Subject: Re: Ban the Processor
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 12:05:35 -0500
From: Chad Ellis <cellis@hbs.edu>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Ouch.  Ouch.  Ouch.  Never has a bit of frustrated humor provoked such a
hostile response!

David Nikita has not only chastised me for "suggesting" that the Processor
be banned, he's lumped me in with all the people who want the Academy
banned as well.  So, at the risk of provoking one of the Dojo's endless
"last-word" discussions, let me make a few things clear:

1.  My post was 99% humor and only 1% serious.  Before you shark someone's
post and insult them with accusations of laziness or hands-throwing-up (I
seldom eat hands anyway and have a strong stomach if I did), look for the
subtle clues that they may be kidding a bit. If you look at my list of
"suggestions" you'll notice that banning the card was grouped along with
changing both it and RoP: Land so that the RoP could be an antidote.  (I
may be a bozo, but I hope no one thinks I'm such a bozo that I'd suggest
THAT seriously.)

2.  I do, nonetheless, find the Processor to be one of those cards that
takes away from play.  Sure, like any other card it takes still and
judgement to maximize its value.  In my game with Darwin if I'd been a
greedy scrub I'd have cast it turn-four and watched it get sunk right into
my graveyard.  And if I'd paid one life or fifteen life, Darwin might have
won.  Wow.  Skill really settled that game.  So, while I don't think it
should be banned, I did feel like ranting about it and DO think that
Wizards should not have printed it in its current form.  (Any number of
modifications could have kept it interesting for constructed without making
it a game-over card in Limited.)  Just my opinion.

3.  Saying all rares are inherently broken is a bit silly, especially in
the same paragraph that you mention Brand.  Sure, many rares are powerful
and unbalancing in Limited, but I can't think of any that match the
Processor.  As I mentioned in my post, in all my Limited play I've never
had what I considered a solid deck and then said, "Well, if he draws that
card I guess I just lose," or "Wow, if I draw this card and he can't deal
with it right away I just win."  Not Living Death, not Wrath of God, not
Stormbind, not the Tradewind Rider who single-handedly took me to Top 8 in
a PTQ, not anything.  Most of those cards are also harder to play well than
the Processor.  Put another way, if all rares WERE as "inherently broken"
as the Processor, Limited would be a very boring and low-skill format.

4.  I don't think the Academy or any of its components needs to be banned,
although they may well at some point.  My current Type II deck (which
reached the finals of a Mox tournament and made Top 8 at MA States) has
Pyroblasts, Disenchants and Lobotomies for the Academy deck to face in
games two and three.  It's still scary and still a very powerful deck, but
I'm with the crowd that's fighting to make a good deck that works in the
current metagame and I kinda like having the Academy around.  In general, I
don't like to see a card banned until it's demonstrated its brokenness over
a longer period of time.  I'm still re-reading my post to see how my
semi-delusional ramblings (as I called them) even MENTION the Academy.

5.  I do not always over-react to critical posts and am not on a campaign
to fill the Dojo with delusional ramblings.  This is a special case.

Hugs,
Chad
Candidate for advancement from Strong Among the Weak to Weak Among the Strong
>From now on will always TELL Frank to put silly postings in the humor
section rather than merely suggesting it...