I think we absolutely have a Vivi problem. Not sure what they were thinking with
0: create mana
ever being printed on a card, but it’s clear they (and all of us too) never saw the interaction with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron.Cauldron will most likely eat a ban to pay for Vivi’s sins, but here we are. They won’t ban the card while it’s being actively sold and opened imo, and certainly not from the FF set.
@mike @MysticKetchup cauldron is the type of effect that ends up breaking things.
“Hey I know! Let’s make a 2/5 Shock that makes a Mox Sapphire and a Mox Ruby when it enters!”
“Hmm…not good enough.”
“Give it super-prowess? Wait…no, give it super-prowess and Marwyn the Nurturer’s ability, but for any noncreature spell!”
“Dammit Gavin, you’re a genius! But we should probably make it a 0/3 for balance.”
“And lower its mana cost to 1UR, to make sure it still sees play.”
–R&D (probably)
This is Ravager Affinity -levels of format warping. Standard has always been limited in the number of decks due to the smaller card pool, but 12 out of 16 decks all being the same deck in an event is ridiculous. Even worse when it becomes 7 out of the top 8 and 4 decks in top 4. And it’s like this with every event.
There’s a reason people have stopped playing Standard. They don’t want to play $1,000 mirror matches for eight rounds and they especially don’t like having their cards banned, even when necessary. Instead, they will just quit the format or Magic altogether.
It’s just like Hogaak, or Nadu. Except this time they really won’t ban it because it’s part of a brand deal.