#copper torch

Wow, so they're just going to let you make everything out of copper, huh? We've gone from "copper is mostly a building block" to "copper is a building block but it has armor and tools like the other ores" to "copper can do everything iron can do and more".

Copper is the future of Minecraft. It's the earliest metal ore you're most likely to build with, and you'll probably keep building with it, because it's cheap and it's the most dynamic building block now. Plus it matches the new organizational system, the Copper Golem.

It's has this cool steampunk theme. It's got grates and bulbs and lightning rods for cool gates, but also counterparts to all the iron stuff like doors, chains, bars, lanterns. There's three copper light sources. And all of it is available in orange and green and everything in between.

And this makes sense...technically. Copper needs a lot of longevity to remain relevant as the first and most plentiful metal ore in the game. So it makes sense to make it the best building block set.

On the other hand...this overshadows iron just a little bit. The handful of iron building blocks we have feel like substitutes now. Now the only reason people will craft iron lanterns, chains, or bars is because they really don't want to build in orange and green.

I built a copper house and an iron house to illustrate the difference between building with copper...and building with iron:

Building with iron should feel like an upgrade. It doesn't need to have as many blocks as copper does, but it should have essentials that make a matching set work, like stairs and slabs at least.

And don't get me started on gold. Iron and gold both have a lot more going for them than just building - but it would be nice if they had modest building sets just to match copper a little bit.