I played Magic for the better part of 10 years and this is just objectively not true. Like, literally, it objectively cannot be true. In the Standard format, if they've printed 3 dragons over the past six sets, you CAN'T build any Dragon deck at all, let a lone an effective one. Same with Angels. Even when there was a ton of Angels in Innistrad block, you could not make a cost efficient Angel deck that would be competitive because you would lose by turn 4 before you even had mana to play your first creature.

I hate to pull the whole fallacy of appeal to authority or experience, but I have to tell you with absolutely certainty from experience, that I would wager my entire life's savings on for my son's future, that you cannot build any theme deck in Standard format and be effective. It is quite literally impossible.

I built a Human deck for standard a while back that was very effective. It included Champion of the Parish x4, Mentor of the Meek x?, that Doomsayer guy that makes 1/1 tokens x4, other human related this or that. Even most of my spells gave humans or their tokens some kind of benefit. I seem to remember a lot of other people playing theme decks as well. Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies. They have creature type themes in just about every set they produce. Also the bonuses you can get from staying inside a theme in Magic are way better than the crappy theme bonuses we get in Heroclix. So explain to me again why I couldn't do it with Dragons?

Spider-Man beating Superman based on popularity? No. But Spider-Man routinely and regularly beats the likes of Venom, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, Lizard, Mysterio (insert several other spider-man villains here) So when you are creating figures based on the capabilities of the heroes presented, Spider-Man should be able to routinely be able to beat these villains.

Likewise, a representation of Dr. Doom having a hold of the Infinity Gauntlet, should reasonably mean that it's going to take an entire team of heroes to take him down, based on power levels from the comics.

Now keep in mind this argument is ONLY coming from a Heroclix world where figures are built to match the power and theme of their source material. I realize this kind of design would never work. It's just something that if I'm arguing for what I want as opposed to what the game needs, I'd like to see overpowered Captain America's and Super Mans that can't be beaten by the likes of an Astral Projection of Dr. Strange, a GCPD Motorcycle, D-List Villain Teen Titans Jynx, Brother Voodoo and an A.I.M. Agent. But that crap happens all the time in Heroclix and I have to acknowledge that's just how the game is.

Although I admit I quit playing Marvel Versus because it made me sick to see the likes of Iron Man & Thor getting defeated by J. Jonah Jameson & Maria Hill just because their cards were balls broken for no reason.

I would talk to a few judges at different venues about switching up the format. You may not be the only one in your play groups that feels this way. I know i bring resources as a nuclear deterent. If they use them, then I have to. The great thing about heroclix is that scenarios can be anything you want them to be. No resources, resources are only allowed on thematic teams from their universe, etc. if things are getting stale at all the local venues, then I would say that is an issue with a poor judge with little imagination.

That's not true. Perhaps not THIS standard season, but even now Minotaurs are shaping up to be awesome, especially with help from Boros Reckoner. During INN, Humans & Spirits dominated. Before that, Vampires were the bees knees in Zendikar. You most certainly CAN build a theme deck and have it be effective, it just needs the right support.

So...
About that money...?

If you don't understand the fundamentals about how Dragon's cannot be done competitively in standard no amount of me explaining it is going to get through to you.

Please, feel free to build a deck of 5/5 and 6/6 flying dragons that cost a minimum of 6 Mana. You don't even have to play this deck at a high level event. Go to your local FNM. Come back tonight after your Friday Night of going 0 and 4 and tell me how you fared with a Dragon Theme deck.

Also, you're referencing the Innistrad block, which isn't even in standard anymore. Which where you COULD feasibly run Humans, Spirit Tokens and Zombies and do well. But if you tried to do Elves, Wizards, Goblins, Dragons or any random theme team you wanted, you would get thrashed.

It's the same thing in Heroclix, which I will try to explain one more time as simple as I can.


In Magic Standard, you could possibly run a theme team of Humans and do well when Innistrad was around because SOME themes can work. You absolutely could not do Dragons. That's a period. No excuses. And that's not a design flaw with the game that your pet Dragon deck is not effective right this moment.

In Heroclix modern, you could possibly run a theme team of Animals with Alyosha or Mystics and do well because SOME themes can work. You absolutely could not do Doom Patrol. And no matter how big of a fan you are of Doom Patrol, it would not be an effective team. And that's not a design flaw that your pet theme team is not good right this moment.

I underlined ANY for a reason. Because the argument was brought up that he could build anything from Wizards to Dragons and it would be effective. And that is objectively NOT true. It absolutely is not. I know what I'm talking about here.

I reiterate. SOME theme teams can work. As in any game. ANY theme team cannot. And I will continue to hammer that point home as many times as I need to. I've got all day.

Ah, I see. Reading is hard, haha.

No but you should give me some monies anyway

Heroclix. Resources.


EDIT:

You know, I apologize. I didn't realize that I was being trolled this whole time. I should of known that nobody could be purposefully so obtuse about something so obvious to anyone who's actually played Magic: The Gathering.

Good game, Rapture. You got me raging. Troll successful. I'll be stepping out now.

I'm not really sure when this discussion became "any". Obviously you can't build a deck with cards that are not legal. Somewhere in the long history of Magic the Gathering I am sure there was a set that contained Dragons. From the moment I used dragons as an example though, its like the entire argument became about that one particular type of theme character. Really this discussion was about building theme teams in general, or in the case of magic... theme decks. I have not played standard in over 2 years. I was basically using what I knew as an example. Back when I did play standard and Valekut (or however the hell you spell that) was legal, people used Dragons. Utvara Hellkite was expensive to play, but she could be very effective. So unless we're talking about a deck that contains 24 lands and 36 Dragons, which would be pretty ineffective, there is no reason why you can't build a deck that's themed around dragons and be effective in a standard environment that actually contains Dragons. Otherwise you just build a theme around something else.

This is well said.

I think you're being very loose with your definition of trolling, but OK.

Also... Two weeks in the hole for calling me obtuse! Perhaps you'll find some redemption down there.

I realized it was trolling after I thought to myself

"Wait, why am I having to explain my point over and over again in increasingly elaborate ways in an attempt to get people to understand what I'm saying"?

and the answer to that question ended up being

"Oh right. This is the internet. This guy has played Magic so he knows that Mono Dragon decks have never been effective, yet he keeps insisting that he can build a Dragon deck right now and be effective, so he's trolling me. Why didn't I get this sooner?"

And so I have to accept my shame and congratulate you on a trolling well done tonight.

Let's get back to the point, because Magic is a weird old game for weird old men, not for hipsters like us.

The Gauntlet was a neat idea. Not perfectly executed and certainly inappropriately costed, but neat, and thematic, and it worked, more-or-less, in the way it was intending to.

Then it became a "resource" and the Belt came out, and THAT was the bad idea.

But, sadly, the kettle of fish has been opened and the rotten contents have spilled and you can't get the stink out now, no matter what you do.

Best thing to do is close the doors and windows and just don't go in that room anymore. By which plead to your event organizer to run some resource-free events. You gotta intervene your whole damn playgroup.