This is something I have been thinking about that is stemming from all the recent discussion about workshops and possible restrictions, so bear with me. As a player, I have my power and the ability to pretty much build any deck I want to in vintage with some trading/buying. I have played in some larger events but also have just enjoy playing the format casually every now and again.
I am staggeringly bored with the format right now. I find myself, given the option, gravitating towards playing modern or legacy more often than not. I was even recently pricing out what my power would get me were I to sell it. I really don't think I want to walk away from the format forever, but I play it so infrequently now that it is hard for me to justify having this much cash tied up in it.
Now, this is not to say there have not been shifts and changes in the format on a whole, the format has actually had some pretty big shifts, and I had to think long and hard about why I am not enjoying it like I used to, feeling it being stagnant even though I know things are moving.
When the discussion about Shops possibly being restricted came up, it honestly really excited me. It's a card I think is long overdue for a restriction and have thought so for years (I think I may make the same argument about Bazaar and misstep to be truthful, I don't mind having a larger restricted list), but what really excited me was not the thought that it would balance the format more, but rather the hope that it would make Tribal Eldrazi a viable deck again. Without 4x shops, I reasoned that you would still have shops decks that run the full compliment of power cards, but that it would not just be the "strictly" superior colorless deck and eldrazi could come back into contention, perhaps even running a singleton copy of shops to power out null rods, spyglasses, and spheres.
Once I started to think about it though, I realized the real reason I am bored with vintage is because while I like playing in a format with Shops, Moxen, and Big blue stuff, I really don't want to actually play those cards myself. The idea of playing a deck that specifically does not want to run blue or Moxen because it's a viable meta attack on those very cards is actually what makes me interested in the format, and up until this point those lists have been few and far between. Dredge does not run those cards but it does not specifically prey on them, where as tribal eldrazi literally tried to take the cards that help define the format and turn them into a liability. Humans for a time could get away with just running a few pieces of power and trying to attack people who over extended into those cards, but I don't think the deck ever quite got good enough.
If shops does get restricted, I am very likely to sell my power, buy a single copy of workshops (or 2 so I have an commander copy) and actually put together said list, so I am actually hoping that happens. I think it would rejuvenate the format for me and quite possibly others. This is not a budget discussion, I want to play to win and want to be competitive, but I also cannot help but think that this could greatly help in that regard as well. Eldrazi is about as costly as a meta Modern deck with a single workshops and no other power.
Does anyone else share my feeling here? I cant imagine people who have played for years and yeas sometimes just don't want to play out moxen every now and again.