I have listened to some arguments about it and they have takes very different from me. You see, I actually like games and the bracket system does not serve me at all.

So, this is the bracket system. A more comprehensive explanation can be found here and you should probably read it as there is a lot of nuance.

My decks are always in bracket 3 and always will be, but they are not bracket 3 decks. They feel like bracket 3 in the sense that I do think quite a bit about what to play “in each slot” (which is in itself a bad approach to building decks) and I play decks that are good, but the difference is that I aim for good gameplay.

Here’s what I like: I enjoy games where the players use their resources to gain edges over time in order to maneuver to a victory.

Here’s what the game looks like according to the people who made the bracket: It’s whoever manages to find their combopieces fastest, so that you don’t have to actually experience a game.

How does the bracket system see this? According to the bracket system I’m not tuning my decks well enough, because I never have two card combos (or three card combos) in my decks, I avoid the so called gamechangers, except that I have played Cyclonic Rift occasionally, but my decks are not tuned to alpha back on my turn. I am very happy to take it out and use Aetherspouts or Aetherize instead. What I would like to avoid is someone playing Craterhoof Behemoth or Insurrection and just winning an otherwise interesting game.

Where did we go so wrong? This has been going on for a long while. The game is not about being smart anymore. It’s about feeling smart when you draw the right cards. To me this is a longtime problem with the design of the cards and I don’t think it can even be fixed anymore. Which is why I have largely forsaken the format. And the game, to be honest. Most of the people I used to play with have also largely moved on. Some of the have found other formats, where their desire to actually play a game is seen at least somewhat valid.

So, my problem with the bracket system does not lie with the details. It lies with the approach where actual gameplay does not matter. In bracket 3, where my decks generally are, there is a specific mention that the games can just end because someone plays a two-card combo. Why is that okay? Why does Gavin, who is supposed to make the game better, think this is okay? Does he really think that is a good experience?

Of course, Gavin has been a problem for the game for a very long time and even here he is being a fucking asshole who hides behind the memory Sheldon Menery (who wasn’t very good at managing the format either), because he can’t take the responsibility for making decisions. Fuck Gavin.

The bigger problem might actually be that there are 18 people in the format panel. How can a group that big make any kind of decisions? Are there parties within this group? Generally you don’t want more than maybe nine people in something like this, because otherwise the discussions just won’t go anywhere, but obviously Gavin doesn’t understand that or he has deliberately created a big group like this so that he can just do what he wants, but claim he is listening.