|
Man, everyone who works at the shop I run tournaments at was torn about if we should do 2HG or not. We asked a sample size of regulars, 10-15 people, and most would rather play traditional pre-release sealed. Now that I'm seeing cards come out, I wonder if we should switch at least one day to 2HG. Pretty much damned if you do, damned if you don't feeling to it.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 02:19 |
|
|
# ? May 21, 2024 18:17 |
|
Yawgmoth posted:CoC d20 is hilariously bad, as are EDH, 2HG, & Emperor and for the same reason: it's a particularly shoddy attempt to force a game system to do something it's not equipped at all to do except on the barest "well technically" level. I never played Conspiracy because the "like draft, but with extra poo poo!" hook never interested me, especially when all the extras look as ridiculous as the EDH specific poo poo. I agree with all of this except for Conspiracy because it was actually really fun (provided you were drinking (why werent you drinking if you were playing conspiracy?))
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 02:20 |
|
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 02:29 |
|
Dehtraen posted:I just see general slower playing, lots of newer / just returning to the game guys that are dropping $600 on whatever 4 color deck won the last SCG event, then stumbling their way through library searching effects (fetches, bring to light, nissa), tanking over really basic decisions, or just not even knowing what their cards do (yes, virulent plague effects your tokens too) Oh hey it was nice to finally meet you, it was also nice to have an opponent that can carry a conversation while playing. I like to play quick-ish so's I can have time for a beer between rounds, which is partly the reason I can never play control.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 02:33 |
|
Sickening posted:I think it also has to do with the cheapest t1 deck having a bad matchup against the two most expensive t1 decks. What deck other than Jeskai Black are you thinking of? I think Atarka Red has a good matchup against Esper Dragons.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 02:47 |
|
Ah pre-release hype, never change.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:17 |
|
Dehtraen posted:and then a repair going into round 4 because someone misreported their results. It was 15 minutes into round 4 and it was already passed the time I usually am getting home. lol how is it not just a "sorry dude, you shoulda checked the standings" at that point?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:27 |
|
Who doesn't love compulsory windows updates? (that just shut down LSV's stream)
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:47 |
|
Konstantin posted:What deck other than Jeskai Black are you thinking of? I think Atarka Red has a good matchup against Esper Dragons. Abzan is pretty expensive.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:47 |
|
Sickening posted:Abzan is pretty expensive.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:55 |
|
You're friend rabidsquid here, atop a pile of bitcoins, to talk to you about Seance, as well as suppressive persons.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:56 |
|
Also I told everyone how much having to deal with fetchlands at standard FNM would suck!!!!
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:57 |
|
Entropic posted:Sort of, I mean most if it you should already have if you were playing it before rotation. The only new expensive card is Gideon. How does that have anything to do with how expensive a deck is? oh, and Gideon is basically the only money card in the set. If oath stays with the power trend Gideon isn't getting cheaper for a while. Sickening fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 03:58 |
|
SCG Invitational top 8 looks pretty varied deck wise, only overlaps are 2 GR Tron in modern and 2 Abzan Aggro in standard. Esper Dragons and Grixis Control Four-Color Rally and Temur Twin Jeskai Black and Infect Five-Color Bring to Light and G/R Tron B/R Dragons and Jund Abzan Aggro and Affinity Esper Midrange and Abzan Company Abzan Aggro and G/R Tron Entropic posted:lol how is it not just a "sorry dude, you shoulda checked the standings" at that point? Sorry - poor phone posting on my part. the repair happened at the beginning of the round but very few players were actually switched around and then 15 minutes after the repair it was basically the time I am usually getting home and crashing out (40+ minutes behind schedule). Three rounds of non-limited FNM should not take 4 hours. Dehtraen fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 04:16 |
|
Dehtraen posted:SCG Invitational top 8 looks pretty varied deck wise, only overlaps are 2 GR Tron in modern and 2 Abzan Aggro in standard. Everything has generally been run less smoothly since our previous L2 got a for realsie job
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 04:24 |
|
Cactrot posted:Everything has generally been run less smoothly since our previous L2 got a for realsie job I agree, I believe the volunteer judges have done a solid job but they didn't benefit from training with the prior L2. Even he trained with the prior TO / judge for 3 months to get a handle on how to smoothly run a tournament at the shop (and he had prior experience as well) before taking over the job.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 04:53 |
|
I'm definitely not going to miss Fetches in standard. Full speed mana fixing + fuel for Delve and Jace (if you're willing to bring a $700 deck to an FNM) is dumb. The good news is that Aritocrat / Rally decks run pretty cheap since most of their engine cards are weird jank that's only good in one context, and they're pretty fun if you don't mind taking long turns. Can someone fill me on on why Deathtouch one drops aren't played more often as blockers? Last night at an FNM I ran a cut-down version of 4 Color Rally without blue, and I ran a set of Ruthless Rippers in place of Sidisi's Faithful. They did a huge amount of work trolling any deck whose plan was to attack with creatures on the ground. Obviously they have limitations, but a lot of the staple aggro cards like Swiftspear and Anafenza don't have a good way to get past them unless your opponent is willing to spend their second turn casting a removal spell on your one drop instead of building board state. EDIT: Ruthless Ripper might be my new favorite mediocre card. It's a 1/1 Deathtouch for 1, which is always an annoying place to start, but it can also be played as a morph that flips by revealing a black card in your hand (meaning you can do it while tapped out) and makes your opponent lose two life when it flips. Combine all that with the fact that it's not actually a played card in anything and you get some great reactions the first time you do it. Voyager I fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 05:02 |
|
Wow Gerry T didn't make top 8 after 8-0...
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 05:16 |
|
Voyager I posted:I'm definitely not going to miss Fetches in standard. Full speed mana fixing + fuel for Delve and Jace (if you're willing to bring a $700 deck to an FNM) is dumb. I thought Fetches + Delve was OK. Jace got added to the pile and things were still mostly alright (pricetag not withstanding). He provides interesting interactions with Delve like Tasigur does. Then the Duals got added and that was the straw that broke the camels back. As to your point about Typhoid Rats and its ilk: I'm not really sure. I love seeing them played and I love playing them though, Nothing feels better than playing Rat T1 and watching your midrange-playing opponent debate with themselves every turn about killing it or not. Then you drop the second one. Cernunnos fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 05:17 |
|
Ruthless Ripper is even more fun in a BGx Aristocrats deck because after your opponent knows you're running it you can potentially play mindgames with Haruspex, and your Ripper trading is likely to also fuel your sac engine. With a good board state, it can read "I reveal this black card from my hand to flip the Ripper I just tapped out to play on my turn. You lose two life, then it trades with your best creature, then you lose a life and I gain a life, and then I draw a card". It's basically a conditional removal spell attached to the body of a creature.
Voyager I fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 05:22 |
|
This just occurred to me, is the judge being an employee whose only job at the store is being an events coordinator an anomaly?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 06:10 |
|
Entropic posted:Sort of, I mean most if it you should already have if you were playing it before rotation. The only new expensive card is Gideon. i didn't have the cards before rotation, because i was broke then. now im less broke, but not "spend 800 dollars on a deck" not broke
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 06:13 |
|
rabidsquid posted:Also I told everyone how much having to deal with fetchlands at standard FNM would suck!!!! ODD/ONS was fine or so I've read, and ZEN's fetchlands are incidental to the problems with its standards. Or is it specifically the fetches+typed duals in Standard? It's unequivocally the best mana fixing, and with this every major constructed format has 'em in one way or another. There's no refuge besides going to Pauper or something.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 07:09 |
|
Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:ODD/ONS was fine or so I've read, and ZEN's fetchlands are incidental to the problems with its standards. Fetches + typed duals. It's more of a pace of play type situation. I think fetches in modern are incredibly annoying but the fundamental turn is a little lower and the mana bases construction isn't skewed as goofily as current standard. Fetches in the older eternal formats are more bearable possibly because people are more used to playing with shuffle effects constantly?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 07:18 |
|
Cactrot posted:This just occurred to me, is the judge being an employee whose only job at the store is being an events coordinator an anomaly? Yes. Think about it, even assuming minimum wage that means an employee is on the clock for 4 hours on a Friday night. That's $32 gone from whatever profit running that tournament was going to bring the store. A good TO who does event promotion and can herd a gaggle of gamers well enough to justify doing only that should be getting more than minimum wage because they're remotely competent, so say $40. A draft pod at $15 a head is basically paying $120 for a booster box that runs most stores around $85 (assuming 12 prize packs). So that's $35/8 players profit. A constructed tournament that has higher than a 20% rake ($5 buy-in, $4 into prize pool) would be ludicrous but even saying $1.50 "off the top" you'd need 21 players to justify a dedicated TO. There's a reason most stores are staffed by the owner, volunteers, and college kids.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 07:48 |
|
There's no way the margins are actually that thin on a facility that has to pay rent and utilities, even assuming the owners didn't need to do things like pay themselves salaries or eat.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 07:56 |
|
Voyager I posted:There's no way the margins are actually that thin on a facility that has to pay rent and utilities, even assuming the owners didn't need to do things like pay themselves salaries or eat. Those are exactly the margins. Game stores are terrible businesses.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 08:10 |
|
Those are unbelievably poo poo margins. Where does the revenue come from then? Is the real money in individual card sales and value trade-ins, with events mostly being a way to get people into the building?
Voyager I fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 08:25 |
|
Speaking as a store employee, events are not to make money. Single and product sales are how you make money. You also have to be diversified. My store does comics, sports, cards, magic, heroclix, boardgames, warhammer, and so on. Magic is by far our best though. Bottom line is that people have to like your store and want to come back, period.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 08:47 |
|
Would the LGS as it currently exists even be possible without the MtG secondary market?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:00 |
|
Vital Signs posted:Speaking as a store employee, events are not to make money. Single and product sales are how you make money. You also have to be diversified. My store does comics, sports, cards, magic, heroclix, boardgames, warhammer, and so on. Magic is by far our best though. Bottom line is that people have to like your store and want to come back, period. Our LGS has several monthly events which lose them money up until they hit 16 people... at which point they increase the prizes and begin losing money again until they get to 20-something people. Events are for getting people in the store to buy singles and to keep them playing there. Attorney at Funk posted:Would the LGS as it currently exists even be possible without the MtG secondary market? I can't imagine how it would.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:02 |
|
Attorney at Funk posted:Would the LGS as it currently exists even be possible without the MtG secondary market? I recently moved, but my old games store was really diversified. They sold board games, many different card games, miniatures, comic books, food, and had beer on tap. It doesn't seem far fetched that much of their business would be able to carry on fine without the Magic secondary market. Vital Signs posted:Man, everyone who works at the shop I run tournaments at was torn about if we should do 2HG or not. We asked a sample size of regulars, 10-15 people, and most would rather play traditional pre-release sealed. Now that I'm seeing cards come out, I wonder if we should switch at least one day to 2HG. Pretty much damned if you do, damned if you don't feeling to it. Have you considered just letting them pre-register far in advance for planning purposes?
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:10 |
|
stores make money off tournaments by selling snacks for more than the gas station that's past the stoplight does
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:18 |
|
Voyager I posted:There's no way the margins are actually that thin on a facility that has to pay rent and utilities, even assuming the owners didn't need to do things like pay themselves salaries or eat. They're that thin on events. Hence why you don't have an employee there to run only events (typically). You need someone who will run the till, manage inventory, do whatever miscellaneous duties are needed around the store. Someone who isn't selling sleeves and dice and singles is for most stores someone who is actively costing you money.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:39 |
|
PJOmega posted:A draft pod at $15 a head is basically paying $120 for a booster box that runs most stores around $85 (assuming 12 prize packs). So that's $35/8 players profit. That's their profit assuming those eight players were each going to buy 4.5 packs anyhow and crack them even if no draft were taking place. But they wouldn't. The profit is in moving more packs.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:52 |
|
Skyl3lazer posted:Oath confirmed garbage (larger pic): Isn't it a little early for Archenemy spoilers
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 09:54 |
|
Lottery of Babylon posted:That's their profit assuming those eight players were each going to buy 4.5 packs anyhow and crack them even if no draft were taking place. But they wouldn't. Of course that's the case. But you don't need a dedicated staffer to facilitate a FNM draft. For the organizer to be worth it, they have to be bringing in enough extra people to justify him or her. As it is, they're basically selling a box at full price over a period of 4 hours.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 10:53 |
|
Are boxes really $85 wholesale? I thought the wholesale price for a standard box was closer to $72.
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 12:25 |
|
Unified standard sounded interesting on paper
|
# ? Dec 13, 2015 12:56 |
|
|
# ? May 21, 2024 18:17 |
|
Ancient Tomb in the expeditions? Whaaa EDIT: and Forbidden Orchard. So I guess there may be 10 one-of cool lands as expeditions? GoutPatrol fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Dec 13, 2015 |
# ? Dec 13, 2015 13:49 |