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 Welcome to the Thirteenth Edition of the Magic Megathread! A link to the last thread Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game where you play as a planeswalker, a powerful wizard capable of traveling between planes, summoning fantastic creatures, and casting powerful spells. Each game of Magic represents a duel between two or more planeswalkers. Magic in the game is divided into five colors: White, the color of order and balance; blue, the color of knowledge and illusion; black, the color of death and corruption; red, the color of chaos and power; and green, the color of nature and life. Each color is balanced against the others, with their various strengths and weaknesses. First released in 1993, Magic's years of existence as the most popular collectible card game has attracted millions of players worldwide. Tournaments of varying levels are held all around the world, and the game is enjoyed just as much at the kitchen table as it is on the Pro Tour with thousands of dollars at stake. There is an organization called the DCI that sanctions and maintains these events, using tournament officials known as judges to keep the game fair and fun. Like any other collectible game, the components can be quite pricey. Older, out-of-print cards can be hundreds of dollars, but those aren't needed to play in the game's most popular formats. In-print and just-out-of-print cards very rarely break the $50 mark, and as there's a limit of four of any one card per deck, you won't need too many to compete. Booster packs cost roughly $4 US each, but most people will agree that buying the single cards you need is a better bang for your buck... though not as fun as the "lottery" game of opening packs. ============================================ OTHER THREADS The Magic: the Gathering Buying and Selling/Trading Thread Don't deal with eBay or some random third-party insecure site for your Magic card needs. This is a thread to post your haves/wants and see if any other Goon wants your poo poo or has the poo poo you really need for that big tournament coming up, you know the one. Deck Building Brewhaus Post and critique decklists for constructed formats here. The Magic: the Gathering Limited Thread Draft and sealed discussion goes in here. This is a really informative thread if you're looking for tips on draft especially, as it goes into the draft archetypes of the current format as well as a glossary of commonly used draft terms you might hear at the table. MtG Eternal Thread Discussion on Eternal formats Legacy, Vintage, and honorary "Eternal" format Modern. Magic Card Generator Discuss your terrible card ideas here and make us all appreciate Wizards R&D and how hard it is to actually design solid cards. M:tG Cube: The Most Expensive Free Magic Money Can Buy Share your cubes with other people without the risk of strangers stealing your foil Russian Dark Confidant you've blinged out your cube with! Commander Thread Argue about whose fun is most important in this thread about Magic's most popular casual format. MTG Thunderdome Play Magic with Goons online! ============================================ FORMATS Casual: Anything goes. Despite being the least talked-about format, mostly because it's not really a "format", casual play is probably the most popular form of Magic. We're talking kids buying precons and a couple of boosters and sitting around their kitchen tables here. There are other casual formats loved by players more into the game, such as Commander, Cube, Type 4, etc. More on those later. Standard: One of the easiest formats to get into. Since it consists of nothing but the last three blocks to be published, finding cards is relatively as most cards are still in print. Standard is the most popular sanctioned constructed format. Wizards has released "event decks" as a way for new players to get (somewhat) competitive decks for cheap. They contain 60 cards and a 15 card sideboard, and are competitive enough to stand a chance at FNM, but not much elsewhere. Currently legal sets: Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar Modern: Magic's newest format bridges the gap between Legacy and Extended. All sets from Eighth Edition on up are legal; the "Modern" name doesn't necessarily mean the modern Magic frame, as old cards reprinted in a special set with the new frame, such as judge promos, are not legal unless they've been reprinted in a set since Eighth Edition. Modern Banned List Legacy: Legacy is an Eternal format like Vintage, only without the Power 9 and many other overpowered cards. For the most part, everything restricted in Vintage is banned in Legacy. Legacy has skyrocketed in popularity lately, and so has the entry fee to play in this format. Legacy staples have doubled or tripled in price on the secondary market, so the barrier of entry is very high. Legacy Banned List Vintage: The most powerful decks that can be created reside here in "Type 1". The insanely high expense of cards that are in almost every good deck in the format - cards known as the Power 9 because of their reputation for being the nine most powerful cards ever printed - leads players to shy away from the format. Most Vintage tournaments will be run without DCI sanctioning because they allow ten or fifteen proxies in order to make the tournament more accessable to players not willing to spend $3000 on a Black Lotus. A common misconception is that Vintage is a format of turn one kills - but in a format where turn one kills are possible, decks are fine-tuned not just to win, but to stop their opponents from going off on turn one or two as well. Vintage Banned & Restricted List Limited: There are two popular limited formats: Sealed Deck, and Booster Draft. High-level limited tournaments are usually run sealed deck, with booster drafts as their top 8 playoffs. In sealed deck, a player gets six packs. With those cards, and as many extra basic lands as they wish, they have to build a deck that's at least 40 cards. Sealed is part luck (what you open), and part skill (how you build and play with your deck). Booster drafting involves each player getting three booster packs and sitting around a table. At the same time, each player opens up their first pack, takes a card out, and passes the rest of the cards in the pack to their left. This continues until all the cards in each pack are gone, then the second pack is opened and passed to the right. The third and last pack goes left again. Skilled players can sense which colors are "open" and pick cards that are strong in those colors. Then players follow the same deck construction rules as sealed deck - a minimum 40-card deck using as much extra basic land as they want. Some players consider booster drafting to be the best test of a Magic player's skill. Two-Headed Giant: In 2HG, teams of two face off against each other. Each player has their own deck, hand, permanents, etc., but each team takes their turn at the same time. 2HG is usually sealed deck, with each team getting more product than a single person would usually get, but Standard 2HG isn't unheard of. Two-Headed Giant Rules Commander: Commander (previously known as EDH, or Elder Dragon Highlander) is one of the most popular casual formats. In Commander, you pick a legendary creature to serve as your "commander", and build a 100-card deck (99 plus your commander) using only one of each card, excluding basic lands. You can't use any cards which have mana symbols anywhere on them that don't match the ones on your commander's card, and the format uses the Vintage cardpool with some modifications. Your commander starts in the "command zone", and you can cast it any time you normally could cast them - but each time you cast it that way, it costs 2 more to cast. If a commander would be put into a graveyard or into exile, its owner can choose to put it back in the command zone instead, so it's hard to permanently get rid of a commander short of sending it into its owner's library. And lastly, if a player takes 21 or more damage over the course of the game from any one commander, they lose the game. The official rules can be found here. Official Commander Site Cube Drafting: Booster drafting is fun, but it can get expensive, and players lose interest in drafting a set when a new one's about to come out... and this is where cube drafting comes in. A cube contains 350-700 of the best cards in Magic, usually including the Power 9. The cube is shuffled, and random packs are dealt out to each player, which are then drafted like a normal booster draft. Cube draft owners take great pride in their cube, and will often try to foil out every card possible, making their cube cost more than the average Vintage deck. Pauper: While Pauper is most popular on Magic Online, it does see some interest in the real world as well. On Magic Online, the format is played with only commons, but in real life, "Pauper" is sometimes referred to as a constructed format where only commons and some uncommons are allowed as well. Here's a good FAQ to get started. ============================================ DIGITAL VERSIONS There have been many digital versions of the game in the past, on Dreamcast, Playstation, PC, and even arcades, but the current and most popular version is Magic Online. Magic Online players buy digital cards and play online against people all over the world, at any time they want. The only downside to the program is, of course, that you're buying digital objects and the social aspect of the game is non-existant. Wizards used to have a redemption program where players who collected every card in a newer set could redeem them for paper versions of those cards, but that's since been discontinued. Magic Online costs $9.99, but once you sign up, you get a bunch of random cards, including some gold-bordered cards you can only play with other people who have them. Also, new sets come out much slower than their paper versions, with a short delay between the paper release and the MTGO release due to Wizards not wanting people beta testing products that haven't been officially released yet. If you want to play for free/cheap, there are ways, though some are more difficult to set up than others. Apprentice is slightly old and outdated, but still very popular. Its features aren't as robust as Magic Workstation, but if you don't care about all the bells and whistles, it gets the job done. NetDraft is a way to draft online for free, but you'll usually only play one match each draft against whoever you're paired against. Good for testing your draft skills. You'll need to use Magic Workstation or another program to play though. Duels of the Planeswalkers is an Xbox Live, Playstation, and PC game with multiple expansions. Hardcore players were disappointed that there's no deckbuilding available, just a bunch of precons you can unlock and new cards you can unlock for them in turn, but it's a fun, arcade-y version of Magic. ============================================ WHERE TO PLAY Friday Night Magic (FNM): The most accessable tournaments for most players is FNM, which as its name suggests takes place on Friday nights at local hobby stores. FNM tournaments can range anywhere from eight to sixty-plus players, and usually pay out prizes in either packs or store credit. To make sure everyone who wants to play can play, FNM tournaments are only allowed to be Standard, Extended, Block, sealed, booster draft, or Two-Headed Giant Standard/sealed. That way, no one needs to worry about tracking down older, out-of-print cards. Competition is usually pretty lax at FNMs, with (hopefully) friendly players and a fun atmosphere. Each month, Wizards prins a special foil promo that is given out to FNM players at each event. Other local events can be run too, even if they're not FNM. Pro Tour Qualifiers (PTQs): PTQs are the first big step for players entering the professional Magic playing world. PTQs are staffed by highly qualified judges, who act as impartial ways to solve rules disputes, answer rules questions, and ensure the tournament is run smoothly and fairly. PTQs used to be run in "seasons", but now any store can run a Preliminary PTQ that is Standard, Modern, or sealed. The winner of each Preliminary PTQ gets an invite to play in the next Regional PTQ, and the winner of that gets an invite to the Pro Tour. States/Champs: States, or Champs, depending on where in the world you live, is a big, fun tournament run on the same day in every state/province/what-have-you. Every participant gets a free promo card, and the top 8 players win boxes of product and a special foil promotional card. Since no huge prizes are on the line, the environment is close to a "big FNM". Prereleases: The week before a new set comes out, players get to experience it early in a Prerelease Event. Prereleases are always sealed deck events. Prizes are usually small, because the real prize is getting to see and play with the new cards for the first time. At prereleases, special promo cards are available that showcase an important card from the set. The only way to get these is to play in an event, and while they're not always tournament-quality cards, they're at least high on casual appeal. Game Day: One month after the release of a new set, stores run Game Day tournaments. These are Standard events, sometimes with special rewards given for building your deck a certain way. Everyone gets a full-art promo card, and the top 8 get foil full-frame promo cards. For many people, Game Day marks the time when players have gotten used to the new set and are ready to test out their new decks. Grand Prix (GPs): Grand Prix are open for everyone to play in, and are the largest public events, usually getting over a thousand players in attendance. While they don't feed any Pro Tours, the prizes are substantial and competition is fierce. Most GPs are two day events, with only the players with the best record being allowed to play in day two. There are usually side-events run at GPs as well, so even players who don't want to compete or players who don't make day two can get in on some fun. Pro Tours: This is it - this is the big leagues. Pro Tours are by invitation only; by winning a Pro Tour, or having a rating high enough to compete. Wizards pays about $3 million U.S. divided among the players, some serious change for a card game. Players travel from all over the world to play at Pro Tours. Worlds is the biggest Magic tournament there is, held at the end of every year and drawing the biggest crowds. Even players not qualified to play in Worlds get to play in the numerous side events held by Wizards. 1Ks, 5Ks, 10ks, etc.: Major tournament organizers often hold large tournament for big cash prizes. Though not affiliated directly with Wizards of the Coast, the prizes are huge, they often get attendance numbers close to a PTQ, and they're often staffed by certified judges. ============================================ RESOURCES USEFUL LINKS DailyMTG.com: The official page for Magic is updated every weekday with articles from some of the most well-known people related to the game, from rules managers to Pro players to the people who make the cards you play with. You can also find tournament locations near you and information about upcoming sets. MTGSalvation.com: MTGSalvation is widely known as the source for all new-set spoilers, keeping the most up-to-date source of new rumors and spoiled cards in the weeks leading up to a new set's release. YuGiOhDad.com: After the owner of MTGMom.com became an actual mom, she quit updating her event calendar. This one, despite the misleading name, is meant to replace it. StarCityGames.com: SCG is first and foremost a web store, selling not only cards but play knowledge as well. Their webpage hosts articles from the most prolific players involved in the metagame, with some articles being free and others requiring a paid membership to their site. Magic-League.com: If you want to play in online leagues without paying for Magic Online, this is the place to look. Magic-League has thousands of players, so finding a game should never be a problem. TheManaDrain.com: One of the premier sources for Vintage information on the internet, TMD is a forum to discuss Vintage strategy and find events. MTG The Source: What The Mana Drain is to Vintage, this is to Legacy. ChannelFireball.com: Luis Scott-Vargas, one of the most celebrated Magic players of all time, writes strategy articles for this blog/online store. Like StarCityGames or any of the other online stores/blogs, it hosts high prices and high-value strategy articles - though unlike SCG.com, the strategy is free. Good Games Live: Live coverage of non-WotC big tournaments. Wizards.com Event Coverage Archive: Archived coverage of WotC tournaments. Gatherer: The official online database of every card ever printed, with up to date Oracle text, rulings, etc. If you're playing eternal formats like Vintage, Legacy, or even EDH, this is the best resource to finding out what your old cards actually do. MagicCards.info: Faster than Gatherer, with a proxy printing feature, a search for prices on major online card stores, etc. If you're looking for accurate Oracle text and/or rulings, I'd still trust the official Gatherer over this, but many players use this for its other features. DeckStats.net: Type in your decklist and get details on your curve, draw sample hands, etc. CranialInsertion.com: A weekly rules article with answers to questions submitted by players. This is the rules article that was previously on MTGSalvation. MTGTop8.com: A listing of the top decks from various tournaments, broken down by format. A must-use if you want to follow the shifting metagame. IRC There's also a Goon IRC channel for Magic on SynIRC called #mtgoon where a bunch of us lurk and occasionally bullshit about Magic, draft, play EDH, etc. If you have an urgent rules question you need answered right away, there's the #mtgrules channel on EFNet where a lot of highly qualified judges hang out. MOBILE APPS GoldenDelicious posted:So here are some apps I've discovered for iOS that are for Magic: The Gathering: LifeLynx fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Jan 6, 2016 |
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Nov 17, 2015 22:59
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Hellsau posted:Someone should rewrite the OP because mentioning Apprentice and Duels of the Planeswalkers without mentioning XMage/Cockatrice and Magic Duels is kind of weird. I admit I haven't played online Magic in years and don't know any of these newfangled programs. Got links and details?
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Nov 17, 2015 23:19
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mfcrocker posted:Also PTQs don't exist any more but whatever The regional PTQs are referred to as PTQs. Also while we're at it, "PPTQ" is a dumb name and I wish they called them something, anything else.
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Nov 17, 2015 23:53
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Barry Shitpeas posted:I don't think they would print a new mana symbol without reminder text They sometimes don't put reminder text on mythics.
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Nov 18, 2015 01:57
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Why would lands produce Z instead of the traditional "1"? Or is that just the new colorless going forward, like Ancient Tomb would produce ZZ?
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Nov 18, 2015 02:23
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The more "evidence" people present as the Eldrazi mana being fake, the more I think that they're real.
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Nov 18, 2015 05:40
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I'll bet someone a foil Wastes that these are real.
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Nov 18, 2015 20:22
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This isn't even the first time they've changed the templating for producing colorless mana. Lands used to say "T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool." This reminded me of something - I wish they'd either have cards literally written as "T: (Mana Symbol)" so like an Underground Sea would say "T: U or B" or have all lands including basics have "T: Add (Mana Symbol) to your mana pool." written out. The inconsistency leads new players to think things like the player I had at FNM two weeks ago who tried to tap his Hedron Archive to get two landfall triggers.
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Nov 18, 2015 21:50
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There's a guy at my LGS who forces RG Landfall at every FNM and almost always goes undefeated. FNM is a different beast and the "dinosaur" deck is good there. This is an archetype driven draft set, so if you're drafting with people who just take the best cards in each pack, i.e. the average FNM drafter, you're going to have a hard time putting your archetype together. It's a real mess. I'd rather sit at a table with pro players than newbies, which isn't always totally true. Khans block I always had enough fixing to play whatever bombs I was passed, and Origins I could play my colors, not a specific archetype.
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Nov 19, 2015 21:50
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A few of the high-level players on Facebook are disappointed they might not get to play. I hope the kids who were super excited about going to their first GP pre-registered. PES just announced this: quote:Attention – Grand Prix Pittsburgh update The comments are just about as salty as you'd expect.
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Nov 20, 2015 06:11
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mcmagic posted:This is wrong. Dragonshield Matte sleeves are by far the best sleeves you can buy quality wise. Though if you are going to the KMC Route, the correct sleeves are the Hareruya ones. Dragonshield Mattes are amazing, I've been using the same pack for drafts for weeks now with no sign of wear. Someone complimented me on my nice new sleeves and was shocked when I told them how long I used them for. The only reason I'm thinking about replacing them is they've picked up enough grime from the tables that they make my hands feel weird even though they look brand new. I should use a playmat more often.
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Nov 23, 2015 22:53
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Elyv posted:I believe "successfully cast" was always the equivalent to "put on the stack", countered or no. I played pre-6th but none of us had any idea what the rules were so I'm not sure, though. Yes, this is correct, and I always sigh internally whenever someone tries to explain that it meant " if the spell wasn't countered" (because then why wouldn't modern Oracle text use "resolves" or something similar?) because I'm someone who has judged Magic in pre and post-6th edition rules. What's interesting about Reparations and similar cards is that they got rid of the "target opponent" part. While that ability can't work as templated, it's interesting that cards with triggered abilities from back then now read "whenever an opponent" yet cards with static abilities like Skyshroud War Beast have you choose just one opponent as it enters the battlefield and the card only cares about that opponent from then onwards. I can't remember how Reparations worked in a multiplayer game in 1996, but I don't think that ever came up, and the Mirage FAQ is no help.
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Nov 25, 2015 07:00
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mandatory lesbian posted:i like looking at old alpha/beta cards and trying to figure out the oracle text cause i don't think any of them have the same text in paper and online Not true!  Stream of Life is, from my memory, the only non-creature card to have the same Oracle text from Alpha to present day. And I think the creatures only count because some just have "Trample" or another keyword.
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Nov 25, 2015 16:26
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I can't wait to see how they retcon werewolves back in. DFCs are definitely coming back. Half the reason we're going back to Innistrad so soon is that DFCs were so popular that they wanted to bring them back ASAP. The other half is that Innistrad's themes resonated with players very well, so they knew the set would sell amazingly.
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Dec 2, 2015 18:47
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Ultima66 posted:Also according to people WotC actually asked the thing that suspend was actually doing didn't parse well when reading, while Bestow and Transform were very intuitive to people. It's why there's no Bestow creatures that give anything different from their own vanilla stats + abilities, so people could interpret as "I mash these two guys together". Also WotC was extremely hesitant about Transform at first as it was being designed until it was decided new players understood the idea of "person turns into a monster" well enough that it wasn't an issue. I knew a big enough number of people who were really upset that bestow "broke the rules of the game" in regards to the bestow aura becoming a creature if the bestow target was killed in response to casting the aura. I will never understand their anger, most game mechanics bend the game rules.
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Dec 2, 2015 23:05
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Irony Be My Shield posted:How about you just stop and actually think about it? Under the new system the ♦ symbol is just like the other 5 types of mana you produce, it's just that (outside of OGW, presumably) it doesn't appear in costs. It's simple and intuitive compared to the current system, where numbers in grey circles mean completely different things depending on where they are. I've stopped correcting people when they go, "Diamond mana is stupid! Because..." BECAUSE their reasoning is always piles of bad assumptions built on piles of lovely logic built on a mountain of misunderstanding of how even rudimentary fundamentals of Magic rules work. This Diamond mana design is one of the most elegant things Wizards has ever come up with, provided it works like we logically assume it does, but no one is going to understand it until they play with it.
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Dec 7, 2015 03:18
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Allstone posted:Maro actually posted on his tumblr that they could reprint split second - they'd just rejig the reminder text. I wouldn't quit Magic, but I'd quit judging. The name "split second" is the worst thing Wizards has ever done to judges. I was just starting out judging then, but I became exhausted trying to convince people that "split second" didn't mean they could just ignore priority, or ignore timing restrictions, or prevent triggered abilities from entering the stack, or freeze the stack and force the whole thing to resolve. I remember an argument over it so intense that a drink was thrown before I even got to the table to give a ruling. It involved Extirpate and Seething Song.
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Dec 8, 2015 06:26
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Kalli posted:I kinda want to go back to when Bestow was first spoiled because I'm pretty sure we had the same multi-page discussion of people sure nobody would ever understand it ever, which is a problem that will last the pre-release and maybe a draft or two. There's a reason "____ will kill Magic" is a meme. In other news, Vintage Super League Play-In Finals! It's Workshops vs. Workshops. Nick Detwiler is a massive player in the Northeast Vintage Magic community. This is already great.
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Dec 9, 2015 04:48
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A bunch of people were talking about {C} tonight, and someone who plays Magic but hasn't kept up with the spoilers piped up. "Yeah, okay, those are so fake.  " "No dude, they showed them at the World Magic Cup." "No way, they wouldn't do something like that." "Uh... here's the YouTube video." "...That's so loving stupid." People seem more upset about this mechanic than any other in recent memory, and it doesn't even change much. A symbol is changed, and now there are some cards that are hard to cast in a three color deck. They're just confused between "generic" and "colorless" mana. I can't wait until people play with this and see that it's no big deal, because the whining has been loud and annoying.
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Dec 12, 2015 06:59
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The feeling when you know you tapped your mana wrong is the worst. Just staring down at your lands while sweating and hoping your opponent doesn't make the play you would've held up different mana to combat. But they always do. 
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Dec 14, 2015 01:04
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Sigma-X posted:Glad to see wotc has decided to print the red sweeper at mythic to ensure the set is high value. It's going to be $5 max. Gotta open packs to get those Wastelands.
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Dec 14, 2015 02:56
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mcmagic posted:OK I guess. So you're saying that Geist will be in SOI too? Geist is a reprint in the Duel Deck that is most likely only for that Duel Deck because it fits thematically, like Sun Titan in the Theros one or Arcanis in the Khans one or Avenger of Zendikar in the Zendikar one. What's the other option for the demon though? Do you think Wizards printed a brand new card in the Blessed vs. Cursed Duel Deck just for that Duel Deck?
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Dec 14, 2015 17:17
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If I have a 40 card deck, 19 of which are lands, I mulligan to 6, keep a 2-land hand, and scry away a non-land, what are the odds I'll draw a third land by turn 3? I'm on the play.
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Dec 15, 2015 05:17
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tgijsola posted:Other people already answered this, but in case you or anyone else is wondering this is the tool to use to answer almost any "what are the odds I draw X" question: ITT I'm real salty about mana screw. I feel as though I haven't had a real game of Magic in weeks, just me mulliganing to oblivion. Tonight I lost to Kitesail Scout and friends because it was turn seven and I was stuck on two lands, where drawing a fourth would've gotten me Rising Miasma (I had a Scion) and let me stabilize. It's the worst feeling, and I've decided I'm taking a break until Oath.
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Dec 15, 2015 06:21
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Entropic posted:Prediction: when it comes time for OOTGW development articles, maro will make a "diamonds are forever" pun, possibly as the title of an article. If I still wrote for Cranial Insertion....
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Dec 15, 2015 17:40
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jassi007 posted:Wizards of the Coast, of all companies, tried to do an online social media thing called Gleemax.com It was supposed to be a social media site for gamers, like myspace/facebook man! It flopped as you can imagine. He and the entire team for it were let go. Keeping in mind this. I think a lot of the ideas for Gleemax.com got rolled into the Planeswalker Points website. By the way, this is your annual reminder that the Planeswalker Points website exists.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:16
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I agree with most of the article. Look at the shitstorm caused by people not being able to wrap their heads around {C} when it wasn't outright explained to them. In an ideal world, someone at Wizards would have seen the leak and immediately posted something to explain the cards, but there's massive amounts of red tape and corporate approval they need to get before they even acknowledge these things publicly. They have got to stop using the "leaks hurt our writers and writers of other sites who are eager to give spoilers in their articles" because there is no way we can sympathize with them. If you put yourself in the shoes of someone writing an article and going "I can't wait for my article to come out about Kozilek's Return! Everyone's going to read what I have to write!" then yeah, it's lovely for them that someone took their experience away from them... but the people seeing these leaks and being excited for them aren't going, "Oh, poor Reid Duke, no one is going to read his article now." and like I said, it's impossible for someone to feel sorry for him. Wizards thinks we should, because they can see it from the writers' perspective, but we just see a new card and get excited about it.
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Dec 16, 2015 18:27
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If you thought the "can't even" jokes were bad, wait until kids start screaming about opening a "foil Wastes land no I said Wastes land not Wasteland LOL".Barry Shitpeas posted:90% of spoiler articles are fluff that you skip over to get to the card, are we ruining the experience when we immediately repost the card images here? To a writer who gets an ego boost by seeing the view counter on their article rise, yes. No, it doesn't matter to anyone but that one person.
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Dec 16, 2015 19:07
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I'm pissed they don't do impactful style previews anymore like the fade from Wrath to Damnation, the Eldrazi animation, spoilers hidden in April Fools articles, or even the secret reveal of the infect reminder text.
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Dec 17, 2015 00:41
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mandatory lesbian posted:that eldrazi thing looks really cheesy to me but i guess in 201o no wait it would have looked bad to me even then The most recent art for Wrath of God is very similar to the Planar Chaos art for Damnation. They had an animation where Wrath slowly faded into Damnation, and it blew peoples' minds. There was a fake draft viewer around the time of Alara Reborn, which had crazy things like baseball cards and Unhinged cards but also showed the new reprinting of Terminate, among other things. One of I think Maro's articles had a secret link to an image that just had Infect and its reminder text. It got people really speculating. The Eldrazi animation was cheesy, but picture a time before Eldrazi existed and here was a giant monster that made your opponent sacrifice four things just when it attacked! Crazy poo poo. I forgot that the new Lightning Bolt reprint was sent out to people in an oversized mailing. I thought it would have been cool if they posted the flavor text on the website and then revealed what card it was for and had people freak out that Lightning Bolt was coming back after so long.
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Dec 17, 2015 01:38
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JerryLee posted:This is a legitimate point but their takeaway from that should be to make spoiler season longer, it seems like. Or just design good enough limited/Standard environments that people aren't quite as desperate for anything to get excited about, which I suspect is a noticeable factor in this case. I'm not sure I should question that Hasbro/Wizards has market research saying how long a spoiler season should be in order to generate maximum hype and therefore money, but I'm going to anyway. When movies now release trailers for films over half a year in advance, maybe it's time to re-examine your audience's attention span. It's four months from BFZ to Oath.
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Dec 17, 2015 01:51
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Im guessing Emrakul is for Zendikar 3 or it escaped and will attack some other plane. Emrakul would be the perfect Lovecraftian being to be the shadowy horror in Shadows Over Innistrad that corrupts the angels. I'm conflicted on how possible it is that they've done that though.
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Dec 17, 2015 01:59
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Sickening posted:Pile shuffling take a few moment longer than counting your cards the normal way. For me, it is a more consistent way to count them. Counting your cards before each game has real benefits that is better to not ignore. All these are legitimate reasons to do one pile shuffle, preferably before regular shuffling. It's the people who pile shuffle, shuffle, side-shuffle, and then proclaim to me, "I'm just gonna do a few more pile shuffles" that gets me. The gently caress you are. Or the people who pile shuffle once or twice after each mulligan.
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Dec 18, 2015 16:54
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Some BuddyFight player threw a card over his shoulder and it hit me right below my eye. The gently caress is wrong with people? The store instantly told him to get out and banned him for a week. I'm so glad next Friday is Christmas, dealing with the riff-raf at my LGS has me on edge lately.
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Dec 19, 2015 06:20
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suicidesteve posted:Vintage wasn't quite elitist enough, so this format was made. You think that's elitist? A couple of people in the Northeast US Vintage community invented a format. The rules? You can only play with cards you own the original piece of art for.
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Dec 21, 2015 18:54
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Let's face it, a three month ban is the bare minimum they could punish people with. If the stories of being banned for not doing anything to stop it are true, then it's obviously bowing to corporate pressure. There are a few people who got much longer suspensions, and they are probably the people who actually leaked the cards. I wish I was more involved in the judge projects part of judging so I knew what project these folks were on and how they actually came to have access to these cards in the first place. I don't judge large events a lot anymore, but two of the judges were people I really liked seeing at big events, and now I don't know if I'll ever see them again. The guy who is the loudest on that Reddit thread, Turner, was the Regional Coordinator for all judges in the Southeast. Everyone liked him, and he was fun to judge with. I doubt he's coming back, especially seeing as he's about ready to spill the beans on exactly what happened - something WotC probably doesn't want. I understand WotC banning people who leaked cards, and I understand the splash damage to an extent, it was just mishandled in a way that the entire L2+ community is freaking out. Zoness posted:Why are the leakers being evaluated as judges rather than as leakers? I can only guess that being a judge somehow allowed these people access to the cards.
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Dec 22, 2015 04:59
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Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:Given the first three cards leaked were 1) typeless basic producing a new mana symbol 2) card with said symbol in its mana cost 3) card with said symbol produced by and used in activated abilities in its rules text, it might've been something about judging ♦ mechanics rules. poo poo. Here I was thinking about the set's mythics and expeditions being spoiled, and I forgot the crisp clean images of Kozilek and Wastes that were released first.
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Dec 22, 2015 06:10
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Wizards invented Rules Advisors to instill player confidence. In reality, players only care about judge level when questioning a judge. I could have easily let my judge level slip to L1 at the end of this year (we have to do some things to stay at L2 every year) and one of the reasons I didn't was because players don't trust someone who's "just a level 1 judge". There are many other reasons also. Most L2s who are training new judges make them take the RA test so they know their rules knowledge is at least better than the average FNM player before giving them the L1 test.
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Dec 22, 2015 17:54
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Lunsku posted:The L3 maintaining magicjudges.org (a third party judge site I understand) has suspended it in protest: Wow, I didn't even know that site was unofficial. It was a replacement for the incredibly dated judge.wizards.com, and was the site where every judge in the world went to post tournament reports*, apply for events (I seriously can't imagine the mayhem that this is causing for TOs who are trying to organize PPTQs, 1Ks, 5Ks, and even GPs), organize judge conferences, and discuss judging. * Which by the way, every L2 needed to submit a tournament report on magicjudges.org to maintain their L2 status. Where are the RCs going to go to view that information now? quote:At this time I do not know when, or if, the magicjudges.org network of sites will return to normal operation. If you have complaints, I would suggest you direct them to a representative of Wizards of the Coast. In the meantime, given their noted prowess with technology, I have no doubt an alternative location for event staffing, communication and community discussion will be up and running quickly.
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Dec 22, 2015 21:13
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Fingers McLongDong posted:How far ahead of time are judges scheduled for events? Are the January events in danger of having judge shortages (assuming they don't all strike)? More like February and March. It just puts more work on the TOs and RCs because now they have to deal with emails and poo poo like it's whatever year before magicjudges.org opened. But he already added a P.S. to the site saying he'd help TOs who have urgent deadlines approaching soon, which is reasonable.
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Dec 23, 2015 01:53
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