Magi Nation Restricted List

Restricted format [long]

For those of you that don't read the insiider.com forums, yesterday evening,
I posted the following statement to help clear up some of the confusion as
to why some cards were chosen for the Restricted format and why some were
left out.

Over the last year, tournament play for Magi-Nation has grown more and more
stagnant. Typically, the best cure for a stagnant environment is a new set.
However, as I’m sure you’re all aware, 2i has been unable to actually print
a new set for some time now. Without a foreseeable release date for TR, I
chose to take a drastic step. Creating the Restricted tournament format.
Some people don’t like this decision, some do.

The Restricted format is not a storyline simulation. It is not (necessarily)
what Second Order will look like. It is simply a new tournament format that
may or may not stick around after Second Order is released. Again, the only
motivation behind the Restricted format was to mix up the tournament
environment.

Some of you may view this as banning cards. Some of you have chosen to use
the “What ever happened to ‘No banned cards’?” argument. I could argue back
that, technically, the cards aren’t really banned (they can still be used in
non-sanctioned play and in the Unlimited tournament format) because banning
a card means that it can never be played. I don’t recall ever making the
promise that cards would never be banned. I’m not sure who did but I doubt
that they said, “No cards will ever be banned.” More likely, the statement
was intended to be interpreted as, “Currently, there are no banned cards.”
The state of CCGs is that things change. Any company that promises to never
ban any cards is just asking for trouble.

Here’s what I looked at when creating the Restricted list, had a Second
Order-type environment in mind:

1. The very first thing that I decided was to remove all dual region Magi. I
am strongly of the belief that the single worst thing that has ever happened
to MND is the creation of dual region Magi. I could go on at some length
about why I feel this way, but I won’t right now. Dual region Magi will not
be making an appearance in Second Order.

2. The next thing I looked at was cards that inhibited the creation of new
cards. Scyalla, Abwyn’s Quill, Abraxin’s Crown and Slime Stone are a few of
the cards that are guilty of this crime. Cards like this are definitely not
going to be in Second Order. Rayje’s Belt and Sandswirl have the reverse
effect. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read, “That card’s not broken!
Just Belt/Sandswirl it!” They were left out as well.

3. Cards that directly discard Creatures from play, especially en masse.
Lets not kid ourselves. The heart of Magi-Nation as a brand and as a game is
Dream Creatures. Dream Creatures mean combat. While I left in some staples
like Shockwave, cards like Cataclysm and Ormagon detract from the heart of
the game by preventing combat.

4. Cards that helped to create locks were removed (also known as “NO!”
cards). Tranquility, Will of Orothe, Osatch and more were all key cards that
prevented your opponent from participating in the game. What’s the point of
playing a game if you’re never allowed to play the game? Not gonna be in
Second Order.

5. Troublesome mechanics were left out. While it’s true that I’m a huge
Underneath fan, I know that Burrow is an overly powerful mechanic (see point
2 and think about Rabid Bisiwog). Granas stayed around because it’s not true
Burrow, but anything else that said Burrow on it was left in the cold. Any
card that allowed you to discard a card from your opponent’s hand was left
out as well. I still remember Worlds 2001 and just how exciting the final
game was. Ron Padgett played his discard deck while his opponent, Craig
Edwards, sorted cards that he’d gotten earlier in the con. Craig didn’t even
look at the cards he drew at the end of his turn because, on Ron’s turn, the
cards were discarded anyway.

6. Overly complicated cards were left out purely to simplify the
environment. Some of you may call this “dumbing down” but I call it good
game design.

7. “Updraft” effects were removed as well. While it’s true that all of these
cards have been “fixed” via errata, I still don’t like the mechanic. There’s
too much room for abuse. This effect may not necessarily be removed from
Second Order, but it will be limited.

8. Cards that are played from your hand on your opponent’s turn are not
covered in our patent, thus, there is potential for legal action. While I
can’t erase the fact that these cards were ever created, I can leave them
out of the new environment. Second Order will not have any of these cards.

After that, I trimmed down each region so that it had 60 cards total. Some
regions have more of one card type than others but I don’t see it as a big
enough problem to worry about. Some of the cards that were trimmed out were
due to personal preference (Delia/Vellup decks have had their day) and some
were due to poor card abilities (Quor Pup, Chaos Jile, etc.)

I hope that this clears up a bit of why some cards were left out of the
list. For those of you that still hate the Restricted format, I urge you to
give it a chance before you decide that Magi-Nation isn’t worth playing
anymore.

Michael Liesik