onedayweek wrote:
I wouldn't play it. Not because it's bad but because, and let me first start by saying that this is completely opinion based, it is an un-fun card. I shuffle up to play cards. Not to sit and watch everyone else have a good time. I believe my opponents feel the same and I don't want to put them into an un-fun situation. It's the same reason I don't play Iona, which I believe is a spot on comparison. I also don't run stax or non-interactive combo decks.
I agree with that pretty strongly.
I think there's a couple of differences from Iona:
First,
visibility. Iona's the commander so we can see we're facing an Iona deck before the game begins. If we're not comfortable playing against an Iona deck, we can respond at the very beginning, before any time has been spent: "I don't want to play against Iona. Do you mind taking out one of your other decks, or swapping her out for another legendary?" If we are comfortable playing against her, her player ought to be conscious they've at least painted a big X on their forehead.
Second,
threat level and
the players banding together against that threat. Iona creates a different attitude entirely among the players compared to Overwhelming Splendor. Iona is an ever-present threat that can come back and happen to anyone, so players feel pressure to destroy her player ASAP, like if someone came to the table with an Infect deck. The two players who share a colour might feel especially nervous as prime targets. If any player gets hit, unaffected or less-affected players have a "that could have been me -- that could still be me!" feeling. This means players are working together against a common threat, and any player imprisoned by it has allies willing to do things that will free them.
Overwhelming Splendor
doesn't come back(*). Once it's used it'll never affect anyone else. The un-Splendored players can breath a sigh of relief ("phew, they used up one of their strongest cards and I'm glad it wasn't me") and continue on. Those players don't feel a burning need to remove the Splendor, its caster, or its victim from the game. The victim has no new allies as a result of Overwhelming Splendor, there is no common enemy at the table, there's nobody willing to help free them from this prison but themselves.
(* The exception is if the deck has a big theme of flickering or returning enchantments from their graveyard, in which case Splendor is still as threatening as Iona.)
Humility: This one isn't visible, but it does at least affect everyone, which means like with Iona, everyone's working together to destroy it. The exception might be its player, since they've got Humility in their game plan for some reason, but at least they're
also hit by it and just have weenie creatures (probably).
As a point of reference, if losing your commander feels bad...
Quote:
1) We want to engender as positive an experience as we can for players. Nothing runs the feel-bads worse than having your commander unavailable to you for the whole game. --
Tuck rules change announcement... so too would losing your commander
and every other creature (they're all just ability-less vanilla 1/1 weenies now) with nobody having any need to help you.