Why is WotC Emphasizing Attacking Over Blocking?
General forum
Posted on Aug. 27, 2022, 10:40 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
I saw this post on Mark Rosewater's Tumblr, and it is one of many instances where WotC appears to be emphasizing attacking over blocking, and overall offensive over defense.
I have no problem with aggressive strategies, but I feel that defensive strategies should still be given focus, as well, since they are perfectly viable strategies, as well.
What does everyone else say about this? Why is WotC emphasizing offense over defense?
TypicalTimmy says... #3
Blocking doesn't win you the game ;)
But I do agree in a small regard that keyword abilities / mechanics designed for blocking, such as Flanking, would be a good avenue to explore.
Or something like
- Sturdy 1 (This creature may block an additional one creature each combat.)
Or
- Defiant 2 (Whenever this creature blocks, combat damage dealt to it this turn is reduced by 2.)
Or, a really good one for Innistrad,
- Selfless Sacrifice - Whenever this creature blocks, you may exile it. If you do, (...)
August 27, 2022 12:07 p.m. Edited.
wallisface says... #4
Wotc pretty-much always incentivises attacking over blocking in sets. They want to make sure a game can end, but also want to make sure a game doesn’t take too long, so that rounds can viably finish within time. In this way, they generally don’t want to reward people for not-attacking, as it creates too much incentive to let a game go long.
August 27, 2022 5:21 p.m.
psionictemplar says... #5
Because its a lot easier to give each color attackers than defenders. You also have to think that a lot of interactive spells are defensive, so adding a lot of creature defense as well would almost make creature based decks useless.
August 27, 2022 7:52 p.m.
I think a lot of it has to do with Arena. More players are playing more games now, so (and this is purely speculation), but I think they want to push the game to a different speed. I mean, I'm a casual and when I get time to get together with friends and play games it feels like an event, so long grindy games work really well, but that's just not the case with Arena. With the amount of games you have to play to do anything in Arena, I bet players just hate decks that can put up a ton of blockers.
August 28, 2022 1:13 p.m.
DeinoStinkus says... #7
What Niko9 says tracks, but I'd also like to bring in another angle.
I've long suspected that WOTC's design principles actually favor blocking over attacking, at least in mana value overall. That is to say, since blocking can't win you the game, as TypicalTimmy said, creatures can be given much higher toughness without boosting the rarity. Hence why Force of Savagery dies upon entering and is still a rare card for 3 mana while Aegis Turtle is largely forgotten by the community, is a common from an underpowered set, and is 1 mana.
Of course, with special abilities on blockers, it's harder to grant leverage to what a blocking creature can do, simply because that shifts the gameplay to the defending player, and those kinds of interactions are, for the most part, something Wizards would like to avoid outside of flash creatures. That isn't to say there aren't those kinds of blocking abilities, say, Steadfast Armasaur or Spike-Tailed Ceratops, but they are rarer for a reason.
Simply put, attacking should always be more highly rewarded than blocking, because it progresses the game, whereas blocking does not. Have you ever noticed that a LOT of indestructible creatures entice you to attack with them? Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre gulps down your opponent's board. Blightsteel Colossus deals massive amounts of poison damage. Avacyn, Angel of Hope has flying and can kick your opponents in the face.
There's reach, and that's about it for blocking abilities that are evergreen. (I'm not even sure if reach is evergreen anymore.)
There used to be regenerate, which is a more defensive mechanic.
But, like I said, blocking only slows down a game. It's a crucial part of the gameplay experience, but it shouldn't be able to dominate.
August 28, 2022 5:17 p.m.
It is somewhat interesting that the most recent set introduced Enlist - a “fixed” version of the best ability blockers ever received... but only included the attacking side of Banding. Banding, while the attacking side was a bit complicated, provided something defensive teams desperately need - a way to counter large scary creatures with trample.
I am holding out some hope that, by adding a simpler version of the offensive half of Banding, they might be divorcing the two halves of Banding and we might see an anti-trample ability added at some point in the future.
legendofa says... #2
The comment is specifically about enlist. My guess is that since Draft matches can easily turn into a stalemate, they wanted to keep the game active and progressing forward. In my experience, it's not at all unusual for both players in a draft match to have a board full of creatures, but be unwilling to attack--maybe they would attack into a swarm of small deathtouchers or first strikers, or would open themselves up to a game-losing counterattack. Enlist and similar mechanics give that little extra incentive to push forward and break a stalemate.
As a secondary concern, they're generally trying to simplify mechanics and make them easily intuitive. Limiting the ways in which an ability can be used like this both streamlines it and prevents indecision paralysis, while still allowing it to be used consistently.
August 27, 2022 11:07 a.m.