

best option period. And if you were

playing Hedron Archive or Solemn

Semilacrim before that, trust me, those

two are not even in the same ballpark as

Smothering Tithe. And this is a huge

difference from how it used to be. When

Heedron Archive came out, yeah, it

competes for the four mana ramp slot of

Solemn Semlacrim, but it's not so much

more powerful that you needed to buy

that card to be even in a comparable

league to other decks. And as the

average power level of cards go up, the

speed at which the game ends is way

faster too. If previously maybe nine

mana cards ended the game, but as eight

mana and seven mana cards get stronger,

well, they can end the game now. And

then six and five and so on and so

forth, and that makes it harder to play

your old nine mana finisher because the

game ended on turn seven because of the

seven mana finisher. This shrinks the

card pool for you. If four mana cards

are so powerful in commander that they

demand removal instantly or they require

you to keep up on pace, then having a

great six drop is going to feel way

worse. And since these are the new

cards, new casual EDH players are going

to be opening them from packs and

putting them in decks. So, this will

affect the format. I know it's casual

and all that and players will

intentionally play bad cards, but

eventually your bad cards are so bad you

lose every game and it can be very

frustrating. So, you might upgrade the

deck or you just play against new

players who are playing stronger things.

And even if you currently play

intentionally bad cards, your bad cards

today are just last year's broken cards.

And this has the potential to get a lot

worse. We got Jeweled Lotus and Docside

banned by the rules committee in an

attempt to slow down the game. But now

that the format is run by wizards,

what's to stop them from printing Jewel

Lotus 2 and just making it a gamechanger

and keeping it in the format? I also

want to take a moment to dispel the myth

that strong cards are good for new

players. I think this is pretty silly. I

could come up with an obviously

overpowered card and a new player can

crack it from a pack and go, "Whoa,

that's crazy. That's strong. Sure, I

guess." And maybe they get excited for

that. But new players get excited over

lots of things. It doesn't have to

actually be literally unbeatably strong.

As an example, lots of new players

really like the card Forexian

Obliterator. It feels unbeatable until

you realize it's not. But you can be

excited for bad cards. It takes time for

you to learn what is and isn't actually

good, what is actually a strong card.

New players get excited over lots of

things. In fact, there's a really,

really good article about why the game

has and needs bad cards written by Mark

Rosewater, who apparently, I don't know,

forgot about this article. It's one of

the best articles about game design ever

written, and it is seemingly being

ignored. So, no, I don't think powerful,

busted, crazy cards are good for new

players. It's actually really bad for

new players specifically. Let's say

you're a new player coming in because of

Final Fantasy and then you build a I

don't know a cloud deck. You want cloud

in your deck and the Buster Sword. Wow,

so cool. And then you lose every single

game because this VV Cauldron deck just

obliterates you on turn three. Is this

new player having fun? Are they excited

about Cloud or are they annoyed? And

then where's the interesting part? Okay,

Vive looks like a strong card, but it's

so strong it's unbeatable. So, you just

learn, you go VV, Cauldron, whatever

else, and then that's it. There's

nothing else to beat that. This isn't

fun for new players. All the fans of

Spider-Man who want to play standard

with Spider-Man cards are going to get thermonuclearbombed

thermonuclearbombed

by Vivv. It's just not good for casuals.

It's not good for people trying to get

into the game. Whereas, if the format

powers down significantly, you can play

your bad Spider-Man cards that you

enjoy. Spider-Man got a lot of things

wrong as a set, but I really, really

love that it's not a strong set. These

cards are terrible, which is great. This

should be the power level of standard

because then anyone, a new player, can

put their favorite cards in a deck and

then not get blown up on turns 1, 2, and

three. They actually get to four mana to

cast their favorite cards and then five

mana to attack with their favorite

cards. Yes, it might not be meta. It

might not be that strong, but at least

they got to play the game. Power Creep

is just so bad for a long-term game like

this. As the formats just speed up and

speed up more and more and more, what is

the logical end point? Modern becomes a

turn one format. Standard becomes a turn

one format. EDH becomes more of a turn

one format, even in casual play. Like,

what what are we doing here? It it feels

like there's no forethought put into

what is going to happen if we just keep

doing this over and over and over again.

This is going to cause a lot of burnout

for players, and I'm really worried

about it. So, what's the solution,

right? Well, obviously focusing on

standard. They could make Sarah Angel

the best card in standard. Just don't

print anything stronger than Sarah Angel

and bada bing bada boom, that's the best

card. It's really that easy. Standard

solves power creep perfectly. And it

also solves complexity creep, which

could be its own video. But a lot of

these stronger cards are also more

complex. They're not just bigger

numbers, they're also more words on the

text box. They do so many more things

than other cards. Ragavan is not just

stronger than Savannah Lions, it is way

more complex. There's a lot more

decisions that need to be made when you

play Ragavan. I love standard as being a

low power format made of new cards such

that new players buying new cards can

see viable cards in their packs and put

them into decks and actually play at the

local game store. That is a genius thing

Magic does which other card games really

don't. And we just broke that safety

valve of standard. So, why did they do

that? Normally, any game that lasts this

long and has this many pieces would kill

for a solution to power creep, something

to really ensure the longevity of the

game. Well, come on. The answer's

obvious. It's money, right? You see, the

only reason to make a card so strong

everybody playing the game everywhere

would need it is to force everyone

everywhere to buy it. But everyone has

their limit. You can only spend so much

on magic before you either can't or

won't anymore. And every single time a

deck gets banned or power crept, there

are some amount of people who simply

won't buy back into the format. And this

is the reason we are seeing such a

decline in paper formats. It's a lot of

power creep and it's hard to keep up

with, especially with these bans. Like,

oh my goodness, ban windows are so

stupid. Every ban should be an emergency

ban. Just don't print broken cards to

begin with. I feel so bad for the

Wizards design team here. Printing a

balanced card is very difficult to do.

Like making a busted card is easy. I did

one for this video. Making everything

balanced is so tricky. And with seven

sets, that's so much to balance. And if

you want to push the envelope, which

Hasbro wants them to do, it's really

hard to push the envelope with every

card the same amount because it's so

easy to then break something. And I

assume Hasbro did not give them any

extra resources at all, which means

they're probably stretched really thin.

Now, the problem with this solution is

it requires Hasbro to allow Wizards to

use standard for longevity. But the

Hasbro executives do not care about the

longevity of Magic the Gathering. I've

said it in a previous video and I'll say

it again. I just genuinely don't think

they have an actual long-term plan. We

don't know when they're going to reprint

Universal cards. We don't know if

they're going to do anything about Power

Creep. We don't know if they're going

to, you know, tone down the number of

sets every year. All of this stuff. And

the reason we don't know that is they

probably don't have a plan. I assume

they're just going to pocket their seven

figure salary for 10 years and then it's

some other person's problem once they

retire. Now, of course, I would love to

be wrong. I would love love love to be

wrong about that. It would be so awesome

if I am wrong about like everything that

I say in these types of videos. I would

love that so much. But tragically, I

think I'm going to be right, which

sucks. Okay, so what's a solution you as

an actual player can do to fight against

power creep? Well, you could play

standard on arena since that since when

cards get banned, you get refunded wild

cards and then one wild card is the same

price of every card, which is okay. You

know, it's better than the other option,

but if your card gets power and not

banned, you're still just out the wild

card, so it's not perfect. Or you can

play popper, the best 60 card format

right now, period. Additionally, cube

and dandan are ways of playing which are

truly not harmed by power creep, or

embrace it and play CEDH. CEDH is proxy

friendly, so if your deck gets power

crept, who cares? It's pretty cheap to

just build a new proxy deck. I decided

to change up my CEH list and no card

cost me over a dollar. Proxies are

cheap. I do think there's something more

to be said about strong cards and casual

EDH and how to avoid using them, how to

make last year's strong cards good

enough to compete with this year's

broken ones. But I'll save it for its

own video. Thanks for watching and

special thanks to my tier three patrons

whose names you see here. If you want to

join the Patreon and get in on any of

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