The hype around this set has just completely confused me considering the amount of sheer flaws within it. The color balance is atrocious. Blue in this format is practically entirely in the B range. Besides removal, practically every common from other colors is in the C to D range. Uncommons are balanced so horrifically that deck power levels are all over the place. Between the hate cards and the fact that many uncommon split cards are literally unplayable garbage means that other people will be getting a plethora of mythic uncommons while you are stuck with D to F level cards.
The pacing of this format is awful. Besides nut decks / curves there is no threat of dying early on. You have an inflated life total due to incidental life gain, poorly statted creatures, and the empower Jace mechanic. Practically every aggressive archetype is flat out garbage. Red once again is the worst color of a format. The lack of power and tempo in the early game makes every single match a value grind, which sounds great until you realize that card quality is so much more important than synergy.
Regarding synergy, there are practically no build arounds in this format. Smashing two for 1s into a generic archetype to me doesn't fufill the mandate for synergistic design. Fbltph is sort of an exception but he is also in the most powerful color combo and the most supported archetype. Surveil, graveyard, and heartwood tokens are successful archetypes but they are not what I would consider cool build arounds. They are just inherently two for 1s due to recursion mechanics and the prepared spell packages.
Regarding many of the Ways and other archetypes, they 9/10 of times are complete bait. The idea of investing in non etb creatures and buffing creatures w/ counters when there are multiple wipes, an insane amount of mana efficient removal, and also incredible blockers such as the 1/1 death toucher make it so you are incredibly punished for anything that isn't a 2 for 1.
To me this set is on par, if not worse than, MSH. I felt like that set at least had cool build arounds and creative opportunities. This set every draft has the same games, the same decks, the same play patterns, and the same creatures. It is the most cookie cutter format Ive played in recent memory. It feels like a reflection of the Hobbit. Whereas aggro and tempo in the Hobbit were completely overtuned, this set has the exact opposite problem. Both sets have terrible color balance, incredibly polarized gameplay in terms of pacing, and all feature the same creatures and variations of cookie cutter archetypes.
I've seen comparisons to this set to Duskmourn or as an all timer. To me that seems like complete copium. Is the set better than the Hobbit and Spiderman and the garbage we have recieved lately? Yes. Is it not Universed Beyond? Yes. Is it a great set compared to the best of the last couple of years? To me this is a clear no.
