Furthermore, high levels of complexity and depth act as a barrier to entry the higher they are, the less inclined new players are to try to learn the game. People who want more complexity and depth are not a large enough segment of the market to support the game. Tom and MaRo and all of R&D design sets with market research data in mind. The number of people in this thread who apparently have never seen a new player is kind of appalling. It would be tragic to go into an eternal format and try to 'correct' things based on an impression that Storm or Dredge weren't Magic. It's WOTC's prerogative to print mechanics they find enjoyable, and they gave us Storm and Dredge, so to each his own. Let the people play what they want to play. Some people love playing decks built around the graveyard.

Some people love playing straight aggro decks. I feel that if the card says Magic on it, we're playing Magic. He is obviously in a position of influence. I don't know how much to read into Tom's statement as to something being 'not Magic.' Is this a prelude to a banning conversation? Is it an informal watch? I've read that he does not like playing Dredge, and I've seen him upset in losing to a kid playing Dredge.

I don't know his pairings, but he did not make the cut to Top 8. This event was a lot smaller (17 people). Post-Misstep, Tom came to play again, only this time he brought Dredge. At the tournament (71 players, as I recall), most of the room was running a playset of Mental Missteps, and many people were not happy about Misstep and how it had shifted the format, and they communicated that loudly to Tom. And he beat Tom, and Tom was visibly frustrated and attempted to give the kid some pointers. The kid kept missing his triggers and missed an opportunity to Therapy away Batterskull and was playing very slowly. He played U/W Stoneforge and lost to some kid playing Manaless Dredge. Remember too that LaPille had twittered that just after returning from a local tournament where he played Dredge.Some more background on that tourney: Tom played in a larger tourney there a few weeks before. If that’s your filter when you sit down to play a game of Magic (i.e., you’re on staff to make it “fun”) it’s reasonable to have some assumptions on how the game “should” be played.

Lsv manaless dredge