A Closer Look at Ikoria's Companion and Formats in general

I do not think Companion as is is broken.

Even as we see Lurrus run amok initially, there are signs that the other Companions are starting to see play. And more than that some decks are still 5-0  without companions (slivers?? and Gifts Storm and an Izzet Control deck, there could be more).

On the third point some may counter that 3 decks (unconfirmed but I think the number is really moot but I'll play along) is a pittance....

But my counter to that is that there are like half of those so-called broken Companion decks that are LOSING as well. Why don't ppl count them?? 0.o

Seriously ppl the bias is really comical. Bruces keep saying that Companion decks are winning and non-companion decks are losing but they keep cherry picking and mashing data to suit their narrative. Just like Eldrazi winter I guess.

Anyway.

I do not think Companion as is is broken.

In fact I think Companion is a very compelling concept.


I always felt the sideboard is a luxury. Thats what people do not realise, a sideboard is kinda already cheating. So if you feel a particular mechanic is broken... ermm yo'll wanna get rid of your sideboard and play fair? Sounds ridiculous right? Exactly. :P

Anyways ARENA kinda took care of that with the best of one with no sideboards. So I am a happy man.


Now why talk about sideboards, Companion obviously.


But thats why Companion feels broken.


It is your sideboard concept on steroids!


Now rewind back to Karn the Great Creator (henceforth KGC).

KGC is like a reverse companion, he literally fetches you a card from the sideboard at will!

BUT you still need to draw naturally into KGC to get the card. That is the "drawback" of being a card in your library (60 cards). That is the drawback of KGC

Fast-forward to Companion... do you see that they removed KGC and you straight up TUTOR the sideboard card?

That is the power inherent in the concept of Companion.


I know I know, I said I like companions and do not want them ban so why am I highlighting a very potentially bannable approach to looking at it.

I am highlighting because I do not think it is broken... yet. I do not think being able to play Lurrus at will once you hit 3 mana is very powerful. It is being able to play Lurrus once you hit 3 mana at will when your opponent's strategy is to board wipe you and hope you have no recourse after you stupidly overextended. Lurrus lets you come back!

What was the point of the para above? Lurrus is only good against certain decks in certain situations. At best, it lets you come back after being wiped, one permanent a turn. At worse it is a 3/2 with lifelink. Don't get me wrong, its a good card. But it is not the end of the world. It can be exiled, the graveyard can be hated on etc.

Aside:
(another point of irritation, ppl.... the sideboard is for you hate out stuff, yes sometimes a deck is dominant you hate on it, maybe an anti-deck arises... its not broken... it is exactly as it should be, it was like that since Necro, since Combo winter, thats what the bloody sideboard is for. And if you say players left then, well players are leaving now too! Thing is the people who cannot adapt will leave, and really this is for Hasbro and WOTC, do you think these people who will never change their deck will buy new products? Or the people who adapt? Seriously.)
End Aside.


So ya I am still pretty pro Companion and like the concept.

But I cannot deny that it is very powerful. So Lurrus is powerful because it is a tutorable effect that does not need a tutor !! Like you can now fetch a card at will without an in between card (like a tutor, e.g. vampiric tutor, demonic tutor etc). It is powerful when it is played against decks that are weak against it.

Now. What if for every sideboard option, you have a companion equivalent.

Thats why companion in its most pushed form, becomes a sideboard on steroids. If we think of a sideboard as a mechanic. You essentially bring in new cards (not in your 60) and you can only play them in your next game and you have the draw back of having to naturally draw into it (and at the cost of a card in your starting 60). Companion lets you have the card immediately.

Now. This is balanced by the fact that you can have only one companion (phew!). So at best you can only have one tutorable sideboard card. (I checked this here, https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Companion).
Now if you can have multiple Companions.. that would be interesting but would likely make more people unhappy :P

But as it is , you can only have one Companion and I think that is a good decision, else it will be even more powerful.

But as it is I think Companion is not broken, it is an advantage at the cost of a sideboard option. If you use Lurrus for example as a sideboard, then yes Lurrus is strong. But you play a random Companion, you get a tutorable creature, not the most impressive. So it is highly dependent on the ability of the Companion.

And again as is... it does not seem brroken yet. And Companion is a rather compelling design space that I hope will not fall victim to the Bruces out there 0.0

Over the next decade perhaps? WOTC should be able to make some really interesting cards using Companion. And conceptually it like a pet 0.0  I think that kinda is appealing too.



Now about Formats (now is just random rambling). This is something that came out as I thought about Companion. If people really hated it that much they could announce before a tournament will it be Standard or Standard+Companion. It will be essentially two formats =D

But why stop there? I believe eventually you will have custom formats. Already you can do this at a casual level with house rules etc. Imagine if the LGS can have its own ban list, and to not kill value, it can regularly shuffle up the list every few months. Now what about all them broken decks!! Should they not burn forever in Magic's Hell? Being a custom format means you can easily have a rule that says a deck cannot contain a certain combination of cards, so for instance if Hogaak and Faithless Looting are too broken together, you can ban this combination rather than ban the cards wholesale. So you diminish the deck. but you do not kill it. And you do not cause collateral damage to other decks.

Of course this would be a royal mess in terms of global deck building and more importantly for global tournaments. I mean if the format is so fluxxy, how are people going to prepare? Well first of all, remember in my last post, I hinted that part of the problem with the data and the meta in general is people just netdeck blindly. You see it in the Lurrus situation, people blindly netdeck and create and artificial bump in the meta numbers.

Aside rant:
 (and some idiots will say the meta is saturated with 30%, it stupid disingenious or moot, pick one. Even if it is 100%, it is moot until a few months and even then it is dependant on players not netdecking -- I have faith that in a few months the REAL brewers will actually come out with something - Hey during ELdrazi winter they actually did it in a few weeks, so ya, I do have faith in some of the Magic Community, kudos to those who keep the game alive by continuing to express your creativity! Go TEAM OATH ;))
End aside rant


So back to how it will be messy globally, well we can still keep standard, modern, legacy or whatever we have in future, and it is important to have these formats to allow WOTC to have a presence. But at the local level, maybe the LGS can be allowed to sanction custom formats. This will allow more flexibility and freshness in the meta. And most importantly. You cannot netdeck. haha. You can still look at the global lists and build a deck and if it fits the custom format, good for you. But if not? You gotta tweak it. I think this will force people to put more effort in deckbuilding and encourage more exploration of cards. It will also kinda obviate globally available lists to the point that you should be able to make the data irrevlevant. Why is that good? You cannot netdeck. haha. Really. Killing netdecking will save the game. It will also divide and conquer the bruces. Having flexible local custom formats will also allow LGS to make every one happy, ban hogaak for a month then next month is a hogaak special etc. Now this concept should not be that strange to gamers. Its like the old online game "mage" something where you build your kingdom, you can PVP other players but at the end of the year thhe server is reset. Think of the meta shifts as reset. (I think this is partly why alot of people get upset when their meta resets... it is normal to online oldish tech people (like myself)... imagine if Chess changed rules every few months !!)

Anyway thats about all I have to rant about today.