Write this down: Gathering Magic loves Wizards of the Coast.  They develop, create, and sell the best game in the world in our humble opinion (even better than Call of Duty: Black Ops).  This doesn’t mean there isn’t a bone to pick from time to time.  When decisions made on the mother-ship get stuck in our collective craw, we make it known.  Most of these issues are corrected, or are replaced so quickly the ire dies down almost before it began.  However, when WotC misses the mark just barely (or intentionally at times) the frustration seeps into pools like this column.  Apologies for the mixing of metaphors, but here is a hand of seven ideas that need to be shuffled into the deck and drawn again.

1. Six-Card Booster packs – Making the mistake of purchasing one of these little lottery tickets is an easy one.  Only half the cost of a regular booster ($2 MSRP) they can get you a MTG fix on the cheap.  Of course the six card breakout isn’t exactly consumer friendly: one land, three commons, and one uncommon, plus a reserved slot for a card of ‘random’ rarity.  Meaning all too often, you just plunked down $2 for four commons and one uncommon.  Without a guaranteed rare, and with so few cards anyway (aren’t there up to 16 in a regular booster!?), these should cost $1.  Anything more than that is like stealing… from children... who are blind.

2. No More Full Art Lands – Who are we kidding?  Full art lands are part of what made Zendikar so wildly popular.  We were paying for overpriced Fat Packs without a second thought because they came with 40 sweet full-art lands to stuff in our decks.  Every booster was a win because hey, you get at least one chase card in each.  At the time WotC announced this full-art land flood was a one-time present to us, almost like a thank you.  But honestly, after filling our sleeves with beautiful art, we’ve been forced to return to these plain plains?  I’m trying to think of an analogy, but my face is still stinging from where Wizards slapped me.  Wait a minute…

3. The New Dual Lands – Speaking of lands, what MTG rant of mine would be complete without a dig at the newest cycle from Scars of Mirrodin.  Sure, they are seeing play in tournament decks, but so are the uncommon duals, and even some of Zenikar’s common lands!  The worst part is there is such a simple solution to making Seachrome Coast rare-worthy: add one more to the number of other lands you can have in play before this guy comes in tapped.  That gives players an unfettered fourth turn, which is a pretty important one, and carries basically the same penalty as before.  Is that too much to ask from a rare land cycle?

4. The Cost to Proliferate – How can adding counters to permanents be so over-powering, that the mechanic that accomplishes that task needs the be so watered down?  Take a look at Contagion Engine, and Mindslaver.  The exact same to cast, and activate, yet the latter is often considered a sure win, while the former is a one-sided Infest (at twice the price of the original).  Perhaps the real issue is abuse with effects like Voltaic Key.  So why then re-print a previously banned card in M11 that forces you to nerf a cool new mechanic idea in your follow up set?  Maybe WotC thought Planeswalker's ultimate abilities going off the turn they enter play is too much, but if you can afford to play one and proliferate at least once then you deserve it.  Right?

5. Premium Decks – This point was hammered home by Reinhart last week, so we won’t go into detail here.  However, I do have one question: who ever wanted to pay for a foil Fire Servant?

6. Current Land Destruction – The people behind Magic have gone on record numerous times decrying land destruction as a strategy, and as a play mechanic.  Spells like Stone Rain and Rain of Tears no longer see print because their purpose has been deemed ‘unfun’ by the Powers that Be.  While I agree with that stance, there seems to be an awful lot of land destruction seeping into Magic lately.  Acidic Slime (printed in two consecutive core sets) is used to kill lands, in my experience, far more than to spot remove pesky Auras.  Destructive Force sure seems like land destruction to me, and it sees all sorts of play in Standard.  The Zendikar block is also far from innocent with Tectonic Edge and the Annihilator ability which basically reads ‘sacrifice x lands’.  So choose a side WotC, because with all these cards we’re starting to get a little confused.

7. Poison Counters – This is not so much about the counters themselves, but more about the lack of defense against them.  It took WotC a lot of work to make poison a viable build in any format, so kudos is certainly due.  But, do we literally get no defense from it at all!?  Games are being won on turn three with hyper-pumped Infect creatures like Plague Stinger.  Players should not lose a game because they were unable to stop one attack that early in a game.  Defense against poison isn’t impossible, but the amount of removal/countermagic we need to pack leads us down a road I’m not sure we want to travel.  Solution: make a few costly, watered-down Leeches re-prints.  Worried about poison becoming just another life total, WotC?  Trust me, it already is.

So there you have it, a hand-full of ideas that need to be shuffled up, and re-drawn.  So how about it WotC, are you ready to take a mulligan?  We’ll even let you draw seven again.