Are sweepers fun? No.

It just feels like there’s no one at the wheel of Historic. They just print cards and add them with no consideration for the environment.

I get that sweepers are a pretty important part of the game. But why [scryfall]Wrath of God[/scryfall]? Obviously, it was an Invocation back in the day and it does have a resonance within the world, but can it make the Historic environment better? Probably not. The enjoyment of the game comes largely from decisionmaking and now one decision has been taken away, as there are no viable alternatives to it. Previously, you had several options for sweepers, but they each had their limitations. No you only have one. (Not really true, as having a three mana sweeper is sometimes a good idea, except that with power creep, they are not as powerful as they used to be.)

Again, I get that sweepers are an important part of the game and have always been, but the game was better when you were actually able to interact without them. Now, as everything has additional value, sweepers seem to be more of developmental crutch, on which the environment leans, because everything else is just so messed up.

But hey, what exactly are the cards that came into Historic just through being added into the environment.

Some of these are not going to do anything, because their power level is now just so much worse than it used to be (like [scryfall]Chandra, Pyromaster[/scryfall]). Some are quite needed sideboard additions… or would be, if Bo1 wasn’t so pushed. Some just feel outdated (there’s exactly two mentions of regeneration in all of Historica and both of them just say that you can’t do that). And Jace? Why?

But then there’s just mistakes.

Let’s suppose there is a deck in a format that also happens to be the most popular deck, which doesn’t care about mana, because it has all of it already. You’ve just given it a new tool, which already breaks it, but why not give another one? I mean, [scryfall]Sphinx’s Revelation[/scryfall] is sort of flavorful, but it’s also just massively demolarizing when played against you. And for some reason, it seemed like a good idea for someone just to add it into this environment. And this was at the same time as [scryfall]Hour of Promise[/scryfall]. Nicely done.

Oh yeah, also [scryfall]Collected Company[/scryfall]. It was strong back in the day, but as power creep keeps on happening, it has become stupidly powerful. Again, let’s talk a little bit about user experience. You are about to attack. You might win with this attack, but opponent has four mana open. What do you do? If you don’t attack, you can’t win, but if you attack, you don’t exactly know what’s going to come down. Are you actually attacking into two [scryfall]Rotten Regisaur[/scryfall]s? This kind of stuff severely undermines the game.

I guess [scryfall]Thoughseize[/scryfall] is a good addition, as it can punish aggressive mulliganing. On the other hand, with continuously added consistency to various decks, it just seems kind of underpowered. It doesn’t seem to do anything, when your opponent just draws a tutor to find the piece they needed again.