Power Creep?

It is currently the first week of spoilers for the new Magic: the Gathering expansion, Avacyn Restored. Most of the cards spoiled so far are big flashy rares and mythic rares. And like always seems to happen when a new set is being revealed many players start to accuse the new set of being broken, over-powered and going to ruin the game. The truth is Wizards have been making this game since 1993, and while they do make the occasional mistake, they're not about to suddenly go crazy and destroy the game. The reason so many people then proceed to call foul is because they are not properly evaluating the cards. Take for example this fine gentleman, who has inspired some players to threaten to 'quit the game'.

At first glance a 4/3 for only one red mana seems insane, until you read the text box which says that your opponent can simply take four damage and your monster goes bye-bye. But wait isn't four damage to target player for only one red mana also an amazing deal? Well yes, before this the best you could get for one red was three damage. So if it's power and toughness are under costed, and it's direct damage alternative is also under costed doesn't that make this card broken? The answer is no, for one very simple reason, choice. By giving your opponent the choice of which happens the result will always be the worst one for you. For example if played early in the game when your opponent still has 20 life they can easily afford to take four, latter in the game the other creatures are going to be just a big if not bigger than this guy and as such your opponent will quite happily let him hang around, also because he doesn't have haste your opponent has an entire turn to find a way to remove him from the game.

The next car I want to discuss was revealed today.

Lots of people have looked at this card and proceeded to give a list of all the really good enchantments that could be used to win a game with her. In reality I don't think she's going to see much if any competitive play for two reasons. Firstly her mana cost is too high (I don't mean that a 5/5 flying vigilance for only six mana is over costed, just that there are better things to spend six mana on) and secondly you need to have the aura cards already in you hand or graveyard to get the extra value from her. The aura based decks that have done well in the past have either involved large amounts of card draw, or had a way to search up the desired card.

I remember Wizards R&D were once asked what the converted mana cost of a card which simply read "you win the game" would be. The answer they gave was about nine and it would be a blue card, although it would never be printed because it's not fun. The card would have been balanced because so many competitive decks win before ever reaching nine mana and if your concern is that players might create a combo deck to win quickly, that style of deck already exists with Dragon Storm, which by the way costs nine mana.