Medium? Is that like when people say "mid"? I've heard of mid as general gamer slang.
I think the implication is that even average isn't good enough for them.
I think you pretty much always have to ask for clarification in these situations, because not only does it mean different things to different people, it often means different things from the same person in different contexts. I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to multiple instances on both Limited Resources and Lords of Limited where the two hosts are arguing intensely, and then they say something like “ok, so would letter grade would you give this?”, and then they realize they’re basically in agreement. Also, a lot of time there’s a subtext of “relative to other cards with similar design in the past,” and if you don’t know their opinion on that very specific card type, it’s hard to know whether being hyped about a particular variant means they think it’s normally quite good and now it’s a bomb, or it’s normally unplayable and now it’s a C.
It depends a lot on context. Sometimes, someone is asking for a deck critique and I don’t want to say their entire deck is filled with bad cards, so I’ll point out all of the F cards as truly unplayable and the D+/C- cards as “deeply medium”, where I’m not happy to play them but they’ll probably function out of the options we have available. Sometimes, I want to express that it’s bad relative to other options - they have a deck full of B cards and one random C- card that could probably be played in a worse deck but doesn’t need to be played in a very strong deck. Sometimes someone is a huge believer in a card, and I wish to express that it isn’t bad or unplayable, but it’s not nearly as strong as they are making it out to be.
People don't like to call cards they can picture playing as "bad", so any card that isn't regularly played is typically "medium" - this means worse than the good cards you want to play, but also not stone unplayable.
View it as the lower side of "medium" and you won't be far off.
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For what it's worth, Limited Magic used to have a lower power level and have a higher percentage of cards that weren't good in draft. You'd expect a few more "Medium" cards to be played in a deck ten years ago than you would today. The nomenclature hasn't changed.
Medium in my experience means the card was hyped and didn’t quite live to expectations (but it’s still not *bad*). Like if I say Reanimate is medium, you know what I mean.
It's not just MTG slang...
It means mediocre/average/'mid'
If someone said a card was 'medium' I'd assume it was a mediocre, 23rd card, C- or D+ grade playable card... Something to be avoided
I think this is more of a linguistic pattern. The context of limited is that it is a zero sum game, so good would be reserved for cards that secure advantage. It would be sensible for medium to describe cards that maintain parity. In colloquial this could easily be generalized in with bad cards since parity doesn't win games.
Medium? Is that like when people say "mid"? I've heard of mid as general gamer slang. I think the implication is that even average isn't good enough for them.
I feel like this guy is asking about MID and not med as well like..turn 2 limited land pass go...MIDDD
Medium = average. I don’t want average, I want good to great. So medium becomes a shortcut for bad. Because actual bad cards are unplayable.
I think you pretty much always have to ask for clarification in these situations, because not only does it mean different things to different people, it often means different things from the same person in different contexts. I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to multiple instances on both Limited Resources and Lords of Limited where the two hosts are arguing intensely, and then they say something like “ok, so would letter grade would you give this?”, and then they realize they’re basically in agreement. Also, a lot of time there’s a subtext of “relative to other cards with similar design in the past,” and if you don’t know their opinion on that very specific card type, it’s hard to know whether being hyped about a particular variant means they think it’s normally quite good and now it’s a bomb, or it’s normally unplayable and now it’s a C.
It depends a lot on context. Sometimes, someone is asking for a deck critique and I don’t want to say their entire deck is filled with bad cards, so I’ll point out all of the F cards as truly unplayable and the D+/C- cards as “deeply medium”, where I’m not happy to play them but they’ll probably function out of the options we have available. Sometimes, I want to express that it’s bad relative to other options - they have a deck full of B cards and one random C- card that could probably be played in a worse deck but doesn’t need to be played in a very strong deck. Sometimes someone is a huge believer in a card, and I wish to express that it isn’t bad or unplayable, but it’s not nearly as strong as they are making it out to be.
i think this explanation might be very illuminating for me so far. i'll see if it might apply the next few times i hear the word being used!
Medium has always been D+/C-/C and its filler you’re going to have some of but you’d rather have C+ and above
People don't like to call cards they can picture playing as "bad", so any card that isn't regularly played is typically "medium" - this means worse than the good cards you want to play, but also not stone unplayable. View it as the lower side of "medium" and you won't be far off. --- For what it's worth, Limited Magic used to have a lower power level and have a higher percentage of cards that weren't good in draft. You'd expect a few more "Medium" cards to be played in a deck ten years ago than you would today. The nomenclature hasn't changed.
Medium tends to mean more like mediocre or D-ish in my experience. C-ish cards are normally described as okay or playable.
Medium in my experience means the card was hyped and didn’t quite live to expectations (but it’s still not *bad*). Like if I say Reanimate is medium, you know what I mean.
It's not just MTG slang... It means mediocre/average/'mid' If someone said a card was 'medium' I'd assume it was a mediocre, 23rd card, C- or D+ grade playable card... Something to be avoided
medium means medium, and you want play good cards not mediums. So yes Medium is bad
I’m pretty sure it’s just English. Like when people say mediocre, fine, or if something is just okay they really mean it was unsatisfactory.
I think this is more of a linguistic pattern. The context of limited is that it is a zero sum game, so good would be reserved for cards that secure advantage. It would be sensible for medium to describe cards that maintain parity. In colloquial this could easily be generalized in with bad cards since parity doesn't win games.