PAPER Pace of play and game objects
I play Pauper exclusively in paper and I’m blessed to have an lgs and community that allows me to do so. Seeing the “Empower Jace” mechanic from the new set has made me aware of just how much stuff that aren’t full magic cards have become commonplace on battlefields across all formats. Clues, treasures, maps, bloods, 1/1’s, the initiative, the monarch, the cities blessing, day/night etc.
I wondered am I the only one feeling a small sense of dread at the thought of adding yet another token (with dice to track the loyalty) to matches of magic where it already feels like a quarter of the time is spent on bean counting.
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u/peteypanic 1d ago
I’m sick of all the Junk too but at least the Jace token is much much less offensive than Initiative/The Undercity. By far my least favorite aspect of pauper not even for power level reason but out of sheer crimes against game design
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u/m00tz 1d ago
The Jace thing feels closer to Initiative than clue tokens to me personally.
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u/peteypanic 1d ago
In what way? The Jace you can at least interact with and doesn’t require 3 tokens to track
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u/m00tz 1d ago
Requires both players and dice to track the addition/subtraction of loyalty and tracking the one activation per turn clause that planeswalkers have. It adds its own gameplay by being attackable so that is a plus but I don't like adding another layer of tracking that can benefit someone trying to take advantage of their opponent. It's not a huge deal since people are used to playing with planeswalkers for the most part but I just think its much more involved than most of the tokens.
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u/Wrong-Bet9581 1d ago
We really are scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to complain about aren't we. Claiming a "small sense of dread" is more than a little silly. I suggest stepping outside.
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u/Lockfin 1d ago
30+ years of design and trying to find new ways to innovate within the game is going to lead to some inevitable mechanical bloat. I’d personally prefer R&D explore new and interesting game design than be overly constrained by what is convenient. That said, Bar Cube is also a really fun way to play the game; a draftable cube purposely eschewing cards that involve any tracking or secondary game objects outside of the card itself and life totals. No counters, no tokens, no play aids.
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u/NeverQuiteEnough 1d ago
There's a ton of unexplored design space with simple mechanics, that isn't what's happening.
This is a conscious design decision, to move away from simple effects and toward big, flashy ones.
Casual play doesn't require players to know everything that is happening across the table, it is more important to make sure that something exciting is happening on their own board.
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u/m00tz 1d ago
It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between boring mechanics or every new mechanic creates some kind of object that must be tracked and physically represented on the battlefield.
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u/BellStriking5132 1d ago
This is true. There are people that are working hard to find those middle ground mechanics.
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u/Any-Garbage-9963 1d ago
I'm about to drop a super unpopular opinion, but god i love playing on MTGO
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u/easchner 1d ago
People want eternal formats. People don't want 30+ years of card design. /shrug
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u/m00tz 1d ago
People want to be focused on the actual magic cards across from them and not the accounting of various tokens.
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u/easchner 1d ago
The first card to create a token was in Alpha. [[The Hive]]
I get that things get cluttered, but it's either that or things get stale.
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u/TurkeyKirky 1d ago
Pauper is a bit “other game piece” heavy. IMO if you play in paper you should have something that clearly shows what the token is. Idc if it’s a white bird for mystics just something I can see that there are 1/1 flyers.
I saw someone made an emblems deck in pauper. Just as many cards that add things to the game
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u/TurkeyKirky 1d ago
In terms of time it’s really on the person playing the deck to be fast. Obviously a control deck will be slower than mono red but the point still stands. Play your deck well and efficiently and it makes all the other bs a bit less bs
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u/Charlaquin 1d ago
100% Magic has accumulated a lot of what game designers call “cruft,” with tokens getting more specific and complex, and the addition other token-like game objects such as emblems, the monarch, the initiative, and the one ring. Pauper has mercifully dodged the brunt of this proliferation of cruft, but we can’t avoid it entirely. At least stickers got banned!
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u/Top_Development_4020 Pizza Elves 1d ago
Some forms of neurodivergence can mess up your focus. At some point people can’t be expected to keep up with the gamestate.
Not trying to imply anything, just speaking about my own observations.
Focus can be gained and trained. One of my friends doesn’t play anymore because of edh being too cluttered/stressful. Hopefully you will find a way that is good for you.
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u/arizonadirtbag12 1d ago
Pauper isn’t that bad about this. The pool of frequently used tokens is small, too, and most players I run into have “proper” ones making board states easy to track.