I think you're committing a Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. Yes, people are designing their decks around mana screw. In other words - they discard all those decks ideas that suffer more from randomness. Also remember mana screw works both ways. Later in the game getting a streak of lands when you no longer need them can be disastrous. Your opponent can draw juicy cards instead.
Have you actually tried the alternatives ? There's a trivial variant of M:tG where you can play any card face down to act as a land.
You have a point, though - constructing a deck in M:tG is far more fun than playing one.
> Have you actually tried the alternatives ? There's a trivial variant of M:tG where you can play any card face down to act as a land.
That's not really eliminating randomness, since you're just evaluating (at runtime) whether or not a given card is more valuable as a mana source or at face value. There's still some randomness in determining how high the opportunity cost of playing a land is.
A better example of nonrandomness - which I have considered playing with my friends - is enforcing an even mana draw by increasing access to mana each turn in a manner proportional to the number of lands in the deck. That's deterministic.
> You have a point, though - constructing a deck in M:tG is far more fun than playing one.
I've been playing Magic: The Gathering for far longer than I should admit, and I'd disagree.
Comments
I think you're committing a Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. Yes, people are designing their decks around mana screw. In other words - they discard all those decks ideas that suffer more from randomness. Also remember mana screw works both ways. Later in the game getting a streak of lands when you no longer need them can be disastrous. Your opponent can draw juicy cards instead.
Have you actually tried the alternatives ? There's a trivial variant of M:tG where you can play any card face down to act as a land.
You have a point, though - constructing a deck in M:tG is far more fun than playing one.
> Have you actually tried the alternatives ? There's a trivial variant of M:tG where you can play any card face down to act as a land.
That's not really eliminating randomness, since you're just evaluating (at runtime) whether or not a given card is more valuable as a mana source or at face value. There's still some randomness in determining how high the opportunity cost of playing a land is.
A better example of nonrandomness - which I have considered playing with my friends - is enforcing an even mana draw by increasing access to mana each turn in a manner proportional to the number of lands in the deck. That's deterministic.
> You have a point, though - constructing a deck in M:tG is far more fun than playing one.
I've been playing Magic: The Gathering for far longer than I should admit, and I'd disagree.