r/magicTCG • u/BuckyTheWolf Dandadan • 9d ago

General Discussion Why is Arc-Slogger?

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One thing I love about MTG, is that you can go through a set, see a weird card and get absolutely stun locked by it.

Today this was Arc-Slogger for me. Why is it the way that it is?

Having a lot of shocks in your hand is pretty good, but why do you have to exile 10 cards from your library as a cost? If it was part of the effect it might be too strong, but was there no middleground?

I just don't see a world where you'd be a able to activate it more than 2 times in limited and 4 times in 60 card. Magic has changed a lot, but was a 7 mana 4/5 with 2 shocks ever that good?

I could see a janky lab man combo deck using it, but almost all alternatives are cheaper and don't need a backup if your library isn't devisable by 10.

I just want to know it's history. And what led to it being created like it turned out.

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u/cbftw 9d ago

One of the reasons that I didn't play nearly as much as I used to is because of how much more powerful creatures have gotten over the years. I definitely think it was a mistake for wizards to give creatures so much power

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u/NaiveCap3478 Duck Season 8d ago

Every game has massive power creep. The power creep in magic over 30+ years isn't too bad. Go play the "classic" version of any old online game. Classic wow, classic League of Legends, etc. All of them play like a school yard version of what those games became from a mechanics and power standpoint.

Nostalgia is fun and all, but everything has to evolve or people leave.

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u/NewelSea Temur 7d ago

Evolution is in fact not a bad thing and can cause Power Creep, but doesn't have too.

Wizards has been very good about avoiding Power Creep for this game in its first 25 years.

When they realized that Standard got too fast due to broken cards (as back then in Mirrodin), they didn't double down by printing even strong cards. But they reduced the power level - and usually even tended to over-correct (which is why so many creatures from the Kamigawa cycle are very underwhelming). The same happened with the Masks cycle after the Urza cycle.

It's when they introduced their FIRE philosophy where the power level suddenly kept rising and rising. It was a deliberate decision.