shmups.system11.org

I find current Avacyn Restored drafts rather unpleasant. More bomb-dependent than ever because of Miracle cards, without stable deck types, with too few and too varied good cards to stick to two colours successfully.

Standard is a bit better, with a number of fun decks who come at the price of a fairly random metagame.
I currently play black-blue zombies or blue quasi-control, both usually great fun against anything.

I still play here and there these days with a couple of friends, though only got into MTG around 2008. The only good deck I am still working on is a Black/Blue deck which doesn't have an endgame, but Mills/Steals Creatures/Destroy Creatures once it's up and running. Feels like the deck is stuck in 2009, but hey, Hedron Crab FTW!

Yeah, a lot of people at my local shop dislike Avacyn Restored drafts, especially after Innistrad, which was well-liked. I think the biggest complaint is the lack of good removal. I imagine they purposefully left out good removal to make soulbond relevant, but it does make the game less interesting.

I don't like the Miracle concept at all, but at least they don't exist at the common level.

I haven't had trouble sticking to two colors, although sometimes I end up with barely enough playables since there are a lot of bad cards in the set. Although if I'm in green, Borderland Ranger and Abundant Growth tempt me to splash for a third color even when it's not the right thing to do.


Before they announced that Avacyn Restored wouldn't have a graveyard theme, I was hoping that something like Hedron Crab would be in the set for UG self-mill. Seems like it would be a fun deck with Splinterfright and Ghoultree and whatnot, but in my testing you can't mill yourself quickly or consistently enough for it to work.

I've been playing Elder Dragon Highlander/Commander. It is so awesome to use old cards from boxes and my binder. Or trading old cards for EDH stuff. Good times!

Do you guys play Elder Dragon Highlander/Commander/Archenemy/Emperor.

--F

I played a lot, including competition, during early 2000. Favorite card : Tangle Wire, I'm the annoying kind.

I've tried MTGO once : hard to install, buggy, expensive... Hum, what about Magic Work Station, does anyone use that ?

I played a ton 94-95, very fond memories. My favorite set was The Dark. I think the last one I was aware of was Ice Age... I have friends who play at local gameshops now, but I haven't been motivated enough to get back into it.

I haven't played EDH, but I'm slowly putting a deck together since everybody plays it at my local shop. Most of the games I've seen have been way too slow for my tastes, but maybe it's different when you're actually playing.


I've heard of it, but I don't know if it's widely used anymore. I think the most popular free Magic software these days is Cockatrice. I've played on there a couple times, although I'm not a huge fan of the interface.


Must be based purely on nostalgia. Not as bad as some of the sets that followed it (Fallen Empires, Homelands) but definitely weaker than the ones before it.

Thanks for the Cockatrice advice. I spent my morning installing it, and I find it quite well done. I must also say my last online experience was with apprentice.
I love the spectator feature, helps you learn the metagame even though you havent played for years.

Yeah, this caused quite the stir in the Magic community over the past few days. Magic gradually replaced shmups as my main hobby over the past few years, and as much as I like the game, I hate telling people that I play it. Not because I'm embarrassed about the game itself (except maybe how much I've spent on it), but because it lumps me in with an awful crowd. To be fair, I've met some good friends through the game and the majority of people don't smell or have their asses hanging out, but there are enough basement dwellers to perpetuate the stereotype.

The game itself is fantastic. Most people are pretty normal, but it only takes a few smelly people to make a tournament unpleasant.

I've never actually noticed the whole butt-crack thing, but I'm focused on the game rather than the backs of people's chairs. Now that I'm aware, I think I'll be seeing butt-cracks everywhere. Game ruined forever.

It's as bad as learning about the Wilhelm scream:

http://youtu.be/cdbYsoEasio

I'm surprised to see this topic gain so much traction over the years.
I don't play Magic anymore...been studying jazz guitar hardcore for the last four years. Don't have much time for anything else besides work, gym, and practice. I do miss the social aspect of it, though.

Dohoho @ this dude be chillin' in he briefz

I know a guy who buys a booster case for each new set. That is 6 booster boxes. He lives in a mountain of cards. Be careful, it could happen to you.

Buying sealed product seems awful, especially that much of it. Not only is 6 boxes a lot of money, but the vast majority of those cards are unplayable and worthless. I've spent a handsome sum on Modern and Legacy staples in the past year or so, but at least those cards maintain value over time. Actually, they keep going up, but the bubble has to burst eventually. I'm almost tempted to cash out and go back to just playing limited, but selling a Magic collection is pretty much always a bad idea unless you're 100% sure you're never going to get back into it.

This is point of no return it seems. Prices have not stayed level and it doesn't look like they ever will with the strict non-reprinting policy which only seems to have voided in this recently instituted "mythic rare" category which doesn't alleviate any issues.
On the other hand, there's always MWS and that is good for playing as I learned.

It's only been 21 years which in the grand scheme isn't a terribly long time. I can't say I picture the market imploding barring severe price hikes. And such hikes are really up to demand which is constantly in flux - value and demand seem to change all the time and while demand may falter off an initial high period, the value remains for the most part instead of returning to former levels. This is ultimately the reason why selling is rather permanent, for older cards. It's with great certainty they will never be cheaper than when you bought them which translates to a one way operation in never purchasing them again. That's my view, which is why I hang on to most of my Type-1 fare as it's still playable just not competitively since Legacy or Type-1.5 has taken over as the main eternal format. One example is Chains of Mephistopheles, a couple years ago it was around $50 for what seemed like the longest time and when I checked again recently it had added $100 on top of that. I was too cheap buy a second copy when I had the chance and now that ship has officially sailed and there was no way to predict it other than waiting/wasting time.

In 2004 you could get a force of will for $11 to $13. Today they cost $80+. INSANITY. I should have never traded mine back in 1998 for a Phyrexian Dreadnought.

Damn -- want the real life version of that one.

The sad thing is that there are worse offenders than Force of Will. Legacy prices have been exploding in the past few months.

All the blue dual lands are ridiculous, but especially Underground Sea. Volcanic Island is getting up there, too. Although blue lands don't have a monopoly on absurd prices: Wasteland, Rishadan Port, and Karakas are all super expensive. Thankfully no decks really need Tabernacle other than Lands.

Modern has really been taking off too, which is probably what's driving up these Legacy prices. Now Modern is as expensive as Legacy was like a year ago.
Tarmogoyf
Dark Confidant
Noble Hierarch
Vendilion Clique
Cryptic Command
Snapcaster Mage

All the Zendikar fetches shot up, but especially Scalding Tarn and Misty Rainforest.

I wish there were graphs like these going further back to really show the absurdity.

Ah, Tarmogoyf is up 100% to $200. Good for it.

Still can't believe there are people who play the paper version of this game. If I paid 200 quid for a $0.0035piece of paper, I could not bring myself to shuffle that thing against other cards. No matter how many layers of carbonite I wrap around it.

And now they have these tacky holograms on rares to combat counterfeitos who provide the same product for a sane price. At some threshold it's just become silly; feels like they should be rendered obsolete like Blockbuster Video, cashiers, libraries, and broadcast television.

Super weird how Pauper only makes up like 2% of the playerbase in retrospect. Here's to hoping that Hex is a fun game.

Ah yes, Scalding Tarn. When it came out it seemed nobody cared about it, I believe Steam Vents was double the price. I quickly got rid of the lone SV to get 2 Tarns. I believe this occurred not long after Brainstorm, Ponder, and Merchant Scroll were restricted which led to Scroll Rack quadrupling in price (although it's dropped about 1/3 of value since then).

I wish I could sell my entire Magic collection, I have a whole bunch of valuable rares sitting in my album that might interest people. But I doubt anyone would want to buy the entire collection in one go for a good price.

How much could I get for stuff like Armageddon, Apocalypse, a 4th edition Mahamoti Djinn and Jet Medallion?

Library of Alexandria, Mind Twist, and Mana Drain won my so many games back in the day.
I sold all my valuable cards (moxen, big blue power, 40+ multi-lands, etc). I miss the game from time to time, but honestly can't really stand the comic store crowd anymore. No offense
I was a pretty serious player back in the day, even won some games against pro tour winners and made top 4 in a PTQ. I had a great mono blue bloodmoon splash type 1 deck that took a lot of people by surprise one year. Beating people with air elementals in a competitive environment was good fun.

How much butt crack did you show?

Fun fact, Tarmogoyfs are literally worth more than their weight in gold.

I don't worry about damaging my cards as much as I worry about theft at big tournaments.


I'm not really sure why that is. I very rarely log onto MODO, but I dabbled in Pauper for a little bit a couple years ago, and it's a better format that I would've thought. But there's no money to be made from it for WotC or stores so I guess there's no incentive for them to run tournaments.


Yeah there's a time/money tradeoff when dumping cards. You'll get more money selling them separately, but it's more work. Nothing you listed is worth a whole lot these days.


Indeed. Luckily the first store I went to when getting back into the game had some regulars that I actually like hanging out with. As much as I like Magic, if it wasn't for them I surely never would have got sucked into the game like I did.

A chick I dug, but who was married (her beau has nothing on my awesomeness), and technically my professor, was really into it. Apparently I didn't destabilize her enough to come running to my reasonably muscular receiver arms to warrant a change. She was half asian, half latina FFS. You can't put a price on that.

There really are some cool commons, and a lot less of the "kill this now or lose next turn" chase rare kind of cheese they like to push as the set sellers at the start of every spoiler season.



Things like Stoneforge Mystic, I never understand how they get through. A Diabolic Tutor that plays the card it fetches for free and gives you a 1/2 creature as a bonus, all for two mana? It was like it was designed for vintage and designed to be banned out the gate. Even if Elbrus, Batterskull, and Tatsumasa didn't exist, and even if they didn't bring the wonderfully broken Swords back, it was just the kind of thing designed to explode the minute someone made a piece of gear with a high mana cost and low equip cost.

(It is actually kind of surprising how few Equipment cards are made and how few of them exceed 3 mana in cost. It kind of feels like they're often just there to give a +2/+1 or flying for limited and that's it. This next Theros set with colored gear can give it a real shot in the arm.)