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Well, they've done it again. The Powers that Be at Wizards, and specifically Mark Rosewater, have directly addressed the growing discontent in the Vintage community...

Oy.

Some highlights, with commentary:

"...I promise today to make no claims to understanding the current metagame as I am sure I will get bashed plenty for things I think I do understand."

Hey! Not bad! Or so I thought...

"...some people argue that Type 1 isn't that expensive. That just isn't true. I could comb through Oscar Tan's columns for decklists and print the dollar amount of each deck based on InQuest median prices, but we all know what I'd find. The whole point of this column is for me to be honest with all of you. So you need to be honest back. Type 1 is expensive."

First of all, I can't wait to read Oscar's take on this.

Secondly, anyone citing InQuest for anything is automatically wrong. It's like that old rule that the first person to bring up Hitler or the Nazis in a debate completely unrelated to World War II automatically loses. In fact, it might be worse than that. After all, Hitler never penned anything as horrific as"In a monoblack deck, Mind Sludge equals Mind Twist."

Thirdly, it's time to play everyone's favorite game:"Find the Flaw in Maro's Reasoning!"

Contestants, you have ten seconds. Starting...now!

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*ding*

Time's up!

Maro's main mistake is this: He claims that he won't comment on the T1 metagame, but then he does make a very strong assumption about said metagame by repeating the old (and long-debunked) canard that T1 is the most expensive format because you have to have Moxes, Ancestral Recall, and Black Lotus to win. Any decent Suicide, Sligh, Stompy, or Parfait player (and that's just a few decks off the top of my head), could set him straight that you, in fact, do not.

In fact, competitive Type 2 becomes far more expensive after a single set rotation (nevermind two, three, or more) than Type 1 will ever be, even if your were to build and play fully-Powered Keeper.

This entire argument on Maro's part is, in actuality, an extended mistruth through-and-through, and whether perpetrated through ignorance or malice will only worsen his standing in the eyes of the Vintage community as a whole.

It's almost as bad as the simpletons who drone on about Channel/Fireball a full six years after banning, restriction, and Force of Will made the combo completely unplayable in anything resembling a serious Type 1 deck.

Spreading old BS is bad, mmmkay?

This is truly unfortunate. The man seems to cram his own foot in his mouth so often when addressing Vintage that I almost suspect he sports magnetic braces and iron toenails. What's worse is that I can tell that he's trying. This isn't hatred on my part, it's sheer... Exasperation.

"To be blunt, according to our data, Type 1 is not all that popular."

Ah, yes. Maro's vaunted tournament statistics - statistics that have been grossly misinterpreted due to such an obvious lapse of logic that I'm surprised it survived even a cursory proofreading prior to the posting of the article.

Only 3% of sanctioned tournaments were Vintage format last year? Wow. We suck. Case closed, right?

Wrong.

Tournament players go where the money is. If Wizards funnels 100% of its financial support into non-Type 1 format tournaments, it's no surprise that 97% of sanctioned tournaments won't be Type 1 format. What serious competitor want to waste valuable cash, deckbuilding, playtesting, and field testing on decks and strategies that have no chance of ever netting him any serious money or prestige when he could be gearing up for the real deal? It's dumb. If you're going out for a $20,000,000 per year contract with the L.A. Lakers, are you going to spend most of your time at the gym practicing your freethrows or in the batting cage?

The bottom line is that Maro has placed the cart before the horse. Competitive players go where the money and fame is. Pump more prize money into Type 1 and sanctioned tournaments will multiply accordingly. Expecting it to work the other way around is just daft. Again, the lack of basic common sense here has me dismayed.

"One of the ongoing themes of 'Making Magic' is that the game exists for many different types of people. One subset cares greatly about the value of their cards (and this is, incidentally, not a small group). Our responsibility to this group prevents us from reprinting a certain subset of cards. That is not negotiable."

Yup, no T1 reprints. Ever. The reasoning is this: Some Type 1 players want reprints, but some collectors don't. Therefore, automatically, screw the Type 1 players. Huh? Hey, as long as we're grabbing our ankles here, why not snarl something about how it's"not negotiable" just to twist the knife a little. That's what we're here for, right?

Why can't there be a compromise?

What about white borders or new art or distinctive expansion symbols? They work when it comes to maintaining card value. Why else does an Arabian Nights City of Brass still sell for at least ten times more than one from any subsequent printing? Bottom line: Visibly different reprints successfully guard the value of the original for collectors and enrich the card pool for players. Everybody wins. Compromise, Maro. Compromise.

As long as I'm on the subject of compromise (or at least the lack thereof), want a little more insight into why Vintage players are pissed?

Here it is: We lose by default every time.

We want something, anything, and somebody else doesn't? We lose and that's that. No calls in our favor ever. Not even any thought given to a compromise that might leave us at least partially satisfied. Just an all-out, unapologetic screw job. We're tired of playing the whipping boy.

Yes, my friends, the outlook is bleak. Is there any break in the clouds? Any ray of hope? Yes! Thankfully, there seems to be two:

"What does Type 1 need now that it's missing? What kinds of realistically-printable cards would shake things up? Please write to me at makingmagic@wizards.com and fill me in. Be aware that I'm not looking for individual card ideas but rather areas that I could explore that would have a positive impact on Type 1. Would you like to affect the future of Type 1? Here's your chance."

And what a chance it is. What does Type 1 need? The missing pieces of the currently nonexistent tier one aggro deck? An unrestricted Black Vise to punish the dominant control strategies? The long-overdue banning of the megabroken Noble Panther (don't ask)? Whatever your opinion, I urge you to take Maro's advice and pass it on to him.

Of course, the diehard cynic in me can't help but read"realistically-printable" as"really weak", but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this time.

Maro leaves us with a multiple-choice poll:

"Would you like us to sponsor a Type 1 Championship each year?"

Hmm. Now, far be it from me to exert too much undue outside influence on the wheels of democracy here, but...

VOTE YES, DAMMIT! DO IT NOW!! THIS I COMMAND!!!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

In closing, I want to very sincerely thank Mark Rosewater. Heaven knows I'm hard as hell on the man sometimes - often harder than I mean to be. This time, though, he's done okay. Not perfect, but overall, it wasn't as bad as I was dreading. Sure, his tournament statistic confusion and repeating of old myths about the costs of Type 1 play irked me and his reprint refusal had me downright steamed, but he is trying. His promises to look into more Type 1-specific design and potentially support a real Type 1 World Championship again have definitely piqued my interest.

Rather than stopping here, I urge all Vintage enthusiasts to keep on fighting the good fight.

Wizards might not be falling over themselves to meet all our demands, but at least they're finally listening.

Why knows where things could go from here?