mike

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mtg
[–] mike@mtgzone.com 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I also wasn’t experimenting. I wanted to get to Mythic, so I stuck to decks that I knew were good and that I was experienced with.

To me this is a problem w/ ranked ladder games for sure, but it's also the main reason I don't play as much anymore. Card acquisition is so expensive for non-drafters that you pretty much cannot brew on Arena unless you pay a lot of money every set.

I still vividly remember crafting 4 mythic WCs for a playset of Body of Research for a bad combo deck. I played the deck 3 times, don't think I ever won with it, and then never played it again. Those wildcards are $20-30 of in-game currency never gonna get that back. Being able to dust/de-craft those cards would get me back. Still makes me mad when I think about it.

I’m still not sure I would want to play without one.

Yea I also have never played a constructed event on Arena, and have never had any desire to at all. I don't think those tournaments are better than a ladder, and I don't think asynchronous leagues work. I think the ladder is better than the alternatives, it would just be nice maybe if there was a literal play queue that wasn't using deck strength and/or mmr. I'd love to see what random brews people are playing with. It would be even better to share decklists mid-game or after the game.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 7 points 6 months ago

Matching players with evenly matched players is one of the main reasons for ladder play. This is not without its merits, but it also isn’t a strictly good thing. If you match people precisely then there is no sense of progress because players will win about half their games regardless of how good they get.

I think this is definitely frustrating, basically everyone always just wins about half of their games. I understand why the ladder exists in games and especially Arena, but I think it just got to a point for me where its not fun anymore. You're only ever playing people at your exact ability level. The variety of opponents makes it more fun I think.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I must say, this is a really cool synergistic deck. I'd say it looks more like a tempo deck than full on aggro but really this looks really fun to play while still also looking competitive too. I love the combo between Spiteful Hexmage and Nurturing Pixie. There are so many little combos and synergies in this and not too many rares either.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I think they finally did something the players have been asking for. Jegantha correctly identified as a mistake. I'm glad they hit something in Modern's Boros Energy w/ Raptor but they could have gone harder with Guide of Souls. That card is just silly and will always be the source of too much energy.

Frog and Bauble also great hits in Legacy, I think TOR should go in Legacy but I guess they will let that go a little longer too. Really can't wait to see what new decks come out in Modern over the next few weeks.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

$54 for a bundle has finally pushed me out of all sealed product purchasing. The $40 bundles were the last thing I was buying, mainly for the oversized dice, but this is too much. I can buy the dice on ebay I guess.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 4 points 7 months ago

Exactly. My current take on this is that the % of the customer/player base that wants to collect all or a majority of the cards, wants to know about all the cards as they hit etc is just small enough to not matter to them anymore. Same thing for the 60-card non-rotating constructed player base. Too small to cater to and maybe they figure that group isn't going to quit anyway.

No doubt in my mind that the suits at Hasbro would kill off all competitive events and just sell us scratch lotto cards if they could but they must currently figure that's an end-game scenario. So they begrudgingly have to support constructed play and they went in on Standard because it rotates (i.e. forced buying) and Commander because it's the largest group that actually still plays the game.

The biggest group though, and the one they principally cater to is the Finance/Investment base. The ones who buy 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars of sealed products. That's who they are building this "game" for moving forward but that's a different topic.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 6 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Personally, I think this is not a very clear question to ask in a poll. I'm not sure if Mark is asking if we want standard to be higher power or if we no longer want any direct to modern sets, or something else. It's not clear and it's going to just be used to further whatever conclusion they've already come to.

I think direct to %format% sets have been perhaps the biggest mistake in the game's history. That's how you kill off constructed formats through engineered powercreep, and it looks like that has succeeded. The entire game's balance hinged on the cards being designed for a single format that waterfalled through the other non-rotating formats. We have pretty much Standard and Commander right now and if you like 60-card formats you're pretty much out of luck moving forward unless you want to play a 7-sets-per-year Universes Beyond standard.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 1 points 7 months ago

I agree on the 24 packs. I think those boxes should be priced at $60-70 as well. If they did that I may actually consider gettting back into sealed products.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 4 points 7 months ago

Kind of a cool idea, you can't go wrong with either of 3 tin artwork options. My guess is that this tin will be the exact size of a booster pack and probably be big enough to hold a single 60 card deck.

At $5.50 MSRP per play booster now this thing is looking like minimum $30 and I don't really see the appeal outside of just wanting the tin box. Perhaps they should just sell that for $5 😄

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Whoa that's awesome. I didn't know this was a thing but I definitely would love to get one.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There are definitely a lot of cards in here with new artwork that I would love to collect but $150 for this seems pretty crazy. Not even this but any Commander precon. I think maybe $75 is where I would expect to pay for this.

[–] mike@mtgzone.com 9 points 7 months ago

And a 4th time if you want to play with the physical cards in person.

 

cross-posted from: https://mtgzone.com/post/613307

In this edition:

  • Pro Tour Thunder Junction Winner and Top Performing Decks
  • The Big Score Alchemy Preconstructed Festival April 30–May 7
  • WPN Outlaws of Thunder Junction Promo
  • May Best-of-One Qualifier Play-In This Weekend
  • Arena Open: Outlaws of Thunder Junction May 4–5
  • Alchemy: Thunder Junction Gallops into Town May 7
  • Event Schedule
 

via The Maple Board Game Café.

12
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by mike@mtgzone.com to c/mtg@mtgzone.com
 

Before previews for Outlaws of Thunder Junction officially begin, I thought it would be fun to do another of my Duelist-style teasers where I give tiny hints of things to come. Note that I’m only giving you partial information.

First up, here are some things you can expect:

  • A new batch of five related creature types
  • A card capable of returning three different card types from the graveyard to the battlefield
  • A mechanic players have been asking us to do for many years gets made as the setting was the perfect place to finally do it
  • Dual lands with a land subtype that has never been on dual lands before
  • A new modal mechanic that introduces something different to think about
  • A card that can swap/exchange control of up to three different card types
  • A new creature token that has an ability no creature token has ever had before
  • A typal card for Skeletons and Zombies
  • Creature tokens in the set: (some might have abilities) 1/1 white Sheep, 1/1 blue Bird, 1/1 black Vampire Rogue, 1/1 red Mercenary, 2/1 green Varmint, 2/2 white Ox, 2/2 white Spirit, 2/2 blue and black Zombie, 3/1 red Dinosaur, 3/3 white Angel, 3/3 green Elk, 4/4 red Scorpion Dragon, X/X green Elemental, / Blue Ox
  • Some of the planes with legendary Villains in this set: Dominaria, Eldraine, Fiora, Innistrad, Ixalan, Kaladesh, Kaldheim, Kamigawa, New Capenna, and Ravnica

Next, here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:

  • “Then repeat this process X more times.”
  • “if it wasn’t cast or no mana was spent to cast it.”
  • “Plotting cards from your hand costs {2} less.”
  • “You can’t cast this spell during your first, second, or third turns of the game.”
  • “That card gains flashback {0}”
  • “Target creature becomes a white Rabbit with a base power and toughness 0/1.”
  • “When you win that flip, copy that spell.”
  • “If a triggered ability of a legendary creature you control triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.”
  • “you get that many additional upkeep steps after this phase.”
  • “Oxen you control have double strike.”

Here are some creature type lines from the set:

  • Creature – Armadillo
  • Creature – Shark Rogue
  • Creature – Plant Bard
  • Creature – Coyote
  • Creature – Homarid Mercenary
  • Creature – Rhino Brawler
  • Creature – Ox Angel
  • Creature – Porcupine Mount
  • Legendary Creature – Kor Advisor
  • Legendary Creature – Giant Scout

Finally, here are some names in the set:

  • Claim Jumper
  • Form a Posse
  • Gold Rush
  • Great Train Heist
  • High Noon
  • Quick Draw
  • Reach for the Sky
  • Resilient Roadrunner
  • Shoot the Sheriff
  • This Town Ain’t Big Enough

Tune-in to our official YouTube and Twitch channels on 3/26 to see Oko and the gang in action with new card reveals. In preparation, catch-up on Outlaws of Thunder Junction’s story (https://magic.wizards.com/en/story) to bring yourself into the world.

 

Greetings planeswalkers! Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM) has been out for about a week now. The case was solved ([[Deduce]]), and the culprit has been arraigned ([[Dramatic Accusation]]) and taken into custody ([[Makeshift Binding]]). One of the victims is even willing to testify too ([[Call a Surprise Witness]]).

And while that’s all well and good, where does this leave us drafters? You can’t just say “Trostani did it!” when your opponent’s attacking for lethal after all. But with this guide, you’ll have a fighting chance at winning any MKM Drafts you play.

 

I usually use these when drafting a new set, as a LOT of work goes into creating these tierlists from the wondering JustLolaman and Scotty. They help a ton!

 

CovertGoBlue talks about his frustrations with the 3-year Standard rotation, and how difficult it has been lately to create Standard content.

Talks about his decaying Twitch audience and plans to move more content in YouTube. He mentions his distress in playing Arena in general, and how he doesn't necessarily want to play a different game mode in Arena.

He's will place more emphasis on Commander content. Optionally will make content elsewhere, something different or new that he is more interested in.

 
136
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by mike@mtgzone.com to c/mtg@mtgzone.com
 

Dave Rapoza responds to Wizards' denial of their claimed use of AI for marketing materials: https://twitter.com/wizards_magic/status/1743014711820476536

Edit: context: https://mtgzone.com/post/376725

 

Really fantastic write-up for anyone interested in Timeless!


Hey everyone! I’m really excited to bring you my very first Timeless tier list since I’ve been absolutely loving the format and playing a ton since its release.

I do want to preface this by saying that even though the format has been around for a few weeks at this point, data is still relatively scarce so this tier list will be slightly more subjective than usual because of that. I’ve looked at as much data as possible as well as gone through a ton of lists from the community that people have been doing well with, combined with my personal experience of the format too.

There will also be some archetypes not included here if refined versions have yet to emerge (for example Tainted Pact + Thassa's Oracle is an archetype that has a lot of potential but I haven’t been able to arrive at a refined version I’m happy with and I haven’t found versions online that look fully refined either yet), so I don’t feel I can correctly assess the power level of these decks until more optimal versions have been found, but I will be updating this list once they have and as more decks and archetypes emerge.

 

Announcement Date: December 4, 2023

Standard:

  • No changes

Pioneer:

  • Karn, the Great Creator is banned.

  • Geological Appraiser is banned.

  • Smuggler's Copter is unbanned.

Modern:

  • Fury is banned.
  • Up the Beanstalk is banned.

Legacy:

  • No changes

Vintage:

  • No changes

Explorer:

  • Karn, the Great Creator is banned.
  • Geological Appraiser is banned.

Pauper:

  • Monastery Swiftspear is banned.

Effective Date:

  • Tabletop and Magic Online: December 4, 2023
  • MTG Arena: December 5, 2023
 

This weekend is the first Arena Open since the release of the new set, and it's all about The Lost Caverns of Ixalan! Over two days, play in Sealed and Draft matches using the new set. Prove your quick grasp of the new mechanics and card interactions to reach the top and claim as much as $2,000, plus an invitation to the December Qualifier Weekend!

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