Alchemy and Historic
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this,
I apologize for you have likely received numerous posts just like this.
I have not been playing for very long, having started in 2019 upon hearing about a great free to play game called Magic Arena. I had always been interested in magic from afar since original Innistrad but had never been able to play due to pressure from my parents. My roommate in college always talked about Magic and when I played Arena it was an instant winner for me. It was a great way to learn before investing in physical cards and also a wonderful way to play due to not having the ability to play with others very often. I was not as much of a fan of Hearthstone and other similar games but Magic had a lasting appeal for me and I loved my first deck dearly, which was a black and white Angels deck.
I was distraught when I learned of rotation after the release of Throne of Eldraine and was incredibly sad I wouldn't be able to play with the angel deck I had spent so long building (I was a broke college student at the time). This all changed when Historic was announced. Finally I had a way to play with the old cards I had crafted and spent what money I had on. Since then I have been an avid fan of everything to do with Historic. I love the uniqueness thanks to the Anthologies - which I have gladly purchased every one of - the remastered sets, Jumpstart, and even the amazing Historic Jumpstart which incorporated some of Modern Horizons 1 and 2. I had started only a short time before Modern Horizons 1 was released and seeing Serra the Benevolent released but only legal for Modern made me green with envy.
I must admit I was hyped despite myself upon hearing the announcement for the State of the Game yesterday and I avidly scrolled Reddit and Twitch waiting for news to drop or the stream to start. Upon checking in on the stream I was in awe with the new format idea, card changes, banned cards being restructured into something manageable, cards that posed a problem in standard being adapted to try and be less of an issue, all new digital only cards being released. All of these were amazing. I have been a big fan of the digital only cards and am excited to see more of them!
However, I, not unlike many others that you may have read so far, am a bit wary of the decisions to alter cards in Historic that pose no problems in the format. I understand cards like Alrund's Epiphany and Luminarch Aspirant are a menace within Standard but I have no issues with either card in Historic and only one of these really sees play at all. I don't mind Historic being shifted to a live format. I think it is great and I even like the idea of rereleasing old banned cards such as Teferi, Time Traveller, Oko, Uro and others (although I am also scared of such things as well, not that it is very important that I personally don't like control style decks or other such things; it would be interesting and bring a lot of spice to the format.). For example I like the idea of Omnath being present in it's new form in Historic.
I don't necessarily dislike the idea of editing cards like Luminarch Aspirant and others to be stronger or worse, but I do wish there would be some sort of compensation for such a thing. I know Luminarch Aspirant would nerf Humans in Historic, which I don't think is entirely necessary. I understand it would hurt people looking to get into Historic should they build a deck that would end up becoming terrible due to a card being nerfed and not receive at least wildcards for the card being nerfed. Alternatively (or in addition to the prior) allowing some sort of player voting system for proposed card changes could be beneficial to ease players worries and fears as well as hesitancy to venture into Historic, where a lot of money stands to be made of course. Finally, one last idea I wanted to recommend in addition to the others,
is a separation of Alchemy and History to the effect of cards that have been changed for Alchemy which are problematic shouldn't be changed in Historic. Although it is frustrating to have someone combo off thanks to Emergent Ultimatum and Alrund's Epiphany in Historic, it is much more manageable and less back breaking than in standard.
Historic is the only format I participate in anymore, and I love the support you give to the format. I love the digital cards, anthologies and more. I hope to continue to see the format grow alongside me and I will continue to support it as long as it remains healthy as it seems to be now. I don't believe the decisions made with Alchemy affecting Historic in this way are appropriate or conducive to a healthy format or happy player base. My girl friend has been playing magic with me for a while now and I've been teaching her what I know and want her to make a Historic deck with me however she hasn't decided what she wants to spend her wildcards on yet and I would hate to recommend something that is going to become obsolete due to the cards being rendered useless for a higher powered format and no compensation received.
Thank you for you time and I appreciate what you guys do for this game.