BFZ draft format once Oath comes in.
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Sept. 1, 2015, 11:09 a.m. by JWiley129
So Oath of the Gatewatch is the 2nd set in the BFZ block, but look at the PT formats for Pro Tour Oath. It's Oath-Oath-BFZ draft, not Oath-BFZ-BFZ as we have done in the past. Thoughts?
@Boza that's what going to the 2 set blocks is supposed to help them do. Instead of spreading the good stuff out over three sets it's now only spread through 2 sets. That means each set is able to make a larger impact when it's released.
September 1, 2015 11:43 a.m.
A higher density of higher quality cards in fewer sets.
September 1, 2015 2:26 p.m.
Just because we're going to two sets per block, doesn't mean the good cards from Set Three magically appear in Set Two. Each set has to be taken into consideration separately. Also "yada yada...bad cards exist so good cards can be good...", but I'm with Boza. Opening double of the small set means more of the singles get out into the market, especially since Prerelease Sealed is 4 Oath and 2 BFZ. It puts pressure on Oath to be good but not overpowering. The FRF Prerelease was an example of that, where the 4.5 packs of FRF and 1.5 packs of Khans felt more like Fate Reforged than Khans.
EDIT Incorrectly assumed regular Sealed would be 4 Oath and 2 BFZ. Probably 3 Oath and 3 BFZ like it normally is.
September 1, 2015 2:29 p.m. Edited.
@JWiley129, actually yes it does kinda mean that. At least that's what they said a year ago when they made the announcement about the new block format. Instead of intentionally having to hold cards out of the first 2 sets in order to make the 3rd set still appealing to players, they can now include those cards in the first two sets effectively making each set matter more.
September 1, 2015 5:48 p.m.
Question: is Oath still a smaller set now that we're moving to two set block? Or will both be relatively the same in size?
September 1, 2015 5:49 p.m.
abenz419 - "Matter more", yes. More powerful? No. Each set can only hold so much power, it's just that the powerlevel is being spread over 3 blocks/6 sets instead of 2 blocks/ 8 sets.
saj0219 - If you click on the link I provided you'll see that Oath has 187 cards while BFZ has 270+
September 1, 2015 5:56 p.m.
JWiley129: thanks! (Insert comment about links and phones here) somewhat surprising as I would have assumed they'd do two similarly sized sets, but... Shows what I know.
September 1, 2015 6:13 p.m.
Ahh now I see where your confusion. No one ever said anything about the power level of a set or block. I mentioned to Boza that the new structure is supposed to help them, in response to his comment. I also corrected you when you said that just because we have a new format doesn't mean the good cards from the 3rd set are going to end up in the first two sets, because that statement contradicts what they said when they announced the change.
However, no one ever said anything about the power level of any sets or blocks being increased. In fact, power level is not even mentioned until your response in post #7 where you attempt to correct me for something I never said.
September 1, 2015 6:17 p.m.
abenz419 - "Good" usually means "high powerlevel", so you could see why I would make that connection. Also, it's not like Oath has twice as many good cards as it would normally if hypothetical BFZ Set 3 was still there. Oath will have the same number of good cards, it's just that some of the synergy/exciting cards that would have been postponed won't have to be.
September 1, 2015 6:24 p.m.
I was just trying to mention is that if the draft are 3x BFZ followed by 1x Oath + 2x BFZ that is very unfair to the small set and decrease the value of the large set before it. The change has been done in order to actually sell packs of the small set. Nothing to do with power level IMO.
September 2, 2015 2:32 a.m.
The old version was horribly imbalanced in terms of how much product would end up being sold for drafts. When there were 3-set blocks, and the draft went 1/1/1, 1/1/2, 1/2/3 assuming you were drafting at a steady rate, you'd be opening 6/2/1 packs of each set.
I feel like this is a large part of why third sets often sell poorly, because so little of it is actually needing to exist for drafts, it's hugely out of proportion to the actual size of the sets. (Large sets not being 6 times the size of the third set, but drafted 6 times as often)
Changing to 1/1/1 1/2/2 sets the ratio of packs being opened to 2:1 which is much more on par with the size of the sets.
Boza says... #2
Basically, you will open more packs of the newer set, which is a very welcome change. However, that does put pressure on development to craft a VERY good small set that will support the majority of the draft.
September 1, 2015 11:28 a.m.