https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/stark-reality-battl...
> Battle Box creates a scenario where almost every game of Magic is a good game of Magic. Sometimes you will lose, and if the cards had come in a different order you would have won. You still draw a random card every turn. However, if you wanted to play around what your opponent has and increase your chances of winning, you will be able to. Cards are roughly the same power level, and no one ever gets mana screwed or flooded, so the vast majority of games come down to the decisions you make.
Looking through the one-drops in Standard right now, I don't see any vanilla 2/2; which one are you thinking of?
Creatures were deliberately pushed to make them more central to competitive play, which is why you got absurd stuff like the Titans in M11. At the same time, Wizards never want a return to the degeneracy of Urza block and so spells are less powerful. They still mess up regularly (Splinter Twin/Deceiver Exarch was an oversight giving a reliably turn 4 combo kill, for example), but it's true that some stuff will probably never reach that peak power level again outside of combat.
Also neither of those are in standard right now.
They've also much pushed the Planeswalker type, and you see plenty of them in Legacy/Modern/Standard; apparently it's a deliberate design decision to make sure that the characters featured in their lore see play at competitive tables.
On the other hand, older noncreature spells are still king among their kind. Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, Brainstorm, Swords to Plowshares and Glimpse of Nature aren't getting dislodged any time soon.
Creatures on the other hand, way more powerful.
But I don’t think they have a power creep problem, although admittedly I only read up on the game periodically, not play. I think they did one main rebalancing, and that’s it. It’s not like cards from a few years ago are unplayable.
Over time, the amount of utility for mana cost with the current sets has increased, which means the overpowered cards of the past are 'relatively' less powerful. On the flip side it renders a ridiculous amount of cardboard never-competitive playable again. 2/2 Grizzly Bears with no abilities for G(1)?
First turn Savannah Lions used to be huge.
For my starting era (late Revised / late Dark) first turn Kird Ape was about the best you could do with the R/G dual-tap land, or maybe something involving Sol Ring.