Does the change to 3-year standard rotations, have any impact on the ethos of “someone’s 1 or 2 is someone else’s 9 or 10”/“if everyone likes it but but no one loves it you fail”? For people that really don’t like something it’s then 3 whole years before the game moves on from it (in standard - the only format that does move on).
I’ve been playing on and off since 2004, got back in at the start of this year when my 2nd daughter was born and I got arena on my phone as something to do when sat up in the night. I’m okay with Innistrad and New Phyrexia but from what I’ve seen so far the horror vibe in Duskmourn is just too far for me, to the point that I’m doubting I’ll bother with Bloomburrow because I can’t see myself enjoying Duskmourn in standard all the way through to Autumn 2027, the year before my 6-month old daughter starts primary school.

Magic excels at providing lots of variety, so people can pick and choose what they want to play. It doesn’t excel at excluding things, because the thing you don’t like is someone else’s favorite thing. 9&10’s tend to come with 1&2’s because things that provoke reactions most often provoke positive *and* negative reaction.There are formats where you can only focus on the thing you like - limited formats & cube.

"Insta-gator has to have Goad somehow, so it can be an instigator, right?" I think Provoke would be perfect

Fight has usurped provoke. Insta-gator could force a fight.

Could we ever have a creature that has convoke, evoke, and provoke?

Would it be broke? : )

I saw the provoke question and though it meant that *evoke* was a 9. But since we’re on the topic, what’s evoke on the storm scale?

I think it’s a 5. I would like to bring it back.

Oh yes… Legions! And I thought fight was partly inspired by provoke, which was in the same block. It feels like the “all creatures” set constraints produced two mechanics that have gone on to use a lot of use. I could imagine other deeply restrictive settings could also produce similar results, like a creature-less set as a pure exercise.

The earliest designs that eventually led to fight predate provoke, although it did help move us in that direction. As for restrictions, we’ve found you can have them without having to be all or nothing. Strixhaven had a strong instant/sorcery theme, but the set wasn’t all instants and sorceries.

To weigh in on the provoke conversation. Is there a chance we could see it return in red? Alongside goad effects provoke always struck me as more red than green. And then wouldn't overlap greens fight mechanics.

Fight is secondary in red.

I was thinking. I actually think provoke as a mechanic was such a blast and might actually be a solid mechanic for green in general. How likely would it be to include provoke into future sets?

Fight being evergreen keeps provoke’s return chances low.

Hey Mark, where is Provoke in the Storm Scale? I think a mechanic that allows "attacking a creature" instead of a player would be within white's color pie and a good tool in its arsenal. What do you think?

With fight evergreen, I’m skeptical of provoke returning.

Provoke on storm scale?

Probably a 9. Fight existing makes its return unlikely.

If white got provoke, is there a possibility of white being tertiary in fight? Or is white getting provoke a mistake?

Forced blocking is in green and red.