This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, MTGCast #106 - Mythic Rare Madness?!?. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
I had some cards stolen once. I noticed a Skullclamp and an Armageddon missing from my binder, and fumed about it for weeks, wondering who it could have been at the local shop that had slipped these away without my noticing.
Then, digging through one of my boxes, I found some cards face down in sleeves (Used for a variant format I created called "Briefcase"). Of course, the skullclamp and geddon were in there. I'm glad I didn't accuse anyone, but I still felt like a jerk.
I thankfully never have had my cards stolen out right. I lost power in bad trades as a kid but that is another story.
As for the announcements, I read the vintage bans first and got really excited because I just started playing t1 at my local store and this really shakes it up. The other one I'm excited about is the new Rares. I just hope that they don't put all the good rares in the level and stick to what he said in his article.
I loved it how you guys had people from Beijing listening to the show. I checked out this episode as soon it came out, glad you guys did it on Monday instead of Sunday! I already shared my thoughts about the changes in many threads, but I personally think changes are just changes and while players might complain a little, in the end, they will learn to deal with it.
My story about stolen cards was not about my own cards, but I was involved in an episode which was pretty cool. One friend of mine is an avid competitive player. He had all the good cards (beta Sinkholes, a pimped out Survival of the Fittest deck that was filled with foreign cards and foils, very competitive Fires deck back when that was T2, etc) back when we were still in high school. I was just getting into Magic at this time, and he helped me out alot in teaching me how to properly build decks and play the right cards (we also played alot of DDR when we got bored of Magic, lol). One day, the "Magic Club" (I guess you could call it that, it wasn't as nearly as organized as a club) went over to his house because I think the cafeteria was closed. We all had a great time playing multiplayer games. However, the next day came, and he came to me pretty angry. Apparently, someone stole a set of Birds of Paradise and Shivan Wurm straight out of his binder (Shivan Wurm was a pretty good T2 card back in the day). I told him not to worry, and I'd get to the bottom of this. I then proceeded to ask around about whether anyones got any new cards for trades, because I was especially interested in making a multicoloured deck. Lo and behold, another classmate told me that his friend managed to get some Birds of Paradise recently, and that he is looking to flip it over. I found this friend of his, and what do you know, those were the exact set of Birds that were stolen (it's not hard to identify Korean BoPs). I then had a long talk with him, and eventually, after alot of empty promises (yeah I know, I'm such a bastard, but hey, he stole the cards), I convinced him to give up the set of Birds and Shivan Wurm. I then returned it to my friend, and he gave me a set of Armageddons to keep for my White Weenie deck as a reward for getting his cards back.
Just an interesting story that I thought I might share. This all happened when I was still in high school, so I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe I should have went and studied Politics and Diplomacy :P.
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do we want magic to become a yugioh clone? magic has been a perfect game for the 15+ years it's been around. there was never anything too controversial besides the occasional card slip (tarmogoyf ^^). it saddens me to see something so good change the way it is. i bring you to my point of argument. the new changes. some i like, but most i just loathe.
A) mythic rares. what the heck were they thinking? this is going to confuse the poop out of people who already play, and cause new players to think that because they are mythic rares, a whole step above the average rare, that they are suddenly the best cards in the game, better than a black lotus or any of the moxes period. these are not gonna be power 9 cards, and if they are, wizards is screwin up far more than i thought. yugioh helped influence this decision i'm guessing.
B) Land in each booster. they say that they want us to draft, and as a matter of fact, they have been pushing and encouraging it more and more lately. so now what do they do? they take out a common and put in a land. for those that don't know, i already have so much land that i take a sharpie to em and draw on them. that's how worthless they are, to me, to most of the already playing magic population, to a bum on the street. i'd rather have the extra common in my booster for drafting, might be the removal spell i need to win. thanks. btw, chances of getting basic land as a foil in every pack. great.
C) Fewer cards per year. we just had the HUGEST standard pool i've ever seen, and after next set, it'll be even bigger. 9 sets in standard. (ts block, lor/sha block, 10th, cs). so now they decided to cut down. this is alright, till lorwyn block is out. then we're kinda screwed. it'll be interesting if they don't switch back. I'm not sure how i feel. better chance to get a mythic rare i guess.
D) Intro packs. this is the one thing i consider decent. noone i know buys theme decks, but i guess new players need to learn by playing something that isn't their own work sometimes. however, i think this change may help kids to learn. you have a 40 card limitedish i guess deck, so you get the same cards more, and get a better chance at figuring out how the deck works.
you also now get a foil rare AND a booster pack so you can get a (you knew i had to say it) MYTHIC RARE!
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I gotta get that Russian Treasure Trove! It's one of my favorite cards!
Well, when I heard a long time ago that were banning cards in Type 2 from Urza's Block, I was crushed. But then they said they were replacing the banned cards with packs so I proceeded to trade for every Fluctuator at $0.50-$1.00 (even as a throw-in) and traded in over 50 for packs. That was awesome.
***I just read the update, and here's my response:
Did they mention what card will be replaced by the FOIL? It would make sense if there was a FOIL in a pack that it would replace the land card. Then again those poor noobs wouldn't get their basic land (buy a starter box, come on-they're available at Wal Mart!). And when is there going to be a FOIL in EVERY pack? That would get rid of the concern of what card was being replaced. If there was a FOIL in every pack, you wouldn't have to mess up the order and could use the same distribution as always (FOIL Rare plus regular rare makes for a concerning pack like when I opened FOIL Garruk and a regular Garruk in a draft and the player I passed to wondered why I took a common over a Garruk). I'd rather see a FOIL in every pack because it won't screw up drafts/signals. Oddly enough, I opened a FOIL Final Revels and a Final Revels in a Lorwyn pack. How many black players do we need? Let's make this simpler! No more duplicate cards in a pack!
As far as the Mythic rare being twice as rare as a regular rare. That's fine in packs, but they're guaranteeing a Mythic rare in EACH Pre con. This will make them more buyable. I haven't bought a Pre con since Betrayers and the Jitte oppsy. As a regular player, I can look at a spoiler and understand the format/abilities. I don't need a pre con to help me understand. But if you're looking for a certain Mythic rare, you only have to open 15 pre cons on average to find it. How many packs would that translate to? 1 out of 8 packs = 1 Mythic rare. 8 x 15 (mythic rares) = 120 (almost three and half booster boxes). Figure out cost and find out what's cheaper. Plus you get a pack in each pre con so you're likely to get the mythic rare you want in every 13-14 pre cons (based on averaging).
As for lowering the amount of cards released each year, I like that. I might actually start playing constructed again after Lorwyn block rotates out. Hopefully the card cost will come down with the higher ability to open the better rares (hopefully they don't reduce the amount of chase rares). What am I saying? I draft and sell the rares and it's awesome opening a card worth $20+. Weird, I never thought I'd say I wanted the value to go down.
***
When I was at the Shadowmoor Prerelease, I cracked a Graven Cairns and Reflecting Pool in my sealed. After the sealed was over, I prominantely displayed those cards on the front page of my binder (with Pool in the middle, of course). The first person I traded with pulled out a lot of stuff, but I didn't find anything for the big stuff and ended up doing a smaller deal. I had to leave the trade quickly because the next draft was called. We put the cards we didn't trade for back in each other's binder and I picked my binder up and left. Afterwards I was trading again, and noticed that the Pool was missing. I was pretty mad. I stated, "I got a Pool stolen off of me. I looked through my bag to see if it had fallen out, but it wasn't in there. It was in the middle of the page so unlikely it could have fallen out." I had some friends who said, "Let's find the guy and we'll get your pool back." I didn't encourage that and stated, "I don't know what he looks like, I've traded with so many people." So I drafted three times and got another Pool, which made me feel a little better. I went home with the thought of being the victim of theft. I started sorting through my binder and rearranging things when I found the Pool behind an uncommon on the second page. Man I felt stupid... but who puts Pools behind uncommons?
I guess I'll never top these pretty neato posts...seeing as I just picked up a weenie aggro build for my prerelease and came 9th (how the hell do you say "No" to a Gnarled Effigy, Twilight Shepherd AND a Witherscale Wurm when you were banking on your efficient smaller dudes to win with :\), but I remember in the final years of junior high, the magic people of my grade (myself included) started getting into the whole competitive circles of FNM and higher.
We had this really shady dude who also played Basketball and probably only played Magic to be cool or something (that doesn't compute for me), our binder system was working pretty well, share the rares around, tune decks (like I do today, but with less childish teammates). But one day, the aforementioned shady character managed to whisk away with all our stuff, we never got it back, but I'm sure he got pretty rich...Tron, Tooth and Nail, Affinity pieces and a few others I no longer recall, some neato stuff (back in Mirrodin/Kamigawa standard). Granted I was pretty angry but out of pity, someone in our group (they refuse to tell me to this day) managed to whisk some of the back, and a neato pile of rares I loved landed back to me. Other than that, nowadays, Uncommons and Commons disappear whenever I need them the most
My view: mythic rares, wtf? Jury is still out, but I talked to a friend today who plays Yu-gi-oh, and was complaining about the rarity in that game (they have super rares and ultra rares, where ultra rares are ~1-2 per box i think, and the best cards are all ultra rares). The new yugioh set (not released yet) supposedly has a ultra rare that sells for 250$. If Maro is right, and "mythic rares" arent the staples in each set, then it'll probably be fine. Otherwise, I hope it doesnt screw draft over "omg, i opened a mythic rare, my deck is so much better".
Vintage: WTF! I dont play a lot of vintage, but WTF. On the outside, I completely disagree with the changes they made. But I am not well versed in vintage, so we'll see what happens.
Overall, Magic will survive, but for now, I'm just saying WTF, and trusting that wizards knows what they are doing, which may or may not be a good idea.
Here's to hoping that the game we all love will come out better because of this, or that if it comes out worse, Wizards will have the stones to say "**** guys, we f'd up, and we're fixing it"
So, my friend had a falling out with his Mom, because he was moving out, and she wanted him to still help pay her mortgage. Well, he's a college student, and didn't have the money for it, and needed to be close to campus (hence the move) and needed some space. So, his mom stole most of his t-2 cards. He didn't notice till a few days after the move. We went on Ebay, and saw his cards for sale. So, we bid, and had her ship them to my parents (in another city) to get them back. Then, we reported to Ebay after she had shipped, and we got the cards, our payment back, and she was out the shipping. All's well that ends well, at least here. Fortunately, he's back on speaking terms with his mother (She had her hours cut back at work the day before his moving announcement, and was in a panic mode. But she found a second job to fill back up to 40.)
Mythic rare- I agree we should wait to judge it. Initial reactions are bad, but we’ll see how it pans out.
My big question, however, is how (or if) mythic rares will be distributed in a tournament packs. They said that 1 in 8 packs get a mythic rare, does this really mean 1 in 8 rares is a mythic rare thus every third tournament pack will have a mythic rare? Or will the tournament packs be treated like regular packs and only 1 and 8 gets it. Maybe there won’t be any mythic rares (boo) or maybe each tournament pack will always have 1 (hope so but then the price goes up). I really feel this is information that was left out (perhaps purposefully) and they need to inform the sealed crowd how this is going to work.
I have mixed feelings about the theme deck replacements. One the one hand I really like the new set up because your guaranteed 1 foil rare and 2 other rares. I only buy the theme decks if I need the rare and the price is close to buying the single. For example I picked up my last Wilt-Leaf Liege from a theme deck since the theme deck cost $10 and the single cost $9. I figured I’d spend the extra buck to get Rhys and a few uncommons I needed. So I like the new setup for that reason. However, my wife loves to do the theme deck wars at the prerelease we go to, so obviously that format is now out. Very mixed feelings about the change.
My real anger is pointed towards the removal of the book from the fatpack. I was upset that they took away the 2nd box and the dividers, but I like the extra packs. Now they’re taking away the book too and we’re not even getting anything in return? I bet the price won’t go down either. I remember taking their online survey and there was a question about the number of fatpacks you buy (which I answered 1) and then a follow up question about why I only buy one. I remember selecting something like “because I don’t want two books”. So I’m guessing the logic the marketing told them was that if they take out the book, they will sell more fatpacks since people will buy more than one. I think the opposite will occur and they will sell less fatpacks unless they turn around and add something else to the mix. Unless it’s cheaper or only a buck more to buy the fatpack than then eight packs by themselves, I’ll probably stop buying fatpacks after Eventide.
Now I know you can still buy the book by itself, but did anyone else notice that they are also doing away set novel in general!?! If you read the printing list, they’re making some planeswalkers novels instead. It says in the spring they’re making a “Block novel” for shards, but not a novel per set. So it really isn’t like you can just go buy the book at Barnes and Nobles because they won’t exist! Sure they’ll be less books to read now, but you’ll have to wait until the block is almost over to get a look at the plane . My inner Vorthos is pissed.
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It looks like I have gotten a green light for doing an interview with a wizards staff regarding these changes, so if you have any questions to ask, let me know!
Back when I was in middle school, I brought some cards to school and one of the boxes was missing when I got home. I was so devistated that I lost my Lord of the Pit and the other cards I couldn't remember from that box. I just remember the Lord cause it seemed so good at the time.
As for the changes, I am fine with the bannings. I am not sure I like the ultra rarity, but we shall see how it turns out.
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Nice analysis of the changes, reflecting the average player's opinions very nicely.
My impressions on the changes:
1. Less cards per set: good, more manageable, and HOPEFULLY less craps.
2. New rarity: I don't really care, if a card is a chase rare, it'll be as hard to find as usual.
3. Lands in boosters: I don't like this, many people have said it before: that's what tournament packs, fatpacks, and a new landpack are/would be for.
4. Theme decks into Intro Packs: sounds like a nice change. Anyways, I'm not into theme decks, unless the main mechanic is appealing. My first was Morph Mayhem, before that I played with other people's decks, and I liked the way it worked. My only other precon is Dimir Intrigues, because I really wanted to try out milling strategies.
5. Multicolored 'walker: about time they returned. It was a VERY long wait for them to comeback.
I'll have to wait for tomorrow's article but according to the changes announced so far, I'll probably stop buying fatpacks, since the books will not be inside anymore.
My cards have never been stolen, but I got banned once from a local MtG forum because people complained that there were too many robberies, and I replied that they were careless idiots (seriously, one of them left his binder on a table, went for a cup of coffee on the other side of the mall, and when he came back he was VERY surprised someone stole it! Jeez!).
Thanks for awarding me the prize guys. I just have a question I didn't hear anything in the show about how to redeem it so some guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
It looks like I have gotten a green light for doing an interview with a wizards staff regarding these changes, so if you have any questions to ask, let me know!
Cheers,
Tom
I'd just ask them to run this poll next week on their site:
How will the announced changes affect the way you buy MtG producs:
-I'll buy more
-The same
-I'll buy less
-I'm quitting MtG
-Haven't decided yet
There are too many threads in too many sites to really see people's opinion
I guess I don't have much to say about the changes. The only one that really puffed up my feathers is the mythic rares. I think I am not going to like it, but I am like you guys, I will wait to really see what comes out of it. The one thing I wanted to really post about was having cards stolen. Back when Battle of Wits was legal I HAD to play with it. So I got my friends together and we built a fun Battle of Wits deck. Then I went off to college and took the deck with me to play with the people thier. Well one day my 240 card deck, that I actually kept in sleeves in one of those cardboard boxes that you usually store cards in. Signed Auriok champions, tutors, BoW, and tons of rares. I wanted to build one of the most expensive non p9 decks that won using a card that cost less than a dollar. fetchlands, duals, couple alpha and beta cards, total price was almost 800 dollars back then. This was about 2-4 years ago so with fetchland I bet it is more expensive now. I was sad, and pissed.
Also I wanted to say something about the Swans,Assualt. Which I called "Bird Droppings" The key to the deck is not to need the combo. I actually started working on this deck after the prerelease. Well actually I should say on my laptop on the way home from the prerelease while a friend drove. The biggest problem I had was getting the speed up to combat swarm/rush/faieres decks. A card that really helped by a turn, which sometimes is all I needed, was sudden spoiling.
Well it is food time, but I will send you guys the decklist later and see whacha think.
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I looked into building goblins...pretty much as soon as Scourge had just come out and I had friends come back with stories abouyt how good this Goblin deck was doing. I started out getting the mostly valuable cards like the warcheifs and the siege-gangs and soon realized that I would not be able to build this deck in time for any standard event. Plus, it was an aggro deck, which I can play, but have an easier time piloting combo decks. I was informed about a month later about this deck that abused food chain and it was legacy deck, which was in my budget, unlike vintage. I picked up the piledrivers, food chains, than as soon as I got the Recruiters/Ringleaders in one trade and had almost finished the deck...they were banned in legacy...I was heartbroken. Luckily, I could still play the deck as an aggro deck in Legacy and got Vials and last but not least the final set of cards needed to finish the deck...the Lackeys.
I went to Syracuse a couple of times for tournys did OK...I just needed some practice.
One fatefull CHK Pre-Release day...I brought the deck to test with my friend and was having a good time. Midway through the day... In the span of seconds it went from being on the table to being gone.
I was Heartbroken...I spent about a year and over 300$ in money and trades to get into a format with a deck that I loved...I had the most fun with...through a banning of the deck and through only having the complete deck for what seemed to be a month. I was misrable...I have yet to play in a sanctioned constructed format with a deck of my own cards since...even with my KCI Standard deck I had built recently.
As a side note:
I have been trying to locate Russian cards...especially one of my favorites...Nightmare.
There was some joke I had went I learned thec with printing the swet in russian and it would have Nightmare...I don't remember the joke...but I rmember the punchline was Russian Nightmare.
To this day if someone is having trouble telling a joke...I call it a Russian Nightmare. The other teo cards will most likely get given to my friend who collects foreign cards and makes decks with them for the purpose of making his non-magic playing friends play on his birthday and watching them try to understand the cards...he NEEDS a Clone...badly
I HOPE I WIN
Great cast guys. I really enjoyed it. Gavin, you are doing a good job of not talking over people. Also, was there something wrong at the end or was Tom talking over Gavin?
With regards to the changes, here is the most important quote from Mark Rosewater's article "Living Changerously":
"As far as the current player base goes, there's always more we can do but right now we know the game is healthy and we believe there are things coming down the road that will make you even happier.
That means the key thing is to find better ways to grow the game by bringing in new players." (emphasis added)
If you find yourself asking "WTF were they thinking," read just the bolded parts above for your answer. Wizards is willing to take a smaller short term hit in losing current players for a larger long term gain in new players. They also know that MTG is like smoking, you never really quit. Right now, WOTC is caring about new players. If you post on a MTG website, you are not one of the people that WOTC cares about right now. These changes are not meant to appeal to people like us, hence all of the negativity in most of the forums related to MTG.
The only change that really affects me in a negative way is the mythic-rare, because I don't buy fat packs or precons*, I do collect whole sets (smaller set size makes it easier), and I realize that there is essentially no appreciable difference in having 10 commons or 11 commons per pack. I have to agree with Tom when it comes to having all Planeswalkers be mythic-rare (which they will be). It really sucks. However, the fact that I am posting on this site means that WOTC doesn't give a Rat's Nest about what I think.
* When people first realized that Jitte was good (it wasn't immediate) I went to every Wal-Mart and Target in Columbia, SC and bought every single Rat's Nest precon they had because it was like putting 3 to 5 dollars in your pocket per precon.
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As a side note:
I have been trying to locate Russian cards...especially one of my favorites...Nightmare.
There was some joke I had went I learned thec with printing the swet in russian and it would have Nightmare...I don't remember the joke...but I rmember the punchline was Russian Nightmare.
To this day if someone is having trouble telling a joke...I call it a Russian Nightmare. The other teo cards will most likely get given to my friend who collects foreign cards and makes decks with them for the purpose of making his non-magic playing friends play on his birthday and watching them try to understand the cards...he NEEDS a Clone...badly
I HOPE I WIN
I was going to beg to win writing that I have a russian gf now, and thought that the russian cards would be a interesting way to get her hooked into MtG
I noticed that too, I think it was a technical problem. Tom?
It was not a technical problem, it was a Tom problem and I was talking a bit over Gavin. Once we start hitting the 60+ minute mark, I get antsy. My public apologies to Gavin. :^)
It looks like I have gotten a green light for doing an interview with a wizards staff regarding these changes, so if you have any questions to ask, let me know!
Cheers,
Tom
Could you ask them how/if mythic rares will be distributed in tournament packs. This is needed info for the sealed crowd that they left out of the announcement.
Thanks
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Could you ask them how/if mythic rares will be distributed in tournament packs. This is needed info for the sealed crowd that they left out of the announcement.
I had a folder with nearly a whole set of Ice Age, a good bit of Arabian Knights (no real power but a lot of cards), a fair few Antiquities (maybe a power card or two) and a bit of Legends and The Dark in it. Caught the guy that stole it but he took off with my cards. I'd just had a deck box of oddball stuff stolen with the only card that had been missing from my Ice Age set (Lhurgoyf) and the rest of an experiment to see how much I could trade up to from nothing (yeah, I'd gotten a Lhurgoyf).
I also had a long box with nearly all of my decks disappear (not necessarily stolen but same effect). It had a Mox Ruby, Beta Berserk, and around a whole playset of Dual Lands with all of the cool cards I was playing with.
I currently keep a close eye on my cards when I go somewhere.
One Christmas, my wife bought me a box of unhinged because I had made a comment that the lands that came with each pack looked awesome. I made 2 decks and taught her how to play with unhinged cards which was a lot of fun. Imagine learning to play magic with unhinged :). I used those lands in every deck I made for the next year. During the Kamigawa Block PTQs, my block deck was stolen after a testing session. I had a play set of Tendo's Ice Bridge, Yosei, and gifts ungiven in that deck as well as some Umezawa's jittes that were in the sideboard. The thing I hated losing the most were those lands... sigh
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Then, digging through one of my boxes, I found some cards face down in sleeves (Used for a variant format I created called "Briefcase"). Of course, the skullclamp and geddon were in there. I'm glad I didn't accuse anyone, but I still felt like a jerk.
A card game about Presidents. Stabbing each other. With knives.
As for the announcements, I read the vintage bans first and got really excited because I just started playing t1 at my local store and this really shakes it up. The other one I'm excited about is the new Rares. I just hope that they don't put all the good rares in the level and stick to what he said in his article.
My story about stolen cards was not about my own cards, but I was involved in an episode which was pretty cool. One friend of mine is an avid competitive player. He had all the good cards (beta Sinkholes, a pimped out Survival of the Fittest deck that was filled with foreign cards and foils, very competitive Fires deck back when that was T2, etc) back when we were still in high school. I was just getting into Magic at this time, and he helped me out alot in teaching me how to properly build decks and play the right cards (we also played alot of DDR when we got bored of Magic, lol). One day, the "Magic Club" (I guess you could call it that, it wasn't as nearly as organized as a club) went over to his house because I think the cafeteria was closed. We all had a great time playing multiplayer games. However, the next day came, and he came to me pretty angry. Apparently, someone stole a set of Birds of Paradise and Shivan Wurm straight out of his binder (Shivan Wurm was a pretty good T2 card back in the day). I told him not to worry, and I'd get to the bottom of this. I then proceeded to ask around about whether anyones got any new cards for trades, because I was especially interested in making a multicoloured deck. Lo and behold, another classmate told me that his friend managed to get some Birds of Paradise recently, and that he is looking to flip it over. I found this friend of his, and what do you know, those were the exact set of Birds that were stolen (it's not hard to identify Korean BoPs). I then had a long talk with him, and eventually, after alot of empty promises (yeah I know, I'm such a bastard, but hey, he stole the cards), I convinced him to give up the set of Birds and Shivan Wurm. I then returned it to my friend, and he gave me a set of Armageddons to keep for my White Weenie deck as a reward for getting his cards back.
Just an interesting story that I thought I might share. This all happened when I was still in high school, so I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe I should have went and studied Politics and Diplomacy :P.
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A) mythic rares. what the heck were they thinking? this is going to confuse the poop out of people who already play, and cause new players to think that because they are mythic rares, a whole step above the average rare, that they are suddenly the best cards in the game, better than a black lotus or any of the moxes period. these are not gonna be power 9 cards, and if they are, wizards is screwin up far more than i thought. yugioh helped influence this decision i'm guessing.
B) Land in each booster. they say that they want us to draft, and as a matter of fact, they have been pushing and encouraging it more and more lately. so now what do they do? they take out a common and put in a land. for those that don't know, i already have so much land that i take a sharpie to em and draw on them. that's how worthless they are, to me, to most of the already playing magic population, to a bum on the street. i'd rather have the extra common in my booster for drafting, might be the removal spell i need to win. thanks. btw, chances of getting basic land as a foil in every pack. great.
C) Fewer cards per year. we just had the HUGEST standard pool i've ever seen, and after next set, it'll be even bigger. 9 sets in standard. (ts block, lor/sha block, 10th, cs). so now they decided to cut down. this is alright, till lorwyn block is out. then we're kinda screwed. it'll be interesting if they don't switch back. I'm not sure how i feel. better chance to get a mythic rare i guess.
D) Intro packs. this is the one thing i consider decent. noone i know buys theme decks, but i guess new players need to learn by playing something that isn't their own work sometimes. however, i think this change may help kids to learn. you have a 40 card limitedish i guess deck, so you get the same cards more, and get a better chance at figuring out how the deck works.
you also now get a foil rare AND a booster pack so you can get a (you knew i had to say it) MYTHIC RARE!
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Well, when I heard a long time ago that were banning cards in Type 2 from Urza's Block, I was crushed. But then they said they were replacing the banned cards with packs so I proceeded to trade for every Fluctuator at $0.50-$1.00 (even as a throw-in) and traded in over 50 for packs. That was awesome.
***I just read the update, and here's my response:
Did they mention what card will be replaced by the FOIL? It would make sense if there was a FOIL in a pack that it would replace the land card. Then again those poor noobs wouldn't get their basic land (buy a starter box, come on-they're available at Wal Mart!). And when is there going to be a FOIL in EVERY pack? That would get rid of the concern of what card was being replaced. If there was a FOIL in every pack, you wouldn't have to mess up the order and could use the same distribution as always (FOIL Rare plus regular rare makes for a concerning pack like when I opened FOIL Garruk and a regular Garruk in a draft and the player I passed to wondered why I took a common over a Garruk). I'd rather see a FOIL in every pack because it won't screw up drafts/signals. Oddly enough, I opened a FOIL Final Revels and a Final Revels in a Lorwyn pack. How many black players do we need? Let's make this simpler! No more duplicate cards in a pack!
As far as the Mythic rare being twice as rare as a regular rare. That's fine in packs, but they're guaranteeing a Mythic rare in EACH Pre con. This will make them more buyable. I haven't bought a Pre con since Betrayers and the Jitte oppsy. As a regular player, I can look at a spoiler and understand the format/abilities. I don't need a pre con to help me understand. But if you're looking for a certain Mythic rare, you only have to open 15 pre cons on average to find it. How many packs would that translate to? 1 out of 8 packs = 1 Mythic rare. 8 x 15 (mythic rares) = 120 (almost three and half booster boxes). Figure out cost and find out what's cheaper. Plus you get a pack in each pre con so you're likely to get the mythic rare you want in every 13-14 pre cons (based on averaging).
As for lowering the amount of cards released each year, I like that. I might actually start playing constructed again after Lorwyn block rotates out. Hopefully the card cost will come down with the higher ability to open the better rares (hopefully they don't reduce the amount of chase rares). What am I saying? I draft and sell the rares and it's awesome opening a card worth $20+. Weird, I never thought I'd say I wanted the value to go down.
***
When I was at the Shadowmoor Prerelease, I cracked a Graven Cairns and Reflecting Pool in my sealed. After the sealed was over, I prominantely displayed those cards on the front page of my binder (with Pool in the middle, of course). The first person I traded with pulled out a lot of stuff, but I didn't find anything for the big stuff and ended up doing a smaller deal. I had to leave the trade quickly because the next draft was called. We put the cards we didn't trade for back in each other's binder and I picked my binder up and left. Afterwards I was trading again, and noticed that the Pool was missing. I was pretty mad. I stated, "I got a Pool stolen off of me. I looked through my bag to see if it had fallen out, but it wasn't in there. It was in the middle of the page so unlikely it could have fallen out." I had some friends who said, "Let's find the guy and we'll get your pool back." I didn't encourage that and stated, "I don't know what he looks like, I've traded with so many people." So I drafted three times and got another Pool, which made me feel a little better. I went home with the thought of being the victim of theft. I started sorting through my binder and rearranging things when I found the Pool behind an uncommon on the second page. Man I felt stupid... but who puts Pools behind uncommons?
*Mayreturn*
I have some EDH cards and rare Magic basic lands (APAC, EURO, ARENA, etc) so message me if you're looking.
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We had this really shady dude who also played Basketball and probably only played Magic to be cool or something (that doesn't compute for me), our binder system was working pretty well, share the rares around, tune decks (like I do today, but with less childish teammates). But one day, the aforementioned shady character managed to whisk away with all our stuff, we never got it back, but I'm sure he got pretty rich...Tron, Tooth and Nail, Affinity pieces and a few others I no longer recall, some neato stuff (back in Mirrodin/Kamigawa standard). Granted I was pretty angry but out of pity, someone in our group (they refuse to tell me to this day) managed to whisk some of the back, and a neato pile of rares I loved landed back to me. Other than that, nowadays, Uncommons and Commons disappear whenever I need them the most
But yeah...Days of Our Lives.
Vintage: WTF! I dont play a lot of vintage, but WTF. On the outside, I completely disagree with the changes they made. But I am not well versed in vintage, so we'll see what happens.
Overall, Magic will survive, but for now, I'm just saying WTF, and trusting that wizards knows what they are doing, which may or may not be a good idea.
Here's to hoping that the game we all love will come out better because of this, or that if it comes out worse, Wizards will have the stones to say "**** guys, we f'd up, and we're fixing it"
So, my friend had a falling out with his Mom, because he was moving out, and she wanted him to still help pay her mortgage. Well, he's a college student, and didn't have the money for it, and needed to be close to campus (hence the move) and needed some space. So, his mom stole most of his t-2 cards. He didn't notice till a few days after the move. We went on Ebay, and saw his cards for sale. So, we bid, and had her ship them to my parents (in another city) to get them back. Then, we reported to Ebay after she had shipped, and we got the cards, our payment back, and she was out the shipping. All's well that ends well, at least here. Fortunately, he's back on speaking terms with his mother (She had her hours cut back at work the day before his moving announcement, and was in a panic mode. But she found a second job to fill back up to 40.)
You should read them.
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen"
Mythic rare- I agree we should wait to judge it. Initial reactions are bad, but we’ll see how it pans out.
My big question, however, is how (or if) mythic rares will be distributed in a tournament packs. They said that 1 in 8 packs get a mythic rare, does this really mean 1 in 8 rares is a mythic rare thus every third tournament pack will have a mythic rare? Or will the tournament packs be treated like regular packs and only 1 and 8 gets it. Maybe there won’t be any mythic rares (boo) or maybe each tournament pack will always have 1 (hope so but then the price goes up). I really feel this is information that was left out (perhaps purposefully) and they need to inform the sealed crowd how this is going to work.
I have mixed feelings about the theme deck replacements. One the one hand I really like the new set up because your guaranteed 1 foil rare and 2 other rares. I only buy the theme decks if I need the rare and the price is close to buying the single. For example I picked up my last Wilt-Leaf Liege from a theme deck since the theme deck cost $10 and the single cost $9. I figured I’d spend the extra buck to get Rhys and a few uncommons I needed. So I like the new setup for that reason. However, my wife loves to do the theme deck wars at the prerelease we go to, so obviously that format is now out. Very mixed feelings about the change.
My real anger is pointed towards the removal of the book from the fatpack. I was upset that they took away the 2nd box and the dividers, but I like the extra packs. Now they’re taking away the book too and we’re not even getting anything in return? I bet the price won’t go down either. I remember taking their online survey and there was a question about the number of fatpacks you buy (which I answered 1) and then a follow up question about why I only buy one. I remember selecting something like “because I don’t want two books”. So I’m guessing the logic the marketing told them was that if they take out the book, they will sell more fatpacks since people will buy more than one. I think the opposite will occur and they will sell less fatpacks unless they turn around and add something else to the mix. Unless it’s cheaper or only a buck more to buy the fatpack than then eight packs by themselves, I’ll probably stop buying fatpacks after Eventide.
Now I know you can still buy the book by itself, but did anyone else notice that they are also doing away set novel in general!?! If you read the printing list, they’re making some planeswalkers novels instead. It says in the spring they’re making a “Block novel” for shards, but not a novel per set. So it really isn’t like you can just go buy the book at Barnes and Nobles because they won’t exist! Sure they’ll be less books to read now, but you’ll have to wait until the block is almost over to get a look at the plane . My inner Vorthos is pissed.
The Steamflogged
Human Rigger Minions committed to
forcing Contraptions in YMTC4,
and Resisting The Tyranny of the
Viva La Assembly!
Quotes:
It looks like I have gotten a green light for doing an interview with a wizards staff regarding these changes, so if you have any questions to ask, let me know!
Cheers,
Tom
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As for the changes, I am fine with the bannings. I am not sure I like the ultra rarity, but we shall see how it turns out.
Currently offering 2 non-foil Kolighan's Command for a Date Stamped foil!
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My impressions on the changes:
1. Less cards per set: good, more manageable, and HOPEFULLY less craps.
2. New rarity: I don't really care, if a card is a chase rare, it'll be as hard to find as usual.
3. Lands in boosters: I don't like this, many people have said it before: that's what tournament packs, fatpacks, and a new landpack are/would be for.
4. Theme decks into Intro Packs: sounds like a nice change. Anyways, I'm not into theme decks, unless the main mechanic is appealing. My first was Morph Mayhem, before that I played with other people's decks, and I liked the way it worked. My only other precon is Dimir Intrigues, because I really wanted to try out milling strategies.
5. Multicolored 'walker: about time they returned. It was a VERY long wait for them to comeback.
I'll have to wait for tomorrow's article but according to the changes announced so far, I'll probably stop buying fatpacks, since the books will not be inside anymore.
My cards have never been stolen, but I got banned once from a local MtG forum because people complained that there were too many robberies, and I replied that they were careless idiots (seriously, one of them left his binder on a table, went for a cup of coffee on the other side of the mall, and when he came back he was VERY surprised someone stole it! Jeez!).
Mi blog: http://japoniano.blogspot.com/
I put up the first "Tribal Time with Tom" on YouTube. So check it out if you like, let me know what I can improve and play some Tribal!!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=m6NPuGrhvVU
Cheers,
Tom
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How will the announced changes affect the way you buy MtG producs:
-I'll buy more
-The same
-I'll buy less
-I'm quitting MtG
-Haven't decided yet
There are too many threads in too many sites to really see people's opinion
Mi blog: http://japoniano.blogspot.com/
Also I wanted to say something about the Swans,Assualt. Which I called "Bird Droppings" The key to the deck is not to need the combo. I actually started working on this deck after the prerelease. Well actually I should say on my laptop on the way home from the prerelease while a friend drove. The biggest problem I had was getting the speed up to combat swarm/rush/faieres decks. A card that really helped by a turn, which sometimes is all I needed, was sudden spoiling.
Well it is food time, but I will send you guys the decklist later and see whacha think.
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I looked into building goblins...pretty much as soon as Scourge had just come out and I had friends come back with stories abouyt how good this Goblin deck was doing. I started out getting the mostly valuable cards like the warcheifs and the siege-gangs and soon realized that I would not be able to build this deck in time for any standard event. Plus, it was an aggro deck, which I can play, but have an easier time piloting combo decks. I was informed about a month later about this deck that abused food chain and it was legacy deck, which was in my budget, unlike vintage. I picked up the piledrivers, food chains, than as soon as I got the Recruiters/Ringleaders in one trade and had almost finished the deck...they were banned in legacy...I was heartbroken. Luckily, I could still play the deck as an aggro deck in Legacy and got Vials and last but not least the final set of cards needed to finish the deck...the Lackeys.
I went to Syracuse a couple of times for tournys did OK...I just needed some practice.
One fatefull CHK Pre-Release day...I brought the deck to test with my friend and was having a good time. Midway through the day... In the span of seconds it went from being on the table to being gone.
I was Heartbroken...I spent about a year and over 300$ in money and trades to get into a format with a deck that I loved...I had the most fun with...through a banning of the deck and through only having the complete deck for what seemed to be a month. I was misrable...I have yet to play in a sanctioned constructed format with a deck of my own cards since...even with my KCI Standard deck I had built recently.
As a side note:
I have been trying to locate Russian cards...especially one of my favorites...Nightmare.
There was some joke I had went I learned thec with printing the swet in russian and it would have Nightmare...I don't remember the joke...but I rmember the punchline was Russian Nightmare.
To this day if someone is having trouble telling a joke...I call it a Russian Nightmare. The other teo cards will most likely get given to my friend who collects foreign cards and makes decks with them for the purpose of making his non-magic playing friends play on his birthday and watching them try to understand the cards...he NEEDS a Clone...badly
I HOPE I WIN
Thanks to Spiderboy for at http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=91142
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With regards to the changes, here is the most important quote from Mark Rosewater's article "Living Changerously":
"As far as the current player base goes, there's always more we can do but right now we know the game is healthy and we believe there are things coming down the road that will make you even happier.
That means the key thing is to find better ways to grow the game by bringing in new players." (emphasis added)
If you find yourself asking "WTF were they thinking," read just the bolded parts above for your answer. Wizards is willing to take a smaller short term hit in losing current players for a larger long term gain in new players. They also know that MTG is like smoking, you never really quit. Right now, WOTC is caring about new players. If you post on a MTG website, you are not one of the people that WOTC cares about right now. These changes are not meant to appeal to people like us, hence all of the negativity in most of the forums related to MTG.
The only change that really affects me in a negative way is the mythic-rare, because I don't buy fat packs or precons*, I do collect whole sets (smaller set size makes it easier), and I realize that there is essentially no appreciable difference in having 10 commons or 11 commons per pack. I have to agree with Tom when it comes to having all Planeswalkers be mythic-rare (which they will be). It really sucks. However, the fact that I am posting on this site means that WOTC doesn't give a Rat's Nest about what I think.
* When people first realized that Jitte was good (it wasn't immediate) I went to every Wal-Mart and Target in Columbia, SC and bought every single Rat's Nest precon they had because it was like putting 3 to 5 dollars in your pocket per precon.
“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike – and yet it is the most precious thing we have.” - Albert Einstein
Mi blog: http://japoniano.blogspot.com/
It was not a technical problem, it was a Tom problem and I was talking a bit over Gavin. Once we start hitting the 60+ minute mark, I get antsy. My public apologies to Gavin. :^)
Cheers,
Tom
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Could you ask them how/if mythic rares will be distributed in tournament packs. This is needed info for the sealed crowd that they left out of the announcement.
Thanks
The Steamflogged
Human Rigger Minions committed to
forcing Contraptions in YMTC4,
and Resisting The Tyranny of the
Viva La Assembly!
Quotes:
Excellent Question...
You should read them.
"Rejoice, for bad things are about to happen"
I also had a long box with nearly all of my decks disappear (not necessarily stolen but same effect). It had a Mox Ruby, Beta Berserk, and around a whole playset of Dual Lands with all of the cool cards I was playing with.
I currently keep a close eye on my cards when I go somewhere.