Dragons of Tarkir is out and we’ve now got a ton of Magic shenanigans happening and to look forward to!
- Dragons of Tarkir has just released, giving us a new Limited and altered Constructed format!
- The Pro Tour is in two weeks!
- Tempest Remastered was just completely spoiled (five weeks in advance)!
- Modern Masters 2015 comes just out two weeks later!
- Team Draft League’s fifth (and almost certainly closest) season is finishing fast, and its sixth season starts soon!
- We’re seeing a lot more sealed PPTQs (aka PPTQs that I want to attend)!
I have little reason to complain about Magic; my team had an excellent season in TDL and I just had my best record ever at a GP. I’m playing some of my best Magic ever. We’re in the midst of an almost unending spoiler season and a brand new draft format.
And yet… I’m not really jazzed about any of it. Sure, I’m more stressed than usual—I have more preparation to do for Passover this year than I’ve ever had to before, and extra-Magic activities, particularly work, have been a mixed bag lately—but there’s more to it than that.
Fate Reforged was new just two months ago. I feel like I lost a Limited format I was still enjoying rather than gained a format when the old one had become stale.
Dragons of Tarkir seems (at first impression) far more aggressive and straightforward than Khans of Tarkir. I liked our often durdley, highly varied format. Perhaps it’s just because I’m struggling to quickly master this new, quite different Limited format, but I haven’t been having much fun quite yet.
Modern Masters 2015 is looming large over everything else, just as it did two years ago. It’s hard to focus on anything other than the week of preparation I’ll have before flying to Vegas. This saps my excitement for everything not containing reprints from Lorwyn and New Phyrexia.
Tempest Remastered seems to have been spoiled at precisely the wrong time. It isn’t coming out for five weeks, so we have about as much time as we did with New Phyrexia to speculate about and not play the format (which negatively impacted excitement for and sales of New Phyrexia). I wonder why it was spoiled so far in advance of its release?
I’m hoping that this week just proves to be hump week (which will be immediately followed by the dry, but tasty, matzah week). There’re always growing pains when a new large set comes out, and this one is looking to be far more Theros and far less Innistrad; both are fine sets, I just prefer different kinds of set more. Granted, I do love Atarka Efreet—that card is bonkers, and I haven’t even comboed it with Coat with Venom yet.
Apologies for the unusually complain-y week. Here’s looking forward to seeing you all on the other side.
—Zachary Barash
Zachary Barash has been playing Magic on and off since 1994. He loves Limited and drafts every available format (including several that aren’t entirely meant to be drafted). He’s a proud Cube owner and improviser, creating entire musicals from scratch every week. Zach has an obsession with Indian food that borders on being unhealthy.