Anyone here play Magic: The Gathering?

[KindGrind]

That's some serious power creep there.

1BB 2/3 black creature with flying, deathtouch, lifelink - is this above the curve y/n?

They're moving the curve up forever aren't they?

Definitely above the curve.

[Cthulhu]

As far as popularity goes - M10 has sold out pretty consistently, and Wizards has said that it exceeded sales expectations. (No numbers given afaik, but they've been fairly honest with sales in the last few years to my knowledge. The worst selling set of late was the Time Spiral block, which is thought to be because most players now don't remember all the cards they're referring to in it.) Zendikar is apparently pre-sold out, which I think is a first. There are also more active tournament players now than ever before (again, according to Wizards), but I think they'd readily admit that the casual players are probably where the majority of the money is made.

[MR_Soren]

That's some serious power creep there.

1BB 2/3 black creature with flying, deathtouch, lifelink - is this above the curve y/n?

They're moving the curve up forever aren't they?

I disagree. In constructed play, I'd say that Hypnotic Specter is still a better card for the same cost due to it's ability to disrupt your opponent's strategy... and it rarely sees constructed play in formats without Dark Ritual. In Limited, however, this creature will be very good, and in constructed it will have a tribe to back it up.

[KindGrind]

Of course Hypnotic Speter is better, but remember that this is an uncommon. Quite excellent in limited.

[orange]

money: the wasting

[Cthulhu]

money: the wasting

Yes, yes it is. But it's so much fun that we can't really stop.

[KindGrind]

Actually, I'm not around here to judge people and their hobbies, but buying PCBs at 1,000$ a pop isn't always a very sound investment either... Yet people buy and play them because they're great!

[handsome_rakshas]

Funny I just seen this topic.
I just found a bunch of old Magic Cards in my friends basement. They're all from 94-95, PM me if anyone wants to buy them.

[BryanM]

Took a look at the new set, the use of RPG-esque adventurers as a tribe is cute and probably way overdue.

The biggest deal about it - full art land. Which is going to be around for 2 sets and then never coming back again. To keep'em pricey. Gotta support that secondary market.

[Cthulhu]

Took a look at the new set, the use of RPG-esque adventurers as a tribe is cute and probably way overdue.

The biggest deal about it - full art land. Which is going to be around for 2 sets and then never coming back again. To keep'em pricey. Gotta support that secondary market.

They've done full art lands twice in the past, so this actually isn't that new. The art this time, however, is totally badass. That is pretty new.

[KindGrind]

Lotus Cobra is mythic... Why? Why make a good, accessible card, mythic so that only a few will be able to afford it? That whole mythic thing was a huge mistake...

If you don't know what it is, 1G, 2/1 creature, Landfall: put a mana of any color in your pool. You basically play this turn 2, then turn 3 play a fetch, get a land, and play a 5cc spell. Not too bad, huh?

[Cthulhu]

Lotus Cobra is mythic... Why? Why make a good, accessible card, mythic so that only a few will be able to afford it? That whole mythic thing was a huge mistake...

If you don't know what it is, 1G, 2/1 creature, Landfall: put a mana of any color in your pool. You basically play this turn 2, then turn 3 play a fetch, get a land, and play a 5cc spell. Not too bad, huh?

There's at least 4 or 5 mythics out of the set worth having now - which does kinda suck. Prepare to cough up $25-$30 each I'm thinking.

[MR_Soren]

They are abusing their relationship with the players by making cards that would be instant 4-ofs into Mythic Rares.

Regardless, I love the new set so far, and I'm probably going to buy a few boxes...

[BryanM]

I'd laugh and say not only is pauper 1/10000th the cost of the other formats, it's a superior game altogether..

..but then again it has its own degenerate crap. Those green creatures that would spawn tokens after Xty turns.. argh.

[KindGrind]

Random thoughts about the game... The mythic goblin I can live with (although it doesn't really feel mythic, doesn't it?), but the Lotus Cobra is too good, too cheap and overall too playable to be a mythic. At least the fetches are not, and the new wrath isn't either. There's no way I'll be trading for the fetches at 20$ each, let alone buy them, so drafting/opening packs will be the solution.

Side note, it's quite interesting to see stuff being unbanned in Legacy: Dream Halls, Entomb and Metalworker. While the first is hard to swallow when played with Conflux, Cruel Ultimatum, Progenitus, etc, the second might see some more casual/fun play. I mean, 4 Entombs? Metalworker is the fun unban of the lot. Easy to kill creature, yet if it stays in play it can lead to abberrations, with stuff like Staff of Domination (!) or simply with Sundering Titan or the like. While not cheap at all, Legacy is a very nice format to play. If only the duals weren't that expensive... I think the recent spike with the duals show that interest is growing for the format, which is positive. Fact is, Standard, while arguably cheaper, isn't exactly "cheap" to play at all. How much did one have to invest to play faeries? Thoughtseize, Bitterblossom, Mutavault anc Cryptic Command were all 20$ a pop after all. What are they worth now? Half that. Thing is, if you're never to play in PTQs or Grand Prix, and there are people playing other formats than standard in your area, LEgacy is a much better investment. The Baneslayer Angel may be worth 30$ now, but will it be in 5 years? Chances are the Tropical Island worth 30-40$ now will be 50-60$ somewhere down the line.

Pauper Magic is good fun, but doesn't quite cut it with me. I mean, I would definitely be tempted to play uncommons and rares after a while...

Oh and I needed 4x Aether Vial recently... they're 6-7$ each? What a disgrace! Of course they're awesome, but I mean come on...

[BryanM]

So how far along are they in introducing that "build your own standard" format? They mentioned the idea a couple years back, and they certainly have enough sets for it..

[Cthulhu]

So how far along are they in introducing that "build your own standard" format? They mentioned the idea a couple years back, and they certainly have enough sets for it..

I wasn't playing then, and I haven't heard anything about that, so I'm guessing it didn't happen. They do have a LOT of extra formats on Magic Online, but real-world tourneys don't stray from standard, limited, extended, and vintage.

If only there were places with a decent amount of extended tournaments here... I'm really curious how things play out there... but then again, I blow enough money on standard. Couldn't afford more even if I wanted to...

[KindGrind]

Legacy is the format played by the most here, where around 40 people would sit at tournaments every two weeks. Most people play a bit of everything though. They take their Standard deck for Extended tourneys with a few tweaks, for example.

Yeah, the game (outside of pauper) is quite expensive, though, which is why I'm selling my copy Silvergun (at a VERY reasonable price! Oh shameless plug!) to afford more stuff...

[BryanM]

MODO is more than half their revenue, and they have been treating it kind of like a bastard child. They've finally gotten around to adding promotional cards for it around this month, which is kinda nice of them.

Now it'll be like another seven years, when they'll increase the amount of stuff that can be swapped in a trade....

[Cthulhu]

Legacy is the format played by the most here, where around 40 people would sit at tournaments every two weeks. Most people play a bit of everything though. They take their Standard deck for Extended tourneys with a few tweaks, for example.

Yeah, the game (outside of pauper) is quite expensive, though, which is why I'm selling my copy Silvergun (at a VERY reasonable price! Oh shameless plug!) to afford more stuff...

Wow, that's quite the crowd. Nice if you've got the cards though!

I'm looking forward to the Zendikar pre-releases this weekend. Should be a good time - hoping I get some cool stuff, but I'm sure it'll be fun regardless.

[KindGrind]

And now the "priceless treasures"... Can this be true? If so, quite cool.

[Cthulhu]

And now the "priceless treasures"... Can this be true? If so, quite cool.

I thought it was total BS but the judges today at the pre-release I was at (official DCI judges, not just random store employees) announced it was true. Despite that, I'm still leery - and even if it is true, in the ~120 person prerelease today not a single one was pulled. I'm guessing that even if this actually is true (I'm still a skeptic) that it's incredibly rare. I mean, how many boxes did we go through today? 120 * 6 packs = 720 packs, plus another 15 draft pods with 8 people and 3 packs a person is another 360 packs, plus another 50 or so in the precons they sold and if you bought one you got an extra for yet another 50. That's around 1200 packs (1180 from the numbers there), which is approximately 33 boxes, or 5.5 cases. Just random speculation.

Zendikar was fun but really didn't feel as new or different as I was hoping. The traps are neat but didn't come up too often, and while landfall really is quite cool (and will almost certainly see a good amount of constructed play), I only played against one guy that had a lot of it. I just got a little. It definitely shows potential though. The fetchlands are great, but they're already going for $20 - which means it will be probably between $300 and $400 for a full set of 4 of each. Yech. That's a lotta dough to blow on just the lands.

Note that there are plenty of cool-but-won't-break-your-bank cards still. Good set and good fun.

EDIT: Update on fetch land prices. Only one (the blue green one) is going for $20, the rest are generally $15 or so. Not sure why UG is so much more, as Bant really wasn't all that popular in Shards (after a brief burst it kinda faded), and there doesn't seem to be any sort of immediate UG deck that I can see. Whatever, at least they're not all $20. (Yet?)

[MR_Soren]

Prerelease tournaments always draw the biggest crowds at our humble store, and we had 40 people yesterday which I believe is a record. I think our previous best was 37 or 38. (Living in the middle of nowhere, it was probably the only prerelease within 200 miles)

I opened Nissa in my first pack and got excited until I failed to get any Nissa's Chosen and only got 2 elves. However, I still stuck with green because I had 3 Vines of Vasteel(?) (No, that's Thunderforce) Well, whatever it's called, it is awesome. I also had the druid that lets you play lands off the top of your library which worked awesome with the blue 4/4 elemental that bounces lands and the eel with landfall. The 5/5 shroud Sphinx, the tapper, and two of the 1/1 unblockable guys with kicker made blue an easy choice for my second color. I was also lucky enough to have the Blue/Green fetch land.

My deck was short on removal which made me weak against aggressive decks (typically black), but I still managed a 5-1 record (one was a first round bye, ugh) and took 2nd place. Unfortunately, the prizes were distributed a bit too evenly, not enough weight at the top, and I only got 8 packs. Normally, I would not complain about getting 8 packs, but that is rather low for 2nd place in a 40-man event. Previous smaller events paid out higher for 2nd.

Quality, not quantity, right? After opening 6 of those 8 packs, I got Goblin Guide, 3 Fetchlands, Sorin Markov, and Day of Judgement. Amazing pulls. I knew the last two weren't going to beat that, but I opened them anyway and got the mythic Octopus and Pyromancer's Ascension. Both cards that might be fun to build around even though I doubt they'll ever be money like my first six pulls.

I enjoyed playing with the cards. Landfall is very powerful and Kicker works really well with it. Not sure what constructed decks will arise, but I expect Suicide Black / Vampire Tribal to be one of them.

Nobody at my store opened a vintage card. I'm hoping to see somebody pull one at the release event next weekend.

[KindGrind]

The only reason the UG fetchland is going for more is because Legacy players want some, so at last you can fetch a basic forest in the most popular decks, i.e., threshold variants. Of course Bant in Standard will run some, too.

I think Bloodghast (sp?) is a great, powerful little critter.

[Cthulhu]

Quality, not quantity, right? After opening 6 of those 8 packs, I got Goblin Guide, 3 Fetchlands, Sorin Markov, and Day of Judgement. Amazing pulls. I knew the last two weren't going to beat that, but I opened them anyway and got the mythic Octopus and Pyromancer's Ascension. Both cards that might be fun to build around even though I doubt they'll ever be money like my first six pulls.

Holy crap man, I'm jealous!

Tonight I did another prerelease, only 14 people and very casual. Took 8th due to a draw in the first round (ugh) - but my deck was kind of bleh and I knew it. Any good aggro deck would have totally eaten me. But whatever, I had fun and I got another Day of Judgement and a U/R fetchland, which was the last one I needed to have at least one of each. Just $250 or so till I have a set!

[KindGrind]

I've been slowly selling crap for in-store credit at my local store over the last month, and it seems I'll have enough sold to afford a couple of boxes. I mean, they gave me 2$ for every Clone, Ant Queen, Kalonian Behemoth or Mesa Enchantress and 4$ for every Assassin I've brought back. Hell, last time they even took my playset of Lurking Predators, because the guy told me, being quite puzzled, that he was sold out. I got 1$ each, which is ridiculous. I even traded in my m10 duals, because I don't like them at all after playing quite a bit with them. I got 7-8$ each, which is what I'll pay them on the net if I ever want to play them again. As much as possible, I try not to take that much actual money from my pocket to buy cards, which is why I unloaded some playable things, too. Why? Not to piss the wife off too much, I guess.

Really looking forward to see the cards. I haven't attended any prerelease event in my area so I'm really looking forward to it.

[Ixmucane2]

I did two Zendikar sealed deck prereleases (Saturday 8th of about 27, Sunday 16th of 37); I got by far the nicest cards in the Saturday prizes (Lotus Cobra, UG fetchland, Chandra, a gorgeous foil Plains).

In the first tournament I played white and black with 5-6 Allies and a few Vampires; my nost consistently useful cards included Blade of the Bloodchief, Malakir Bloodwitch (4/4, flying, protection from white for BB3? Sold!), Vampire's Bite (a sort of Giant Growth), Quest for the Gravelord, Bold Defense, Kor Duelist (I had about 6 Equipments).
In the second tournament I played blue and black with, again, 5-6 Allies and a few Vampires; it was a less consistent and deservedly less successful deck, mostly because the fewer and worse creatures tended to fall catastrophically behind; some brutal wins resulted from mere luck or from even worse opponent decks.
The superstars were Ob Nixilis, who rose several times to 15/15 or 18/18, and Sea Gate Loremaster. I also made good use of Into the Roil, Ior Ruin Expedition, Shoal Serpent, Vampire Nighthawk, Hideous End, Cancel.

The trend towards making rarer cards just plain better consolidates: compare Territorial Baloth, Baloth Woodcrasher and Rampaging Baloths.
There are egregious examples of cards that are way better than older ones: Ob Nixilis (no comment), Vampire Nighthawk (cf. Sengir Bats), Terra Stomper (cf. Force of Nature). There's some consensus that the "old" Chandra is already obsolete.

The new brood of specialized but unreasonably powerful cards like World Queller (a land destruction deck by itself, and much more), Sea Gate Loremaster, the cycle of Ascensions, etc. will force every constructed deck to devote an ever increasing card budget to counterspells and removal, enchantment and artifact removal in particular. Or maybe games will just get shorter and messier...

There's little that thrills me in this expansion; I think I'll buy very few boosters to get all 20 textless basic lands, a number of important singles (including fetchlands) and a much needed playset of Doubling Season.

[KindGrind]

What do you plan on doing with the playset of Doubling Seasons? Quite curious.

[Cthulhu]

I played in a local standard tourney tonight, which was the last Lorwyn-block legal standard one in the area. I actually won, which made me happy. I also did it with a very non-traditional deck (R/W burn and life gain), which I was also pleased with. Yeah, boat brew is R/W, but that hasn't been big in a long time, so cut me some slack.

Will see how I fare with the Zendikar boxes this Friday and might do another release event. While I do like Zendikar (I love the theme, but only sorta like the cards), I think a lot of people (including me) are just happy to see Lorwyn leave already. Yes, anticipation about what is gone is higher than what is left - go figure.

[Ixmucane2]

What do you plan on doing with the playset of Doubling Seasons? Quite curious.

This set is unusually counter intensive: there are +1/+1 counters on many Allies and quest counters on quests in addition to planeswalkers and assorted +1/+1 counters (Ob Nixilis, Æther Figment).
There's also some serious token action: Conqueror's Pledge, Elemental Appeal (and Zektar Shrine Expedition), Lullmage Mentor, Quest for the Gravelord, Rampaging Baloths, Rite of Replication are only the most outstanding token makers.