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I think one thing that doesn't get discussed enough is how much Magic's gameplay has changed in recent years. The effort to make the game more accessible seems good on its face, but the end result seems to be much less strategic gameplay and less player agency (i.e. your decision matter less today than in the past). One thing doing the Best Standard bracket has reinforced to me is that the current version of Magic really is an aberration historically. The play pattern of two decks snowballing into each other and seeing who gets the better draw isn't how Magic was for most of its life. Rather than being about Universes Beyond or the number of sets, I think this is actually a product of Wizards spending the last decade or two trying to remove "feel bads" from the game to make it more accessible or appealing to new players. Stax has mostly been eliminated, land destruction too, counterspells minimized. As we've seen repeatedly on the Bracket, these "feel bad" cards actually do a ton of work balancing the game. Janky white weenie decks can compete thanks to Rishadan Port or Armageddon disrupting the opponent's resources. Sideboard hosers and color hate cards can swing matchups. This leads to, at least in my opinion, a lot of really interesting matches where you have to think about playing around sideboard cards, sequence plays to avoid the hate, sandbag lands to play around destruction, etc. I feel like this strategic depth is often missing today. When you add the elimination or minimization of "feel bads" to the spiraling power of creatures, you end up with a game that heavily incentivizes maximizing your gameplay rather than stopping your opponent's gameplan. We've also seen a lot of steps taken to minimize variance - mulligan rule changes, card designs (like MDFCs), everything generating card advantage to make sure you rarely run out of cards (because being empty handed feels bad...) - which I think compounds the problem. Less variance also pushes you to maximize your gameplan rather than stopping your opponent's gameplan, since you'll execute your gameplan optimally more often. The end result is an era of Magic that, at least to me, feels far less strategic than in the past. I still appreciate the game for what it is today, I still have fun playing it, but it's wild how good 1v1 Magic gameplay used to be. I wish there was a way more newer players could experience it, because it really is a lifechanging gaming experience and its super addicting.

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